This week in PR (10 February)
Profession
- Stephen Waddington: Professor Lee Edwards: Building bridges between theory and practice as a driver of innovation [podcast] (8 February)
‘Because public relations is focused on organisations and on the voices of organisations and making those voices heard, there is always a potential for the profession to highlight that institutional power over the interests of the wider public… When public relations is used by corporations it is most often used to protect and manage any risks that come to corporations from external debate.’
https://twitter.com/TheBlueLozenge/status/1622888361315774464
Purpose, climate and ESG
- Andrew Adie: Governance is king (9 February)
‘Speak to many investors and they will tell you that the ‘G’ In ESG is the thing they look to first. If the governance is right then experience tells them that the company will likely have addressed other ESG hot buttons as well.’ - Paul MacKenzie-Cummins: The ROI from being a ‘better’ business (7 February)
‘With B Corp Month 2023 fast approaching, much media attention will be focused on the need for businesses to be more responsible in terms of limiting their impact on the environment and doing more for society.’
Gender, diversity and wellbeing
- Raj Mattu: Coming Out, Even if it is Just to Myself! (no date)
‘For someone like me from a South Asian (Punjabi) background – where I’m constantly reminded that a badly behaved or unconventional child (particularly a daughter) can bring down the reputation of an entire family – the pressure to conform to societal norms is very high.’
Public and third sectors
- Lydia Green: TikTok strategy: talking to Gen Z (8 February)
‘At Manchester City Council, we’re using TikTok as a primary channel to engage with our city’s young people… We gear our TikTok content towards themes that we know perform well on the platform, such as events, culture, and lifestyle.’
- Stacey Cosens: Lessons from a council that went viral on Facebook and Reels (7 February)
‘At first, the negative comments did get to me. I’d worked hard to put a video together for people to enjoy – an easy, cheap slow cooker recipe for those who are struggling with the cost of living crisis and who may not be cooking experts.’
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
- Simon Neville: Zelensky – a masterclass in winning hearts and minds (and weapons) (9 February)
‘Part of being a successful comedian is having vast levels of emotional intellegence and the ability to tap into an audience’s empathy.’ - Gabriel Hedengren and Nic Conner: UK Government: Re-shuffled and rejigged (no date)
‘The Government has announced sweeping changes to the structure of Departments. In short, they have created two new ones (energy security and science & innovation and technology), abolished one (international trade), and reorganised two (business & culture).’
- Angus Hill: What does a government restructure mean for the energy sector? (8 February)
‘You’d be forgiven for having a sense of déjà vu with the announcement of a new separate Energy department, with a return to the structure of the Brown and Coalition governments.’ - Matilda Hartwig: Rishi’s reshuffle to reboot Whitehall (7 February)
‘Today, Rishi Sunak announced a mini re-shuffle as part of a rewiring of Whitehall. The changes establish four dedicated departments aimed at helping the government “deliver for the British people”.’
- Bob Huxford: Hooray! FTSE 100 Reaches All Time High (7 February)
‘Although lower sterling can benefit companies in making exports cheaper, a lower pound is a direct consequence of the rest of the world seeing the UK as that bit less valuable.’
Research, data, measurement and evaluation
- Gabriel Milland and others: Generation A-Z (7 February)
‘People in the UK are retaining progressive attitudes and values later into older age, with middle aged people increasingly leaning more towards the young.’
Crisis, risk and reputation
Sharing ‘Trust, Risk and Resilience' – a summary and analysis of the five global #trust and #risk reports released in January.
I'll be running webinars and workshops for clients to explore its implications, so just shout if you're interested.https://t.co/9XHgreSiRl#pr #comms
— Rod Cartwright (@RodCartwright) February 9, 2023
Behaviour and influence
- Frankie Oliver with Imogen Coles, Gordon Glenister with Rob Mayhew: ‘TikTok brought the joy back into influencer marketing’ – PRWeek podcast (8 February)
‘It’s a really exciting period for PR where influence is concerned. For years it’s been known as the fluffy discipline, but with influence we’re able to look at true ROI and make a difference to the bottom line.’
Internal communication
Is it time to simplify your digital channels? Have you considered putting your intranet at the heart of your channels strategy? Join us Friday 10 February to learn how @nationalgrid reinvented their intranet and made it a must-have tool in the business. https://t.co/Ob71FXSHAP pic.twitter.com/H49FY6KEyK
— IABC UK & Ireland (@iabcuki) February 9, 2023
- Katie Macaulay with Andy Goram: Culture with sticking power [podcast] (no date)
‘For me, engagement is about creating genuine interest in what we’re trying to achieve, real connection between what drives the business and what drives the people within it.’ - Nick Helsby: Where have all the internal communications consultancies gone? (9 February)
‘Given the ascendancy of employees in the stakeholder hierarchy, is now an opportune moment to launch a full service internal communications consultancy?’ - Dan Holden: What’s the state of the internal communication sector? (7 February)
‘Today is the launch of the 15th edition of the State of the Sector survey by Gallagher, providing insights into how the internal communication sector is looking.’ - Martin Flegg: The growing pains of internal communication (3 February)
‘We’ve been discussing seat at the boardroom table, trusted advisor, measurement, creating engaging content and cracking line manager communications once and for all for the last 20 years.’
Media, digital and technology
This past month I've been busy putting together a comprehensive report on how digital PR campaigns performed in 2022.
Using data from The Grapevine newsletter, I've analysed over 1,500 campaigns and their backlink profile to find out the best-performing content for PRs. pic.twitter.com/oa9ZYzgOaX
— iona (@IonaJTownsley) February 7, 2023
- Matt Redley: Google, we have a problem (9 February)
‘ChatGPT has taken the internet by storm and has amassed 100 million active users in two months, making it the fastest growing consumer application in history.’
- Anthony D’Angelo: AI’s implications for PR: it’s time to step up (6 February)
‘AI can perform research, write, design, analyze, monitor and predict. It can also communicate in human-sounding voices and broadcast video using avatars so lifelike that they’re indistinguishable from humans.’
Elon Musk Is His Own Spokesman
Twitter has done away with its press department.
Elon thinks he can do a better job https://t.co/11B5eLKVjW
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) February 7, 2023
#prstudent #CreatorAwards23
We keep this space open for student content creators. Just tag your shareable content with #prstudent and we’ll find it.
View this post on Instagram
- Destiny Hollern (Sunderland): Me and my work. Content creation, articles and more! (9 February)
‘Throughout my education I racked up lots of skills, content and student debt and I will be showcasing the first two.’
