I’ve been catching up on my RSS and email backlog after a relaxing half-term week off. A few themes caught my attention as I scanned through the hundreds of unread posts and emails:

Public relations vs SEO

Stuart Bruce has a nice summary of a debate that’s been happening on Twitter and elsewhere about the relative roles of public relations and search engine optimisation (SEO). For me the two are very different beasts, although there is some crossover. Stuart hits the nail on the head identifying SEO as one of the many tools that a rounded public relations practitioner should have available for use, depending on the objectives of the public relations campaigns and the best way to achieve them.

Government’s Director of Digital Engagement

The Cabinet Office has advertised for its Director of Digital Engagement role – seen as pivotal in pulling together many strands of digital innovation that are taking place across government and putting digital engagement at the heart of policy making. Neville Hobson has a good commentary on the role and coverage surrounding it.

I agree with Neville’s sentiment about the role being potentially too broad for one individual to tick every box in the person specification, but am less convinced that it could be delivered instead as he suggests by a team of specialists – a role like this needs someone who can function in a complex, political world where lobbying, influencing, persuading are just some of the skills required. That said, if it’s not already, this role would definitely need a multi-skilled team to support its work and maybe that’s where a wider variety of people can be used to best effect.

Thanks to Steph Gray you can put forward your thoughts on what the new director should be doing here – some interesting ideas emerging already.

Social media as a consultation tool

I’ve written before about how the Birmingham’s volunteer-led Big City Talk website was a great example of how social media can be used as part of a consultation and engagement campaign – although this one was produced by a group of volunteers working independently of Birmingham City Council. I also had the chance to meet a couple of the people behind the site back in December. Now Jon Bounds has posted a great four-part insight into the project – well worth reading for anyone involved in public sector communications or consultation: part one, part two, part three and part four.

Social media and local government

The IDeA‘s Ingrid Koehler has a great post – ten local government social media myths – I agree with every myth she’s covered and will have a think about any more that I come across in my work and when I talk with others working in local government communications.