As soon as we at the Chartered Institute of Housing started planning the launch of our latest report – on the impact of the government’s benefit cap in Haringey – I knew I wanted to do something a bit different to our usual report plus press release, maybe a blog and that’s pretty much it model… What convinced me that we did need to do something different was attending a Wonkcomms event earlier this year, on research in the digital age.
Blog Archives
What’s wrong with think tank bulk emails, and how can it be put right?
A recent exchange around bulk email providers over on the WonkComms LinkedIn group got me thinking about what think tanks are doing with bulk emails. Though I might write about the best and worst bulk emails next time (a bit of naming and shaming never hurt anyone) for now here’s the bigger picture and some ideas for how things could be done better.
Tagged with: Blue State Digital, Bulk Emails, digital communications, Mailchimp, New Economics Foundation, Policy Network, think tanks, Wonky Email
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
Has twitter killed the media star? (or How I stopped worrying and learned to love social media)
Back at the end of the last millennium my biggest preoccupation at work was how to secure more column inches for my employer…. Ten years on social media had firmly established itself as a channel through which you could tell your stories and engage key opinion formers. But this was a slow transition and an organisations’ ability to pitch stories into traditional media outlets remained of paramount importance.
Tagged with: communication, communications, digital communications, digital strategy, media, social media, strategy, twitter
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
Animations: my step-by-step guide
Katy Harris of ODI’s Development Progress project outlines how they created an animation to explain the project to a broad audience, whilst also maintaining our authority to produce credible recommendations to policy-makers that are evidently based on ‘serious’ analysis.
Tagged with: animation, digital communications, messages, multimedia, online, research communications, social media
Posted in Guidance
Posted in Guidance
Providing context: topic pages at research institutions
Although there are many other aspects to developing strong topic pages, in many ways topic pages are a means of providing context on topics. This opportunity is frequently missed by research organizations. Below I make five suggestions for providing better context to your research from topic pages. Note that although the focus (including the examples) is on think tanks, these recommendations apply to other research institutions as well.
Design Content for All Platforms, Not Just the Desktop
The web continues to fragment. Most observers estimate that the mobile web will overtake the desktop world sometime in the next 12 months. While visitors to think tanks may not be out on the leading edge of the tide, they’re assuredly…
50,000 @jrf_uk Twitter followers can’t be wrong
How did the Joseph Rowntree Foundation build their corporate Twitter account to reach 50,000 followers? Through tweeting links to the latest news and developments relevant to a specific subject; then splicing in their own messages, content and media coverage.
Tagged with: digital communications, online, press, research communications, social media, twitter
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
What even is a blog?
In a recent blog on From Poverty to Power, Duncan Green asked: ‘is blogging an established part of the landscape and is there a successor waiting in the wings?’, assuming that if blogs are a part of the furniture then everybody should be encouraged to get comfortable with them. My answer is ‘yes they are and no there’s probably not’.
Tagged with: blogging, digital communications, digital content, online, research communications, strategy, think tanks
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
Virtual conferences: not in the future, but now
Over on the International Institute for Environment and Development blog, Suzanne Fisher explains how a virtual conference they held allowed online participants to follow and take part in an IIED conference, cutting carbon footprints and expense.
The future of think tank communications
A few resources and views published around the event on the future of think tank communications organised by the Social Market Foundation last Friday at the Overseas Development Institute.
Tagged with: communications, digital communications, events, online, research communications, strategy, think tanks
Posted in Events
Posted in Events
