Dan Slee

One set of figures comes shining through from the AI tracker survey I carried out at the tail end of winter.

That’s having a policy.

A policy is the organisation having a set of guard rails to give safety, confidence and direction.

In the most recent tracker survey I carried out, almost two thirds of public sector comms people say that their organisation has a policy.

This is a significant shift since the summer.

Why is having an AI policy important?

If you have a policy, you have guard rails.

But having a policy drawn-up on its own does not mean that the problem has been solved.

But that’s a step on the journey not a destination.

Many commentators have rightly pointed out that everyone who uses technology as a minimum needs to have Blue Peter-style AI basics training.

In the 1990s, we had desktop publishing courses as a matter of course.

Thirty years later, we need the same for AI.

But the shift towards organisations having policies starts to close the era of AI Wild West when anyone could technically do anything. How can you take action against someone on how they use AI if you don’t have an AI policy?

Not just that but how can you encourage people to use AI well if you don’t have a policy?

I’ll be blogging the results of the AI tracker survey in the coming weeks.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Creative commons credit: Retro computer by Adam Podstawczyński.

Back in the olden days you posted something and bingo your followers saw it.

Today, the dynamics of this are very different.

Algorithms shifts obscure your content to nudge you towards paying for ads to reach the audience you know are there. 

But in recent times, a new tier has emerged where pages can effectively pay subscriptions in return for benefits.

So, is it worth putting your hand in your pocket to pay extra as a page?

In the public sector when budgets are tight the immediate answer is probably no. But hold those horses. Social media is the most significant channel for news in the UK. In an emergency, people will often turn to online channels. There are arguments that you need to be on these platforms and with organic reach getting especially hard are there other options?

Is it worth it?

For existing organisations, there’s some benefits. Broadly, you get more visibility. However, for newly merged or created organisations this would be an interesting way to get your content in front of more people. The LinkedIn option may be especially useful here.

But for any organisations, the Meta Verified option which allows you to contact support feels like a useful thing all on its own. Think of it as an insurance policy against Meta.

Broadly speaking, a lot of what you pay for with these paid layers is more useful for an aspiring start-up or private sector company. But I really don’t think we are at a place where we just dismiss these things out of hand anymore.

So, here’s what’s on offer.

I’ve taken a look at options for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube. 

Meta Verified for Facebook and Instagram

With this option, you get a verified badge. Most public sector organisations have pretty established pages so don’t really need the extra flakes of trust a badge can offer. 

But one attractive factor is the offer of 24/7 enhanced support. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have asked for advice to get hold of someone from Facebook to overcome a particular issue. Their customer service is almost non-existant. So, there’s part of me that thinks that this option is an insurance policy against things going wrong.

There’s also the option with the medium tear of adding two links to a Reel. Given that links are heavily penalised by Facebook and almost impossible to achieve on Instagram this is an attractive proposition. But if you do go down the path don’t blow your monthly allowance on linking to a heavily mangled press release. That would be daft.

With this option, Meta also offers impersonation protection. If Meta think that Oxdown Council Official is trying to underarmine the actual Oxdown Council page then this becomes a proposition. But to be fair, the only damage often in these impersonation cases is to a councillor’s ego.

All this is handy. The enhanced search function would probably be of most use to a new brand or maybe a new council that emerges from three merged ones. But if you are established this feels a little unnecessary.  Similarly, exclusive stickers for stories isn’t that much of an attractive proposition.

Options: £11.29 a month for the basic with no links on Reels and £37.65 for two links a month and some fringe benefits.

Value: ***

Benefits for the public sector: ***

More info on Meta Verified here.

LinkedIn premium company page

While the corporate page on LinkedIn is the organisation’s shopfront the real strength of the platform is the networks each member has.

That said, there’s an argument to have a premium company page. It’ll give you a gold page badge. It’ll give you a custom call-to-action button for the page so you can ask people to go to the website, register, volunteer or other tasks. It gives you a list of who has visited your page which feels a little bit stalkerish.

You can also display an 80-word testimonial prominently which again is probably not a public sector tool. Neither are credibility highlights where you can brag about awards you’ve won.

The AI-assisted writing tool feels slightly problematic. It also cuts to the heart of the divide between public and private sector. The private sector can throw anything against the wall. Councils, fire and rescue, police and NHS really do need a policy.

The dynamic cover image sounds a bit grand and eye-catching but is maybe not a huge benefit to the public sector. 

The ability to auto-invite engaged members does sound attractive. With this, people who like or comment will be prompted to follow the page. If you are looking to grow the page this could be a handy tool. 

Options: A company page starts at £75.38 a month.

Value: **

Benefits for the public sector: ***

More info on a LinkedIn premium company page here.

YouTube Premium

Anyone with a YouTube account can upgrade to premium.

However, this is more aimed at making the user’s viewing experience bettger rather than promoting a business. So, it allows you to watch clips without ads. There’s nothing really here for the public sector.

Options: £12.99 a month.

Value: *

Benefits for the public sector: *

More info on YouTube Premium here.

X premium

Where Twitter was pivotal to public sector a few years ago X has become something of a legacy platform.

That said, let’s go through the options. You can edit posts for an hour and you can have longer posts with up to 25,000 characters instead of the 280 for the free level. You can also share longer video of up to three hours in length. 

There’s also some other benefits like the ability to reply to other verified accounts. But it’s hard to see how this is all that useful for the public sector. There’s some other monetisation tools that would work maybe in the private sector but not the public.

If you did go down this route as the public sector you’d need Premium Organisation status.

Options: The basic level of premium is £6.03 a month rising to £23.35 a month for Premium+.

Value: *

Options for the public sector: **

More info on X Premium here.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Creative commons credit: Tickets please by Colin Smith.

We live in changing times but there is no reason, to quote Withnail & I, to make an enemy of our future.

Knowing the slight touches at the tiller is useful as the boat chugs ever onwards.

The Ofcom Adults Media Use and Attitudes report is one such document that shows slight tweaks of direction.

Here’s seven stats that you need to know. 

54 per cent of UK adults are using AI

Within two years the number of people who are using AI in the UK has doubled. This compares to the eight years it took for half the country to be using the internet. This figure includes a mix of work, home, education, curiosity and other factors.

Almost twice the number of 16-year-olds are using AI compared to 55-year-olds

With 79 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds now using AI the younger generation are adopting the tools at a far greater rate than older people. By definition, senior communicators who are older are at risk of being left behind. This is not something to outsource. It’s something to understand. There are some great online explainers from the likes of Google and Microsoft out there.

75 per cent read AI summaries in search

Google has switched from a traditional listing to a summary generated by AI for many searches. We have had SEO – search engine optimisation. We now have the age of GEO – generative engine optimisation. That’s techniques for placing your answers into AI summaries not just on Google but answers from large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot.

44 per cent are confident they can identify AI content

If less than half of us are not confident that we can identify something made by a machine this poses questions. Are we likely to be taken in by AI deepfakes and disinformation? Yes, we are. 

85 per cent use mainstream news

The majority of people use our 300-year-old tradition of journalism. But within that, while a fifth always trust it the same number always question it. We would be wrong to think that the liberal tradition of journalists holding decision makers to account will always be with us. This needs work.

49 per cent now post or comment on social media

This figure marks something of a collapse. Last year, the figure was 61 per cent. If we are retreating from active social media use what else are we doing? The overall figure of social media use – 89 per cent – hasn’t changed much.

78 per cent see news regularly on social media

Social media once again has become an established source of news. While four in five see news in their feeds a third of people will also share it. 

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Creative commons credit: Piccadilly Circus in 1986 by Stella Gardiner, CC BY-SA 2.0 

In the olden days there was just one type of YouTube. That was landscape clips that lasted less than 15-minutes. You can still see the sediment of this period if you go searching for it.

The 15-year-old Bullseye episode that’s split into two 14-minute parts. That’s from then.

Now, there’s many ways to watch how to skin a metaphorical cat.

One of the glorious things about Ofcom is they don’t just publish reports they also publish selective data that goes into them.

So, here it is. I’ve read the 154,000 lines of data that went into the video on demand survey to unearth some absolute gems.

We know that video is significant in the media landscape.

We know that YouTube is the most popular social media channel in the UK and used by 43.6 million people. That’s 94 per cent of all internet users.

But how are we using it?

What length of YouTube clips do we watch… and why does it matter?

Traditional short-form video still tops the charts on YouTube. That’s clips less than 15-minutes. Ofcom research shows that 57 per cent of the UK population have watched this length of clip in the last 12-months.

What’s interesting are the YouTube Shorts data. Shorts is the vertical platform to challenge TikTok and Reels. Here, the data skews strongly to a younger demographic. Seventy per cent of 13-to-17-year-olds watch this platform.

As we get older, the traditional short-form content performs strongly. More than half of 18 to 50-year-olds will watch this.

Live streams are measurable but are not really cutting through to much more than a tenth of people. They perform best with 13 to 17-year-olds.

What’s also interesting is the longer-form content. Again, almost half the population watch clips longer than 15-minutes long. Full length films and full TV programmes perform less strongly. Around a fifth of people up to the age of 64 will watch this kind of content.

What can public sector communicators take from this? Well, maybe its worth looking at cross-posting Reels or TikTok content to Shorts would be one lesson.

But it would be a mistake to think that 15-minutes of someone dull lecturing you is the answer.

What types of genre perform well on YouTube in the UK?

The real detail in the Ofcom study can be found in the type of content we are watching on YouTube in general.

From the breakdown, music has regained the top spot but how-to guides are the most profitable type of content for public sector communicators. The new recycling bin launch can best be communicated through a ‘how to’ film.

Here, you may not always be looking at what the organisation wants to tell people this week. There may also be value in finding content that people want and making that. A chat with customer services or the webteam may show the less glamorous areas where an explainer can work.

As ever, the question ‘who is your audience?’ is vital.

By knowing the age of the audience you can better frame content.

The ‘how to’ route offering timely practical help is a powerful and underused tool in the comms toolbox.

A few years ago, an author I admired asked me to drop him a note the next time I was in London. So, I invented a spurious reason and met him.

We had connected on Twitter and the author was interested in what was happening with social media in the public sector.

We met in the South Bank Centre cafe a stone’s throw from the London Eye.

At that point in time, I was in the wave of militant optimists who were looking to make the social web work for social good. We chatted over a cup of coffee and the conversation turned to bringing people along.

Back then, I thought that you should spend time with everyone because anyone could see the possibility of those tools.

The author didn’t.

At the time, I was surprised. It took me several years to see he was right.

His argument was that in a room of 10 people you can see a lightbulb go on over maybe two or three people. They are the enthusiasts. Fired with enthusiasm, they will scheme and experiment and take things forward. A further two or three may do similar between 9am and 5pm. They are the followers.

Then there were the rest.

The author said he didn’t bother with them because they would probably never see the light. They are the laggards. 

A few weeks ago, I thought of this conversation. In the last 20 years there has been the financial crash, two significant changes of Government, an energy crisis, war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, Brexit, COVID institutional reorganisation and the rise of AI.

Working in the public sector over the last 20 years has seen pay freezes and a loss of earning power. On a good day, you get called an idiot twice an hour online.

There is no question that ever more change is coming.

Should we expect everyone to be enthusiastic?

Not really.

We can hope people are in the first group of enthusiasts. 

We can maybe bring people along to be in the second group.

But we don’t have any right to expect this to happen.

There will be people in the third group who have had enough.

I’m always keen to show them the door to a better path. I’m realistic enough to know that some people have just had enough. 

Which group are you in? 

Picture credit: Penzance Railway Station by Andy F, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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This week, a piece of writing on LinkedIn caught my eye and like pulling on a piece of thread took me on an excursion.

Like you I’ll bet, I’m aware of AI summaries but I’ve not really devoted much time to them.

But then this post on LinkedIn caught my eye.

“Communicators used to write for journalists. Now we also have to write for machines that summarise us.”

As a former journo who has spent time as a press officer this made me stop. It made me look into what AI summaries are and how much I should actually be bothered.

What is an AI summary?

Of Course, I asked Google.

And Google gave me an AI summary of what an AI summary is. 

“Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries at the top of search results that provide quick answers, combining information from multiple web sources using generative AI.”

So far, so good.

But all this did remind me of some BBC research on the wild inaccuracies that can be found in AI summaries. 

“Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45 per cent of the time – regardless of language or territory.”

So, if the BBC says almost half of AI summaries had at least one problem , what does that mean for public sector comms?

Pondering, I asked ChatGPT Deep Research to come up with a reading list.

Deep Research is the functionality that allows deeper research with links. A snap answer comes in seconds. Deep Research comes in maybe five or six minutes but when I’ve used it its been worth it.

Incidentally, while I used ChatGPT some models of Copilot also have Deep Research functionality on many of their models.

How widespread are AI summaries?

After waiting six minutes for the Deep Research, I started to read over the next few days about the role that AI summaries are playing. 

In summer 2025, AI summaries in Google search accounted for 15 cent of all UK search results, research shows. Pew research from the US also shows the figure rises to more than 50 per cent for a search term of ten words or more. 

People click less to a webpage when they see an AI summary. Data from Pew says that there’s a 40 per cent reduction in the people who click to around nine per cent of all search users. 

News site The Daily Mail report a 90 per cent drop in traffic with the blame on AI summaries. People would rather glance at the summary than head to a news page with the attendant advertising.

Even UK Government’s own tests of its GovChat AI tool only shows a 90 per cent accuracy rate. Impressive. But still one in ten wrong.

Inaccurate information is an issue.

So what are we to do about writing for AI summaries?

Google themselves insist there is no special set of tricks that can help get your content into an AI summary.

I’m a communicator not an SEO expert. But as a communicator I’m always keen to reach an audience.

But we can follow Google’s own advice around search. That includes:

“Create helpful, reliable, people-first content. Use words that people would use to look for your content, and place those words in prominent locations on the page, such as the title and main heading of a page, and other descriptive locations such as alt text and link text.”

But can we summarise ourselves for AI summaries?

I went back to the original LinkedIn post that suggests this prompt so you can see what a summary would look like.

“Assume this content will be summarised by AI assistants for busy executives and decision makers. Rewrite it so the core message, positioning and credibility signals remain intact even when condensed to three sentences.”

The idea of this is that you can see how an AI summary might look.

So I did.

I used the last blog post I wrote on the type of content that works best in Facebook groups. 

Using Copilot and the prompt, the summary cameback:

Here’s a rewritten version that keeps the core message, positioning and credibility signals intact even when later compressed to three sentences:

Community‑group audiences respond best to practical, hyper‑local content that solves real problems, reflects everyday life, and feels genuinely rooted in the place it serves. New research from Public Sector Comms Headspace and Altrincham HQ shows that posts offering useful information, celebrating local people, and fostering belonging consistently outperform generic announcements or corporate messaging. The findings give comms teams clear, evidence‑based guidance on what to prioritise if they want to build trust, engagement and meaningful community connection.

Broadly, this works. Corporate messages don’t work as well. But quoting Public Sector Comms Headspace and Altrincham HQ? The first is a Facebook group I’m admin of. The second is a PR agency just outside Manchester I’ve not heard of. Neither are quoted in the blog.

Hello there, AI hallucinations. 

But this is one experiment so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised.

What’s the guidance on AI summaries?

Original research and solutions to niche answers will not be so affected by AI summaries, according to SEO Journal.

Answers to simple questions will be up against AI, the piece says. That’s things like ‘how to change a bike chain,’ The answer to a more detailed and local problem is less likely to be summarised. That means specific public sector content may not be affected. 

But wait, a plot twist

Researching more, I found that AI summaries can cause problems not just in outbound communications but across the organisation as a whole. Errors may creep in where AI tools are used. More than 100 councils have social workers using notetaking tools. The NHS has approved 19 note-taking tools despite concerns. 

So these may see inaccurate AI summaries rebound on the organisation as a media query.

So what? 

There is some good guidance on using AI in the public sector from tools like the UK Government AI Playbook. But there is nothing I could find on advice on inaccurate AI summaries.

Maybe its to the BBC research that we need to look. When they looked at inaccurate news summaries they discovered that the audience blamed the tool and the platform that was mis-quoted. 

“Audiences look for signs that responsibility is being taken in practice: provenance that travels with the summary, working links back to the reporting, timestamps and update notes, and timely corrections where the summary is actually encountered. They also expect the fix to be reflected wherever the summary appears, not just in one place.”

But if text cannot always be relied upon, would video also work to communicate the right information?

Or an infographic with alt text?

Or telling the story direct on the platform?

Or good media relations?

Or swift rebuttal to inaccurate information?

Picture credit: By Newspaper box on Tavern Street by Hamish Griffin, CC BY-SA 2.0.

AI disclaimer: I used ChatGPT Deep Research to explore the subject and provide links for further reading. I used Copilot to test the prompt to summarise a blog post and Google search to give me a definition of AI summaries.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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I’ve not done much lately on what content works in Facebook groups.

So, I thought I’d take a look.

But first a recap.

• Two thirds of the UK population use Facebook.
• Half the population are members of Facebook groups.
• Facebook groups are the most important single source of local government news for 25 to 64-year-olds un the UK, say Ofcom. 
• It’s down to the admin whether or not they let pages into a group.
• Just 1.9 per cent of Facebook timelines are posts with links, say Meta.

All these bullet-points mean your Facebook page which was once a go-to destination is marginalised and struggling for attention.

One way to get people back to your page is to take out Facebook ads. But that’s expensive.

I’m suggesting that its cheaper to take your content yourself to where the eyeballs are.

I know from training that some comms people really hate the idea of sharing content to a Facebook group. I get why. It takes time and can be messy.

But it works.

What was the plan?

For this research, I looked at the Quarry Bank and Saltwells News Network Facebook group. This is a community group in the Black Country with 2,200 members.

There are two broad types of content I looked at.

1. Original content posted directly into the group.
2. Content shared from a Facebook group into the page.

What Facebook group content works best?

It’s not even close.

Content posted directly into a group without a link works best.

This type of content received 23 times more reach than that posted onto a Facebook page then shared into a group.

On average, in the research an original post got 6,400 views. For a Facebook group pf 2,200 that’s not bad. That compares with 300 when a page cross-posts into the group.

Here’s a top five of each type of content

Top five original content posts

These posts were added directly to the Quarry Bank and Saltwells News Network Facebook group.

1. Abnornal tests led to the death of Quarry Bank man – 89,000 reach. Images from the BBC news story posted to the group with a summary with the link in the comments.
2. Old coach companies of Quarry Bank – 13,000 reach. A carousel of historic images. No link.
3. Disgust at Trump’s comments denigrating British veterans – 10,000. An image of the Remembrance Sunday event at Quarry Bank park. No link.
4. Bank of trees being marketed for a drive through restaurant – 8,800 reach. A carousel of images from the site. Link to the estate agents’ post in the comments.
5. Release of sewage to a Quarry Bank stream – 7,800 reach. A summary of a news story and image. Link in the comments.

Top 10 Facebook page posts shared into the group

These posts were shared into the group from other Facebook pages.

1. Appeal for NHS equipment – 600 reach. A cross post from a Dudley NHS page.
2. Fire fighter recognised – 500 reach. A cross post from West Midlands Fire Service.
3. Indoor car boot sale in Quarry Bank – 500 reach. A cross post from a community group.
4. Grit bins dumped by Dudley Council – 500 reach. A cross post from Alex Ballinger MP.
5. Bike charity – 500 reach. A cross post from a Quarry Bank charity.

So, the moral of the story is to join Facebook groups where you can and share content directly.

One impediment may be the idea that you use an expensive social media management tool to schedule things. Hey, it may even be able to post into groups if you pay extra. The lesson from this snapshot is not to bother.

You can find the Quarry Bank and Saltwells News Network Facebook group here.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Evidence shows that a real person’s voice can cut through. ‘Lexi’s Letter’ was written by a young patient directly to health professionals on how a patient like her wants to be treated. Six months to the day Lexi passed away a campaign to promote her letter has been launched with the support of her family. Those resources are also being shared for other health professionals. If you are an NHS comms professional you can help. Touch Design’s Kirsty McKenzie who was involved with the project has written about it.

Hearing the quiet voices: what Lexi taught us about working with young patients and families

Young patients often tell us what they need, sometimes clearly, but often quietly.
The real challenge for NHS teams is not whether children and young people have something to say, but whether our systems, processes and pressures allow us to truly hear them.

Across the NHS, teams are under increasing pressure to improve communication, emotional support and the overall experience of care for children and young people. Targets, pathways and performance measures matter, but they can easily crowd out the lived experience of the patient, particularly when that patient is young, anxious, or navigating care alongside their family.

Evidence shows that when patient experience is communicated through real stories rather than just metrics, it can drive engagement and change professional behaviour. An NHS study has reported that patient stories improve understanding of patient experience and help embed patient-centred values into everyday care.

This is where Lexi’s Letter has been so powerful.

You can watch the film here:

Learning from one authentic voice

Lexi’s Letter is not a policy document or a set of recommendations. It is a personal, honest account of care, written from a young patient’s perspective, with all the emotional clarity and vulnerability that brings. When we worked with Lexi and her family, the most important lesson was simple but profound: authentic patient voices cut through in ways that professional language never can.

Rather than interpreting experience on behalf of patients, Lexi’s words allow NHS professionals to listen directly. The tone, the pauses, the feelings behind the sentences, these are the things that are often lost in surveys, dashboards and reports, yet they are exactly what shape how care is experienced.

Working with patients and families, not just about them

A key learning from this work was the importance of involving both the patient and their family as genuine partners. Lexi’s experience did not exist in isolation; it was shared with those supporting her. Making space for that wider perspective added depth and honesty, and reminded us that for young people especially, care is almost always a shared journey.

This approach is supported by UK public health evidence. Government analysis of public health communications shows that co-producing messages with communities and patients increases trust, relevance and engagement, and that behaviour change is more likely when messages are created with people rather than for them, particularly in minority and harder-to-reach groups.

For NHS communications, this reinforces a crucial point: patient voice is not an add-on, it is a mechanism for engagement and change. This kind of collaboration requires trust, time and care. It means being prepared to listen without immediately fixing, defending or reframing. It also means accepting that what we hear may be uncomfortable, but that discomfort is often where the most meaningful improvement starts.

From story to shared reflection

Lexi’s Letter was created to help with exactly this challenge. It gives clinicians, communications teams and patient-experience colleagues a simple, emotionally resonant way to reflect on care through a real patient voice. Used in team discussions, training sessions or quality-improvement work, it creates space for empathy, reflection and honest conversation.

We know from national campaigns that patient-led narrative can drive measurable behaviour change. The #hellomynameis campaign, started by UK clinician Kate Granger, used a patient story to promote a single communication behaviour: clinicians introducing themselves to patients. The campaign achieved over 400,000 staff sign-ups across more than 90 NHS organisations, alongside over 2.5 billion impressions, demonstrating both large-scale engagement and explicit clinician commitment to behaviour change.

Lexi’s Letter works in the same way, grounding reflection and improvement in something human, specific and real.

What has been especially striking is how the letter helps teams slow down. It encourages professionals to step out of problem-solving mode and reconnect with why experience matters, not in abstract terms, but in the voice of one young person.

Encouraging others to use the resource

This is not a story to be read once and set aside. The real value of Lexi’s Letter lies in its use. The assets were created so teams can actively work with them, to prompt discussion, challenge assumptions and ground improvement work in something real and human.

It is already helping teams start powerful conversations about communication, emotional support and what “good care” really feels like from a young person’s point of view. If improving children and young people’s experience of care is on your agenda, this is a resource worth exploring, and, more importantly, using. Please get in touch.

Kirstie McKenzie is managing director of design agency Touch Design who worked on the ‘Lexi’s Letter‘ project.

Here’s something you’ll find useful.

It’s a flowchart to help you with your online campaign.

There’s two parts to it, the moment when you are about to post online and then once you have posted.

You are about to post online

Even before posting, think about the topic. Is it a hot topic? Do you have concerns about sustained abuse?

And then to actually posting and engaging.

You have posted online

Trace through to see if you are getting comments. Are they positive and well researched? Are they malicious? Have they broken a house rule? Are they unhappy?

By having a process you can make sense of what can be a stressful episode.

For more, take a look at the ESSENTIAL COMMS PLAYBOOK 2026.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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