Useful tips in the recent PR Week for the communications functions of public sector organisations managing their way through the recession (or ‘cold climate’ as the public sector might refer to it – see previous post on jargon).

• Look for ways of integrating comms functions with other departments and organisations
• Learn how to tell a convincing story internally about what you are doing.
• Work with partner organisations to maximise your budgets
• Be more strategic, and more digital (although what about your audiences that are not broadband?)
• Retrain your talent to be skilled in more areas of comms
• Get better at evaluation – it will justify your existence
• If budgets are short, do not try to do everything – cut specific functions entirely

PWP has recently teamed up with Volute web design to produce the new website for the Institute of Mental Health in Nottingham, which can be viewed at www.institutemh.org.uk – in time for its official launch at the Institute’s ‘Annual Lunch’ on November 2.  The site takes on the branding developed by PWP following our communications and branding review earlier this year.

Hardraw Force waterfall 010 copy

Originally uploaded by PWP Communications

Hardraw Force waterfall, near Hawes, pictured during a wet weekend in the Yorkshire Dales.

Some handy and rather fun facts for anyone doing a presentation on social media…

• Facebook has six million users
• There are four million bloggers in the UK
• Worldwide 1.4 blogs are created every second
• In 2007, podcast sites exceeded the number of radio stations in the world
• 91% of all email is spam
• More than 27 million people in Britain viewed 3.5 billion videos online in March 2008, with almost half seen on YouTube
• In 2008, The Guardian newspaper had a circulation of 347,000 but a daily web audience of 771,000
• One in five Domino’s pizzas are sold over the web

All figures correct as at 2008.

The National Social Marketing Centre has recently published a report providing an update on the state of readiness in PCTs for their social marketing challenges. The report – click here – brings together all the initial learning from the regional NSMC managers. Useful if you want to see how early adopters and latecomers are reacting to looking at strategic and operational health objectives from a social marketing perspective.

For all the latest communications commentary, it’s worth visiting http://prvoice.typepad.com/ for the voice of the industry’s CIPR president.

Beach stone

Originally uploaded by PWP Communications

This photograph, along with an accompanying set on Flickr, shows the subtle and sometimes more direct messages that we encounter in our everyday lives. This is a genuine message found on a stone this summer at Seaton beach in Devon, following a morning spent kayaking down the river Axe to reach the sea. Similar photographs showing words in pictures are on the People, Words & Pictures Flickr site.

Those interested in all the latest social marketing developments can sign up for a new e-bulletin from the National Social Marketing Centre’s new-look website at http://www.nsmcentre.org.uk/

People, Words & Pictures is now registered with Companies House as the business has incorporated. The company, People, Words & Pictures Ltd, will launch on September 1, with a registered address of 31 Violet Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 5HA. Registered in England and Wales – Company No. 6997154. Thank you to everyone who has helped get us this far, so far.

Taken out of context and possibly the result of careful editing, but the reported quote of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey referring to some of the convenience products in his stores as “we sell a bunch of junk” does not look terribly good. And I thought organic communications were supposed to be better for you than non-organic.