Useful websites, online tools and apps for communication professionals.
Government Communication Service
The GCS is the professional body for people working in communication roles across government. Its aim is to deliver world-class communications that support Ministers’ priorities, improve people’s lives and enable the effective operation of our public service. The GCS serve both politicians and the public.
Canva
Canva is a free graphic-design tool with an easy to use drag-and-drop interface and access to over a million photographs, graphics, and fonts. It is used by non-designers as well as professionals. The tools can be used for both web and print media design and graphics and are particularly useful for creating social media graphics.
News Media Association
The News Media Association is the voice of national, regional and local news media organisations in the UK – a £5 billion sector read by 48 million adults every month in print and online. The NMA exists to promote the interests of news media publishers to Government, regulatory authorities, industry bodies and other organisations whose work affects the industry.
National Readership Survey
The National Readership Survey was established in 1956 and today provides the most authoritative and valued audience research in use for print and digital advertising trading in Britain. The survey covers over 250 of Britain’s major newsbrands and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve.
Slack
Slack teams allow communities, groups, or teams to join through a specific URL or invitation sent by a team admin or owner. Although Slack was originally meant for organizational communication, it has been slowly turning into a community platform, a function for which users had previously used message boards or social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn groups.
Go ON NI
Go ON NI highlights the benefits of being online. It brings together all the wonderful initiatives, places and tools to help and encourage off-liners to become internet beginners.
SurveyMonkey
Free online survey tool – send surveys, polls and questionnaires, generate customer feedback, carry out market research. You get access to sample survey questions and professional templates and there’s a guide to analysing results.
Facebook Audience Insights
The more customer insights you have, the better you’re equipped to deliver meaningful messages to people. That’s the thinking behind Facebook Audience Insights, a tool designed to help marketers learn more about their target audiences, including aggregate information about geography, demographics, purchase behaviour and more.
Home - Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK.
Spatial NI
Spatial NI is the Northern Ireland portal for Geographic Information (GI). The portal was initially developed by Land & Property Services (LPS) in order to comply with the EU INSPIRE Directive. It allows easy access to LPS base mapping and NI Geographic Information to the public sector and the citizen. It has been designed so it can be used by both technical and non technical users who want to make use of the full potential of GI within their own business areas.
OFCOM
Ofcom is the communications regulator in the UK. It produces an annual Communications Market Report which looks at how consumers use the communications services available to them, as well as exploring how the communications market is changing. There is a UK-wide report as well as reports for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. An interactive version of the report is also available.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. Users can review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals). Goals might include viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file. Google Analytics shows high-level, dashboard-type data for the casual user, and more in-depth data further into the report set. It can identify poorly performing pages with techniques such as funnel visualization, where visitors came from (referrers), how long they stayed on the website and their geographical position. It also provides more advanced features, including custom visitor segmentation.