This week in PR (8 November)

News in brief

https://twitter.com/PRCA_UK/status/1191644700517773313

• CIPR has published a guide to General Election political activity and communications (members only)
• PRCA launches schools outreach programme as it marks its 50th anniversary (PR Week)
• ‘Portland Merges With GPlus As Founder Tim Allan Steps Down’ (Holmes Report)

Academic and education

Consulting and careers

• Iliyana Stareva: 5 Years at HubSpot: Here’s What I Learned About Growth and Career (7 November)
  ‘Then came HubSpot. They found me on LinkedIn and reached out because of my fluency in German, agency experience and ability to create content thanks to this blog.’

Politics and public affairs

The man, the legend, the lobbyist – @lionelzetter at his (supposed) retirement shindig last night. pic.twitter.com/AjMZSJuc2r

— Nicholas Dunn-McAfee (@NicholasHDM) November 1, 2019

• Jason MacKenzie: Tight messaging taking Tories through turbulence (6 November)
  ‘My recent track record of predicting election results has been less than stellar. I was stunned when Mr Cameron won an outright majority in 2015. Yes, I was in the room in 2012 when the 40-40 strategy was unveiled, but like many others, I didn’t think it was achievable.’
• Daisy Peck: Conservative Party Campaign: On your marks, get wet, go (5 November)
  ‘With the ground-campaign compromised, additional importance will now fall on digital. Despite outspending the Labour Party four-fold on Social Media in the 2017 General Election, the Conservative Party still found themselves on the back foot due to uninspiring graphics and a lack of people power.’
• Lizzy Tomlin: The General Election is Jo Swinson’s biggest challenge yet (5 November)
  ‘The Lib Dems may struggle to make an impact during the campaign. The first-past-the-post electoral system has always been unkind to the Lib Dems and it is exacerbated by minimal press coverage and significantly less funding and resources than the two big parties, ultimately defaulting the UK to a two-horse race.’
• Alastair Campbell: Sad, but truth has to be told about People’s Vote crisis (4 November)
  ‘I have enough self-awareness to realise that most members of the public are unlikely to care too much about a public spat between a multi-millionaire City PR man and what one journalist last week referred to as ‘a cabal of washed up spin doctors’ – he meant me, Peter Mandelson, Tom Baldwin and James McGrory.’

• Emma Petela and George McGregor: Celebrating one year of the PRCA Public Affairs Board (4 November)
  ‘We represent a considerable majority of the industry: 124 organisations, 2000 practitioners, and 3000 clients. We represent a vibrant and growing industry full of talented and creative individuals. We should be proud of our contribution to public life and better policy making.’
• Charlotte Adamson: Gender and MP retirements: are too many women leaving politics? (1 November)
  ‘Of the women standing down, a significant number are doing so relatively early on in their parliamentary career, in comparison to older men who are leaving at (or over) the age of retirement.’

Public sector

I'm really pleased to be able to say I've joined the @CIPRlps committee. In recent years @CIPR_UK have been making some real strides to help raise the bar with public sector comms. That's a subject very close to my heart so I'm looking forward to it. #cipr

— Dan Slee (@danslee) November 4, 2019

• Mandy Pearse: Political advertising, spin and manipulation (4 November)
  ‘PR, in my view, should be a force for good. It is not about spin or manipulation. I don’t recognise that as the role of PR professionals in the public sector. Where we use behavioural insight and data, we do it to encourage people to take steps which we believe will improve their lives. Political parties may genuinely believe that their worldview and policies will bring a better society. Those working in the public service in all branches of government have a duty to be agnostic as public servants and to apply ethical judgement as PR professionals.’

Crisis and reputation

https://twitter.com/stuartbruce/status/1191281656369471488

Wellbeing, gender and diversity

• Hel Reynolds: A PR and comms stress epidemic: survey results 2019 (6 November)
  ‘Results of a survey of 442 people working in the industry have revealed this: We are suffering a PR and comms stress epidemic.’

Measurement and evaluation

November is AMEC’s measurement month #AMECmm

• Jonny Bentwood: How to move teams away from AVEs or impressions? (7 November)
  ‘This post isn’t about why AVE is rubbish – this is discussed countless times on the wonderful new AMEC web site but rather how is someone meant to engage with clients or colleagues who are demanding this number.’

Brands, storytelling and influence

• Scott Guthrie: ‘OK boomer’ attacks attitude more than age (7 November)
  ‘OK boomer’ is a reminder to all of us communicators. As communicators, we need to be more sophisticated in our audience segmentation. We shouldn’t rely solely on age and gender, where people live, and whether they’ve got a degree or not.’
• Orlagh Shanks: Does Influencer Marketing Belong in the Sports Industry? (6 November)
  ‘Last week Twitter went a little crazy over an ad from Manchester City Football Club asking for influencers to attend their home games and to try to recruit more fans for the team.’

Internal communication

The free 'Who's listening?' report on #employeevoice developed with @howiejk & @mikepounsford
will be published on Monday 2 December with a webinar at 12 noon that day. Registration details for the webinar coming soon #internalcomms #HumanResources #LeadershipDevelopment

— Dr Kevin Ruck (@AcademyKev) November 4, 2019

• Stephen Welch: Move outside your own sandbox or stop complaining, Internal Communicators (7 November)
  ‘In my experience, very few HR people, very few communicators, and very few people in functions generally have developed a really strong sense of business acumen of how the organization creates value for customers and shareholders.’
• Josephine Graham: How to manage a large internal communications team (7 November)
  ‘Now that the secondment has finished, and I am back in my substantive role as internal communications lead in a large local authority, it has given me chance to reflect on what I have learned.’
• Katie Macaulay with Sue Dewhurst and Liam Fitzpatrick: Black Belt Thinking [podcast] (6 November)
  ‘It’s estimated that around 50% of UK IC practitioners have been through their Melcrum Black Belt training programme. And now they have co-authored a book Successful Employee Communications.’

Media and digital

Are you attending #ciprconf19 ? Make sure you go to this search listening session @ColeyBird is the creative insight queen! https://t.co/u7rkxPO1Kr

— Stella Bayles (@stellabayles) November 8, 2019

• Laura Sutherland: PR & Digital Transformation (8 November)
  ‘If you don’t have a communication strategy to bring everyone along with you (internally and externally) and buy into the transformation plan, how on earth will you achieve transformation?’
• Sarah Lay: Time to retire your secondary Facebook profile before you’re found a fake (6 November)
  ‘You probably need to think again if you have a secondary account for work purposes because there’s a chance you could be caught in the clear-up.’
• Paul Sutton with Michael Marquardt: The future of global social media [podcast] (6 November)
  ‘The digital world is one world; we’re all connected digitally. I do think the world is becoming smaller.’

• Andy Green: Why every communicator and public relations person needs to be a content marketer: Content Marketing for PR book review (3 November)
  ‘For those in PR who are wary of the word ‘marketing’ Trevor brilliantly challenges the growing conventions of content marketing simply being a machine for generating sales leads, the inbound marketing approach, presenting a compelling case for a more public relations, reputation-building, approach.’

• Adam Driver: Must-watch: The Great Hack (no date)
  ‘Many people, myself included, are not fully aware of the extent to which our data is used to create an echo chamber of rhetoric, adverts that have more effect than we realise, and selected communication and news snippets.’
• Drew Benvie: Social media trends for 2020: highlights from Battenhall’s annual event (1 November)
  ‘We’ve identified three key trends that we predict will see social media go full circle, fusing the old with the new and and taking innovation mainstream: the sustainability of influencers and their approach to social media; the importance and strength of  the digital athlete; and the inevitable creator comeback in a time of the digital natives.’

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

A special day for the PReflect team yesterday, as we all graduated from @bournemouthuni with a First in Public Relations! Here's to a successful career, and to many more years of helping small charities get their voices heard #BUProud #ProBonoPR pic.twitter.com/FPf9sJsQfF

— PReflect (@PReflect_UK) November 7, 2019

• Emma Rogers (Solent): How Innocent ‘conker’ their social media strategy (7 November)
  ‘By resolving the issue before it got out of hand and doing it in an engaging and funny way definitely made it a memorable message. So many companies can learn from Innocent and the way they use social media to their benefit.’
• Emma Street (Lincoln): Single or Self-Partnered? (6 November)
  ‘One person’s use of a term, doesn’t mean that everyone has to start using it. If you prefer to use ‘single’, that’s perfectly fine, but if you agree with Emma and like her new term, that’s perfectly fine too.’

• Abi Kitcher (Solent): #StressAwarenessWeek: How to manage stress as a university student (6 November)
  ‘Stop staring at a screen and just do something different for you, whether that’s going for a walk at your favourite spot or playing silly board games. Whatever works to destress your mind.’
• Maya McCloskey (Ulster): Cadbury Have Gone Quiet (6 November)
  ‘Cadbury are trying to combat this loneliness by giving people the opportunity to “donate their words” because in the UK, 1.4 million older people suffer from loneliness and 225,000 of them often go a whole week without speaking to anyone.’
• Hannah Chambers (Ulster): What Changes is Instagram Making In Response to Mental Health Concerns for Young People? (6 November)
  ‘Instagram has decided to ban AR Filters that replicate the appearance of having plastic surgery.’

• Olivia McKearney (Ulster): Placement, In Retrospect (4 November)
  ‘Yes, we all did well in our A Levels, we’re here for that reason – we work hard, but we are not homogenous. Each of us offers something unique to future employers, some of us know what that is and some of us don’t but if the fit is right for you, your placement will be your match.’

Follow #ThisWeekinPR on Twitter to stay up to date

Follow on Twitter