SCREEN GRAB: Here’s what you need to know about TikTok if you are public sector comms

News the NHS nationally has finally started to use TikTok should also act as a green light for other public sector comms teams.

As part of their re-entry into the space was the acknowledgment that TikTok was somewhere where people were making health-related decisions.

In short, they could not afford not to be there.

It is so important to have the right information in the right place for people who use TikTok.

Why?

One part of my brain thinks ‘about time’ while the other is just glad they are finally using tools that can effectively reach audiences. 

So, with that in mind, I’ve written a Blue Peter-style summary to help bring you up to speed.

If you’ve not been using it here’s what you need to know.

No, I don’t think you should be on it just for the sake of it.

Yes, I do if you want to communicate with younger people.

TikTok was never banned

I know surprising, isn’t it? But it was never banned. The advice from UK Government and devolved governments was not to put TikTok onto a device which also had work emails. A trip to Argos to buy a burner phone would have enabled the organisation to carry on safely within the advice.

More than a few people I’ve spoken to either didn’t know the full guidance or used it as an excuse.

For me, if you don’t want to use it for strategic or capacity reasons that’s no problem. So long as you are clear what your strategy or capacity exactly is. 

Your public sector TikTok strategy

Your chief executive may not like TikTok… they are not the audience. There’s a degree of snobbery and misunderstanding about TikTok from people who don’t use it. No, it’s not all dancing nurses.

It’s not just young people. What began as something for under 24s has broken out to older users. Almost eight in ten of under 24-year-olds use TikTok. That’s expected. But the figure is around half of people in their early forties. Surprised? 

TikTok is a video-first platform. You switch it on and you are delivered video straight away.

It’s about your interests not your connections. Twitter, Facebook and the other social media channels started off by serving content into your timeline from people you follow. TikTok turned this on its head and serve you instead based on your interests. So, if you spend time watching midweek recipe ideas on TikTok then the platform algorithm works out thats what you are interested in so will give you more. 

This curated feed lands on the For You Page (FYP). More than 90 per cent of video watched on TikTok is this rather than the ‘friends’ or ‘following’ options.

Entertainment. People go to TikTok to be entertained. If you can slip in some health advice on the way you are winning.

Common TikTok mistakes 

Just whack onto TikTok what you’ve already done for other platforms. I’ve seen this done. It never works. To borrow a line from the video platform, ‘Don’t make an ad, make a TikTok.’ Make something that’s going to work.

Hello, my name is. The ‘my name is’ NHS bedside routine introduces the patient to the medical professional. Avoid this on TikTok. You have barely more than a second to hook people into watch your video. Don’t blow it with a name. Add the name and job title as a title on the screen.

Thinking its too hard. TikTok will take time but you don’t have to block out three days a week to make the platform work.

Thinking you don’t have the content. You probably do. But people won’t automatically find what happened at finance and audit scrutiny committee interesting.

Seeking sign-off for here today and gone tomorrow trends. A trend is a video that has worked for someone and people would like to replicate.

Hot topics will get a response. CAHMS, the part of the NHS that looks after teenage mental health, made a gentle TikTok with a nurse. This turned into a reaction video from a deeply unhappy service user. The original CAHMS post had allowed a re-use of the original when it was uploaded. This can be unchecked to make it harder. 

Common ways to win on TikTok

The first second matters. A text hook on the screen should tease and tantalise. You have a second to make an impact before the scroller scrolls.

Look for inspiration on TikTok. See what others have done not just in the public sector but in other places, too. A particular approach can inspire something that can work for you.

It’s 30 seconds tops. The optimum time for a TikTok is between 20 and 30 seconds. However, there is also an additional trend for longer videos if they are of value. 

Look for volunteers. The Black Country Museum were an early success on TikTok as they included five or six of their period-dressed demonstrators. The comms team would have a conversation with them to see if an idea or a trend would work with them.

Experiment. The people behind the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue account took six months to work out how they should use it. For them, it turned into a channel for youth engagement, recruitment and some fire safety. How about advice for business? That’s LinkedIn, not TikTok.

Make it for the platform. While there is a lot of criossover between the vertical video that works on Reels and TikTok start with the idea of making it work on TikTok first.

Yes, there are good public sector accounts

TikTok has taken root in public sector comms England far more than Wales and especially Scotland. There is limited uptake in Northern Ireland.

For ideas and inspiration, here’s some accounts to look at.

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust in the West Midlands has done some fine work. One bowel health TikTok has had 1.5 million views.

Barts Health NHS Trust in London gives health advice on a range of subjects with one deeply human post on a cancer patient receiving 750,000 views. 

Police Service Northern Ireland have used TikTok effectively in incidents such as rioting after a stabbing incident.

Southwark Council in London have used TikTok as a way to reach different audiences with 300,000 views on their output.

British Transport Police use the platform to give human travel safety and reassurance advice. One clip reached 2.1 million views.

South Yorkshire Police were early breakout stars on the platform with their output reaching more than four million views. 

Worcestershire NHS have done some fine work to show that you don’t need to be an urban area to reach an audience. One clip of human story telling where a patient weds his fiance has more than five million views. 

South Wales Police use TikTok intelligently to communicate with residents. One clip that uses a trend to show the breadth of work they do reached 22 million.

Manchester City Council use TikTok as part of their wider comms toolkit. 

Met Police. The police in London have some strong figures which show how powerfully and intelligently edited body-worn and CCTV footage can show a compelling narrative.

But it’s also worth saying that the corporate approach is one way TikTok is being used. Another are health influencers.

Dr Rajan Karan, an NHS surgeon and educator, has more than five million followers on TikTok, a podcast and YouTube channel.

Dr Nathan Spence creates content aimed at NHS professionals and people interested in medicine.

Nurse Cerys who has moved from the UK to Australia is your actual nurse influencer with management and everything.

That’s a taster. For more, you are very welcome to come along to video training I deliver. 

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Creative commons credit: Lab broadcasting by Melwinsy.

RESEARCH: Facebook are throttling links in comments now… here’s what you can do

It looks as though Facebook may be coming for a lifesaving workaround… but this is not the end of the world.

In the olden days, adding a link to a post was standard.

But then Facebook began clamping down on the reach of these posts. Why? Because the longer you spend on the platform the more attractive you are to advertisers.

Now, a vanishingly small 1.9 per cent of people’s Facebook timelines are this kind of post.

The workaround has long been been putting a link in the comments.

But Facebook are now actively experimenting with throttling this approach by disabling links added as a comment. In other words, the link posted did not turn into a hyperlink that allows the user to click through to a webpage. Instead, it just sits there as pointless unclickable text.

I first came across this on some newspaper sites so thought I’d take a look at public sector pages. 

A straw poll I carried out of 50 public sector Facebook pages 32 per cent of links in their comments have been disabled.

The pages were selected at random and there was no link between what kind of organisation they were or even if they used a third party scheduling tool.

Here a post via Orlo doesn’t have a hyperlink…

Here a post via Orlo has a link…

Neither organisation have done anything wrong as I can see.

But one link works and the other doesn’t. 

This is part of a wider strategy

Facebook have been talking about restricting links and charging via a subscription. So, this is no surprise.

There is a suggestion that links within Facebook itself are not yet affected.

So what can public sector do about links?

It boils down to this. Stop using them unless you absolutely have to.

Instead, tell the story on the platform ideally with video, a carousel of images or text. 

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Creative Commons credit: Trains By Whatlep, CC BY-SA 2.0.

GOLD STANDARD OLDHAM: The importance of public sector comms really standing up for communities

A few weeks ago I was asked to run a session of communicating in dangerous times to an audience of people who work in the community cohesion space.

These are people who work in and with councils to allow different communities to get along with each other.

One comment in particular from an audience member was particularly striking. She was an Afro-Caribbean lady in her 40s. I paraphrase, but she said the racism and hostility she sees has never been worse. 

But what is the publiuc sector and others doing about it, she asked?

It wasn’t enough, she said, for the public sector to ask her for help with a survey.

“Where are they when we really need them,”

“I’m now at a point where I’m starting to think ‘what’s the point?’

“There have been times when we asked them for support and they’ve gone away and thought about it and then told us ‘we’re not getting involved.’

“If you can’t help when we need it why should we help you when you need us?”

This is not an unreasonable thing to expect. 

In a YouGov survey in 2026, 80 per cent of people said that Britain was ‘somewhat’ or ‘a great deal’ racist.

It’s a conversation I’d like to come back to because all too often where is the public sector?

Do the right thing is a good code to live by. 

What’s wanted?

As an absolute basic, don’t tolerate hateful behaviour online.

The very minimum this can be done is in the online comments section on the pages the public sector look after.

Should you be posting hot button topics? Pride, Ukraine, Black History Month, Diwali, Eid, Remembrance Sunday, flags and Christmas are just some of the topics that can bring out abuse.

The temptation is not to get involved in the short term for an easy life. 

But medium and long term, if you don’t post on these issues you are letting part of your community down. You are not recognising the festivals that are important to them. You chip away at the society that tolerates those points of difference.

To be British is to be tolerant.

And if you don’t draw a line in the sand on vile comments, what’s the point of you?

Have a set of social media house rules, enforce them and tell people that they’ve been enforced. 

I’ve blogged before on the need to plan ahead for hot button topics. Keep a list of bullet points to counter what may be said. For example, why should the Royal British Legion mark Black History Month? Because of the 1.7 million Commonwealth soldiers who gave their lives in two world wars. That’s why.

Be factual. 

But on occasion, call it out. 

How to do draw a line in the sand and stand up for the community 

Oldham Council on their Facebook page announced their new youth Mayor. 

Hassan Ali Jabbar is a mechanical engineering apprentice who succeeds Penelope Spencer-Simpson.

Racists came out in force.

But rather than spinelessly take down the post or switch off comments Oldham Council’s admin pinned a comment defending the lad.

“To anyone who thinks it is ok to come to our page and leave racist comments – you are not welcome here. This is a post about the Youth Mayor of all people. To make this the target of your hatred is vile, and you should be ashamed.”

In short, they drew a line in the sand and called out unacceptable behaviour. Ninety people liked the comment.

Huge credit to Oldham Council for this. This is gold standard work.

They didn’t identify names or enter a ‘he said, she said’ discussion with the offenders because that would be pointless.

The support was also recognised by the Oldham Bangladeshi Society on Facebook.

That’s support that they can probably draw on at some point in the future.

Tapping into racism as a business strategy

But it doesn’t stop there.

The Oldham Times covered the story with the headline ‘Oldham Council slams ‘vile’ and ‘racist’ comments over youth mayor appointment.

Sadly, the Newsquest-owned title’s page in the comments has allowed comments that were stomach-churningly unpleasant. 

But with page views built into reporter’s targets it’s hardly surprising that the racism goes unchallenged. 

Would the next challenge to hold The Oldham Times’ stewardship of their Facebook comments to account through IPSO’s Editors Code?

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Creative commons credit: By Pavement graffiti, The Vennel by Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0.

TIMELESS STORY: Why human content is an effective strategy in a time of AI

I’m going to tell you a tale I keep coming back to that’s just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago when I learned it.

It was the late 1990s and I was getting to grips being a junior reporter on The Halesowen News in the Black Country. I’d called the neighbouring Stourbridge office to book a photographer to take a picture of a building for a story.

“We don’t take pictures of buildings, Dan,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “Buildings don’t buy newspapers. People do. Put people into the picture.”

So, I made some phone calls to ensure that people connected to the story could be in the picture.

It was a lesson that stuck with me. It was the reason I’d be ringing round schools in the circulation area to arrange a spread of pics for an Easter bonnet parade, Comic Relief or Christmas Nativity shows. 

Why people? Because people bought newspapers to see themselves, their children and their friends.

Why people in online content? Because people like to see themselves, their children and their friends. They can connect with that content. They share, like, comment and connect.

Besides, if people see people like them in content they are most likely to connect with it.

Human stories in an age of AI

Earlier this year, Reuters published their journalism trends report. In it, a third said they would be doing less evergreen content because if could be done more efficiently by AI. They were going to concentrate on more human stories because humans were better at that. In the survey, 72 per cent of news publishers said they would be making more human stories.

You don’t have to look far for this content.

Here, Merseyside Police are shown on patrol in Liverpool city centre ahead of Jewish celebrations. A member of the public is pixelated. 

Here is an AI image of Merseyside Police officers in Liverpool City Centre talking to a man in a baseball cap with the part of his face pixelated.

I asked ChatGPT to knock it up.

The image is a little too perfect. The officers’ caps aren’t quite right and I’m not sure if there’s a giant wheel in that location.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

In my dealings with police and AI the common theme is trust. Will this damage trust? If it will they won’t do it.

More work in, better results out

If it takes seconds to post, it probably won’t be effective.

You can ask Canva to knock-up an image with some text and you can tick a box. But the long shadow of poor engagement will also damage the reach of your next piece of content.

You may need to send a couple of emails to help create that people content. So, send those emails.

Better but less is a useful way to operate.

Examples 

Show human stories

NHS England on LinkedIn celebrates Windrush Day with a human story on Vince who came to Britain from Jamaica in 1958. It is told from the perspective of his daughter Marisa. These are the people that came from the Caribbean to give a life of service in Britain.

Show dedicated staff

Ian the Walsall school patrol officer is recognised by being shortlisted in this BBC Midlands competition. The BBC-made content shows how taken aback the veteran lollipop person and there‘s a vox pop of reactions from kids.

It’s lovely.

Show service users

National Parks in the UK often struggle to square the circle between the people who live there, businesses and visitors. By showing the Peak District is open to everyone more people are encourage to go and explore. In this Reel, the Muslim Hikers show in effect service users enjoying Kinder Scout. 

Or here, with Edinburgh Science on Instagram.

Cannily, it looks like they’ve taken the camera roll from a freelance photographer they’ve engaged and produced a video of the images.

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

RESEARCH: Why (and how) you must tackle misinformation in community spaces

This is a blog of two parts, firstly some alarming academic research on community Facebook groups so brilliant I wish I’d written it myself. Secondly, some steps you can take to tackle the issues.

But first the issues, Facebook groups and Nextdoor communities have become a hotbed of misinformation. 

It’s especially a problem in areas of the UK without healthy journalism.

All this is in the excellent ‘No News is Bad News: The Hidden Threat of Unchecked Local Misinformation’ published by the Social Market Foundation. Authors Jamie Gollings and Niamh O’Regan and their researchers have produced something of real value.

By looking at thousands of posts they have quantified the problem. In some cases, no doubt, they have lifted the rock that decision makers would rather not see. It that’s you, it’s important you see this.

Why are online community spaces so important?

As newspapers have closed and newsrooms thinned out, online community spaces have often become the prime source of local information. 

  • Ofcom says UK Facebook groups are the most important source of council information for everyone aged 25 to 64.
  • Two thirds of the UK people use Facebook and two thirds use groups. That’s about half the UK population.
  • Nextdoor stats are harder to comeby with the platform claiming 10 million users in 2024.

In short, if it happens in the community then it tends to happens in the community Facebook group first. However, as the research shows, much power is in the hands of the admin with groups not subject to any complaints or fact-checking procedures.

Is this a problem?

The research says hold their beer.

What’s the size of the problem

This is where the research comes in so useful.

  • On Facebook, 4 per cent of content is misinformation
  • On X, 28 per cent of content is misinformation.
  • 40 per cent of Facebook community groups have misinformation.
  • 80 per cent of X searches in a community found misinformation.
  • 16 of 19 Nextdoor communities had misinformation.

In Northern Ireland and Scotland the problem was worse than the rest of the UK.

If anything, this is at the low end of my experience. Some groups I’ve been a member of have had far, far more than 4 per cent misinformation. 

In news deserts, the problem is worse

News desert are places that have no of few organs of journalism. In the olden days, this used to be the local paper. As advertising has moved from print to Google and Facebook these outlets have struggled and closed.

  • In news deserts, there is three times as much misinformation. 
  • Where there are strong news outlets the problem is halved.

You can take a closer look at the issue by taking a look at research published by the Public Interest News Foundation in late 2025. It’s scary reading. It’s also surprising. 

Large parts of London are effectively news deserts without local journalism.

In elections, it’s even worse

When polls are about to open, the problem gets worse. In the Gorton & Denton Westminster by-election research showed a 26 times higher spike of misinformation.

In supporting research on the Makerfield Westminster by-election misinformation increased by 19 per cent as a percentage of all posts. For news, they quadrupled. 

So, what to do?

The research makes some great points for policy makers. Most of them are out of reach of councils, police, fire or NHS there’s several approaches to take. The £20 million national fund to help people understand misinformation would be lovely, for example. But that’s for UK and devolved Government.

Here’s some approaches based on my own experience and observation.

What a public sector comms team can do

Start by mapping. Have you  list of the Facebook groups in your area? Do you know your Nextdoor numbers? Do you know how diverse your community is? Do you know the best way to reach in an emergency the Romanian community who may have built-up in your area?

The community forums are going to be the most useful.

Niche communities like Stamp Collecting in Stafford will be less so.

Commonly, there are community noticeboards, heritage groups, photography groups, campaign groups around an issue and selling groups.

Share your content directly. If you can join a Facebook group as a page and share content then do so. Don’t bombard groups but if the content is relevant then do so. Try and do so directly. You’ll reach more people. Example: Here’s where you can get a flu jab this winter. Full list here…

Share your content through advocates. Create a WhatsApp group of supporters who are happy to take and amplify your work. So the Polish-speaker who is member of Polish groups is worth their weight in gold. Example: Oto, gdzie możesz zaszczepić się na grypę tej zimy. Pełna lista tutaj… (Here’s where you can get a flu jab this winter. Full list here…)

Don’t challenge the misinformation directly. This is where UK Government advice on misinformation comes in handy. Don’t add your comment onto a thread. It just amplifies the misinformation. If needs be challenge it by giving the accurate information in a new thread or in other groups. Example: Here’s video of the Bangladeshi nurse explaining in Bengali what the flu jab is and why it is safe to take taking on board community concerns posted as a seperate post not as a comment.

Escalate monitoring and comms at election time. This isn’t about the comms team fact-checking every post. This is about keeping an eye on what the facts are. Example: Here’s what the law says on what you can take into a polling station.

The temptation is to reserve these tactics for special occasions. The moral of the Social Market Foundation research is that misinformation in community spaces is an everyday thing.

Misinformation needs to be challenged.

I get that time is precious. But at the end of the day democracy is what’s at stake.

So build community groups into your communications every day. 

Don’t look the other way.

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Picture credit: By James T M Towill, CC BY-SA 2.0.

THE INCIDENT WILL BE TELEVISED: What you can learn from how PSNI used video amid serious disorder 

More than a decade ago, the playbook for emergencies in the UK was to post to Twitter and for partners to retweet.

Violence in Northern Ireland shows that strategy is long gone.

Effective communications is now video across a range of platforms.

The incident 

On June 8, a Sudanese man is arrested by police in North Belfast after an attempted murder in the street. This prompts nights of violence where homes occupied by people of colour were targeted. 

Indeed, the incident was filmed on a smartphone and posted online.

TV crews filmed and there was user generated footage of cars on fire and people being forced out of their own homes in the resulting violence which targeted immigrants not connected with the original attack.

Media coverage as well as user generated content also circulated in the anti-racist demonstrations in the days to follow.

News is video 

On average in Northern Ireland, Ofcom says that video sharing sites are viewed for 49 minutes a day. Facebook is the third most important source of news after BBC and ITV channels. In an emergency, it makes sense for PSNI to have its own social channels it can contribute to.

Analysis by disinformation specialists Fennimore Harper shows that there had been 14.9 million views on TikTok of news sites alone three days after the initial attack in Belfast. The top viewed content was seen 984,000 on the GB News TikTok. This beat into 2nd place ITN’s piece on TikTok with dramatic footage of arson attacks. 

All this underlines the importance of TikTok as a news channel. In a time of crisis, people will look towards journalists who are often on the ground fastest. 

Media relations matters. 

Four core videos were created by PSNI over a four day period

Here is how they performed.

Here’s what I learned…

The post-X incident

Just one of the four core videos was posted to X. It received minimal views. The police force had stopped posting to district X accounts in four months earlier. Data here doesn’t undermine this decision.

News is TikTok

As the Fennimore Harper analysis shows, news plays out strongly on TikTok. Thankfully, PSNI had a presence on the channel. Without this, they would not have been able to deliver their message to the platform so strongly.

Indeed, the best single performance of a video was the Chief Constable’s renaissance to diverse communities which attracted 185,000 views. With TikTok being an international platform and the Belfast incidents a trending topic this was to perform well. 

The post Good Friday Agreement has shown that the world beyond Northern Ireland are a factor in the prosperity of the place.

A communications strategy for 2026 needs to have TikTok.

Strategic sharing 

The four key videos were shared across TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. No content relating to the outbreak of disorder was posted to LinkedIn.

Normally, I’d advise not to create once and post to multiple channels. What can work with an Instagram audience may not work on TikTok, for example. But in a time of crisis this makes sense.

Corporate and district accounts

Given the news was of national and international importance, it makes sense for the corporate PSNI channels to be used. 

The PSNI North Belfast Facebook page was also used. The numbers were not as strong as the corporate channels. That’s bound to happen. But there’s every chance the content on this local page may have reached an audience not following the corporate channels.

Switching off comments

I’m past allowing comments on every post. There are times like this when comments can be done without. It would only take-up the time and resource of a member of staff enforcing house rules and banning multiple people who may not be from the area.

On Facebook, PSNI restricted who could comment on their content. Bravo.

YouTube flatlined

The video numbers on the corporate YouTube shouldn’t be that much of a worry. Most people don’t navigate to an organisation’s video channel for updates. They can find that elsewhere. 

But as YouTube is a good place to access historic content it makes sense to post it.

In a time of crisis, be straight 

In the past, I’ve heard senior people object to TikTok because ‘it’s all dancing nurses.’ This hackneyed statement is bankrupt. There are lessons to be learned from how video is consumed on each platform. In peacetime, the public sector needs to compete for viewsin the attention economy. But in a time of crisis to be helpful and clear is the most important thing. A man has been attacked. This is a serious matter and the content reflects this.

Overall

I’ve been an admirer of PSNI’s communications for several years. Police forces in other parts of the UK have obstacles to content with. In Northern Ireland, there is also the long shadow of the Troubles and the Republican and Unionist traditions.

Clearly, a more detailed analysis will follow in months to come which will go into broader detail

But overall, there is much to learn and admire in content created with cool heads in the face of panic and violence. 

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

CLICK CHASE: Times when cute animal content just works

Quite often in training I’ll talk about the need not to be always selling on social channels.

You are not trying to recreate the high testosterone antler-butting of ‘Glengarry Glenross’. You are not always trying to close the deal to win a set of steak knives.

Often human-centred story telling can be really useful but there’s also another way to engage people. 

Animals. 

A police comms person once told me that they used pics of horses and dogs because people love them. They would build a bigger audience ready for when they really needed them.

That’s really good advice.

So, this week I thought I’d take a look at just what good cute animal looked like. It’s far more than just whacking up a cute puppy for the win.

Animal as news story

The world champion of animal in good news story is Digby, Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue’s dog. A woman was thinking of taking her life in Exeter and police were struggling to convince her to come back to safety. A firefighter who was nearby offered to bring the dog who is often used to ‘defuse’ situations after stressful incidents.

Digby was deployed, the woman stepped back from the brink and the service’s Facebook post reached 72,000 engagements, 38,000 shares and global coverage.

Realistically, its the kind of seriously good off-diary coverage that can’t be built into a comms plan. 

Q: Do you have a dog attached to your organisation that’s done something great?

Animals as a new member of staff

Here, Lancaster City Council on TikTok announce Patsy their new pest control dog.

It’s a short clip that focuses quite rightly on the dog. Who wants to see a Councillor when they have such a cute council officer?

True, the clip doesn’t go into the detail of how exactly a dog can help with pest control. Maybe they are things best kept unsaid. 

Q: Do you have an animal member of staff?

Paying tribute to a departed animal

Announcing the death of an animal who has served is also part of the circle of life.

In this Merseyside Fire & Rescue LinkedIn post Vesper the rescue dog was given the appropriate send-off. It also acknowledges the loss of her human partner Niamh.

The comments were appropriately professional seeing as this was LinkedIn.

As a Forensic Scientist I mostly encountered Accelerant trained dogs. However I have a huge respect for any service dog and their handler. RIP Vesper, with thanks for your service and sympathy for Niamh.

Q: Do you have a service animal who has passed away?

Does your service animal have a birthday coming up?

It’s not as though Culzean has done anything heroic in this post. 

Celebrating a birthday is enough to get dozens of likes and comments for this Police Scotland horse on Instagram.

Q: Does your service animal have a birthday?

Acknowledging good work from a service animal

Those who work with service dogs more than likely see their work as fairly routine. This is fair but frustrating.

So, once in a while celebrating their work is absolutely in the line of duty.

In this X post from the dedicated @PSOSDogs account Police Scotland’s own dogs account Obi’s work in tracking down a missing 77-year-old is recognised.

Q: Have your service animals performed well?

Acknowledging good work from a human

The story ‘cat stuck up tree rescued’ is the ACME of a small town fire service being heroic.

But how about ‘stuck dog rescued?’ 

This post from Bridgnorth Fire & Rescue on Facebook captures the moment when a rescued animal thanks one of the team who dragged him out of the mud.

Q: Have your humans performed well with animals?

When your day job is working with animals

It’s not just one post, it’s a whole Facebook page

Here, Middlesbrough Council Dog Warden Service have an entire page. There’s 12,000 followers and its regularly updated.

Sometimes, comms people can be sniffy about service areas running pages. If they update regularly, as they do here, I’m all for it. It may be the only council stream they follow and if it provides good content, why not? Plus, it can also generate content for the corporate account.

All councils have a responsibility to re-home lost dogs. This is a rich seam of content that often goes unmined.

Q: Does your council look after dogs?

Yes, cats can be cute too

In this BBC World Service Reel a school from America has a therapy cat called Pinecone.

Again, media relations and a news story that’s reaching a wider audience.

The cat with clicks shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, Larry the Cat the 10 Downing Street mouser commands a huge audience online. So does Stourbridge station’s resident cat.

Q: Can you work with other animals?

Newsjacking the hashtag

No round-up of animal content could possibly be without the excellent #dogsatpollingstations hashtag. While this emerged organically, it’s good to see organisations making the most of it.

Here, the Electoral Commission collates an entire carousel of images.

Q: Is there a hashtag you can tag onto?

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.
Picture credit: National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

RESEARCH: Where I live, Reach have all but checked out of local news on Facebook

I often ask how the local newspapers are when I’m delivering training. I can’t remember the last time someone didn’t roll their eyes and complain.

In many ways, it was ever thus. The press officer and reporter relationship was often tricky.

Today, many local titles don’t call themselves newspapers anymore. They are news brands. Clicks not print is the currency. 

A few weeks back, a journalism lecturer on LinkedIn who also runs a hyperlocal site spoke of how the NHS got in touch and the site supported a health event to make it a success. In many ways, that was a throwback. The journalist who could be contacted willing to support the event.

So, what’s the regular complaint today? They’re not interested in local stories. Without sage guidance from senior colleagues they ask dumb questions and often leave inaccurate content up unchanged in the face of complaint.

I can’t measure everything but I can see if they are interested in local stories, locally.

So, I employed my son to log four days of Facebook content posted by what used to be called regional daily papers to see for myself.

Why is Facebook a barometer?

Because Ofcom say that social media is the single most important source of news in the UK. It is the second largest channel after YouTube. What is being posted there is a big part of the news landscape people have.

In Scotland, the industry regulator says Facebook is the number one source of news. In Wales, it is second. In Northern Ireland, it is third. For everyone aged 18 to 64 in the UK Facebook is the most significant platform for local government information. Again, Ofcom stats.

So, on Facebook, here’s what Black Country titles Express & Star and Reach’s Black Country Live published.

Where’s the Black Country?

In simple terms, the Black Country is that urban area to the West of the M5. It’s the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Walsall. More complex arguments about what the Black Country is are carried out by earnest men with beards, a pint of Bathams and a map of the South Staffordshire coal field.

I’m picking the Black Country because I worked on newspapers there for more than a decade then worked as a local government comms officer for almost a decade. I also live there. 

The old Black Country media map

In the late 1990s and early part of this century, I was a reporter on the Sandwell office of the Express & Star in the Black Country. When I joined, there were 12 reporters and three photographers in that district office alone. On my last day, I wandered down to the Press hall to see the print towers churn out copies of that days’ paper. I was as impressed with the sight just as much as I was on my first day.

Less than a mile away, the Black Country Mail had an office where four reporters were based. Woe betide us if we missed a story the Mail had. We knew all the reporters by name and knew who could be trusted and who couldn’t.

Both of those offices closed more than a decade ago.

The new Black Country media map

Today, you can take print out of the equation. The E&S sells 8,000 and the Evening Mail 3,000.

Online is where the attention is. The Black Country Mail title has been turned into the snappier-sounding Black Country Live by owners Reach plc. On Facebook, it has 200,000 followers.

On Facebook, the Express & Star has 260,000 followers.

Both the Express & Star and Black Country Live have a subscription. It’s unclear how many people have actually signed-up.

In the Black Country, Reach have all but given up on local news on Facebook 

On Facebook, Black Country Live have just 9.5 per cent of content is from the area they say they serve.

Sixty per cent of content is national. You are more likely to read a story from the East Midlands (11 posts) than a tale from either the Black Country boroughs of Walsall or Dudley. 

There isn’t a single Black Country story in the top 10 of most engaged posts.

This may be co-incidental. News ebbs and flows. A major story one week wouldn’t turn a hair the following week on the X10 bus from Merry Hill to Halesowen. 

But it may also mean they don’t have the resources to properly report on the area.

In their defence, Reach may say that the Black Country is not one of their core areas. 

But surely, it would be fairer to rename the page or stop pretending this is local news?

In the past, I’ve seen some great work from Reach in the West Midlands online and their football coverage is so much better than it was 30 years ago. They still have some dedicated reporters.

On LinkedIn, Reach feature a creditable weekly round-up of what they tag as quality journalism from across their titles. But this precisely not the lived experience of their audience on one of their core platforms.

The top 10 most engaged Black Country Live posts

NATIONAL: Rachel Reeves confirms pensioners to lose £17 a month if paying back Winter Fuel Payments (22,050 engagements).

NATIONAL: Labour to delay local elections following reorganisation (8,747).

STOCKPORT: Pig’s head mounted on front gate, prompting police investigation (7,119).

NATIONAL: Keir Starmer announces cost-of-living payments for 6 million households (4,644).

SHROPSHIRE: Police and RSPCA looking into boarding kennel deaths (4,445).

NATIONAL: New Brexit poll shows majority would vote rejoin (3,328).

NATIONAL: State pensioners to recieve help from Household Support Fund (2,195).

NATIONAL: Labour introduce campaign to encourage drivers switching to electric (1,832).

NATIONAL: DWP could give expats full state pension through legal loophole (1,066).

NATIONAL: Chris Packham warns of danger of feeding birds (978).

Of the 417 posts, the average engagement was 185 likes, shares and comments per post.

In the Black Country, the more local news focused Express & Star is rewarded with less engagement

There is only one Express & Star Facebook page.

Just over half of all E&S stories on Facebook are from the Black Country.

Staffordshire, where the print newspaper also circulates accounts for 12 per cent. Two per cent of stories are from Worcestershire where the print edition also sells. Overall, almost two thirds of stories are from their traditional circulation area.

What got people clicking most was a Wolverhampton story where tributes have been paid to a dead man.

Walsall emerging as one of the most deprived areas in the UK also dominated the top 10 with three stories.

Top 10 of most engaged Express & Star posts

WOLVERHAMPTON: Tributes paid to man found dead on Wolverhampton school grounds (892).

WALSALL: Walsall native reporter gives take on ‘most deprived town’ (752).

BIRMINGHAM: Five men jailed following violent incident (665).

DUDLEY: Dudley Metro opening date confirmed, coming more than 2 years late (638).

BLACK COUNTRY: Seven Black Country landmarks that need a second chance (335).

DUDLEY: Rival groups wanting control of mosque ordered to merge (273).

WOLVERHAMPTON: Committee approves new Desi restaurant on site of Wolverhampton pub (269).

WALSALL: Walsall council leader responds to ‘most deprived’ label (252).

WALSALL: Pictures of deprived areas of Walsall (217).

WOLVERHAMPTON: Fast food chain to open branch in Wolverhampton (184).

At 275 posts, the Express & Star was behind their main rival. With just over 50 engagements on average the figure also is behind the Reach publication. 

So what does all this say? Probably, the sample size is not large enough to make firm conclusions. But the lukewarm engagement of local news on Facebook doesn’t make for optimistic reading.

Local Press and democracy why does this matter?

There is a clear link between the number of reporters covering a town and voting patterns. Rachel Howells’ PhD thesis ‘Journey to the centre of a news black hole: examining the democratic deficit in a town with no newspaper’ mapped the link between declining newsrooms and lower turnouts at elections.

Rachel wrote:

“It finds the community under-informed, under-represented, and unable to access timely local information or gain adequate access to scrutiny. The democratic measure of election turnout in particular declined from around the time the district offices closed. Together, these findings suggest damage to the local public sphere in the town.”

I thought about this research when I read that Councillors in Sandwell Council’s incoming Reform administration had been told not to talk to the Press.

Express & Star reporter Mark Andrews’ piece further underlined the importance of reporters on the ground by witnessing then reporting the exchange.

But with no newpaper office in Sandwell what challenge will there be to this ban from the Express & Star, Black Country Live or another news outlet?

Facebook and the future of news

While my focus has been Facebook and two local news titles, maybe those titles have already moved on?

In late 2025, Reach’s Donna Ogier spoke about the company putting less trust in platforms like Facebook and Google. 

But she went on to say that breaking news on Facebook is critically important.

More emphasis is being put on news aggregators like Apple News, Yahoo News, she said. Although Meta are paying publishers like Reach for their engagement on Facebook. If engagement like anger at winter fuel payments sells then no wonder local news is getting squeezed out.

Maybe, this is already the past

It’s just possible that this model of courting mass attention is already over. While writing this, I read a post from Danish media analyst Thomas Baekdal on LinkedIn.

For him, the moment of chasing a mass audience for media companies is over. He argues it peaked with Buzzfeed in the 2010s and is the wrong business model to chase.

He describes this as social media providing ‘low-intent micro-moment’ traffic while the media industry is heading towards ‘high-intent macro-moment’.

Basically, this is swapping lots of clicks but not that much action with fewer clicks from more invested subscribers who will spend more time with you.

He writes:

“To put it simply, what is better? To have 10 people coming to you from Facebook, or to have one subscriber come to you directly? The answer depends on where you sit in your newspaper organization. If you are part of the advertising team, one subscriber sounds like a nightmare. But if you are part of the revenue team, you are making more money from that one subscriber than you make from those 10 Facebook clicks.”

What does this mean for public sector comms?

In the Black Country, there appears little point in pitching a story to the Black Country Live as local journalism has checked out. 

But is there much point pitching to the Express & Star?

Slightly more. 

But these numbers also loop back and emphasises the importance of your own channels, too.

If Facebook is critically important for breaking news for news providers then they will be for the public sector, too.

In times of crisis, this is clear. The flooding in the South West, for example, saw some helpful content from the Environment Agency giving a shareable map of road closures. That’s gold at a time when that knowledge is power.

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Creative commons credit: Minnesota daily newspaper office, 1984 Myotus, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

SURVEY DATA: How does your use of AI compare with public sector comms?

So what does running a tracker survey into AI in the public tell us? Quite a bit, actually.

Without data you are just another person with an opinion, data scientist W. Edwards Demming once said.

So, here is some data you can measure you and your team against.

In the third edition of my quarterly survey, it’s clear that AI is being firmly embedded in public sector comms teams.

Policies are being more widely adopted by organisations but there are still people using their own tools to get round barriers put in place.

Broadly speaking, the sector is moving towards greater AI adoption. But a lack of skills is holding people back.

Of all the issues being stored up, a failure to be transparent is the one that worries me most. Trust is being gambled with. The losers will be public bodies that fail to declare what and how they are using AI.

Transparency is a major issue. It’s not an stretch to say that all the guidance for the public sector is to encourage every organisation to be clear where and how they are using AI.

Trust is important and people are anxious to know how and where organisations are using artificial intelligence.

While the number of people using their own tools to dodge corporate restrictions has now moved into a minority almost four in 10 still carry out this practice.

This represents a significant danger in data leakage. This could be anything from data uploaded to a public AI tool that is then extracted to a meeting notetaker spilling the secrets of a sensitive meeting.

On the flip-side, the organisation can benefit unknowingly from an unapproved third party tool being used. For example, the unapproved use of a platform that detects if an image is AI.

Here, people are being very consistent. There is little change over time as more than two thirds are both worried and excited at different times. This is to be expected with a new technology.

Worries about AI are not swift to dissipate. A third of people worry about a lack of knowledge, having the time to use AI and being replaced. Concerns about using AI incorrectly remains the most significant worry while data leaking has emerged as a significant worry. This question was not asked in the first two surveys.

AI is becoming a daily tool. It is poised to become a daily tool for the majority in the survey. The most significant change is in this with 43 per cent now using it every day. Just three per cent surveyed don’t use AI at least monthly.

The Wild West of no policy is drawing to a close. There has been a significant shift in the number of organisations with policies. Almost two-thirds now have a policy against a quarter in summer 2025. However, while the trend is clear a large rump are operating without giving guidance to staff. This is as safe as pushing a pram over a thawing lake. At some point it will crack.

Idea generation remains the most popular use of AI in public sector comms and by some distance. Spell check and grammar comes second with generating press releases third.

Audio and video created by AI account for mid-single digit figures. Images have grown from a tenth of those who took part in the survey in summer 2025 to 17 per cent in early 2026.

It’s clear that people are not using AI to create public-facing content. Instead, they are using it for inspiration.

How public sector comms compares with the rest of the UK

Of course, the audience for this tracker survey is self-selecting. But more than nine in 10 people who took part in the survey say they have been using AI regularly. This compares with 20 per cent of businesses in the UK, according to UK Government data from early 2026.

Like the rest of the UK, public sector comms has identified limited skills as one of the most significant barriers.

A note about the surveys

More than 300 people have taken part in each of the tracker surveys. Data used is from people in the public sector.

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Image credit: Alamy used under licence.

DISCOVERY ENGINE: This is a big shift… maybe we need to change how we create Facebook page content

Some new data has been published that has made me rethink who you are creating content for on Facebook. Let me explain.

Firstly, if you think Facebook is all about friends and family then please think again.

Some new data has emerged that shows FORTY per cent of your timeline is now content algorithmically selected just for you.

It’s an approach that started a few years ago but that’s now seriously ballooned. 

It also poses the very significant question… what can Facebook page admins do?

Yes, TikTok is to blame

In the olden days, Facebook and much of social media was friends, family and pages you follow.

Then TikTok came along and upset the apple cart. Instead, it started to show users content based on their INTERESTS instead. This is done through the For You Page. A user switches on and straight away sees content selected based on what they’ve watched, shared and engaged with.

Basically, on TikTok if you spend a lot of time searching or watching midweek recipe ideas then you’ll get more midweek recipe TikToks.

This approach has seen TikTok users spend more time on that platform compared to competitors.

What is Facebook’s discovery engine?

In response, Facebook tweaked their algorithm to also start showing you content you may have a stronger affinity with. Of course, Meta would never admit they had stolen the idea. So instead they called their approach ‘the discovery engine’.

They get clues from you on what you may be interested in from what conversations you are having. Talk about beach holidays with a friend or on a Facebook group and you may see more beaches, for example. 

Recent Facebook data now shows 41 per cent of people’s timelines are now ‘unconnected’. That’s not something you are following. That’s the posts the discovery engine has selected for you.

Unconnected is a figure that’s now double the amount you see from friends. It’s three-and-a-half times the amount you see from Facebook groups you are a member of. It’s similar for the pages you follow.

So what does Facebook discovery engine content look like?

I decided to go looking for it in my own Facebook timeline.

A quick scroll through my timeline finds several posts from places I’m not following. You can see the blue ‘follow’ button on this Stoke City post. I can see I’m not following them.

This makes sense. I support Stoke and I was having a long chat on a Stoke City Facebook group. The post itself was doing really well recalling the day Stoke lifted the Division 3 title. 

Next was this.

It’s a quirky Reel from BBC Cumbria with GoPro footage of a climber rescuing a crag-bound sheep. 

This also makes sense. My Dad was from the Lake District and I’m a member of several Cumbrian Facebook groups. 

So, what now?

What it means for Facebook pages

Firstly, your pages’ followers are less important. Follower numbers as a vanity metric make even less sense. The 10,000 people who liked your page haven’t seen all of your content for a very long time. 

The next question is what content may work?

For this, I have a hunch.

I think you should experiment with topics you think are popular with people online.

In the run-up to half-term, maybe people are talking about what to do in half-term. 

So, the council Facebook page that talks about what to do in half-term may look extra attractive to the searching discovery engine bots.

The NHS page that offers solutions to hayfever at a time when hayfever is peaking could see rewards. 

Right now, that’s just a gut feeling. I don’t have data to support it. Neither is there a place on Facebook where you can see what interests people. So, maybe we are just using common sense to think may appeal. 

Thinking about trends first may make it harder to get your topic on a less fashionable subject. That’s a creative challenge. But isn’t all of Facebook?

I’ve blogged before about what makes effective content on Facebook. Avoid links. Carousels of images and video may be an approach. 

But the bottom line is this. By writing for the discovery engine you are aiming at a larger slab of Facebook.

Creative commons credit. Newstand. By Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine – Own work.

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

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.