Freelance Digital Marketing and Social Media Consultant for hire

Ben Matthews, Experienced Digital Marketing & Social Media Consultant Freelance digital marketing social media consultant for hire in London, with over 10 years experience in the tech, mobile, government, charity and startup sectors. I started my social career in the financial sector, moving to technology, government and charity social media agencies, before finally working as … Read more

How do you achieve work life balance as a freelance?

As a freelancer, maintaining work life balance can be a hard task. As well as juggling lots of clients and projects at once, there is the added pressure of taking care of all the housekeeping that comes along with freelance life. From finances and new business, to updating your social media profiles and chasing client … Read more

My Privacy Plan

(Photo via Sean MacEntee) I’ve decided to come up with a privacy plan for myself. After hearing about the NSA’s surveillance scandals and now the details about Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations, I’ve been kicked into action. These events has got me (and several million other people) spooked by who is … Read more

How To Have a Decent Digital Diet

(Note: I get the irony of writing about a digital diet on a blog, which you will undoubtedly read on some kind of digital device.) It’s a fact of modern life that we spend most of our days looking at digital screens. From checking tweets on your mobile, to doing email on your laptop, to … Read more

Economy, Effectiveness, Efficiency: How councils can measure the success of social media

(This is a full version of an article I wrote for The Guardian’s Local Leaders Network on how councils can measure the success of social media. You can read the edited version on the Guardian’s site.) According to the 2013 BDO Local Government Social Media Survey, 98% of UK councils are using some form of digital or … Read more

Digital innovation in local government around the world

(This is a full version of an article I wrote for The Guardian’s Local Leaders Network on digital innovation in local government. You can read the edited version on the Guardian’s site.) When working in digital innovation and local government, it’s helpful to stick your head above the parapet and see what others are up to. There is … Read more

Online Privacy Issues Need to be Easier to Understand

Online privacy issues are currently difficult to understand. Amid media headlines about NSA, Prism and Snowden, terms such as encryption, Tor and HTTPS are used extensively with the average person expected to keep up  with what they mean and understand how the issues affect them. For people who aren’t technically adept, the message about why online … Read more

How to build a high performing communications team

(Thanks to Neil Grayshon for the image!) Building an excellent communications team requires lots of equally-excellent strategy, hiring, people management and culture building – and more. I knew when I started at FutureGov that I didn’t have experience in this area, so reached out to the good and the great of the UK PR industry … Read more