What you may have missed this week

It’s been a busy old week in the world of internal comms. As usual I’ve read lots of great articles and blog posts, so thought I’d do something a bit different and collate the best of the bunch because every week I’m contacted by people who want to know what I recommend reading. So here you go, grab a cup of tea and catch up here.

Weber Shandwick research on employee engagement

Weber Shandwick This week Weber Shandwick and KRC Research released a report on Employees Rising: Seizing the Opportunity in Employee Activism. It’s a cracking read and I recommend it if you’re interested in knowing more about employee engagement and brand advocates.

The impact of social media on an employer’s reputation is now an everyday reality. What some employers don’t fully realise is how critical social media is to employee engagement and how it fuels employee activism.

Their research with 2,300 employees covering 15 markets worldwide explored the “employee activist movement” to help organisations understand what it takes to catch the rising tide of employee activism.

It revealed: 

  • 50% post messages, pictures or videos in social media about their employer
  • 39% have shared praise or positive comments online about their employer
  • 33% post messages, pictures or videos in social media about their employer without any encouragement from the employer
  • 16% have shared criticism or negative comments online about their employer
  • 14% have posted something about their employer in social media that they regret

The study has identified an influential group of 21% of employees which are well-informed, highly engaged and actively support their employers online and off. Weber Shandwick calls them ProActivists and said: “Employers need to accept the reality that, whether they encourage their employees to use social media to promote their brand or not, employees are online shaping their reputations right now. Clients should identify these Activists and cultivate their behaviours so that they spread and share the authentic enterprise story.”

To find out more, download the full report.

What keeps you up at night?

HGA Creative @HGACreative launched their third free ebook, it focuses on what keeps internal communicators up at night. It’s worth a read and I recommend checking out their previous two free ebooks too as like the way they’re written and they are packed full of useful info.

Comms Hero

An event is happening on 13 May in Manchester for comms pros to attend. It’s called Comms Hero and full information can be found online or on Twitter @CommsHero.

CIPR Excellence awards

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations announced the shortlist for the CIPR Excellence @CIPRExcel awards. Congratulations to all the finalists. The best internal publication finalists are:

  • Clifford Chance, CC World magazine
  • East Coast and Scarlettabbott, Coastlife
  • Post Office and AB, Wow
  • Royal Mail and AB, Courier
  • UK Asset Resolution and ScarlettAbbott, U Magazine
  • UK Power Networks, Wired magazine

Congratulations also to Steve Murgatroyd from Transport for London who has been shortlisted for Outstanding Young Communicator.

4aprilThe new CIPR Inside committee has just been announced following the AGM last week. I have chosen to remain on the committee for the next year, after being Deputy Chair 2013-2014, and am delighted to see Jenni Wheller, my fellow @theICcrowd co-founder, is now Chair. Congrats to her and to Gihan Hyde, who is now Deputy Chair.

You can see who all the committee members are via the CIPR Inside website.

The Big Yak

The first batch of free tickets for The Big Yak unconference were snapped up this week in just a matter of hours. Well done to everyone who managed to snare theirs. Keep an eye on @theICcrowd or The IC Crowd blog for info about more ticket releases over the next few weeks.

#PRredefined

PR is being redefined, and writing on his blog, CIPR President Stephen Waddington, @wadds, has highlighted a new initiative that is underway.

#PRredefined is a collaborative effort and includes the launch of a series of ebooks and online forum, along with other events to enable practitioners and academics around the world to contribute, challenge and debate to stimulate different perspectives about creating a new theoretical framework and ultimately redefining what is meant by public relations.

Stephen says: “The first ebook in the series, #PRredefined Vol I, features new definitions for public relations, challenges much of what constitutes current PR theory, and provides insights and ideas to enable the profession to harness revolutions in neuroscience, psychology, technology, communications, brand thinking and complexity theory.”

You can find out more via Stephen’s blog and download the book for around £1.50 on Amazon. Anyone wanting to contribute their ideas, insights or opinions can submit their views at the initiative’s online forum at www.prredefined.org.

Government Communication Service

900 Government communicators have signed up to the new @UKgovcomms Government Communication Service (GCS) as part of the continued drive for a more unified, less bureaucratic and more skilled profession.

A whole wealth of resources have been made available publicly that will not only benefit Gov communicators, but I think the profession as a whole. These follow on from The IC Space I blogged about a few months ago and include The Government Communication Service Handbook – which summarises the profession for the first time, plus new GCS evaluation guidance, new requirements for Continuing Professional Development and the new GCS Design Centre.

It looks like a heck of a lot of hard work has gone in to this, well done to all involved. You can watch an overview of what’s happening via the video below:

IoIC Live

The early bird deadline for the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) awards is 14 April and I read this week that CIPR members can benefit from the IoIC member rate for IoIC Live, their annual conference which is taking place at the start of May. Note to self – I still need to book my ticket! Full info can be found about the conference via the IoIC website.

Bits and Bytes

Every Friday Thomas Knorpp, @thomasknorpp, Digital Media Manager for Sainsbury’s publishes his Bits and Bytes article via his blog and I always enjoy reading it. I discovered he’s written about my article on how their employees are sharing their Little Stories externally via YouTube. Thanks Thomas.

Mums Eye View

Talking of supermarkets, my fellow CIPR social media panel member @CIPRSM, Dom Burch, @domburch, who is Head of Social at ASDA has introduced something rather fabulous this week. They have launched Mum’s Eye View channel on YouTube and over the course of a week, have had more than 47000 views and nearly 6000 subscribers.

The channel can be found on Twitter @mumseyeview and new videos will be uploaded every Friday. You can read Dom discussing the story behind it via his personal blog. Big hat-tip to him, I think this is an excellent initiative and I’ve subscribed.

What I’ve been up to

rachel millerThis week I’ve been planning an internal comms team building day that I’m facilitating for a client of mine in May, plus finalising an internal communication audit for one client and writing a social strategy for another.

I also spoke at Google on Tuesday as part of #Atmosphere14 and thoroughly enjoyed meeting HR and Internal Communication professionals and helping them think through employee social networks and how to make smart choices.

I found it fascinating to hear from Google’s HR team how they recruit, what skills they look for in managers and get a glimpse into their internal communication too.

Thanks as ever for stopping by, I hope you found this useful. Do comment below or Tweet me @AllthingsIC with any thoughts.

I’m going to be writing about internal communication strategy next week because I can see from the searches on my blog that that’s what you’re after. So will give it some thought and share information that answers what I can see you’re looking for.

Happy weekend all,

Rachel

Comments

  1. Thomas says:

    Thank you for the shout out Rachel 🙂

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