This week in PR (12 February)

News in brief

• Former MP Chuka Umunna is leaving Edelman after nine months for JP Morgan [source: PR Week]

Covid-19 and comms

• Oliver Matuszynski: Seen It All Before (11 February)
  ‘This pandemic was precedented.  We just forgot.  One hundred and one years ago, the Spanish Flu infected 500 million people and killed 50 million.’

Ethics, purpose and professionalism

The CIPR has today signed the @UNESCO 'International Declaration of Communications Professionals and Researchers for a Healthier, Viable, Better World'.

Find out more information and read the reaction from CIPR President @MandyPearse here:https://t.co/LaIprJwAI5

— CIPR (@CIPR_Global) February 5, 2021

• Alex Malouf: Ethics during a Pandemic – An example from the airline sector (12 February)
  ‘In a rush to get out a positive headline, was the decision that the Etihad team took the right one? Will their messaging now engender trust?’
• Eva Maclaine: Ethics Q&A with new CIPR President (5 February)
  ‘Strategic PR advisers should remind the organisation and the senior leadership team about the reputational impact of what they might decide to do. But I don’t subscribe to the idea that PR people should hold the conscience of the organisation on our own.’

Corporate and financial

• Mike Love: The Reality Gap (5 February)
  ‘The [Reality Gap] methodology was primarily a communications tool to help determine whether the solution to a problem was to communicate more effectively, or to advise changing the reality.’

Consulting, teams and careers

• Teela Clayton: Can I get your digits? Networking in a Covid proximity (11 February)
  ‘Right now, I am making the most of existing in the virtual world. I’m dipping into conversations, liking posts, following people. So if you fancy a chat, let me know. Let’s get something booked in. Slip into my DMs. Send me an email.’
• Mark Borkowski: The sedative effects of PR speak (10 February)
  ‘We are mistaken if we think our clients want to hear about enhancing digital touchpointing in a competitive space to add SEO backlicking value. What do we really do? We listen to clients. We call journalists. We help craft a way for brands to present themselves to the world.’
• Megan Skinner: How I Ianded a PR internship (9 February)
  ‘Finding an internship isn’t often an easy path, but if you’re looking for something you enjoy, have the confidence to apply and the skills to succeed you may just find success in the places you least expected!’

Wellbeing, gender and diversity

https://twitter.com/SparklyPinchy/status/1357633626058469377

• Stephen Waddington: Behavioural insights to tackle the COVID-19 mental health crisis (10 February)
  ‘Lynn PR has characterised the behavioural barriers which would need to be addressed in order to successfully connect those in need of mental health support with relevant services.’

• Chris Norton: PR’s mental health crisis – 6 tips for coping with lockdown (10 February)
  ‘One of the major impacts I’ve felt of the pandemic is not having the social interaction in the office. We have gone from having everyone working and collaborating together to working in our own homes by ourselves.’

• Silvia Cambie: The Darkness of Others (8 February)
  ‘The way to be happier these days is apparently to resist the urge to brag about your life on social media.’

Public and third sectors

• Victoria Ford: Communicating in the open: A case study for better results and engagement (9 February)
  ‘As they develop a service, teams should communicate in the open about the decisions they’re making and what they are learning.’
• Dawn Reeves: One story for local government – an exciting book launch and a shiny new toolkit (8 February)
  ‘The book has 60 compelling stories celebrating the true grit of people in councils and communities that’s been shown in spades during the pandemic. It’s about what holds us together, what absolutely matters and what people need to do together to face an uncertain future. And it has one story, the essence of a new narrative for local government.’

• Darren Caveney: What the epic Jackie Weaver teaches us about communications, bullying and life itself (5 February)
  ‘I had to watch it three times last night for full effect: the first to figure out if this was even a real thing, the second to take in the detail, the third purely to tuck in and enjoy. It’s the most I’ve laughed in 2021 so far.’
• Andrea Heslop: 5 tips on running virtual events (5 February)
  ‘Virtual events must be shorter than in-person events and broken down into short segments – people are used to consuming content online in short format such as TedTalks or YouTube videos.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

• Emily McGowan Phoenix: The week that local government took the limelight (11 February)
  ‘The video itself was shared by a young person interested in their local political agenda and there are promising signs that it has the potential to generate greater diversity in engagement across local politics.’
• Gareth Jones: Why are British politicians obsessed with the word ‘woke’? (10 February)
  ‘It has been reported for a while that Number 10 wishes to pursue a “war on woke”, which is typically cited when government ministers and Conservative politicians go on the offensive on cultural issues – whether around ‘left wing BBC bias’ or activist lawyers.’

• Stuart Thomson: A Government Decision Should Not End The Engagement (8 February)
  ‘Depending on the form the plans take, when they come before parliament they may be amended or may need amending. For the companies involved, the scrutiny of parliament also throws up matters of reputation management as well.’

Risk, crisis and reputation

• Amanda Coleman: Crisis, disaster, incident….what is it? (10 February)
  ‘If we are going to be able to deal with crisis effectively we need to be talking about risks, risk management and risk mitigation.’

Brands, storytelling, and influence

• Orlagh Shanks: How The UK Government Should Have Spent The £63k On Influencers For The Test & Trace Campaign (11 February)
  ‘The government paid £63,000 to 42 influencers (which averages at around £1,500 each) to promote their test and trace campaign. Many of these influencers were Love Island and other reality TV stars.’
• Sarah Browning: What makes a good story? (11 February)
  ‘A good story is an account of events that engages the audience and is designed to elicit some kind of response from them.’
• Scott Guthrie: QVC-ification of influencer marketing (9 February)
  ‘We know that the Covid-19-induced lockdown has pulled forward a huge amount of future adoption to eCommerce. Livestream shopping has the potential for fast-growth within social commerce – a subset of eCommerce.’

• Karan Chadda: Could a research paper from 1971 make your content more interesting (8 February)
  ‘Davis proceeds to list out the factors that make something interesting. There are 12 in total. And they’re an incredibly useful guide to assessing your content or story.’

Planning, measurement and evaluation

• Anne Gregory: How to plan PR campaigns in an uncertain and unpredictable world (10 February)
  ‘If I don’t know where I’m heading (objectives), who I’m going with (stakeholders), what to say (content) and if I’m even getting there (evaluation) – then I’m heading nowhere fast.’

Internal communication

• Jenni Field: Why we rush to fix before we understand (11 February)
  ‘Our bias is towards taking quick action; we’re more comfortable with doing something, even if it’s counterproductive and leaves no time to understand or diagnose what’s wrong. But a true fix is about making changes that last.’
• Rachel Miller: Working successfully with leaders [podcast] (8 February)
  ‘Internal communication is too important to be left to one team, one department or one person. It is everybody’s responsibility; and that includes your leaders. You cannot be a brilliant leader without being a brilliant communicator.’

We're focusing on three themes which we think are important for #internalcomms in the first part of 2021.

– Leadership Communication
– Supporting Wellbeing
– Organisational Culture & Change Communication

Let is know @ciprinside what would help you tackle these tricky topics. https://t.co/4kFLO9Jh6K

— Martin Flegg (@martinflegg) February 11, 2021

Technology, media and digital

#brightonSEO is BACK in March – are you joining us?
We've got two days of superb talks for you to stream live for free. Come along to meet other search marketers, learn and do your job a little better. https://t.co/5IWcuR8RJO pic.twitter.com/cdfkVL4FEo

— brightonSEO (@brightonseo) February 9, 2021

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

https://twitter.com/carolineshawPR/status/1358756355771953154

• Eloise Newman (Solent): Deceptive or Innovative: Is It Ethical For Products To Be Designed With Obsolescence In Mind? (11 February)
  ‘Planned obsolescence’ [is] the theory that manufacturers design and build products to be irreparable and ultimately lead the consumer to purchase another later or updated version of the product.’
• Megan Laura Harris (Liverpool John Moores): If businesses cannot open due to the current restrictions, what are they putting out on their social media platforms? (11 February)
  ‘Tate Liverpool have had to close during the COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK. As they have been unable to invite art lovers inside their gallery, they have been using social media to share art pieces with their followers.’

• Joel Currie (Ulster): Social Media, the modern-day propaganda tool for the Far-right (11 February)
  ‘It is easier for misinformation to be spread on social media than it is to correct it, it is also easier to ignite social divisions than it is to repair them. The very nature of how we engage in social media helps the far-right, authoritarian factions to wear away at the foundations of our democratic systems.’
• Kayleigh Tinney (Ulster): It’s the Digital Uni Notes For Me (11 February)
  ‘At the beginning of the week, I download all the relevant material that I need for that week into Notability for example the lecture PowerPoint presentation. I then use my laptop to watch lectures and take notes directly onto the downloaded PowerPoint slides on my iPad. This system is what works personally for me as I like having everything in one place.’

• Alicia Fox (Ulster): What does the future hold (or not) for the High street? (10 February)
  ‘Whilst the high street has been in decline for many years, the problem has accelerated at an alarming rate this year.’
• Sophie Smith (Newcastle): Deciding What You Want to do With Your Life (8 February)
  ‘I’m happy I stuck with [my undergraduate degree], but I’m much happier now I’m studying PR. Every time we learn something new, or I take on a new module, I visualise my future much more than I did when I was studying maths.’

At today's @PRCA_NI Graduate Guide Event @jasonashford89 gives us an insight into his fantastic career and choice, giving students some very practical advice "do not be too hard on yourself when you come out of uni, things don't always go the way you expect" ✨ pic.twitter.com/nk9JIn5jIl

— Kayleigh Tinney (@Kayleightinney1) February 10, 2021