Blog

Corporate apology advice

When apologies go wrong

Tim Davie, BBC Director General and Team GB equestrian star Charlotte Dujardin have both issued apologies this week. Both lack specific reference of the issue they’re apologising for. As a result, they’re continuing to receive criticism and risk the issue growing and causing them more damage over the long term. Comsteria’s founder and crisis communications specialist Colin Kelly has advice on what they should have done differently, and what you can learn. Watch the video Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Instagram shadow bans

Instagram Content Restrictions – Advice

We’ve become aware recently of a quite concerning double standard across Meta owned properties, specifically Instagram, with users facing restrictions (sometimes called ‘shadow banning) on their accounts for sharing what the platform considers to be ‘sexually explicit or erotic’ content. There’s never any clear definition of what is actually defined as ‘sexually explicit or erotic’. Many of us will have quite clear definitions in our heads but in practice it seems a lot of innocent Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Comsteria - About Us

Comsteria – What we do and how we help

Comsteria’s Managing Director Colin Kelly shares the full story of how Comsteria came to be, what we do, who we work with and why we’ve got the edge over our competitors. Since 2012 we’ve been delivering more than 200 corporate communication training sessions to clients throughout Scotland and beyond each year. From media training to smartphone video production, crisis comms and presentation skills – we’re Scotland’s Powerful Communication champion, and we’re ready to work with Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Podcast editing tip

Podcast Editing Tip

Editing a podcast can be time consuming and frustrating. A particular challenge is when a podcast guest runs several words into each other and sentences don’t end cleanly. This is part of natural speech patterns but presents a problem when you’re trying to lift ‘clips’ out of a sentence, perhaps to use in an intro sequence. Or where the speaker goes on to talk about a separate topic and you need to ‘cut’ what they Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Get started with blogging - on demand training

Get started with blogging

You can enjoy on demand training from Comsteria right now with our blogging live stream from earlier this week. Colin Kelly presents this 2 hour session explaining how blogging can help your business, how to get started and more. This is a taster session – get in touch if you would like more tailored support for your business, or take advantage of our blogging ghost writing service where we’ll write blogs for your business. Press Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Inside the News - Clyde 1

Inside The News: Clyde 1, 8am bulletin

In our media training courses I encourage clients to spend more time consuming media critically. Listen to radio news, watch bulletins on TV and try to spend some time with a different newspaper each week. Developing a better understanding of what the mainstream media actually does is key to improving the results you get from your dealings with it. In this series, ‘Inside The News’, we’ll explore a different media outlet in each episode so Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Acronyms and abbreviations in corporate communications.

The trouble with acronyms and abbreviations – why you should spell out your name.

We love a good TLA (three letter acronym!) in corporate communications. We’re driven to make things catchy, memorable and concise. But we know we need to be careful not to overdo it. A page full of acronyms and abbreviations can turn off even the most engaged audience, open us up to ridicule and actually put people off wanting to work for a particular employer. Language can act as a barrier and is bad for inclusion Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Houses of Parliament, UK

Are you ready to change the world? Advice for election candidates.

I’ve always been interested by the type of person politics attracts. I’ve met quite a few over the years and the majority strike me as decent, positive people, determined to make a difference to the communities they serve. So why on earth get involved in politics?! Cynicism aside, I do feel there are many other routes to improving our society. Teaching, working for a charity, sport and grassroots sports coaching, volunteering, running your own business, Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Comsteria logo

Free Download – Training And Creative Services Brochure

We’ve taken everything you could possibly want to know about Comsteria’s training and creative services and put it all together in one glossy brochure for you to read right now. You’ll discover how we started, who we work with and how we are able to deliver such outstanding results that keep clients delighted. It’s packed with details of what we include in our courses, how they can be tailored and delivered to you and there’s Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago
Blue gas flame on a hob.

How do you justify a £4.5 million salary?

Chris O’Shea is CEO of British Gas owner Centrica and it’s safe to say he’s OK for a few quid. In a recent interview with BBC Breakfast News, he sat on the couch and quite calmly revealed his salary last year was a staggering £4.5 million. While he didn’t seem ashamed or embarrassed by that, he made it clear he totally understood that such earnings can’t be justified while so many of his customers, staff Read more…

By Colin Kelly, ago