Web Curios

You! Yes, you! Welcome, once again (presuming that you’ve been here before - if you’ve stumbled across this whilst searching for pornography then I apologise in advance for the lack of nudity but offer you a sincere first-timers’ welcome) to Web Curios.

Something for the weekend….

Its Friday afternoon and it’s been a long week. But I’m really looking forward to tonights BBC Sport Relief programme.

 

If you’ve been watching the Eddie Izzard documentary about his incredible feat of running 43 marathons in 51 days you can’t help but feel inspired. What he did was simply incredible.

 

 

The Soho Square Marathon

Each year Hill & Knowlton staff donate their time to a worthy cause - not to write press releases and make media calls but to get our hands dirty. For instance last year we supported London Play and helped clean, paint and repair playgrounds around the Capital for a day.

This year we are donated 200-odd staff to children’s charity Kids Co.

What I should have said about crisis management at our change communication event (Part 3)

After last week’s change and communication event at Hill & Knowlton I’ve been following up an answer I gave to the question: ”What do you tell internal audiences about a change program, compared to what you tell external audiences?”

What I should have said about crisis management at our change communication event (Part 2)

Yesterday I started to follow up a question from last week’s panel discussion about the relationship between organisational change and communication, in particular the idea that internal and external audiences should be given the same information.

In this post I’m going to expand on the idea of information security.

What’s in a name?

My colleagues and I have been spending a lot of time recently thinking about what we offer our clients.

We’re beginning to question whether the title of our Practice: Change & Internal Communications is right? It’s broadly accurate I suppose but does it really cover what we do?

How regulators deal with a PR crisis: EFSA releases crisis simulation report

Food and beverage companies operating in Europe would do well to take a look at the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) recently released crisis simulation exercise report. For a number of reasons.

Internet famous in 15 minutes: The Conan O’Brien and Sarah Killen story in screenshots

One of my presentations at D2 was ‘Why Twitter Matters‘. Before I post that, I wanted to catch up with a story I started to capture last weekend. If you also study the diverse and sometimes random effects of Twitter, you’ve probably seen this charming tale of social serendipity.

Web Curios

Hello, webmongs. Happy Friday and all that. As I write, it’s 11:52am and it would appear that EVERYONE on the internet is watching the Beyonce / Lady Gaga lipstick-lesbian product placement extravaganza (otherwise known as the promo for new single ‘Telephone‘). I’m not, though. I am slaving over a hot keyboard to bring you a random, disconnected bunch of rubbish from the internets. SEE MY STAKHANOVITE DEDICATION AND WONDER.

Twitter and Facebook: they’re cool but who calls the shots?

Facebook, Twitter, Facebook, Twitter, Facebook, Twitter…

If media coverage and excitement where the best indicator of who’s who in the global technology industry, there would be no doubt where we stood. The creators of this video are very clear on who matters out there:

I’ve just done a little research and am reliably informed (thanks, Wikipedia) that:

5 ways brands should act in the social media space

I was thinking about how brands act online and some still get it horribly wrong, many get it beautifully right. But, what have a learnt from their endeavours - here are five points on how brands need to act to get it right in the social media space:

I want to drive my car on my television

If you have a spare few hours you may want to read this excellent (albeit long) article by Tim Rogers on his experiences in Japan. In it he tells the story behind the creation of popular video game Gran Turismo.

On his first day at Sony Computer Entertainment, Kazunori Yamauchi wrote a game design idea consisting of nothing more than the words, “I want to drive my car on my television”.

How fantastic is that?

No lengthy, over-elaborate proposals or in-depth strategic thought process.

Demystifying Digital. Our private, but open symposium

We do quite a few events for clients here at H&K. But the two day D2 conference is the biggest I have ever been involved with. Both for the power of the speakers on the agenda, and the wonderful range of clients and guests attending. I am not really nervous, because we have done so much prep, but I do hope my part goes well. I get to follow the opening keynote from Sir Martin Sorrell.

The joys of re-branding

A re-brand is a bit like Marmite - you either love it or hate it… but without the love it part. In difficult financial times, it’s even harder to get it right - and harder still for a charity.

Economists are real people too you know

Oddly enough, most of my best lessons about working in communication haven’t come from people who are communication professionals.

Case in point - my grandmother’s advice: “If somebody doesn’t understand what you’re telling them, don’t tell them louder. Tell them different.”

Had Grandma been more entrepreneurial she’d have printed that on t-shirts and sold them at marketing conferences.