The single truth that works just as well today as it did on my first day in a newsroom is this…
‘News is people.’
Back then, I was told to put people in photographs that would appear in the paper so Mums, Dads and aunts and uncles would buy extra copies of the paper and maybe a photographic print.
Today, I want people in the social content because they’ll share it online and so will Mums, dads and aunts and uncles.
If you are looking to make sense of TikTok then the European Championships of 2020 are a perfect time to do it.
Aside from being one of the event sponsors the platform is also a hub of creativity.
One of the ways you can be creative is to use a particular licensed track. Adding a hashtag to it means your video can be thrown into a huge pool of videos all with the same hashtag.
If you liked one then you can binge watch as many as you like.
Buoyed by England beating Germany the morning after I downloaded a dozen different videos with the same track and hashtag to show you.
There’s a TikTok from England player Jack Grealish using match action footage, a gardening project, family watching the game and celebrating, an old folk’s home, jubilant friends, a fan park, a female supporter, a baby and an American girlfriend recording her boyfriend as he watched the game.
Dig in.
A few words about the concept of singing ‘Football is Coming Home’.
When Stoke fans sing ‘We’re by far the greatest team the world has ever seen’ they’re dreaming.
When England fans sing the Baddiel & Skinner song they’re generally doing the same.
The first two releases of tickets for the newest iteration of commscamp have seen 300 tickets snapped-up in seven minutes.
That’s an incredible set of figures that the attendees themselves can take pride in.
Commscamp Still At Home will be online across three days from September 21 with between 40 and 50 45-minute slots for sessions.
Eight years after the first event was staged in Birmingham it has both evolved and stayed the same.
It’s always the same
John Peel used to describe his favourite band The Fall as ‘always the same, always different,’ and that’s something I can recognise in Commscamp.
There is a core to the event that hasn’t changed.
It’s free for in-house public sector comms people.
It’s run by volunteers.
We book space, then tell people about it and ask them to come and they do.
The agenda is decided on the day by attendees with no slides and, lets not beat about the bush, no rooms of people being kept hostage with no opportunity to chip in.
On the day, the event is run on open space principles.
Whoever comes are the right people.
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
Whenever it starts is the right time.
Whenever it’s over, it’s over.
Wherever it happens is the right place.
There’s also one law, the law of two feet which means you can get up from a session at any time and find another one. Or just go and grab a cup of coffee.
As an organiser, once the sessions have been chosen at the start of the day our work is done. One year, I’m just to go home at this point because the day just looks after itself. Me being there is not essential.
Always different
Every yea each Commscamp event has had a different feeling and spirit.
The very first in Birmingjham in 2013 was about the excitement of new and emerging channels and how we could use them. In other years, there has been a feeling of group therapy and the need to come together to share experience.
In 2020, Commscamp Stays Home was our first foray online and there was a sense of shared experience five months into the pandemic.
This is fine.
Unmarketing
I’ve promoted events that are both paid for and free. It’s liberating having an event that almost markets itself.
We don’t have to spend six months of the year pushing the dates and flogging tickets because the tickets go through reputation and word-of-mouth.
That said, good luck to paid for events which are hugely profitable for those that run them but I think there is something pure about a free event so people can share their knowledge.
Untopics
For me, the difference between the actual unconference and one with a pre-approved agenda, speakers and slides is clear.
The real unconference gives space to tackle the issues facing everyone that day the traditional event tackles what faced one individual six months ago.
There is a place for the traditional, but I strongly think that the unconference route where you can tap into the hive mind makes for stronger solutions.
Coming together to solve a problem gives safety in numbers, reassurance, confidence and a network.
The traditional event has a handful of slots in a day which speak to the majority of the room. The unconference can give dozens of slots to tackle issues so its fine for people to find a sub-genre or niche that’s troubling them.
One of my favourite moments at a Commscamp was a time when someone pitched a session where only three people wanted to go.
Those three people were overjoyed to know that there were others also vexed by this pet niche. They had found their soulmates in the crowd. I remember speaking to one of them afterwards.
How did it go? I asked.
“Absolutely brilliant. There were two people who didn’t think I was weird and I think we’ve got something that can make it work and we’re going to stay in touch.”
Marvellous.
Unsponsors
It’s worth mentioning the sponsors because without sponsors the event wouldn’t happen.
Kirstie at Touch Design and John Paul at Council Advertising Network are examples of people I love to work with. They get the event and their session pitches add value. It’s no wonder why people want to work with them in the months to come.
We’re very lucky to have had some good sponsors who buy into the ethos of the day. It’s not about a 20-minute slide deck to the room or hard sell. It is hearing the hot topics, the kudos of chipping in with ideas and your research and development.
One year, a social media management platform came along to start to pitch their wares to the public sector. They were told their product was lovely but way overpriced. Oh dear, I thought. Far from it. The sponsors left happy. It would have taken them six months and tens of thousands of pounds to have reached this conclusion.
The unagenda
The reality is that I don’t know what the agenda is going to look like. We do always encourage discussion ahead of time but sometimes things which have flown on Facebook ahead of the event don’t get mentioned. That’s fine.
With any event there are things that work and things that don’t.
Some sessions work and some don’t.
You can’t be in two places at once for competing sessions you’d love to see.
Someone wise once said that if you have 100 people coming to an unconference then 10 won’t get it but 90 will.
Those 90 love it but just wonder if we could just tweak it slightly. Like, sort the agenda out in advance, maybe. The advice I’ve always followed is that keep it simple and trust the process.
Some things I do think we need to look at. How do you help new people settle in? How do you make it inclusive? How do you make it not feel like a place for in-jokes and an in-crowd?
This is always a danger for something long running.
How can a subsersive event stay cutting edge?
The unconference movement in the UK public sector started in 2007 when UK government people were fed-up at having to pay a supplier thousands of pounds to make a change to a government website.
Their ideas helped lead to revolutionary things like gov.uk and the Cameron government’s embrace of open data. In local government, they helped speed-up the ideas around using social media.
The challenge to be radical and well-established is a difficult one.
How can we get the ideas we talk about into effect? is one that still needs working on.
I’d love it if the model for an unconference was used by others. There’s no copyright on them. Come and then run one yourself. It’s not hard.
What Commscamp can do in 2021
All this leads to what Commscamp Still At Home can do this year.
For me, it can be online and accessible, a safe space, about technology but the right technology, about human beings, about sharing ideas and knowing you are not alone.
It can be whatever attendees decide it to be.
The perfect mix
I’ve always thought that the mix for an event was the veteran who knows the ropes and the novice who is prepared to put their hand up and chip into a discussion.
The head of comms sat next to a marketing assistant with equal weight to both their ideas.
I was that novice in 2009 at localgovcamp and it utterly changed how I work, think and do things.
I’d love more than anything for there to be people who do the same.
The first two ticket releases have taken place for Commscamp Still At Home with 300 tickets distributed. There will be 444 tickets distributed overall across the two days. Add yourself to the waitlist for a chance of a ticket. You can do this by finding the eventbrite for each day here.
Commscamp Still At Home runs from September 21 to 23.
The organising group includes Bridget Aherne, Kate Bentham, Josephine Graham, David Grindlay, Leanne Hughes, Sweyn Hunter, Emma Rodgers and Lucy Salvage.
Alarming rates of stress, mental health and physical health remain as a hangover from those months of hard work when people pushed themselves to the limit.
Almost 60 per cent say their mental health is worse and 52 per cent say physical health has suffered. These figures aren’t bouncing back. Why should they? People are not made of elastic.
Yet, mostly this looming iceburg has not cropped up with many organisations.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard of a ‘three month push to get ourselves back on track.’ People want business as usual on top of pandemic comms.
I’m hearing we’re past the point where something has got to break. Something is breaking and for some something has already broken.
I’ve distrusted mental health week since I heard the truth about the story of the organisation’s glowing case study. The manager praised in the puff piece actually acted against advice when he helped his team member.
This is a time for heads of comms to act, managers to act, chief executives to act and the CIPR and NUJ to show leadership.
I don’t know what the answer is because I’m not an expert in the field but it feels like meaningful support and understanding would be nice.
It’s time to put high sounding words about mental health you signed off into action.
When the story of the first 12-months of the COVID-19 pandemic is written it will record more than 100,000 dead.
It will also record Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ‘Stay home, save lives, protect the NHS’ address to the nation.
Nothing will record profound sense of shock and alarm in those first few days in what was the beginning of a long trudge to try and find normality.
Without question the death rate would have been far higher but for public sector communicators who were enlisted into the biggest crisis since World War Two.
But what impact has it had on them?
The price paid
Stress, longer hours, a retreat to working from home and a loss of face-to-face office connections have been what fire, police, NHS, local and central government comms teams have faced.
In July 2020, I started a survey of fire, police, NHS, central and local government communicators which has turned into a rolling tracker that’s captured some of the ebb ands flow.
It reveals the secret price paid by those asked to support those on the frontline.
In many places there is no off switch and burn-out is present. In others, the changes have been welcomed.
Worryingly, it’s a price paid with a tsunami of mental health problems, deteriorating physical health, increased isolation and stress often in the face of a lack of leadership, information and resources.
In this blog post I run through 12-months of figures that are likely to throw a long shadow across the lives of those involved.
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“Feel like I’m “Living at work” rather than “working from home” – no boundaries between working day and down time.”
“I have gained a lot from the pandemic so this outweighs the hard times.”
Most say it’s getting easier
At last, in summer 2021 the indicators finally show that working in the pandemic is getting easier. More than 40 per cent gave this positive feedback in the survey. That’s a figure that’s double those who think it is getting harder.
Q: Is working in the pandemic getting easier or harder?
But health continues to suffer
Across the pandemic, mental health and physical health among public sector people has taken a battering.
Worryingly, this isn’t improving.
With physical health, 52 per cent say it has worsened in the most recent survey in April and May 2021. Mental health has also taken a beating with 58 per cent of public sector people reporting deteriorating mental health.
This is the canary in the coalmine for the sector.
Q: Is your mental health getting better or worse?
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“Working from home gave me more time to exercise at the start and end of the working day.”
“With a real national push to care for our wellbeing I have actually workedout more and more consistently since the start of the pandemic than before.“
“Less time and motivation to exercise, higher stress.”
“I’ve had a couple of emergency hospital visits due to stress related symptoms. Found myself crying with anxiety and work overload and no real support.”
The positives still hold
Across the pandemic, a consistent three out of four have reported they have felt as though they are working for the common good.
Around half have felt through the last 12-months as though they are part of a team.
Feeling as though you are part of an organisation that has felt valued has been more problematic. In June 2020, 41 per cent reported this but it slipped to a quarter through the remainder of the year rallying again to 40 per cent in May and June 2021.
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“Had a couple of serious wobbles, but learnt better how to deal with them.”
The negatives remain
The darker side of the coin in working through the pandemic has been the impact on home.
A third have consistently experienced problems with home schooling and a tenth with looking after a loved one.
Stress as spring 2021 turned into summer remains an endemic issue with 74 per cent reporting it as an issue – a four per cent improvement on January 2021.
However, lack of direction has also been a problem.
In April and May 2020, 40 per cent reported this with UK Government and a third reporting the same issue with home governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A lack of leadership from the comms person’s own organisation has improved by five points to 25 per cent.
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“Lack of support at work and unappreciated in my job, became more apparent during covid. Felt like comms was seen as disposable as we weren’t physically seen as often.”
A lack of resources is biting
Enough tools and staff to do the job has remained a consistent problem with 23 per cent reporting a lack of staff sliding to 36 per cent in the most recent study. This was mirrored by a lack of resources to do the job surging from 24 per cent in 2020 to 38 per cent in April and May 2021.
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“Working in a comms team means you’re often on your own working with services, and not being in the office means you often feel very isolated from the rest of your team. My manager has been absent and I’m struggling to fight to get things taken seriously by upper management and having to stand up to lots of people within the service… and failing to win the arguments a lot of the time. This is one of the biggest impacts on my mental health – but there are so many others.”
Winter was the hardest period
Each period of the pandemic has had its own challenges and problems. The survey showed winter with lockdown 2.0 was the hardest for 45 per cent of public sector comms people. That beat lockdown 1.0 with 26 per cent. Regional lockdowns in the autumn (11 per cent) was third toughest with just four per cent saying the opening months of 2021 were hardest.
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“It worsened during the winter 2020/21 but improved as restrictions lifted.”
Q: Which period of the pandemic was hardest?
The working from home dilemma
It’s clear that working from home has been Marmite. Some love some don’t. As we look at how we go back to the office heads of comms and managers need to know that they’ll have people keen on the idea and those who hate it.
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“Working from home is less stressful and tiring than travelling to the office every day. Prefer the peace and quiet to think.”
“Home has merged into office and the boundaries of the working day have disappeared- I feel like the usual 9-5 mon to drive has been replaced with 24/7 and after a year, my mind, body and, dare I say it, passion has wilted away.”
Abuse is rampant
More than 12-months into the pandemic and abuse is worsening.
Those seeing abuse aimed at their fire, council, police, council or government department has risen from 27 per cent seen weekly to 31 per cent. Verbal abuse aimed at individuals has almost doubled from seven to 13 per cent as a weekly incident.
Racist abuse is seen daily by 16 per cent of respondents – that’s up from nine per cent last summer.
The back to business-as-usual mistake
The figures are alarming and they paint a picture which can often be toxic for those enduring it. There is a health penalty to be paid and how to respond to support staff is one of the challenges facing people.
There is anecdotal talk of a big push to normality when there’s nothing to give.
SURVEY FEEDBACK
“My mental health has taken an absolute battering, mainly down to the workload. Not we’re coming through the other side of the pandemic all I want to do is rest and reset, but business as usual has kicked back in andthe chief is talking about three months of hard work to get the organisation back on track. We haven’t got any more to give.”
In part two, I’ll look at the data country-by-country and also sector by sector.
If you look at a glacier while drinking a cup of coffee you’ll think there’s no such thing as global warming.
Compare snapshots of the same ice over time and you’ll see how much has changed.
During the turbulence of 2020 we could all hear the cracks of ice moving below our feet. We knew something was happening but not what. In the media landscape Ofcom are the scientists analysing the data to see what the changes.
Online Nation published in June 2021 gives a picture of how much has changed. Want a two word summary?
Why? Because you’ll find data more relevant to you.
Until you do, here’s bitesize summaries.
The headline figures for UK over 18s
94 per cent are online.
82 per cent use social media.
82 per cent was the increase in food and drink sales online in 2020.
91 per cent of over 65s online use Facebook.
62 per cent play games online.
On average they spend three hours thirty seven minutes online.
On average they spend one hourtwenty one minutes watching video on demand sites like Netflix or BBC iplayer.
Zoom soared from 200,000 users peaking at 13.7 million users in March 2020 falling to 10.4 million at the start of 2021.
88 per cent receive or send email.
Age dictates how much time is spent online. For over 55s, this is two hours 46 minutes a day while for 18-to-24-year-olds it rises to four hours 31 minutes a day.
Headlines for children
Gaming and video dominate how under 18s use the internet.
Children spend three hours 48 minutes online a day.
More than 95 per cent of children use video sharing platforms.
55 per cent of under 18s have had a negative experience online.
Boys prefer YouTube for social video.
Girls prefer TikTok for social video.
40 per cent of 13 to 17-year-olds post video content.
Of five to seven-year-olds, 30 per cent use social media, 37 per cent use messaging and 95 per cent watch video
Of eight to 11-year-olds, 44 per cent use social media, 64 per cent messaging and 96 per cent watch video.
For 12 to 15-year-olds 87 per cent use social media, 91 per cent messaging apps and 99 per cent watch video.
Social video
We watch a lot of short videos of 10 minutes or less.
The most popular trends of what to watch in 2020 were music video followed by home exercise with campaigns on hot topics like black lives matter in third place.
31 per cent of over 18s post video.
Social media users
The age demographics show a different pattern of platform use.
Facebook is strong across older age groups while 16 to 24-year-olds like a range of apps from YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram.
News consumption
More than half of adults go online with news as a reason for switching on their web-enabled devices.
But trust is low for what people read and watch online with just 16 per cent trusting something from social media – almost a third of those who distrust it.
64 per cent look at online headlines weekly.
35 per cent get their news from social media.
News and information sites in the UK
There’s a useful breakdown of news and info sites.
Local news is important with Reach plc – formerly Trinity Mirror – topping the charts.
Reach plc 41.4 million
News UK 40.4 million
Mail online / Daily Mail 37.4 million
BBC 37.0 million
gov.uk 25.9 million
Wikipedia 24.8 million
Independent / London Evening Standard 24.6 million
NHS 23.4 million
USA Today 20.6 million
Immediate Media 20.4 million
Access to online v print
Print remains strong amongst the older generation while it is a minoritypursuit for those under 55. However, online news is strong.
Age / Print news consumption / Online news consumption
15 to 24-yers-old / 21 / 61
25 to 24-years-old / 19 / 57
35 to 44-years-old / 22 / 63
45 to 54-years-old / 44 / 56
55 to 64-years-old / 51 / 46
65-years-old / 76 / 26
The post popular UK sites by minutes-a-day
Google 52 minutes
Facebook 29 minutes
TikTok 26 minutes
Netflix 16 minutes
Spotify 15 minutes
Snapchat 8 minutes
Twitter 5 minutes
Roblox 5 minutes
Verizon 5 minutes
Microsoft 4 minutes
The most popular messaging apps by users
WhatsApp 31.4 million
Messenger 21.1 million
Nextdoor makes an appearance
The US-owned firm has started to have cut through in the UK with 3.9 million users declared.
The platform is overwhelmingly used by older users with 54 per cent of users over 54-years-old. Just two per cent are aged 18 to 24.
Audio is starting to make a mark
Clubhouse has pioneered audio chat on social media but has failed to make a lasting mark.
Just 130,000 people use the invite-only is app with Twitter launching ‘Spaces’ and Facebook experimenting with their equivalent ‘hotline.’
If you need to reach people to tell them about coronavirus its worth spending time on these numbers.
Here’s the main take outs from May 2021.
You need to know
We’re not consuming as much COVID-19 info
At the start of the pandemic, 99 per cent of people looked once a day for news on the pandemic. That’s fallen to 81 per cent 15-months in.
Online, 33 per cent of people haven’t shared anything about the virus in the past week – a figure creeping up.
We check daily
Long gone are the days of being glued to rolling news. We’ll dip in once a day. That goes for all age groups. Around 80 per cent of all age groups do this.
We still talk to friends and family
We share COVID-19 most to friends and family rather than online. Around a third do this.
We go to traditional media
Eight out 10 people take their COVID-19 updates from traditional media. That’s print, online, broadcast and through a news outlet’s social media channel.
We don’t go to official channels
If you’re updating public sector sites thank you but a minority will head to your sites.
UK Government sites attract between 15 and 20 per cent of the population with the figure falling to around 14 per cent for national NHS messages.
Local government sites are even lower with just six per cent of under 24s seeing content rising to 15 per cent for over 65s.
Local NHS sites are lower still with no more than eight per cent of people heading to them.
We listen to officials
Across all ranges, officials remain the unexpected stars of COVID-19. At least a third of all ages take information from the likes of the Chief Medical Officer or Director of Public Health.
That’s a figure than Facebook across the board.
We notice online ads on social media
Eighty per cent of social media users have seen online ads about the pandemic whether they be pop-ups, banner ads or boosted posts.
We can see misinformation
A fifth of people have seen misinformation in the past week which is down slightly with under 35s most likely to see false information.
Trends by age demographic
16-24s get their data from a wide spread of places
Despite using social media extensively, this age group look to traditional news sources for their COVID-19 information.
This age group are all across social media with 98 per cent using it daily and 57 per cent using it 10 times a day.
But they get COVID-19 news from traditional media (77 per cent) and broadcasters in particular (71 per cent).
BBC TV (47 per cent) BBC online (36 per cent) officials (32 per cent) Facebook (28 per cent) Instagram (27 per cent) more than friends and family (34 per cent), newspapers (23 per cent), YouTube (22 per cent) and Snapchat (12 per cent).
25 to 34
Like their younger peers, traditional media is where this group get their pandemic alerts.
Traditional media (75 per cent) leads the table with broadcasters (63 per cent) the largest sub-group BBC TV (37 per cent).
However, this age group is the biggest vaccine sceptics with 12 per cent not wanting the vaccine as well as the biggest user of Facebook for pandemic info (30 per cent).
35 to 44
Traditional media is used to get COVID-19 info by 84 per cent of this age group.
BBC TV (49 per cent) is the highest sub-group with 32 percent for BBC online with newspapers on 31 per cent.
45 to 54
Broadcasters (81 per cent) are the most popular route BBC TV (51 per cent) family and friends (29 per cent) newspapers (26 per cent).
55 to 64
Traditional media is consumed by 90 per cent with broadcasters on 84 per cent.
65 plus
This group are the happiest to be vaccinated – 63 per cent – and traditional media dominates.
I’m going to take a punt and say that dry public sector updates about committee meetings is nobody’s idea of ‘inspirational.’
But aside from that here’s a quick look at things that may cut the mustard and those that may not.
Remember, this is speculation but if you look after a Facebook page and you want people to see your content you are going to have to try that bit harder.
Three ways to beat Facebook
Of course, one way to reach an audience is to boost posts. But if you’ve not got a golden credit card that’s tricky. Posting to your page then cross-posting to Facebook flavour-of-the-month groups is another. A third is to create the best content you can. You’ll get organic reach.
Besides, better content will work better as a boosted post and in groups.
Be inspirational
1. The full on inspirational quote post
Here you go.
‘Climb success mountain.’
There are pages that specialise in the inspirational saying. Surely, they’ll get rewarded? This approach is certainly worth trying. But I can’t help but thinking this is too close to the kind of clickbait that Facebook shed itself of in 2018.
Also, the NHS Trust trying to reverse out of a local problem by inviting people to ‘grow strong towards the sun’ is asking for trouble. But text to re-inforce an inspirational story may be worth taking a look at.
Inspirational rating: between 3 and 8.
2. The inspirational TV story with real people post
St Georges NHS Trust have played a staring role on a TV show and of course they’re making the most of that online. It’s pure cute with a bit of drama thrown in with subtitles too.
While this is likely to lead the field not everyone has a TV production company and babies to call upon.
Inspirational rating: 9
3. The inspirational story with real people
Closer to home, this awards for young people round-up is excellent.
Young people from the area have friends and family on Facebook who are poised to share the heck out of the post. If anything, I’d be tempted to post them one at a time as part of a series to get maximum inspire.
Inspirational rating: 8
4. The inspirational call to action video
Everyone remembers the London 2012 games makers those volunteers who helped make the event a success.
Birmingham is playing host to the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and are looking to repeat the trick recruiting volunteers.
This video asks you to do a great thing.
Inspirational rating: 8
5. The remembering an inspiring figure post
When Captain Tom Moore died there was a real feeling of loss and a life well lived.
This 100-year-old fundraiser raised millions of pounds for NHS charities and inspired Britain in the first lockdown.
The England and Wales Cricket Board was amongst many to tap into this well of respect when he passed away.
Inspirational rating: 6
6. The good news at a time of unhappiness post
Here’s one from UK Government.
This tells the ‘herculean’ story of delivering vaccine to the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn.
This remnant of Empire is 18 square miles of land to the west of New Zealand where less than 50 people live. This post is a straight link to The Sun newspaper who have covered the account of the three week trip.
While on the face of it iut is inspirational, if you look closely at the comments you’ll see disgruntled British people who have moved abroad complain that they haven’t had vaccine from Britain. So, a good tale it may be but it won’t deflect people who have a complaint.
Inspirational score: 6.5
7. The not very inspiring update post
I’ll be honest, I’ve picked this to show you because Redlands Council are a very long away away.
It’s a message to say that the public can return to council meetings. I’m sure they have far better content and I’m just as sure that this is a box-ticking exercise.
Be honest, how much of your Facebook page is filled with this kind of worthiness?
Inspiring?
Not really.
Inspirational rating: 2
Conclusions
There will be changes and if you are a Facebook admin you will need to be more careful about what you post.
Posting stuff just for the sake of it has never worked and I’m going to suggest that this is an opportunity to reboot your content policy.
It also points in the direction that fewer more quality posts is the way forward.
It would also suggest that real people doing extraordinary things are the way forward. The good news is that all organisations have these people and have them as residents, members or customers.
Those in the team who can extract and tell stories from people being well placed. The former journalist if they are sharp would be excellent at this.
Podcasts are a popular medium to reach people. In this NHS example, Eliza Burke talks about what she has learned from launching Northumbria innovative healthcare’s podcast series.
The why
As a communications team, we wanted another way to engage with our audience that wasn’t necessarily one of the same old traditional methods.
It took us a while to get the podcasts off of the ground due to the pandemic with social distancing guidelines and the pressures staff were under making it really difficult.
Now that the measures are easing and the COVID cases are declining, we felt more comfortable making a start.
With the past year being incredibly challenging for our NHS staff we wanted to know how exactly it’s impacted them.
I’ll be chatting to a number of our different teams, ranging from clinical, to office based, to those who are sometimes behind the scenes.
We already produce an Inside Northumbria blog where more than 60 staff have shared their own stories in a really human way which and this has proved hugely popular.
Challenges
Coronavirus has been the main challenge in producing podcasts during the last year.
Even now we are still facing the difficulty of minimising the number of guests featuring in the episodes, as well making sure we maintain social distancing and mask wearing guidelines. But with this happening for over a year now, everyone understands the importance of this.
What I thought was going to be another challenge was encouraging our staff to get involved in the podcasts, but so far, we’ve had a number of willing volunteers. Some staff members have even been in touch in the hopes that they can be involved with creating their own podcast series. An amazing response that I never expected.
The thing I enjoyed most about producing these podcasts is getting to meet and hear the stories of our fantastic NHS staff. Not only do I learn from them, but I get to understand them and their role as well as making new contacts within the organisation.
What I learned
From producing and hosting podcasts I’ve become much more confident within myself. Speaking publicly has never been a skill of mine, and I was cautious as I had to bounce off our guest speaker to ask further questions. But I changed my mindset and saw it as a casual chat and that really helped me to speak authentically and produce a good podcast.
Advice to others
The best advice I can give is don’t overthink it. The equipment can look frightening and the concept of talking into a microphone is nerve-wracking but it’s all fine. It’s much simpler than you’d think and can be fun and interesting. I’d recommend anyone to have a go.
Eliza Burke is a 22-year-old social media and digital assistant in the communications team at Northumbria Healthcare.
Once, there was no internet and no web communications. Andy Mabbett remembers the day when he suggested maybe the sector to use it. It’s a snapshot in history.
Twenty-five years ago on May 14 1996, I gave a talk at the Society of Public Information Networks’ conference, on ‘The Internet as a marketing tool for local authorities’ – because back then, having a website was a novel thing and most people, at least in local government didn’t know why they’d want one, nor how to do it.
Despite the title of the talk’s focus on ‘Marketing’, I also spoke about online service delivery: you could use the site to report faulty streetlights or potholes. This was long before the excellent FixMyStreet – I wonder if we inspired them?
Andy Mabbett Economic Development Officer Birmingham City Council.
Andy is Manager, ASSIST Project with Birmingham City Council’s Economic Development Department, involved in a number of interrelated Telematics development projects. These include Training For Teleworkers, Domestic Interactive Television, support for SMEs and, chiefly, ASSIST, Birmingham’s Presence on the WWW. The presentation will include an online demonstration of ASSIST.
Doing that was so novel that it attracted coverage in the national press. In the early days of that particular feature, until the highways’ team had their request for email access accepted, I recall printing out reports and popping them into the internal post.
We didn’t even have a CMS to begin with. The site was hosted by Bob Hendley and his able team in the Computer Studies department at the University of Birmingham. I would take them council leaflets to be scanned and transcribed into HTML!
We launched the site in late summer 1994. More recently, I was contacted by a historian who assured me that he could find no earlier example of a local council having a website. Globally.
I recall that we had colleagues from councils in Liverpool, Gloucester and elsewhere, who made the physical journey to Birmingham to ask us about how we ran the site and to decide whether they should do something similar.
We had great fun, and a free hand to try out new things – some of which are now commonplace, and some best not mentioned. Modern website management is very different; we shall not see days like those again.
Andy Mabbett is a Wikimedian in residence and freelance Wikimedian.
