Why Blog?

Every day we’re bombarded with statistics from organisations wanting to make their point. But a good journalist will be sceptical about the figures handed out. As Benjamin Disraeli said: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Statistics can be used for or against any argument. For example “Our customer satisfaction survey shows 90 per cent approval ratings.” So you’re saying one in ten of your customers think your service/product is rubbish? Of course you may think this is journalists causing trouble. Well that goes with the territory. But is the question a fair one? I would say yes it is. If you are going to start making claims based on numbers then make sure those figures are watertight and actually mean something. Work out the answer to the one in ten before you do the media interview. The question might not come but have an answer none the less. The other thing to remember about statistics is avoid getting hung up on them. For scientific/acade...

Reputation, Reputation, Reputation If the person you knew the least in your organisation could do the most damage to its reputation, would you treat them differently? If the answer is yes, then maybe this year is the time to think about how you communicate with them – particularly around the issue of cyber security. We’re all only one click away from ransomware, a data breach or a computer virus. It only takes one staff member, freelance, intern, temp to respond to a phishing request, click on a dodgy link, leave their mobile device unprotected and there it is. Data breaches such as the attack on the credit reference agency Equifax http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41575188 and the Uber breach http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42079937 are bad for business. Journalists know a finely tuned and prepared PR machine may prevent them from getting the jump on senior executives and the CEO when chasing these stories. But it won’t stop them finding customers who have been ...