#1 TWTWTW | Thinking, engaging, researching, drawing, watching, working
Curiosity, brainstorm, engagement, hashtags, measurement, storytime, Congress, basketball, offices, jobs
Hello, good morning and welcome. I’m Stuart Bruce and I am a PR Futurist.
Every week I spend hours reading, watching and listening to keep up to date on the latest news, research, opinion and comment on how public relations, communication, corporate affairs and public affairs is changing. I’m sharing it with you… for free… so you don’t have to 😊 If you’d like me to help your organisation deal with its own digital transformation then get in touch.
When I planned this newsletter in May I intended to start in September. However, I’m now drip starting my various ideas so I’m kicking it off as a trial over the summer.
Thinking
🗃 Curiosity | I had a great Teams chat with my old friend Dom Burch who showed me Shooglebox. It’s a great new tool to “squirrel away” all that great stuff you find on the interweb. I used it to create this newsletter. I’m fairly sure it’s going to find a place in my #PRtech stack. It’s freemium so you can sign up today, love it and then sign up your team. Thanks Dom Burch and Tony Cuthbertson.
🧠 Brainstorm | I think Shooglebox has great potential as a brainstorming tool, especially as that’s one of the parts of work that some people find harder to do away from an office. Harvard Business Review has a handy ‘How to brainstorm - remotely’. Via Tony Cuthbertson.
Researching
🚀 Engagement | How have views on digital engagement changed as a result of COVID-19? Twilio has done some research to find the answer. It has accelerated digital communications strategies by an average of six years while 97% of enterprise decision-makers believe the pandemic sped up their company’s digital transformation.
🥢Hashtags | The smart yetis at 10yetis gave me a birthday present on 17 July with this smart guide for how to optimise #hashtags for #pr #socialmedia #communication #corporateaffairs #publicaffairs
Drawing
📐Measurement | I already use this an example of how you need to be careful when interpreting data as it might not mean what you think it means as this sketchplanation explains.
🔥 Storytime | I love this idea of a periodic table of story elements. I’ll be incorporating it into my content management and corporate storytelling masterclasses. All credit to Hamish Thompson
Watching
🗳 Congress | As we watch the debate continue to rage about civility (or lack of) on social media the Pew Research Center has some up to date analysis of how members of the US Congress are actually using social media by analysing content since 2015.
🏀 Basketball | The National Basketball Association is using the new Microsoft Teams Together mode to bring 300 virtual fans to watch games courtside via giant 15m screens. Zoom might have become the new ‘Hoover’ to describe video meetings, but Microsoft is certainly giving it a run for its money with Teams. Not only does Teams do great video meetings but it leaves Zoom standing for productivity as it also enables you do do all the other essential elements of remote working.
Working
🏢 Offices | It’s not surprising lockdown has led tech companies like Twitter and Facebook to reach the startling obvious conclusion their employees don’t all need to in city-centre offices. However, it is now joined by huge industrial companies like Siemens and banks such as Barclays. If they can do it, anyone can do it. Some are worried about employees being forced to work from home. A legitimate concern. But no more legitimate than employees being forced to work from offices.
👷♀️ Jobs | Dubai-based property company Emaar has taken the radical step of abolishing all job titles. Former (and current?) chairman Mohamed Alabbar sent an email saying:
“When you reach the end of this email, you will notice something different. I have no job title. And from this moment onwards, nor do you.”
ICYMI
🎓 Profession | My take on the CIPR State of the Profession Report. I continue to be baffled at how so many PR practitioners claim to be strategic, while not doing many of the things you need to do in order to actually do it.
📽 TikTok | If you think TikTok is just for kids and funky brands then think again. I’ve rounded up some of the best examples of corporate, charity, NGO and journalist TikTok accounts.
Bye for now
That’s all for now folks. Be sure to subscribe to get next week’s edition.
You can also find me on Twitter, my PR Futurist blog and on LinkedIn.