Our thinking, things we've spotted elsewhere, and vistas into life at Helpful...
21 Aug 2018 in Blog
The number of podcast listeners has increased significantly over the past four years, reaching over 68 million in America in 2017. 44 percent of these listeners are millennials and 57 percent of those listeners hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. What used to be considered an outdated and “nerdy” platform has revolutionised media, news, […]
17 Jul 2018 in Blog
During June 2018, we had our first Gov.uk inspired ‘firebreak’, where we paused non-essential project work for 2-3 weeks so the build team could focus on their own individual projects; including researching new ideas & technologies, organising neglected repositories, remodelling dated templates and writing helpful guides and documentation. Urgent requests from clients were prioritised over […]
12 Jul 2018 in Blog
We like Commscamp. A couple of hundred interesting public sector comms people in a lovely rambling building by the Birmingham & Fazeley canal, run on traditional unconference principles: no fixed agenda before the day, anyone can pitch a 50 min session, and the “law of two feet” applies (i.e. if a session is boring you, […]
5 Jul 2018 in Blog
As a team here at Helpful, we've got our share of personal connections to the NHS at painful and joyful moments in own lives. So as the NHS turns 70 this week, we've been looking back at some of the NHS projects we've done in our eight years working with NHS and related organisations.
26 Jun 2018 in Blog
On Tuesday I joined 4000 others at the Women Of Silicon Roundabout conference in London, celebrating gender diversity in tech and the day as a whole was extremely interesting and inspiring. The best bits The standout for me was Sarah Raymond, product lead at Spotify. Spotify has 170m listeners across 65 countries so pinning down and understanding […]
8 Jun 2018 in Blog
You don’t have to search far to find online guides offering advice for creating the perfect Twitter profile. Many of the guides I’ve found online are focused on gaining more followers, but really that should come organically if you’ve mastered the basics of your profile. The ‘popping’ part of your profile should be personality. Here’s […]
18 May 2018 in Writing elsewhere
Steph writes about what we learned by “prudently overreacting” to an incident which helped us put some of our own crisis templates and information security measures into practice Using “prudent overreaction” to manage an incident of our own
5 Feb 2018 in Writing elsewhere
We’ve been doing business in the USA for several years, helping clients in sectors from pharmaceuticals to financial services, energy to agritech to stress-test their crisis and emergency preparedness through crisis drills incorporating a realistic and dynamic social media element. This month we enter an incredibly exciting new phase, as we’ve opened our first North […]
12 Jan 2018 in Writing elsewhere
Steph writes about how we test leaders’ ability to avoid simply being glued to the soap opera of a crisis on social media, which saps their time and focus and prevents them stepping back to consider the bigger picture.
14 Dec 2017 in Writing elsewhere
We’re focussed on finding things that incident management teams did well, and where they need to improve.
12 Dec 2017 in Blog
My Grandparents were very proud of Dad’s travels with the Merchant Navy. On the wall of their home was a world map, with pins to show all the different places he’d visited. I used to spend hours looking at those pins and wondering. Since 2010 I’ve been using Foursquare and its later stablemate, Swarm. These two apps allow you to […]
18 Aug 2017 in Blog
Open government is a driver for the way we deliver a lot of our work at Helpful. The challenge with open government is that it’s often difficult to see the impact of changes to laws and processes, on the citizen. Prison reform is a case in point, which is why we chose to work with […]
13 Jun 2017 in Blog
Digital skills building doesn’t always lend itself to books. If you want to learn something you’ll Google it, speak to colleagues, or seek out training if you want more depth and support. Books have their place, but often for inspiration rather than practical learning. Sometimes I’m proved wrong and this is one of those occasions. […]
21 Apr 2017 in Blog
If you’re anything like me, I get used to doing things in a routine and often become blissfully unaware that there is an easier way. So when I discovered a few nifty things about one of my favourite apps, Instagram, I thought I should share it with you all to hopefully make your image sharing lives […]
21 Apr 2017 in Blog
Blogging, or its video equivalent, vlogging, have an important role to play in sharing ideas, encouraging feedback and explaining work that might be too detailed for 140 characters. Blogging tends to be overlooked, because it doesn’t offer the immediate gratification and ease of a social network. On something like Twitter you can publish within seconds and see responses […]
18 Apr 2017 in Writing elsewhere
Tim explores how ‘advanced’ is a relative term in digital skills
18 Apr 2017 in Blog
The UK faces another vote this Summer. Whatever the impact on how the country is governed, we can be certain that the election process will generate a fresh round of speculation about how social media, and principally Facebook, is influencing political views/wrecking lives/creepy/sinister (delete as appropriate). It won’t surprise you to read that we have a […]
29 Mar 2017 in Blog
Stories today are shapeless, slippery fellows who slip through the fingers of all those who try to grasp them. To demonstrate this let’s look at the made-up story of the Apple and the Worm. 1986 Charles bought an apple from the Acme Fruit & Veg stall. When he got it home he took a bite […]
9 Mar 2017 in Blog
One of the topics we discuss during crisis training is the way journalists use social media to find context for stories, including photos and videos they can use in their reports. We show participants examples of how, before journalists even arrive on the scene, rolling news reports on their websites feature updates from eyewitnesses and […]
9 Mar 2017 in Blog
In a world of perfectly curated Instagram profiles and success-filled Facebook profiles, it’s good to have a messy space online. Somewhere you can experiment, explore and not worry too much about what others might see. You’ve probably read about fake news, the filter bubble and good or bad campaigns. It’s understandable that you may not want […]