Tag Archives: human comms

30 days of human comms #81 A judge’s family court letter to children

It’s been a while since I blogged an example of human comms.

This examople comes not from public relations but from a Judge. A judge in the Family Court.

I’m grateful to Gareth Nicholson for posting this letter to LinkedIn.

It’s a beautiful example of how to write with an audience in mind. The audience here are two children who are the subject of a contested custody case.

In it, the Judge tells the children that he’s told their parents to ‘cut the crap’. But its not such a direct phrase that makes it stand out. It summarises the arguments for and against and sets out a decision.

I love it. If a Judge can speak clearly then what’s your excuse?

Scroll down for the full text.

The full text is here…

RECORDER JOHN MCKENDRICK QC

CENTRAL FAMILY COURT

LONDON

30 August 2022

Dear [A] and [B],

My name is John and I am a judge. I met your Mum and Dad at court in London last week. Your mum and dad have asked me to make decisions for you both about where you should live.

Your Mum asked me to decide that you should both come and live with her in Somerset and see your Dad only every second weekend and at holidays. Mum wants you to go to schools in Somerset.

Your Dad asked me to decide that things should stay as they are. That you spend one week with him and the other week with your Mum in London. Dad wants you to go to schools in London.

I think you met a lady called Shelley in July and you told her what you wanted. She told me you both liked the idea of living with your Mum in Somerset. Shelley spoke to me as well last week.

I hope you both understand that I have made the decision and not your Mum or your Dad. Judges sometimes have to make decisions when parents cannot agree.

I have decided you should both continue to live in London with one week in the care of your Dad and then one week in the care of your mum. This means you will both go to school in London from next week. I have decided you should have nice holidays in Somerset and I will speak with your Mum and Dad again to sort that out.

I have made this decision after considering who you both are, what you both need and things like your education, happiness and your welfare. I have decided you need each other – I think you are good brothers to each other. I also think you need to spend time with your Mum and with your Dad. They both need to play an important role in caring for you. I was worried your Dad might not have a full and proper role in your lives if you lived in Somerset. Looking at all these things in the round I felt this was the best decision for your both, although of course I considered what you both wanted.

I have also asked your Mum and Dad to behave a bit better. I know you both find the arguing that happens between them difficult. Although it is a naughty word, [A], you are right to describe it to Shelley as “crap”. I have told your parents to stop “the crap”.

I hope you can both settle down with the new school term with week about with Mum and Dad in your London homes. I hope you will enjoy nice holidays in Somerset. I wish you both good luck.

Judge John

30 days of human comms #77 South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s discussion between black firefighters

Normally, I take a dim view of YouTube clips more than three or four minutes… and this one is 19 minutes.

Despite it being far longer than the optimum YouTube length the video works really well.

Really, it’s more of a Facebook Live. It’s a chat between two people about an issue and 20 minutes is the right length for a live video.

In a nutshell, the first black firefighter with South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Trevor Bernard who has just retired talks with a firefighter Aayon with three years service.

It’s also a very honest chat for Black History Month.

The world doesn’t smell of paint.

Trevor is clearly proud of his service but doesn’t shirk the fact that he felt he had to work twice as hard to prove himself. There were people against black firefighters when he started, he says.

The more recent recruit also says that he grew up never seeing a black firefighter.

There’s elements in here that could be seen as tricky.

Some people from the Afro Caribbean community won’t join uniformed services on principle, one of them says.

This is why it’s good human comms… it’s honest.

From a delivery point of view, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue score brownie points by uploading a 16-minute clip to Facebook, upload ther same length clip to YouTube and a 19-second taster for Twitter.

Bravo, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue.

30 Days of human comms #76 Shropshire Council’s weather warning written with wit

It’s been a while since I blogged about human comms and now I’m writing three in a week.

Bravo Shropshire Council not for a human story but for speaking in human.

It’s a recognisable language that you recognise when you see it.

In this case, their Twitter account wanted to warn of inclement weather.

Rather than link to their website in a very 2009 way they built a thread and used a GIF of BBC weather forecaster Michael Fish who famously dismissed what ended up to be a massive night of weather in 1987.

The link is here…

Marvellous work, Shropshire.

30 days of human comms #75: The human Facebook page that tells the NHS story

You may have seen the excellent Humans of New York Facebook page and its mix of story telling and pictures.

The man behind it takes pictures of people with their permission but he then sits with them and asks a series of questions.

All of the captions are in the words of the subject. There is no journalese. It’s just you and the subject.

It’s a technique I’ve seen used in a few places but nothing so effective as in the Humans of COVID-19 Facebook page which uses the technique to allow NHS staff to tell their story.

Here are three examples.

Pick one in one sitting then maybe comeback to the others. When you read them you’ll see why.

I’ll give you a trigger warning, too. It’s a tough read.

Here Leigh talks about sitting with a patient in an ambulance as she dies so she is not alone.

In this post Alfred talks about the stress of being an ICU nurse who has been forced to take time off for his mental health.

Stephen talks about being a physiotherapist redeployed to end of life care.

I don’t know what to say about the content other than it’s important we read it.

The page is run by unnamed people in the NHS in London. The subjects only have a first name. Their stories, I suspect, are universal but their relative anonymity gives a licence they may not otherwise have.

There is no personal data given and there’s no clue as to where these stories happened.

This may be too strong for a corporate Facebook page, I don’t know. But there is something disarming and powerful in reading something in someone’s voice and seeing their picture.

There may be other stories that you can tell.

If you allow people to tell them in their own voice and their own picture you will cut through to people in a way that you may struggle to through a poster or a tweet.

30 days of human comms #68: The Mother returns to her children after nine weeks on the COVID-19 frontline

It’s all about love at the end of the day, isn’t it?

Love we make and the love we leave is the footprint of what we did and how we did it.

So to Susie who spent nine weeks apart from her children working in an operating theatre for the NHS.

The video which saw her surprise her children when she returned home is 45-seconds of pure undistilled love.

It’s on Twitter here and there’s a clip here, too:

Watch it first.

Don’t scroll past.

Then count the ways love is expressed in that video. I counted six. At least.

Some of the best and most enduring content is that created not with communications in mind. It is raw, on-the-fly and human. It is one take.

After 10 years of social media being mainstream I still don’t think that comms teams really get that.

What does this prove?

That Mums love their children and are loved back in return.

And that NHS people have sacrificed such a lot to ensure that fewer people die.

Head versus heart?

This couldn’t be more heart.

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30 days of human comms #61: The social care in action photo

The thing about human comms is that you know it when you see it.

When you see if you respond to it.

Good communications is a mix of targeting the head and targeting the heart. Numbers can tackle the head fine well. A well reasoned argument put together with skill can do this.

But the heart can often be a way to turn heads, change opinion and make a difference.

This social care picture dropped into my timeline and I love it.

Two older people who have been taken to the seaside by their care workers to dip their toes in the water.

A look of pure joy on their faces.

The years roll by and they’re remembering what it was like to be a kid with a ice-cold wave splashing on your toes.

It’s wonderful.

I say it, time and time again, but the most interesting content is not in an office.

Your best content are the human beings you have as staff and especially the human beings they are looking to serve.

The orginal pic can be found here.  Dr Mark Redmond posted this image. His Twitter bio says that he is an academic passionate about social care. He has 2,500 followers but the image itself connected enough with people to be liked 13,000 times and shared 2,400 times.

Social care can often play things safely and not take risks. Having worked in  local government I can hear the pre-packed arguments against taking and releasing this image. Well done Dr Redmond for ploughing through this.

Social care has many problems facing it. Many are shaped by money. But without public support and understanding the debate for extra funding won’t get off the ground.

What made people share this image? Because its human.

30 days of human comms #45 University of Reading

I’ve written before about the trend for drawing a line in the sand on social media.

It’s something I’m in favour at he right time and right place.

Normally, I’ve featured things that are pretty defensible. The police Facebook comment pointing out that the reason we have speed cameras is death on the road, for example.

This tweet from the University of Reading either is just the right side of things or oversteps the mark.

Personally, I get it.

On the Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group, there was dissenting voices between those who liked and those who think this is helping to coarsen debate.

There is no one size fits all with content. This may work in some organisations but not in others.

Using an unscientific yardstick, there are more than 5,000 likes and of the replies there was mix of comments.

I’m @danslee on Twitter and dan@comms2point0.co.uk. If you hate missing out on the good stuff subscribe to my weekly email here.

30 days of human comms: day #42: Birmingham New Street station

Train stations are emotional places. You say goodbye. You say hello. You lose a shoe getting onboard and get stranded in the rain.

It was raining. How was the poasenger going to reach somewhere where she could get a replacement pair?

Through Twitter, London Euston’s account spotted the problem and offered a solution.

An assistance buggy would pick up the passenger at the carriage door on arrival before taking her to a shoe shop. Beautifully simple and entirely human.

A cherry on top of the cake was the human tweet from Birmingham New Street.

Thanks Madeleine Sugden for spotting this.

30 days of human: day #41 Lidl Ireland ask how your weekend was

So, spare a thought for Lidl Ireland.

They had a rough weekend.

The tail end of a snow storm closed a raft of stores and caused all sorts of supply and staffing issues.

Thieves used a JCB  to break into a Dublin store… which then set on fire and collapsed.

So Lidl Ireland’s Monday morning tweet was a masterpiece.

It’s exactly what someone who had had a high profile disaster of a weekend would have said to break the ice.

BEING HUMAN: The first 30 days of human comms… and what I’ve learned

When I started on a whim to blog #30daysofhumancomms it was to collect together some examples of human content that worked for me.

There were about half a dozen that had stuck in my memory and I’d hoped with a prevailing wind this could stretch to 30. Maybe.

But as I added more I spotted more and more people – thank you – came up with alternatives.

Over the course of the month a staggering 10,000 unique users came and read the content. Thank you for stopping by, for sharing and for coming up with suggestions.

I’ll continue the series

Not every day but because I keep finding things I’ll continue. Because they keep cropping up.

Why human comms?

The best content is the right thing in the right place at the right time. Yes, I get the need for evaluated calls to action. It’s not how many people see it. It’s what people did as a result of seeing it. So important. But if you don’t have an audience in the first place you’ve got nothing. If all your audience get are calls to actions you are not social. You are a pizza delivery company stuffing leaflets through the digital door. This is where the Paretto principle comms in in social media. If 80 per cent of your content is human and engaging this earns the right 20 per cent of the time to ask them to do something. It’s something I strongly believe in.

What have I learned blogging human comms for 30 days

Examples don’t take long to blog.

People respond to them.

They are the secret sauce that makes social media accounts work.

You know them when you see them.

They don’t just exist as a snappy tweet but can be a poster, a media comment, an interview or can be on Facebook too. Often they are not things thought up by comms at all.

What is striking seeing them together is seeing so many on Twitter and in the coming series I’ll look out for other channels, too.

31 days of human comms listed by subject area

Twitter update

  1. Hampshire Fire & Rescue’s rescued bench tweet. See here.
  2. Doncaster Council’s thread for their gritter World Cup. See here.
  3. London Fire Brigade remember the Kings Cross Fire. See here.
  4. Thames Valley Police’s drugs find. See here.
  5. Cardiff Council’s GIF traffic warning. See here.
  6. The Yorkshire motorway police officer and his wife. See here.
  7. The @farmersoftheuk Twitter account. See here.
  8. Lochaber & Skype Police talk to someone at risk of domestic abuse. See here.
  9. Kirklees Council’s GIF that reminds people that gritter drivers are human too. See here.
  10. London Midland sign-off. See here.
  11. The NHS Trust with a sense of humour. See here.

Video

  1. Doncaster Council and Jake the sweet sweeper driver. See here.
  2. The basketball playing Gainesville Police officer. See here.
  3. Sandwell Council as car share for #ourday. See here.
  4. Burger King tackles the bullies. See here.
  5. Sefton Council’s message on a national subject. See here.
  6. Bath & North East Somersets singing food hygiene certificates. See here.
  7. A Welsh hardware shop’s Christmas advert. See here.
  8. Dorset police’s Christmas somg. See here.

Facebook update

  1. Sydney Ferries name their new boat Ferry McFerry Face. See here.
  2. Queensland Ambulance Service takes a dying patient to the ocean a final time. See here.
  3. A missing dog pic from New Forest District Council. See here.

Customer service

  1. Edinburgh Council’s out-of-hours Twitter. See here.
  2. The human railway conductor’s announcements. See here.

Stopping your job to being human

  1. The busking police officer. See here.

Media interviews

  1. A newspaper interview with medics who treated Manchester bomb patients. See here.

Media comment

  1. North West Ambulance Service’s response to a man abusing a paramedic. See here.

Posters and signs

  1. Dudley Council’s spoiled tea sign. See here.
  2. Welcome to Helsinki place marketing. See here.
  3. Virgin Trains’ new trains poster. See here.

Rebuttal

  1. The BBC respond to The Sun newspaper. See here.

If you have a suggestion I’d love to hear from you. Drop a note in the comments or @danslee on Twitter.

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