The Call for Papers for the International History of Public Relations Conference 2014 has been announced: http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/historyofpr/2013/08/28/ihprc-2014-call-for-papers/
There are two new additional themes – Public relations of media organisations, and Public relations and technology
Abstracts are due on Monday December 16. Send to prhistory@bournemouth.ac.uk
The Office of the Delegate for international Geneva of the Republic and State of Geneva is currently undertaking a review of their website Geneva International Cooperation.
We would very much appreciate your feedback by completing a brief online survey. This survey will take some 10 minutes. All responses provided are anonymous and will be treated confidentially.
To complete the survey, please click here: http://s.zoomerang.com/s/gnvinten
Thank you!
Calling all communication professionals, please assist PhD student and GCN member Lukasz Bochenek by undertaking a brief survey on key drivers and patterns in Corporate Communications Strategic Management:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/strategiccomms
Thank you!
A new publication has recently launched that promises to give those in internal communication a rich source of inspiration, learning and advice. It offers this through real-life stories and expert advice direct from leaders inside some of the world’s most exciting companies.
The publishers have made a sample issue of the Journal of Internal Communications available for GCN members to try. If you like it, you can learn more or purchase a subscription at the Journal of Internal Communication website (a special offer code can be found at the end of the sample copy).
Happy reading!
Melitta
As a platform promoting communication for the English speaking community around the Lake Geneva area, the Geneva Communicators Network would like to support the movement to save World Radio Switzerland.
Some of you may have heard that the parent company of WRS (The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation) is planning to privatize or close WRS by the end of the year.
For 15 years, WRS has provided us with valuable programmes about local news, traditions, events and other insights as well as interesting programmes from around the world. We would like to encourage our members to join the 1200 people who have already signed the online petition to save WRS.
At times it feels like Facebook has been part of our lives forever, yet its business pages are only three years old. A new study by Buddy Media reveals which posts by companies attract the most response giving some useful information for businesses wanting to drive Facebook Fan engagement.
Here is a summary of the report’s findings:
Best time to post: 20.00-07.00 – out of work hours, people take more time to ‘like’ and comment.
Post on Wednesdays – Wednesday, followed by Sunday, came out as the best days to post for engagement.
Limit daily posts – one or two posts a day results in a 40 percent higher engagement rate compared with posting more than three times a day.
Post one to four times a week – for retail brands, posting one to four times a week produces 71 percent higher user engagement than five or more posts.
Short posts work best – posts with less than 80 characters receive 66 percent higher engagement than longer posts, with those with between one and 40 characters prompting the most activity (86% more!).
Questions get fans talking – questions generate more than double the amount of comments than non-question posts.
Best structure: fill in the blank – brand posts employing a fill in the blank strategy (e.g. I like…) generate comment rates nine times higher than other posts, yet less than 1 percent of retail brands use this tactic.
Money speaks – when posting about a special offers, even small amounts of money off generates more interest than percentage discounts.
Text only posts are best – Status posts that contain only words receive 94 percent higher engagement than average. The next best post is a single photo with simple text.
What to know more? Download the full report from the Buddy Media website >
Melitta
A new book released last week promises to help those in Internal Communications to ‘Rock their Comms’ by sharing 98 killer tips from seasoned professionals (including GCN members) that all answer the question: “What’s the single, most important thing that you’ve learned in internal communication?”
Proceeds from the book go to ‘Make a Wish’, a charity that makes the dreams of terminally ill children come true, so it also supports a very worthwhile cause.
To know more or order your copy, visit the Rockstar Comms website.
Melitta
After asking members of the Internal Communications Community how they would explain what they do to a nine year-old, UK based Employee Engagement agency, Involve, produced a short film featuring a nine year-old girl explaining what her father does all day and the difference that a ‘lady with shiny shoes’ (a new internal communications manager), has made to his company.
It’s a fun yet clear look at what communications professionals do all day.
You can view the animation on You Tube: ‘What do people do all day?’ >
Melitta
The third annual ‘Professional Development in Internal Communications’ study by the VMA Group, highlights the core skills and qualities that managers look for when recruiting IC professionals today.
According to the report, the top five skills are:
Interestingly, the first three points highlight the continuing evolution of internal communications from a function that churns out news, to one that has a real impact on the success of a company. While the last two points highlight that traditional communication skills still have an important place in the function.
By contrast, the top five skills as perceived by the IC community are:
While survey respondents felt that they are an integral part of the senior leadership team, disappointingly the results showed that advocacy for internal communications amonsgst senior leaders remained unchanged from 2010.
On a more encouraging note, the results did testify to the resilience of the discipline despite the economic climate, with 74% of internal communications functions remaining the same or increased in size over the last year.
You can download a copy of the full report via the VMA website >
Melitta
When the video of a deliveryman tossing a fragile package over a gate went viral at the end of last year, FedEx didn’t recoil – it responded. Giving a great example of how to overturn a PR disaster.
Rather than ignore the unfortunate incident, Matthew Thornton, III, senior VP of FedEx Express U.S. Operations, released a blog post and YouTube video of his own expressing his personal disappointment and embarrassment before explaining what the company has done for the customer since and the steps they are taking to avoid such incidents in the future.
To watch both videos, read the full story on PRDaily >
Melitta