This week in PR (8 October)

It happened this week

• Here is the full list of CIPR regional PRide awards winners.
• David Miller, the academic sacked by University of Bristol following complaints over antisemitic comments, is the co-author with William Dinan of Century of Spin: How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power and  and one of the key players in the Spinwatch project. (Summary for those who don’t know their work: globalised corporations are unaccountable and anti-democratic, and public relations defends and promotes corporate interests.)

Profession and ethics

• Paul Cheal with Stephen Waddington: A Public Relations Podcast: Smoke Signal – The Impact of COVID-19 on PR and Communication (3 October)
  ‘If we didn’t have access to senior leaders before Covid, then we certainly do now.’

Academic and education

ESG, corporate and financial

• Richard Rawlins: “F*ck business”​. Boris Johnson June 26 2018 (7 October)
  ‘Progressive businesses which accept their new role in society will be the winners in an era when a Conservative Government is anything but pro-business.’
• Kat Jackson: 6 reasons why ESG is something comms should care about (4 October)
  ‘This is not greenwashing. It’s not brand purpose. It’s also not community outreach. This is a rigorous assessment of a business’ impact on its social communities and environment.’

Consulting, teams and careers

https://twitter.com/battenhall/status/1443948297664843778

• Naya Bart-Williams: In her own words: Naya, PPC’s intern (7 October)
  ‘As someone who is quiet, I am always scared of being forgotten and a burden. I was never made to feel like that. In fact I developed so much confidence by conversing with people face to face and via email. The difference has been notable = the people you work with truly matter.’
• Paul Stollery: Scaling Service x Shayoni Lynn: get your proposition right and leads will come to you (6 October)
  ‘By Lynn’s reckoning, her agency sits in the “sweet spot” between academic practice and creative communication.’
• Rebecca Roberts and Harriet Small: Switching Industries Later in Life and Different Ways We Communicate [podcast] (5 October)
  ‘I do think there is something to be said for joining the industry later on in life when you already have life experience.’

Wellbeing, gender and diversity

• Rachel Miller: How to communicate World Mental Health Day 2021 (5 October)
  ‘The overall objective of World Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilise efforts in support of mental health.’

Public and third sectors

With the median UK Civil Service salary £28,180 and a Peloton bike + 1 year subscription coming in at £2,218, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the number of civil servants too busy working out on posh exercise bikes to go to the office is in the single figures at most. https://t.co/1wjXU3UkT3

— Sharon O'Dea (@sharonodea) October 5, 2021

• Natasha Calder: Why being transparent is important in a Covid-19 world (7 October)
  ‘Do the Q&A outside of working hours and stick to the same routine. We go live at 6pm every other Thursday and we limit the session to 30 minutes. Any questions unanswered are collated and either responded to the next day or published on the website’
• Ross Wigham: Meetings, skills, strategy and Tao (6 October)
  ‘[Darren Caveney] urged people working in comms to stop, take a breath and reflect before getting into “what’s next mode”.

• Amanda Coleman: What next for policing? (3 October)
  ‘Policing needs to listen to what people are saying and really understand what it means before they take action. So far I have read only one tweet from a Chief Constable that talks about listening to people.’
• Alison Dunlop: Every Patient Voice Counts (no date)
  ‘To what degree will these latest initiatives from NICE and the ABPI represent the needs of the broader patient population – the elderly, the more vulnerable, those in rural areas or those who are more socially disadvantaged? Often, patients with the poorest outcomes are those who really struggle to have their voices heard.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

Boris and his team of wonks will be pleased with his first night reviews. Turning the last day of the Tory conference into a late night Edinburgh Fringe Stand-Up proves he is building a brand and a cult #ToryPartyConference

— Mark Borkowski (@MarkBorkowski) October 7, 2021

• Andrew Adie: Countdown to COP (7 October)
  ‘Pope Francis and 40 religious leaders have presented Alok Sharma with an appeal calling for world leaders to address the climate crisis and deliver on the Paris Agreement Commitments.’
• Fraser Ralegh: It’s always sunny in Manchester (7 October)
  ‘The Prime Minister was unapologetically in ‘big picture’ mode for his first in-person conference speech since the 2019 election. Indeed the speech had more of the feel of one of his pre-election rallies during the 2019 campaign than a traditional conference speech.’
• Charlie Reith: Boris’ boosterism sets out a destination but leaves us waiting for a roadmap (6 October)
  ‘Sooner or later, slogans will need policy content. Pay was a constant theme in ministerial speeches and with the Low Pay Commission reporting on the minimum wage in the next couple of weeks, we can surely expect an uplift there. Similarly, infrastructure spending in the North and the roll out of high-speed broadband are both likely to be priorities.’

• Joe Cooper: Crisis, what crisis? Government looks to conference to put domestic policy agenda back on track (5 October)
  ‘The Levelling-Up agenda continues to drive much of the Government’s domestic programme. The recent reshuffle saw the appointment of Michael Gove at the head of the new Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities. Though the renaming of the department may be gimmicky in nature, it does suggest that this agenda is here to stay.’

• Tom Bromwich: In their federal election, Germans chose change for continuity (no date)
  ‘The CDU’s disastrous showing – its worst ever – came after a campaign plagued by blunders and missteps. Merkel’s hand-picked successor, Armin Laschet, stumbled through the campaign with allegations of plagiarism, awkward encounters, and image gaffes.’

Risk, crisis and reputation

• Kate Hartley: How to avoid a PR crisis (and a fuel shortage) (7 October)
  ‘Not all crises can be avoided, but some can. The best kind of crisis management is always about prevention. Early warnings might come from industry data, grumblings on communities or social media, decades of slow decline, a health crisis, or a change in political circumstance.’

Content, storytelling and influence

• Paul MacKenzie-Cummins: Does the business case for strong thought leadership override the vanity element? (7 October)
  ‘It is not enough to simply rock up with an idea or regurgitate what others have already said about it and then attempt pass it off as your own to become a true thought leader. You will be found out.’
• Chris Lee: The Ultimate Guide on How to Brief a Copywriter (6 October)
  ‘Using a briefing sheet is a great way to ensure that your copywriter has all the information you need them to know. Below is an example of a briefing sheet for a blog post.’

Planning, insight, measurement and evaluation

• Stuart Bruce: DataComms Awards celebrate the excellent use of data in corporate communications (7 October)
  ‘The DataComms Awards recognise and celebrate the use of data in corporate communications and by corporate communicators. Too often, those of us in public relations and corporate affairs allow our advertising and marketing communications colleagues to boast about their data-driven prowess compared to us.’
• Emma Drake: Six steps to help manage potential reputation issues [podcast] (7 October)
  ‘There are some ways we can make communication planning easier. By making a short, sharp plan about potential reputation issues we feel we are making inroads into handling them.’

Internal communication

Join me on 21 October with @PoppuloSays where I'll be talking all about hybrid working and culture – it seems to be all I'm talking about this month!

Register for free to attend the webinar here: https://t.co/BMqpO6WsGZ#HyrbidWork #InternalComms #Speaker #Culture

— Jenni Field (@mrsjennifield) October 8, 2021

• Emma Bridger: Can enterprise social media help improve employee engagement and wellbeing? (6 October)
  ‘The global outage only lasted 6 hours, but it was a chance to stop and reflect on the role social media plays in our lives. Social media has not really been around all that long, and the research to-date is still emerging and mixed on whether it’s good for us or not.’

Technology, media and digital

Another random press release about a company I've never heard of hiring someone. Good for them. The follow-up 2 hours later requests I let them know "either way" if we're going to run this "news".

PRs: Do not do spam journalists. You are better than this. Or just pretend you are

— Rachel Cunliffe (@RMCunliffe) October 5, 2021

• Ian Silvera: At $8bn per hour, the Facebook outage gave us a pause for thought (5 October)
  ‘Facebook is now the behemoth which businesses, politicians, friends, family and everyone else rely on. They have outsourced their marketing functions, their contacts and their relationships to Facebook’s properties.’

#prstudent #CreatorAwards22

Read this article to learn about the challenge.

Here are two examples from the past week:

• • Chloe Price (Harlow College): TikTok video

• • Eva Smith (Southampton): Instagram photo story

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Eva | Fashion Industry Student (@thereachplatform)