Author: Jim

Yet another reason why you should be on Twitter is the amazing people you meet. I’ve been chatting with some folks in England recently who work in the government communications field. After getting to know them a bit, I’ve decided that if you want to know where some of the greatest, most forward thinking people in our little corner of the world are, well, it might just be these folks.

Many of them have contributed to the most excellent (or ace, as they would say) comms2point0.co.uk blog, so that’s a great place to start. Run by Darren and Dan (hey guys!), the blog relies on guest posts from an amazing array of similarly forward-thinking folks. Comms2point0 has simply become one of my favorite stops on the Internet.

To that end, and as an example of the thought-provoking fare you’ll find there, I direct you to last night’s post by guest blogger Ben Proctor. It’s pretty much what I’ve always thought I’d do if I were Communications Director. It’s out there. It’s off-the-wall, and it’s just the sort of radical transparency I think we need to restore the public’s faith in government:

Press offices though, it seems to me, are 20th century solutions to a wider problem. They were developed with 1950s technology and have evolved slowly. We have better technology now. It may be time to scrap this solution and design a new one from the ground up.

I think press offices in the public sector are a bad idea and that we should get rid of them.

His modest proposal?

• We would replace press offices with a digital space and give citizens the same privileges to ask questions and demand explanations that are afforded to journalists
• We would go headlong into open data
• We would stop issuing press releases

Mind you, he’s not putting us out of work, in fact in this world, we’d be charged with:

A massively important role, to develop and build communities around the data. To train, and encourage, mentor and support professionals (and politicians) to play more active roles in public spaces. To tell the core stories in the organisation so that stakeholders understand what the organisation is about, what is important to it and what it is seeking to achieve.

It’s truly a phenomenal piece, and I’ve already printed a copy to throw up on my wall at work. Do yourself, and your community, a favor and go read it. Bravo, sir, bravo!

Thanks to Gerald Baron’s very high praise for the recently published David Westin (Former Head of ABC News) memoir, Exit Interview, I’ve downloaded the book and have started reading it. So far, I’m really enjoying it. Gerald says:

If you are as interested as I am in how news is done and how it helps form the opinions of citizens. About how reputations are won or lost in this environment. About how our society builds or loses trust when everyone is competing for their attention. About an over-saturated information environment where the only proven way to break through is through gut-level emotion—fear, disgust, disdain, outrage. Then you will want to read this book.

Sounds like it might be right up our collective alley. I have plans to post a bit on some of the things I learn and hope you will give feedback.

Last week I was given my first opportunity to prep a spokesperson for a press conference (and got to sit in, too!). We did pretty good, I think.

After the conference, I did what I normally do after any response, I wrote up a quick list of lessons learned. You know them, right? Your emergency planners write up those massive documents for their funders about how exercises and activations went. My list was a bit smaller, but tailored perfectly for me.

• Provide top three points and drill
• Drill phone number
• Juggle tech (flip video cam and phone) better
• Good job taking phone from spokesperson

I write up little lists like this every time I have a media encounter. Admittedly, this is easy for me since my encounters are few and far between, but this might not be a bad idea at the end of each week for more seasoned PIOs. Just a quick note to remind you to include more actionable statements in your releases, to talk to your partner agencies more often to make sure that reporters aren’t playing one off the other, to incorporate more video (or social media or accessible releases) in your day-to-day.

What do you do to make sure you’re learning the right lessons?