The Best and Worst Communicators of 2011 – who is your pick?

Leading publisher of corporate communications, public relations, and leadership development newsletters Ragan has posted about what it considers the best and worst communicators of 2011

Great to see an impressive mix of pop culture mavens, political and corporate smartypants mentioned. And interesting to see so many of the people that captivated us during 2011 with their duplicity and dishonesty featured in the worst list.

A feature of the best list is honesty – sometimes at the expense of polished style, and creativity. Looking for new ways of connecting – be it Lady GaGa and her little monsters, or Chris Anderson and the way he has built a speaking forum into an inspiring global phenomenon with TED. These are people that have identified an audience and the best way to communicate with them.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker was named New Zealand Communicator of the Year by the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) in October. Did they get it right? Any other notables out there? The communications surrounding the Rena grounding stand out for me as a good example of bad communications – both from Maritime New Zealand and then Transport Minister Steven Joyce.