I won an award(!)🎺, the rise of Reddit for comms & Trainline's chuffing good stories
Plus... the Father's Day card I love (but didn't get)
🎺Shameless trumpet blowing!🎺
After a break of a few months, Data Comms Chronicles is back. And I’ll start with some shameless trumpet blowing! I’ve won an award!
In May I travelled to London after being selected as one of the inaugural Independent Impact 50 winners, which recognises “the most innovative and influential independent PR practitioners who are shaping the future of communication”. The Awards were launched by Rod Cartwright and Nigel Sarbutts to give a platform for independent comms talent.
Working as a consultant certainly comes with uncertainty and challenges, as well as huge career highs. It’s been one heck of a journey, after pivoting my career in my mid-40s and leaving secure employment for a new venture in data informed comms and PR.
It’s a decision I don’t regret for a minute. I’m chuffed to bit to me on the list with so many talented and innovative people I respect.
To those of you reading, who have worked with me, a massive thank you - your support has crucial and is so much appreciated.
Father’s Day dataviz
This is the card I definitely should have got, but didn’t. Next year, I hope!
The rise of Reddit - and what it means for comms
Reddit has been around donkey’s years - but of late something remarkable has happened.
(Note: I’m now offering new 2-hour sessions on how comms teams can harness data and insight from Reddit - drop me a line if that sounds like something you would benefit from).
It now has an estimated 1.1 billion monthly unique visitors. Its share price has rocketed (although it has fallen in more recent months). And it has more users in the UK than X, according to Ofcom. With one member of its staff recently describing it on LinkedIn recently as the ‘world’s biggest focus group’.
What's more, 90% of users trust Reddit to learn about products and brands, according to the platform's own research. It’s becoming a go-to place for trusted information.
Try 'Is [my org] a good place to work? in Google and look at the AI Overview'. If you're a public sector comms team running a priority recruitment campaign for firefighters, paramedics, or police officers, Reddit matters.
It increasingly feeds into AI Search results; there will likely be a rich subreddit about the reality of doing the job you are enthusiastically promoting - maybe even about doing the job within your own organisation. That’s what AI is likely to draw upon.
So, people who have seen your great awareness campaigns may well end up in AI search results, fed by Reddit. You're saying you offer good career progression - but does that stack up against real experiences being recounted online? If your messages are opposing, who will people trust? Your shiny comms or ‘real people’?
From a data insights perspective, the conversations on Reddit can help you better understand the priorities and concerns of your target audience, informing how you plan and execute your campaign.
In my training workshops I always encourage comms professionals I train to think about data as words, not just numbers. Reddit is just one of many 'alternative' data sources we should be thinking about when we think about how we can be data-informed.
Some really good examples of Reddit being used to support communications include:
The BBC using it for Euro 2025 by asking passionate and informed football fans about the burning questions they want answered.
Academics using it to understand a whole range of social and business issues - for example, the impact of menopause in the workplace.
West Yorkshire NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) using it as an involvement tool for their public consultation on Preventing Sickness, Not Just Treating It. The ICB told me that ‘it has had almost as many comments as survey responses, and the discourse was thoughtful and super useful’.
On the road (well, rails)
In the first half of this year I’ve been racking up the train miles (and Delay Repay claims😬), with workshops and presentations across the UK:
Wakefield, working with the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance (with my good mate Darren Caveney)
London, working with Royal Borough and Kensington and Chelsea
Birmingham, working with CAN Digital
Glasgow, working with Police Scotland
Leicester, working with East Midlands Ambulance Service
Bristol and Newcastle, working with Orlo
In a data-driven world, more and more public sector comms leaders are asking for help in ensuring their teams are more comfortable and capable when it comes to data.
If you’re looking to develop the data skills of your comms team to boost your campaigns, demonstrate value and drive real impact in 2025 and 2026, I’m now taking bookings for September onwards (alex@whetstonecomms.com).
Chuffing good data stories from Trainline
I do like what Trainline has been doing with my journey history data.
A nice example of using readily available data to tell engaging stories and help drive behaviour change.
It works, I think, because it goes beyond just spewing lots of numbers at me (a common error) - it selects the stats that matter, creates engaging visual content - and, importantly, helps me understand by using comparison and bringing in other data to tell a richer story.
For example, helping me see how much carbon I’ve saved and what that equates to in washing machine terms - and how my train journey footprint compares to using a car.
Cleverly, it encourages more of the same behaviour by bringing in further travel time and pricing data; allowing me to click through and book there and then on train routes that are faster, cheaper - and of course more environmentally friendly.
That’s a strong proposition for a regular train user like me - a great example of playing my own data back to me in a considered way, to construct a narrative that engages and encourages me to take a further action.
I’m also offered a way of taking a further step, to make a pledge to become a ‘climate hero’ by switching a future journey. And note the subtle use of nudge theory in the wording “Join the 25,000”, which would deepen my engagement.
It’s really good stuff… unlike the train journeys themselves (but that’s another story)!
Data Communications Chronicles is written by Alex Waddington (alex@whetstonecomms.com), award-winning founder of Whetstone Communications, which helps public sector and not for profit comms teams do more - and deliver better - using data.