The current snow and ice blighting many of our roads also provides an excellent opportunity to many firms to demonstrate that their rhetoric about responsibility and care for their communities is matched by the reality. How? Simple: by clearing the snow and ice from the pavement outside their premises.

Although taking care of the pavement outside your own property is a habit more common in other countries than our own, it is a simple step that both produces real benefits (less slipping, fewer broken bones), it’s a good example of how everyone doing a little bit can bring benefits (especially in those less busy streets which even the most efficient of councils will not be gritting very often) and it’s a clear demonstration of good intent towards your neighbours.

From a PR perspective (and this is a blog about PR rather than pavements), it’s also a clear communication. Though let’s hope no-one tries to convert the area of pavement cleared into an AVE calculation to measure it against the size of a newspaper advert…

Mark Pack is Associate Director, Digital at Mandate Communications and you can follow him on Twitter at @markpack or on his blog.

Image via Ciaran Norris.