Staff training for data protection
28 January 2019 by Tim Lloyd
Data. Protection. Privacy. Regulation. This may not excite staff, but it is possible to engage them with their responsibilities.
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Good customer service is no laughing matter
26 June 2018 by Tim Lloyd
When we deliver customer service training for clients, there’s usually a section labelled ‘use of humour’ or something similar. It’s the bit where we discuss the risks and opportunities of using a bit of banter or cracking a joke on social media channels. There are a few time-honoured examples where…
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The real reasons big companies reject social media
17 April 2018 by Tim Lloyd
JD Wetherspoon is a chain of 900 budget-price pubs across the UK. They decided to quit social media, having attempted to run various twitter and facebook accounts, with varying amounts of effort and success. On the face of it, for a big public-facing organisation to quit social media is bold.…
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Speed, empathy and the future of crisis response on The Native podcast
16 March 2018 by Tim Lloyd
Podcaster Dave Musson from The Native talks to Helpful Managing Director Steph Gray about crisis communications including: why speed isn’t everything in responding to a crisis online, how some organisations achieve a better sense of empathy than others, and what the big issues could be on the horizon, including Brexit,…
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On the receiving end of the Social Simulator
23 October 2017 by Tim Lloyd
I’ve just finished helping to deliver social media simulation as part of a large incident response exercise. We’re pretty focussed on finding things that the press, public affairs and incident management team did well online, and where they need to get better. Handing out constructive criticism and recommendations in the…
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5 tips for attention-grabbing exercise scenarios
29 August 2017 by Tim Lloyd
We spend a lot of time designing, researching and creating scenarios for crisis response exercises. We have a wide range of tried and tested scenarios to use as a starting point, but our clients are always best placed to outline something that meets their needs. However, this requires organisations to…
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Grenfell community voices reporting from the scene
8 August 2017 by Tim Lloyd
It’s hard to justify any analysis of the online response to the Grenfell disaster. Who said what and where, using what channels, doesn’t really feel important in the context of the lives lost and destroyed. There are however, 3 sources of information that I’ve found compelling viewing, because they’re raw…
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How should Government Ministers determine a media crisis?
9 January 2017 by Tim Lloyd
The UK Institute for Government have published a series of interviews with former Ministers, reflecting on the crises they faced during their time in office. It’s an interesting read, because most interviewees are no longer shackled by a need to protect their future career. Nonetheless, in their time they were accountable during some serious events. These include…
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What’s a crisis exercise really like?
1 November 2016 by Tim Lloyd
We can’t always say much about the crisis simulations that we run for clients. Understandably, companies don’t want to reveal the problems they face and how they plan to deal with them. What we can say with confidence, is that more and more organisations are including online engagement when they…
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Keeping it real: Being flexible and responsive under pressure
12 August 2015 by Tim Lloyd
Imagine being faced with hundreds of different voices and personalities online, all complaining about your product or service. You can’t see these people, only what they write or film. They’re unaccountable and uncaring and, as far as they are concerned, you are just a faceless organisation. This is just a…
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