Author Archives: Dan Slee

In 2020, with impending coronavirus we have all become public health communicators whether we like it or not.

We’re faced with the most serious pandemic for a century although the World Health Organisation has not formally declared it as such.

We’re also faced with the most powerful disinformation engine mankind has ever made in social media.

There’s two things every organisation must crack when it gears up for this.

1. Social media.
2. Internal comms.

Like some kind of stress test, this is a check-up on how organisations function and communicate public sector or not.

Normally a public sector communicator has to fight to get their messages in front of people. They can be niche. This time, everyone really is the audience.

Stephen Waddington has blogged here concisely about the path coronavirus has taken and correctly identifies that a fact-based response is needed. He’s spot on with that.

He flags up useful resources for communicators through the Department of Health and Social Care coronavirus information page as well as the World Health Organisation’s incident tracking page and theNHS coronavirus page.

The Local Government Association advice can be found here.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has some good guidance for remote workers here.

Zurich Municipal part of Zurich Insurance has a useful pandemic planner with downloadable checklist here.

Third sector blogger Madeleine Sugden has blogged useful resources here.

The Public Health England resources are here.

For Scotland,the NHS resources are here.

For Wales, the NHS resources are here.

For Northern Ireland, Health advice resources are here.

The CIPR Local Public Sector advice and resources are here.

Pointers for public sector people

Knowing your audience

Normally, I get a bit tetchy when people say ‘everyone’ as their audience because it very rarely is. This is one of those rare times. But it’s worth avoiding the classic mistake of making one-size-fits-all take-it-or-leave-it content. Create content for your channels, answer media queries but think about where your audience actually is and create content with that in mind.

Props to the World Health Organisation for joining TikTok and creating content. They’re thinking. Credit to them.

On social media

On Twitter, a search for coronavirus points people to the Department of Health and Social Care’s Twitter account as the UK’s prime Twitter outlet.

Facebook are running something similar when you run a search.

If you’re public sector and responsible for communicating coronavirus

Here’s a glass half full fact.

Since, the confused response to foot and mouth how the public sector will communicate has been codified. There are local platforms in place in England and Wales to respond through Local Resilience Forums that bring police, council, NHS and others together. In Scotland and Northern Ireland there’s an equivalent.

The message will be pretty prescriptive.

Create content that’s short, fact-based and shareable.

I’m not convinced by screen shots of hard-to-read text shared online. So, create written content directly onto the platform as they can be read more easily. Support with date-stamped images. Threads for Twitter and text for Facebook and other platforms.

Create video with a straight-forward fact-based summary. Especially if you’re public health.

Public Health has been a local government thing for some time. While the politician may be keen to be seen to take the lead for me, the public health official themselves should absolutely be the one taking the lead.

Brighton and Hove Council’s coronavirus advice page here is a pretty good standard to aim towards. It has pages for the public, businesses, public transport and others. It mixes links to UK Government advice with some local flavour.

If you’re not responsible for creating content share the right content

But above all the best tip? If this isn’t your gig leave it to the experts and share what they’re saying. I’ve seen some cut and paste advice guides that claim to be from a doctor in Wuhan and you know what? I’m not convinced. If you’re police, fire or looking after a library account just share the local advice.

What public sector communicators can do

Don’t be tempted to go off piste with inside info from your mate’s cousin who works at the hospital. This should be obvious. But it’s a point that’s worth repeating.

Importantly, if you’ve got lots of accounts across the authority, you’ll want them to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Ask them to share the main voice for the area. Yes, I know they may be a library but they have followers and they have trust. The helpful message needs to be shared. A whatsapp group for page admin across an organisation isn’t such a bad idea with this in mind.

Facebook groups have been a growing trend. Like digital Parish pumps they are where people meet online. Make your content on Facebook shareable and look to go through group admins. Think about a Facebook Q&A with your public health official. Facebook Live is one option although trickier to manage. Just words is easier.

On internal comms

While external comms is important it’s not nearly as important as making sure your staff know what the situation is and how they can get the right information.

Make it fact-based and create it in places where people are.

Again, this isn’t time for one-size-fits-all communications. Have the same message and repeat it.

I’ve got absolutely no doubt that the public sector and other communicators will rise to this challenge.

Absolutely nothing teaches you the change in the media landscape more than how local newspaper cover their local team.

It’s the story of how an industry sat on a 3-0 lead, gave away three own goals and appear to have pulled ahead again.

My own team is Stoke City. I’ve supported them for the past 35-years. I’ve seen us go 2-0 up away and lose 6-2. I’ve seen us lose 8-0 at home and I’ve seen us win majestically an FA Cup semi-final 5-0.

My lifeline to my club has always been through the media. Especially the North Staffordshire media.

This is a post about my obsession with Stoke City and what I’ve learned.

Newspapers go 3-0 up… a century of near as dammit monopoly

Back in the day, every town had a newspaper and every big team had a sports reporter to cover them. The town newspaper as near as dammit had a monopoly. You want the football club news? You head to the local paper. Me? I cycled to the paper shop on a Saturday evening to buy a late edition of the Evening Sentinel. Veteran reporter Peter Hewitt’s match reports were deadline skewed and would start with lengthy descriptions of injury news with the last 10 minutes of play condensed into four paragraphs.

I’d plough through a long account of how Chris Maskery (ankle) had been replaced in midfield by John Devine who had passed a late fitness test before racing through to the perfunctory late goal flurry.

Monday’s paper would feature a more considered match report and some breaking news on the backpage. That formula had lasted for a hundred years.

As a teenager, I’d cut out each report and stick them into a scrapbook. I could hold them in my hand and re-read them.

I couldn’t do that with page 312 of Ceefax.

Newspapers slip to 3-1 up… GOAL! Scorer: Fanzine Culture (47 mins)

Martin Smith rises like a salmon at the far post to plant an unstoppable header past the despairing dive of the keeper.

On a wet Potteries day in 1988, Division 2 Stoke played the Division 1 champions Liverpool in the FA Cup 3rd Round.

That day, 32,000 packed into the Victoria Ground with me on the Boothen End terrace. Pre-Hillsborough crowd surges at the game were all part of the tradition. Something was not right. An hour before the game, the crowd was horribly over capacity and moving freely was impossible. Trapped, worried and seperated from my brother I had a feeling that if I’d have fallen there was no way I was getting up again. On Monday, all the Evening Sentinel carried was 10 paragraphs on an inside page about how a man had died of a heart attack because St John’s Ambulance staff couldn’t get to him. Football supporters had no voice. At worst, hooligans and at best ignored.

Around that time The Oatcake fanzine started a 30-year print run. That publication gave fans a voice. Published every home game The Oatcake for years was the best thing about watching Stoke City. Newspapers had lost the monopoly.

In the last few years, the excellent Duck Fanzine has picked-up the baton.

Newspapers slip up to 3-2… GOAL! Scorer: The Internet (55 mins)

Lee Trundle fires one in after a mazy dribble.

Most of what I learned about the internet I first learned from The Oatcake’s online messageboard. This old-style forum emerged in the late 1990s and I no longer needed to go to the paper shop for Stoke news. I learned how not to trust every rumour.

My mate says he’s seen Lee Trundle in an estate agents in Trentham? He must be signing!

I learned instead to weigh-up credibility. I learned how to deal with online snark, how mobs develop and Ithat without decent admin an online community will go to pot.

It also taught me how the internet could be viciously funny.

Around this time, the character of Valiantitus emerged. Apparently, a Port Vale supporter he was a hoax with a screen grabbed picture who would welcome each Port Vale goal on a League Two online Forum with…

BOOM! BOOM! BROOKER AWAG! LIQUID FOOTBALL GOAL EXPLOSION.

Little of his writing remains on the internet although some can be found here. It remains some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever read online.

Newspapers slip up to 3-3… GOAL! Scorer: Fans’ use of social media (87 mins)

Twitter scores an easy goal as the opposition appear to have dozed off.

When social media first emerged newspapers were left as flat-footed as Stoke reverse legend Paul ‘Donkey’ Dyson at an inswinging corner. Defensive of their print product it was left to fans to fill the gap. Breaking goal news on Twitter? See if more than a couple of people have posted a YEEEESSSSSS!!!!! 1-0 STOKE!!!! and leave the print edition gathering dust.

Newspapers go a goal up 4-3… GOAL! Newspaper use of social media (89 mins)

Pete Smith and Martin Spinks combine to score a well-worked set-piece.

They’ll be jumping for joy in newsrooms as newspapers finally learn how to make sense of the changing media landscape.

This is where it gets interesting.

Across 35 years, The Evening Sentinel has changed to The Sentinel in print and Stoke on Trent Live online.

There are now two dedicated Stoke City reporters at what I still think of as The Sentinel. Pete Smith and Martin Spinks are web visionaries and should be revered throughout the newspaper industry and by Stoke fans As an ex-journo and Stoke fan I deeply admire their work. Why? Because newspapers now have a creative use of the internet. Thorough, exhaustive and with high accuracy they’ve taken the best of internet culture, social media and journalism to tap new audiences.

So, Smith and Spinks have match reports on the newpaper website and in print. They also have a Facebook Live after the game to debate the main points. They’ll post to their Facebook and Twitter profiles. But they’ll then take the URLs into the places where Stoke fans hang out and seed a discussion in those groups too.

On social media, they’re Stoke City – Sentinel with 45,000 on Facebook, a share of 130k on the Stoke on Trent Live Facebook page, a Stoke City Facebook group of 3,000. The news room also use their own profiles with reporter Pete Smith using his Twitter account to reach 7,500 followers.

There must be a personal cost to such near 24/7 coverage as others who have done the job have spoken about. That’s something to be aware of. Being exposed to comment around the clock must be wearing. But public sector comms people who look after a page will know this.

But if there is a single over riding lesson from Stoke City in the media to communicators it is to go where the audiences are.

If there is a lesson to supporting Stoke City its patience.

And that Robert Huth is a better centre half than Paul Dyson.

And that beating Cardiff City in the play-offs remains truly beautiful.

Great floods have flown from simple sources, William Shakespeare once said.

And great cursing will have flown from more than one person caused by the UK floods of 2020.

Few parts of the country have been unaffected by weeks of heavy rain.

But in any emergency there are lessons to learn for all comms people.

In any crisis, people perform well or if they don’t people tell them and they learn quick. It’s been the case since bonfires were built to warn of Viking ships on the horizon.

Forget the emerging channels such as TikTok or instagram. In an emergency, your website, Twitter and Facebook are the three places to concentrate resources.

All this may be flood related. I’m convinced there are approaches you can transfer to your regular comms.

A website done well… clarity is the lesson

Simple information clearly presented.

What warnings there are and where.

Flooding alerts can be found in England, here, Wales here, Northern Ireland here and Scotland here. A map accompanied by clear messages helps point people towards their part of the country so they can read the relevant update.

But aside from gov.uk a page on the council website can be handy to provide extra information. But if the CMS is clunky and you struggle to update it then a pop-up WordPress site ideally you’ve made in quieter times can be useful as a way to get the message out.

Email alerts… sign posting from your inbox is the lesson

If you’ve opted in for Midland alerts through the Met Office here for example then that’s what you get. Which takes you to the relevant webpage.

Again, clarity is the lesson.

Video on social media… real time updates are the lesson

We don’t trust text that much. We trust photographs a bit more but right now in this era of deep fakes we trust video the most. So, updates from the scene in selfie mode are fine.

One of the weaknesses of Twitter is that it has slipped to 7th in the rankings of most popular channel. One of its strengths is that it has a lot of journalists and opinion formers on it. So, if you want to get this out by the regular media let West Mercia Police show you how to do it.

Facebook… sharable content is the lesson

Here, Telford & Wrekin Council give a real time image with a real time date stamped warning. Such sharable content mean it can find its way into community Facebook groups.

On Facebook, people really want to stay on Facebook and never leave. So, chucking the link to the flood warning page won’t really cut it. Post the content in its entirety if you can so you put the information where people are.

You shouldn’t expect people to come to you.

You should be going to them.

WhatsApp… an internal group is the lesson

Email is great but the flexibility of a whatsapp group can cut through really effectively. One for the comms team, absolutely. But also one for people who are on duty. It’s an excellent way to channel back footage and images that help the decision makers and also inform the public, too.

Facebook… reaching the right community group is the lesson

A Facebook group is a digital Parish pump. It’s where people get together and share notes. So, when Ironbridge is at risk of flooding the Ironbridge Gorge Community group is where the community goes.

Social media… Devolving it to the frontline is the lesson

I’ve been banging a drum for this for the best part of 10 years. Police and the Environment Agency are still those who have picked the ball up and run with it best. Give frontline staff training and the tools to access social media and in an emergency you can tap into that. Like this Environment Agency officer.

Web resources… pre-prepare is the answer

Where can you get sandbags? What do I do if my property is flooded? These are part of a list of questions you’d be asking if you were a resident.

Chances are if 500 homes were at risk of flooding there’d be 500 people all demanding answers to the same questions and the phone would be ringing off the hook. If you have a place where people can go for the answers you’ll have the info provided.

Like Gloucestershire County Council here.

What’s extra clever is that they don’t just have it as a web resource but they have it as a printable advice guide, too. Why printable? Simple. Because sometimes the power is out and people don’t have access to the web. If that’s the case then printing of resources can be useful. If your team is thinly stretched friends, family or others can do the task too as its on the website.

Clever.

With thanks to Heleb Evans, Nigel Newman, Michelle Atkinson, Becky Allen, Mirian Louise Brown, Charlotte Walker and Nicola Davies.

You may have seen the very warm public response Yorkshire Tea got this week after enduring some severe trolling.

If you missed it, the brand got a kicking after the Chancellor Rishi Sunak was pictured with a big bag of tea bags.

The attack follows a backlash at Heck Sausages for hosting Boris Johnson. In turbulent times, brands being associated with a politician of any colour is a risk. Sure, they were different. One was a photo opp and one was a politician drinking tea but the broad principle stands.

How Yorkshire Tea handled it

Getting fed-up with the online kicking the Yorkshire Tea social media manager drew a line in the sand, pointed out that Jeremy Corbyn had also drunk their brew and asked people to be kinder.

Their human response won applause and sympathy. Being human online should be easy but often isn’t and their response was masterful. It’s no fun being at the centre of a Twitter pile-on. I know. I’ve been there. I’ve blogged before on the unique pressures a social media manager or admin faces. To make an account work they need to put something of themselves into the account. Criticism is easier to make and can be felt more deeply.

So, is Yorkshire Tea the template for the public sector? Actually, I’m not sure.

Why the public sector can’t be Yorkshire Tea

For starters, I’m going to rule out the suggestion that public sector accounts can’t be human in their tone. They absolutely can when the time is right and there’s lots of examples of just that.

But the sticking point is this: Yorkshire Tea do tea bags and the public sector don’t.

The public sector do some amazing life saving things.

But since 2008, they’ve also closed libraries, not always respond to pothole complaints, explained why the bus service has been cut, asked people not to turn-up at A&E because its closed, explained a department’s Brexit policy to exporters and told people about the nine pump fire that’s blocking the motorway.

Sometimes, the human voice is achievable but sometimes its not.

If you look after a public sector account, be fine with people disagreeing with policy. They’re allowed to. It’s a democracy. The world does not smell of paint.

Don’t be fine when people shout, swear or start being anti-social. You’re an employee not a virtual punchbag.

How the public sector can respond

The Centre for Countering Online Hate produced cracking guidance on how to respond to online hate. Ignore it. Don’t give it oxygen. Switch off notifications. Don’t show you’re hurt because that’s exactly what they want. The report is here.

What they also suggest is getting some offline reassurance and support. I’m down with that. That’s when tea is relevant. Make a cup of tea with a friend or colleague.

So, do nothing?

Not exactly.

Over the past 10 years I’ve realised there’s there’s two ways to respond when someone has got something wrong. Firstly, be polite. Secondly, be factual. If you’ve been an engaging presence online you’ll have some social capital with your followers that may be turned into supportive comments.

What you’re doing is politely drawing a line in the sand and setting the record straight.

Be polite.

Be factual.

That’s it.

From experience, THIS is the best way the public sector can respond.

Good luck.

Very white for me, please. Quarter of a sugar.

More than 12-months ago Facebook set the cat amongst the pigeons by changing their optimum video lengths.

What was once a 30 second length clip as an ideal length jumped up to a three minute suggested length.

But one question that has often presented itself… does Facebook really penalise shorter clips?

Is there a guillotine that drops on your unsuspecting clip if its less than 180 seconds?

I thought I’d find out, so, I’ve crowdsourced a quick survey with members of the Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group.

What the survey said

As part of the survey, people went onto their Facebook profile and logged their first three videos survey organically. I then crunched the numbers. More than 40 people logged almost 150 videos.

What wasn’t too surprising…

The average length of a Facebook video in the survey was 2 minutes 46 seconds.

The most popular segment of time for a video was between three and four minutes.

However, what was surprising…

60 per cent of Facebook videos served organically were less than three minutes. 

The longest video in the survey was almost 16-minutes long.

Table: Facebook video lengths by duration

So, in short, there isn’t a sword of Damocles over three minute video length. You can make something shorter or longer.

The Facebook algorithm is an ever-changing and complex thing and there is more to judge in a clip than just duration.

I’m tempted to think that if a video is engaging and creates shares and likes then whatever length it is it’ll work. I’d be tempted to think of 30-seconds as an absolute minimum and see how you can create a longer clip.

Thank you if you took part in the study.

Picture credit: istock.

I do try to avoid self-aggrandising posts but I’ll make an exception for this, do you mind? 

I was pleasantly surprised to see I’d been listed as 8th in the 10 best PR blogs by Vuelio.

I’ve been blogging for 10 years and couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t be. What started as an experiment has become somewhere where I wouldn’t be without.

Sometimes I’ll work things out in public and at other times I’ll share things that’s caught my eye or I think I’ve nailed.

If you’ve read, shared or commented on a post thank you very much indeed.

Do have a look at the other nine as there’s some belters.

Often when I meet public sector people I’ll ask them how they are faring.

‘Busy,’ often they’ll say.

And how are things?, I’ll ask.

‘Challenging,’ they’ll often reply.

Language is a wonderful thing.

What they really mean is that things are really awful.

That’s intrigued me and I asked the question of the Public Sector Comms Headspace group I asked for examples.

Language can stop you from getting shot

In the Second World War, British and Americans soldiers when they first fought alongside each other had a spot of bother over language.

Of course, by ‘spot of bother’ I mean ‘world of pain.’

Under-fire British radio’d nearby American colleagues to ask for help by saying they were having a ‘spot of bother’ and ‘it would be awfully decent if they popped over and helped out if they weren’t too busy.’

What was actually happening was the Brits were undergoing a surprise attack by a force three times their size. Fifty were killed and the remaining  200 only just escaped with their lives.

The Americans didn’t understand the euphemism that the British used.

A euphemism is a word or phrase used to avoid saying an unpleasant or offensive word.

If ever you’ve worked in the public sector you’ll have come across a euphemism.

You may even have found it challenging (see! a euphemism!)

On the one hand, it’s really strange that communicators must navigate a landscape where communicating is being done by nods and winks of coded language.

On the other hand, the public sector is the spiritual home of senior civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby whose greeting to the most bizarre of ministerial edicts was the words: “Is that wise, Minister?”

So, here is a list of euphemisms and their translations pulled together with the help of members of the Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group.

Public sector euphemisms translated

The big picture

Challenging (adj.) The most common of euphemisms. It can be attached to a variety of scenarios. It means a bad situation. For example: ‘The 50 per cent budget cut is challenging.’

Courageous (adj). Added as an extra layer of adjective to situations that are frankly suicidal. So, the re-organisation that sees three doing the work of 12 is very courageous.

Sacking people and cuts

Re-organisation (noun). We don’t like to talk about the fact that people are going to lose their jobs so we won’t actually talk about that at all. For example: ‘We had a re-organisation and we lost three members of the team.’ No you didn’t. You dismissed three members of the team. 

Challenging re-organisation (adj). The cuts they were made were a giant shit storm.

Very challenging re-oranisation (adj). The cuts were made were a giant shit storm and the people doing it didn’t know what they were doing.

Redeployment (noun). Once you’ve gone through the re-organisation we’d like to offer you something else in the organisation but we know the idea of being a receptionist will make you leave.

Efficiency (adj). Since the banking crisis money has been cut from the public sector on an unprecedented scale. However, those making the decision much prefer the euphemism of ‘efficiency’. Which is actually a bit self-defeating. It taps into the idea that the public sector is a bloated club that wastes money like water.

Economies (adj). See ‘efficiency.’ this just every reorganisation.

More for less (adj). You’ve got the same budget and you’ve just had a very challenging re-organisation but we think that you’ll do even more with six than you did with 12.

Just do it

We are where we are (adj). No progress has been made but I’m not going to take action or look at the cause of this monumental screw-up.

It is what it is (adj). See ‘We are where we are’.

Challenging times (adj). An absolute shit show of a time period. The Somme was ‘challenging times’.

Interesting times (adj). Giant shit storm. From the Chinese curse: ‘May you live in interesting times.’

Demanding (adj). Impossible. 

The work place

A hot desk (noun). We’ve made efficiencies and had a re-organisation and now we don’t have enough tables and chairs. We’ve offered you yoga once a month but we know you’re too busy to turn up to it.

Paperless office (adj). We’ve got rid of the printer and we work with tablets that can’t download apps and we now have to go to Prontaprint where its twice as expensive to print stuff.

Agile work space. You need to be a lithe agile gymnast to get a space to work. Related to hot desk – but the whole building.

Work requests

Can you comms it up? (adj). I don’t know what you do but do something. When it goes wrong that’ll be your fault. Closely related to ‘weave your magic’, ‘sprinkle your fairy dust,’ ‘do some comms’ and other vague requests.

I’d like a QR code (phrase). I’d like to appear cutting edge but I’m not.

Make a pragmatic compromise (adj). Give the service what they’re asking for even though it’s probably not the right thing.

I hear what you’re saying (idiom). I’m ignoring what you’re saying.

Fast-paced environment where no two days are the same (idiom). Absolute chaos with a to-do list nine miles long.

We’re looking for someone who is good at managing change (idiom). There’s been or will be a challenging restructure.

Leveling up the country (idiom). We forgot anywhere exists outside London and have vastly underfunded anywhere else for decades. Here, have a couple of grand and some empty promises. 

Consultation (verb). We may or may not be listening to what the people most affected by this want. Related to: ‘Can you do some consultation but not too much’ and ‘I’ve just been consulted at.’

Digital by default (idiom). We have a webform and a corporate Twitter.

Smarter working (idiom). We’re giving you already out-of-date laptops, hot desks and red paint on one wall. 

Keep a watching brief (idiom). I’m doing literally nothing.

I need your input (idiom). I have passed this from my to do list to yours.

A soft launch (adjective). We’ll do it but I don’t want too much come back on me.

Open and transparent (adjective). Translation: Can you put this consultation out? It closes next week.

Open brief (idiom). We’ve not decided what the brief is.

You’ve got to pick your battles (idiom). Fundamentally, leadership don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks.

It would be helpful if you would just (idiom). Just do it.

When you’ve got a minute (idiom). Just do it.

You need to be more solutions focused (idiom). Just do it.

Have you got five minutes? (idiom) I’m taking an hour of your time if you’re lucky.

I have concerns (idiom). I think this is shit.

I share your concerns (idiom). I agree. I think this is shit.

I’ve cc’d Dave so he is aware of our concerns (idiom). I think this is shit and I’ve just thrown you under a bus by telling Dave.

It was disappointing (idiom). I’m livid.

We see this as a comms issue (idiom). We’re too busy.

Thanks to contributers Andy Mabbettm Louise Reeve, Rah James, Josie Rylands, Rebekah Dade Duffin, Patrick Fletcher, Sarah Lay, Kaylee Godfrey, Stephen O’Hanlon, Paul Darigan, David Grindlay, Suzie Evans, Hazel Parsons, Michalle Welsby, Steven Welsby, Emma Raczka, Jo Walters, Ed Thake-Adams, Jon Phillips, Adrian Osborne, Neil Gibson, Ben Falconer, Marianne Marshall, Joe Robinson, Alastair Smith, Vikkie Page, Sarah HamiltonDavid Crosby, Cornelius Alexander, Ben Solly, Eimear Fitzpatrick, Lynette Lee, George Barbour, James MortonKeziah Leary, Jane Woodall, Martin Rollins, Zoe Hebden, Charlote Pearce, Emma Louise, Vicky Croghan, Karen Rowley, Suzanna Arnold-Fry, Alex Duffy, Neil Gibson, Pauline Roche, Josephine Graham, Alison Donovan, Jane Harris, Kim McGreal and Kelly Harrison.

I’ve lost count of the number of people shooting good video despite the kit work supplies them with.

Yet drawing up a business case for the kit to shoot video needn’t be this hard and yet often is.

So. I’ve blogged some pointers for you.

There isn’t a specific one size fits all business case but here’s some pointers for you to personalise for the organisation you work in.

YOUR AUDIENCE // Your audience is consuming media on the go. They’re online across all age ranges for between two and fours a day depending how old they are. If that’s where they are it makes sense to communicate with them there.

For video, 70 per cent of the internet is video and 85 per cent of people are more likely to act on a video call to action compared with the same in print. There’s more stats for you here. So, people are consuming video.

TECH  // Most smartphones after 2014 can shoot broadcast quality footage. Android or ios is fine. However, Windows phones and BlackBerries are not up to scratch because there isn’t the editing or social apps. Avoid.

EMERGENCY PLANNING // This is a strong card to play. Talk to your emergency planning person and enlist their support for you. You’ll need a device to communicate in an emergency and out in the field. You may even have an emergency planning comms plan that requires this. So, of course you need the kit to make it work.

POLICY // Have a chat to your policy people. Ask about the policies that talk about ‘digital by default’ and other tech. There’s often something that suggests this. If there is great. Include this as further justification.

CONSTITUTION // Have a look at your constitution. I know, I know, this isn’t something you usually do. But there’s often something that you can find that’s helpful in the document. In the council I used to work for there was something that talked about the need for the required equipment and also that the advice of professional bodies carry weight. So, that means the CIPR and there’s things you can pull in from there.

KIT // Aside from a phone, at the workshops I run with my colleague Steven Davies we  recommend a small tripod I’ve got one like this one and a clip-on microphone like this Rode SmartLav+.

For more information about the ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS FOR COMMS workshop head here.

You may have seen the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue video.

In the film, firefighters and staff from across the organisation read critical comments left for them last time they added a rainbow flag to their social media profiles to mark LGBTQ history month.

The comments are hurtful and smallminded.

But reading them with a straight face the firefighters, senior staff and office workers shoot them down.

The video is here:

Last year we got a load of abuse when we added the rainbow flag to our profile picture.

We don’t think homophobic abuse is acceptable and we stand with all those LGBT+ people we serve and employ 🏳️‍🌈

Thanks for the comments… 👍#LGBTHM2020 pic.twitter.com/kwzAvKWUjq

— South Yorkshire Fire (@SYFR) February 5, 2020

So far, 12-hours after posting the video to Twitter it has been liked 8,400 times and RT’d 2,000 times. It’s been viewed 170,000 times. On Facebook there’s been a similar reaction reaching 230,000 people.

Numbers are good because they can measure things.

I’d love to know how many negative comments there’s been because I can’t see one.

What makes this good

A chum who is a member of the LGBT+ community sent me a link to the video. He loved it because he likes feeling seen by the organisation in LGBT+ history month. Thinking about it, I can see what he’s getting at.

What makes this good for me as a keen seeker of good public sector content is that it includes real people from all parts of the organisation. It has junior and very senior. It shows that South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue employ real people.

There’s wit and humour there, too, like the toy cat up a tree.

But that’s just one level.

What really makes it fly is this.

All too often it feels as though the Bad People are winning.

Here, it felt as though the Bad People won last year. But the organisation got up, put all those barbed words into a bun, ate it and by doing so BECAME MORE POWERFUL thereby rendering the Bad People VANQUISHED.

And that’s what makes it truly brilliant.

Full disclosure: I worked as a freelance with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service a few years ago to help their social media approach but I wasn’t involved in this project.

I’ve been troubled for a while with the thorny problem that managing a public sector social media account can be stressful.

Of course, there’s the big things and the little things.

The big things are things like a terror attack. The stabbing in the London area of Streatham at the weekend again showed in an emergency having one trusted source online saying that something has just happened and they’re onto it is so valuable.

It fills the information vacuum that will follow.

*INCIDENT*

Officers are dealing with an incident in #Streatham

More updates to come, we will share information as we have it.

— Lambeth MPS (@LambethMPS) February 2, 2020

Stress around managing a live situation is real and acknowledged. Greater Manchester Police’s account of managing the Arena terrorist attack is a lesson.

But what about the little things? The routine day-to-day low level? It’s not a terror attack so that can’t be stressful, can it? Actually, it can have a far deeper damage.

A public sector person recently told me about the draining effect of managing an account.

“It’s hard and draining being told that you’re crap a dozen times a day. In the end you just start to believe it. And you don’t want to post any good news because they’ll ‘just remind you how crap you are.”

In some way it chimed with an interview with former Labour Party Deputy Leader Tom Watson where he spoke of the brutality of his experience.

It made me think.

‘It’s hard and draining being told that you’re crap a dozen times a day.’

That line stuck with me.

Very often not actually telling YOU you’re crap at all. They’re complaining about something your organisation has done and its so important to remember that and remind each other of this, too.

The lesson of Mid Staffs Hospital

I was born and grew-up in Stafford and lived on a housing estate that was build in the late Sixties. It was an ordinary place to live and was a town of 100,000 people with one non-league football club, a town centre and a hospital. Mention the name of the hospital – Mid Staffs – to anyone from the NHS and they audibly wince.

The Francis report into care at Mid Staffs Hospital sent shockwaves through the NHS in 2013.  An early claim of 1,200 deaths was later withdrawn when no evidence was found to support it but the damage was done and the reputation stuck.

If only the NHS Trust had been receptive to complaints about treatment, I often say, then maybe the worst of the damage could have been avoided.

The lesson of the live Q&A

A friend who has a senior comms person once told me that the council he was at was had run a Twitter Q&A on a hot topic for the first time. All well and good but in his opinion the cabinet had been actively uninterested in anything the residents had to say for the previous five years.

When the Q&A came, there was volleys of angry people raising issues that had been festering for years in some cases.

They first had to plough through these before they got to the subject they wanted to talk about.  Once they had, only then they could earn the right to be listened to.

It’s a lesson that’s stuck with me.

The world doesn’t smell of fresh paint

The old way of running PR was about managing the message to ensure you smelled of a new coat of magnolia but in 2020, this is no longer possible.

It is not YOU they’re fed up with.

If they shout and swear then give them the same short shrift they’d be given if they swore at a frontline customer services person.

If they’re fed-up about policy then thank them and report it back internally and point them to the doors they can knock on if they want to take it further.

Sometimes there’s a reason as to why that decision was made that you can explain to people, like this Sandwell Council interaction.

It’s awful that people throw rubbish from their vehicles. Cleaning it up on the A41 puts our staff at great risk and also requires a lane closure. We litter pick every quarter at this location and expect this to be done again over the next month.

— Sandwell Council (@sandwellcouncil) February 3, 2020

Sometimes, d’you know what? The people complaining may have a point just as they did at Mid Staffs and your job is to be the canary in the mine for any issues.

Tactical things

Of course, the abstract principle is one thing and reality can be something else.

I always think that making sure others in the team take a turn and share the duties gives you thinking time away. Adopting a human tone and signing off with a name is a well worn way to take the stink out of online rows. People will shout at a logo far more readily than a real person.

Above all, just remember, they’re not shouting at you.