Dan Slee

I’ve not done much lately on what content works in Facebook groups.

So, I thought I’d take a look.

But first a recap.

• Two thirds of the UK population use Facebook.
• Half the population are members of Facebook groups.
• Facebook groups are the most important single source of local government news for 25 to 64-year-olds un the UK, say Ofcom. 
• It’s down to the admin whether or not they let pages into a group.
• Just 1.9 per cent of Facebook timelines are posts with links, say Meta.

All these bullet-points mean your Facebook page which was once a go-to destination is marginalised and struggling for attention.

One way to get people back to your page is to take out Facebook ads. But that’s expensive.

I’m suggesting that its cheaper to take your content yourself to where the eyeballs are.

I know from training that some comms people really hate the idea of sharing content to a Facebook group. I get why. It takes time and can be messy.

But it works.

What was the plan?

For this research, I looked at the Quarry Bank and Saltwells News Network Facebook group. This is a community group in the Black Country with 2,200 members.

There are two broad types of content I looked at.

1. Original content posted directly into the group.
2. Content shared from a Facebook group into the page.

What Facebook group content works best?

It’s not even close.

Content posted directly into a group without a link works best.

This type of content received 23 times more reach than that posted onto a Facebook page then shared into a group.

On average, in the research an original post got 6,400 views. For a Facebook group pf 2,200 that’s not bad. That compares with 300 when a page cross-posts into the group.

Here’s a top five of each type of content

Top five original content posts

These posts were added directly to the Quarry Bank and Saltwells News Network Facebook group.

1. Abnornal tests led to the death of Quarry Bank man – 89,000 reach. Images from the BBC news story posted to the group with a summary with the link in the comments.
2. Old coach companies of Quarry Bank – 13,000 reach. A carousel of historic images. No link.
3. Disgust at Trump’s comments denigrating British veterans – 10,000. An image of the Remembrance Sunday event at Quarry Bank park. No link.
4. Bank of trees being marketed for a drive through restaurant – 8,800 reach. A carousel of images from the site. Link to the estate agents’ post in the comments.
5. Release of sewage to a Quarry Bank stream – 7,800 reach. A summary of a news story and image. Link in the comments.

Top 10 Facebook page posts shared into the group

These posts were shared into the group from other Facebook pages.

1. Appeal for NHS equipment – 600 reach. A cross post from a Dudley NHS page.
2. Fire fighter recognised – 500 reach. A cross post from West Midlands Fire Service.
3. Indoor car boot sale in Quarry Bank – 500 reach. A cross post from a community group.
4. Grit bins dumped by Dudley Council – 500 reach. A cross post from Alex Ballinger MP.
5. Bike charity – 500 reach. A cross post from a Quarry Bank charity.

So, the moral of the story is to join Facebook groups where you can and share content directly.

One impediment may be the idea that you use an expensive social media management tool to schedule things. Hey, it may even be able to post into groups if you pay extra. The lesson from this snapshot is not to bother.

You can find the Quarry Bank and Saltwells News Network Facebook group here.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Evidence shows that a real person’s voice can cut through. ‘Lexi’s Letter’ was written by a young patient directly to health professionals on how a patient like her wants to be treated. Six months to the day Lexi passed away a campaign to promote her letter has been launched with the support of her family. Those resources are also being shared for other health professionals. If you are an NHS comms professional you can help. Touch Design’s Kirsty McKenzie who was involved with the project has written about it.

Hearing the quiet voices: what Lexi taught us about working with young patients and families

Young patients often tell us what they need, sometimes clearly, but often quietly.
The real challenge for NHS teams is not whether children and young people have something to say, but whether our systems, processes and pressures allow us to truly hear them.

Across the NHS, teams are under increasing pressure to improve communication, emotional support and the overall experience of care for children and young people. Targets, pathways and performance measures matter, but they can easily crowd out the lived experience of the patient, particularly when that patient is young, anxious, or navigating care alongside their family.

Evidence shows that when patient experience is communicated through real stories rather than just metrics, it can drive engagement and change professional behaviour. An NHS study has reported that patient stories improve understanding of patient experience and help embed patient-centred values into everyday care.

This is where Lexi’s Letter has been so powerful.

You can watch the film here:

Learning from one authentic voice

Lexi’s Letter is not a policy document or a set of recommendations. It is a personal, honest account of care, written from a young patient’s perspective, with all the emotional clarity and vulnerability that brings. When we worked with Lexi and her family, the most important lesson was simple but profound: authentic patient voices cut through in ways that professional language never can.

Rather than interpreting experience on behalf of patients, Lexi’s words allow NHS professionals to listen directly. The tone, the pauses, the feelings behind the sentences, these are the things that are often lost in surveys, dashboards and reports, yet they are exactly what shape how care is experienced.

Working with patients and families, not just about them

A key learning from this work was the importance of involving both the patient and their family as genuine partners. Lexi’s experience did not exist in isolation; it was shared with those supporting her. Making space for that wider perspective added depth and honesty, and reminded us that for young people especially, care is almost always a shared journey.

This approach is supported by UK public health evidence. Government analysis of public health communications shows that co-producing messages with communities and patients increases trust, relevance and engagement, and that behaviour change is more likely when messages are created with people rather than for them, particularly in minority and harder-to-reach groups.

For NHS communications, this reinforces a crucial point: patient voice is not an add-on, it is a mechanism for engagement and change. This kind of collaboration requires trust, time and care. It means being prepared to listen without immediately fixing, defending or reframing. It also means accepting that what we hear may be uncomfortable, but that discomfort is often where the most meaningful improvement starts.

From story to shared reflection

Lexi’s Letter was created to help with exactly this challenge. It gives clinicians, communications teams and patient-experience colleagues a simple, emotionally resonant way to reflect on care through a real patient voice. Used in team discussions, training sessions or quality-improvement work, it creates space for empathy, reflection and honest conversation.

We know from national campaigns that patient-led narrative can drive measurable behaviour change. The #hellomynameis campaign, started by UK clinician Kate Granger, used a patient story to promote a single communication behaviour: clinicians introducing themselves to patients. The campaign achieved over 400,000 staff sign-ups across more than 90 NHS organisations, alongside over 2.5 billion impressions, demonstrating both large-scale engagement and explicit clinician commitment to behaviour change.

Lexi’s Letter works in the same way, grounding reflection and improvement in something human, specific and real.

What has been especially striking is how the letter helps teams slow down. It encourages professionals to step out of problem-solving mode and reconnect with why experience matters, not in abstract terms, but in the voice of one young person.

Encouraging others to use the resource

This is not a story to be read once and set aside. The real value of Lexi’s Letter lies in its use. The assets were created so teams can actively work with them, to prompt discussion, challenge assumptions and ground improvement work in something real and human.

It is already helping teams start powerful conversations about communication, emotional support and what “good care” really feels like from a young person’s point of view. If improving children and young people’s experience of care is on your agenda, this is a resource worth exploring, and, more importantly, using. Please get in touch.

Kirstie McKenzie is managing director of design agency Touch Design who worked on the ‘Lexi’s Letter‘ project.

Here’s something you’ll find useful.

It’s a flowchart to help you with your online campaign.

There’s two parts to it, the moment when you are about to post online and then once you have posted.

You are about to post online

Even before posting, think about the topic. Is it a hot topic? Do you have concerns about sustained abuse?

And then to actually posting and engaging.

You have posted online

Trace through to see if you are getting comments. Are they positive and well researched? Are they malicious? Have they broken a house rule? Are they unhappy?

By having a process you can make sense of what can be a stressful episode.

For more, take a look at the ESSENTIAL COMMS PLAYBOOK 2026.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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In the age of AI, it’s about working out where humans really add value.

Last month I blogged about Reuters Institute research that showed how news outlets were rethinking what they are doing.

There’s a particular lesson I keep coming back to in training because people warm to it. It’s reassuring as well as human.

In short: humans, can write stories about humans far better than AI.

So publishers are looking to refocus their efforts in this way.

If a human story with a picture of a human works better than an AI-created image then why not do more?

Sometimes, when I post this question, people tell me they don’t because they’ve always done it a different way and they don’t have time.

Which leads me to the important principle that less is more.

Do less but do it much better.

If we worked out what we’re good at and concentrate on that, that’s a good thing.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Picture credit: Blackpool postcard by Steve Shook from Moscow, Idaho, USA, CC BY 2.0. .

I came across an old YouTube clip this week and I’m so glad I did.

It’s called ‘leadership lessons from a lone dancing nut’.

It baffled me then entertained then enlightened me the first time I saw it 14-years ago.

TLDW: One of the most important things you can ever do is be the first person to support someone doing something good.

The clip is here.

Do watch.

To quote the narrative spoken by Derek Sivers who posted the video:

First of course, a leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he is doing is so simple it’s almost instructional. This is key. It must be easy to follow. Now here comes the first follower with a really crucial role. He shows everyone else how to follow. Notice how the leader embraces him as an equal so it’s not about the leader anymore it’s about THEM the plural. It takes guts to be the first follower. You stand out and you brave ridicule yourself. The first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint the first follower is the spark.

Now here’s the second follower… this is the turning point. It’s proof the first has done well. Now, it’s not a lone nut and it’s not two nuts. Three is a  crowd and a crowd is news.  A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see followers because new followers emulate followers.

Now we’ve got momentum. This is the tipping point. Now we have a movement.

Leadership is really over-glorified… there is no movement without the first follower. When you see a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.’

When was the last time you supported a lone dancing nut?

When was the last time YOU were that dancer?

Refreshingly, there is a new language of filmmaking that people are ravenously consuming.

Gone are the days when the public would wear a public information film where someone talking seemingly for hours.

The act of the scroll has democratised film consumption.

If you are not grabbing attention people will leave.

Here’s examples of films to inspire you.

There’s an array of approaches from the traditional to the quite bold.

Use this as a library of options.

When you see one out in the wild, save it. You never know when it’ll come in handy.

The voxpop

How: Send someone out with a microphone to speak to real people.

When: When you want your audience to see themselves reflected on the screen with some third party endorsement.

Example: South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue here talk about the peer pressure of jumping into open water while drunk. Four hundred people a year in the UK drown with 13 to 17-year-olds most at risk. This approach mimics the trend of influencers going out onto the street for some candid chats.

The lucky shot

How: Keep your wits about you to capture something special. There is no shot-list for this. Just quick thinking.

When: Sometimes golden things happen that can create softer content that has no call to action. Do you know what? That’s fine.

Example: The National Trust are a well-resourced comms team which does LinkedIn really well. This cute shot of a squirrel scampering was too good to miss. This will get views. That means your post necxt week will get more attention.

Multiple shots then voiceover to tell a story

How: Gather lots of different pieces of footage. Then add the voiceover later when you know what the narrative is.

When: You know you have a story to tell but you don’t have an interviewee who can perform at the drop of a hat.

Example: London Ambulance Service took footage for a day-in-the-life of a paramedic. Quick edits and a voiceover make this work. Note the shots are GDPR-complaint too. So, you don’t see the vehicle collision, just the paramedic.

The interview illustrated by cutaways

How: There’s a sit-down interview to allow the interviewee to speak candidly without a script. This works well when the subject is personal or isn’t used to speaking on camera. You can then illustrate it with B-roll you can shoot. He talks about meeting patients? You see him meeting patients.

When: When you have a personal story.

Example: Here, NHS England interview a surgeon who has returned to work after a tree fell on him while he was out cycling. It’s a powerful story posted to LinkedIn underlined by the cutaways that move the story onwards with pace.

The scripted walk and talk

How: You write a script and then the subject delivers it line-by-line and shot-by-shot.

When: When you have a story that may need an injection of pace that comes with multiple shots. When your subject needs to get to the point without waffle.

Example: Oxford City Council are masters at this approach. Here, a fairly arcane subject is made engaging by a crisp script and being out and about. Say bye-bye to dull Councillor videos.

The meme

How: The CapCut app is brilliant at providing short memes that you can slot your own images or footage into.

When: When you need to post but you don’t have the footage. This works better on the more leftfield TikTok rather than the more conservative formats of LinkedIn or Reels.

Example: South Downs National Park use this Hollywood actor’s response as a basis for their clip on TikTok.

A POV (point of view)

How: Simply take out the phone and film yourself walking up that hill, through the town centre, across the bridge. Whatever you like.

When: When you need to show what you’ll get if you take that walk with a voiceover added later.

Example: In this influencer-shot video, a walk in the Lake District is shown. The scenery is the star.

The trend

How: One approach to filmmaking gets built upon and built upon.

When: The half-life of the trend is days and hours rather than weeks and months. This is about swiftness and originality not being the 95th.

Example: Turangi Fire and Rescue in New Zealand were not the only ones to parody this glamorous Bentley promotion. They mimic it shot-by-shot for comic effect.

The two shot

How: The vertical approach for video now allows to shots one above the other to make it visually more engaging.

When: When you maybe have a piece to camera and other supporting footage.

Example: Here. BBC News uses a piece to camera and supporting footage to illustrate it.

That’s nine approaches.

Many more are available.

What have you seen?

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Creative comms credit: Foyer By Andypiper CC BY 2.0.

Buckle up, everyone but it looks as though the days of posting links to Facebook for free may be numbered.

In the early days of social media, the idea of adding a link to drive traffic was the cornerstone of many strategies.

But in a series of developments Meta is exploring radical restrictions on pages’ ability to post links. 

I’ll set out what they may mean in this post. 

Links are bad

Firstly, links. I’ve been highlighting the folly of posting links for some time. Algorithms hate them. It is far more effective to tell the story on the platform.

Indeed, the most recent Meta data release on what makes up people’s timelines underlines the folly of the practice. Links now make up just 1.9 per cent of people’s timelines. That’s roughly the same percentage chance you have of winning a prize buying a National Lottery ticket.

Feeling lucky? 

Here’s the data:

While this data shows the tactical pointlessness of posting links on Facebook there are noises that it may soon be physically impossible to do.

Meta wants pages to pay 

Late last year, Meta trialled a scheme to limit the number of links a Facebook page could post for free. 

It’s unclear how exactly this may take shape in the future. It may or may not affect adding a link to the comments as per the current algorithm-dodging technique. Some reports say this turns the link comments to plain text.

All this has been seen as a nudge for pages to become Meta Verified. 

Meta Verified costs between £14.99 and around £300 for the top tier.  This status gives pages some protection against impersonation as well as access to customer service for common issues. 

Given how hard it is to contact Facebook on matters there’s an argument to say this could potentially pay for itself.

Meta Verify for Business also allows the ability to add links in a very restricted way to Reels. The Meta Verify for Business price list is here. Such status would cover Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram all in one. 

Meta wants people to pay to be users

Last year, a British woman successfully took Meta to court to demand they stop serving her adverts. ‘Go her’, I suspect you are saying. In the wake of this, Meta drew-up some changes. In short, they’ll stop serving you ads but you need to pay. 

As a result, Meta have announced plans for a premium subscription for users for Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. In the UK, that’ll cost an individual £2.99 for web or £3.99 for the Android or iOS app and rewards the user by having an ad-free timeline. It appears not to be an option yet for a corporate page.

Those who invest big money on Facebook ads and the like are somewhat troubled by this. It means they are pitching their ad to a smaller pool. But most public sector Facebook accounts don’t really have large ad spends. So, that particular element won’t affect them.

There you go. As I blogged last month, what you think social media is is now nostalgia. 

This is more evidence.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Picture credit: Computer in a 1970s office by Tyne & Wear Museums.

Back in the olden days, the Christmas Radio Times used to be the absolute oracle on what to watch over the festive period.

It was published with a suitably seasonal cover and would give all the listings for all the channels. 

On Christmas Day in 1982,if you wanted to watch the Two Ronnies Christmas show you’d need to be watching BBC1 at 7.30pm. If someone wanted to see ‘The World of James Joyce’ on BBC2 they’d need to record it on VHS. 

There’s a copy of a Christmas edition of the Radio Times on ebay currently listed at £57. No wonder. Nostalgia is costly. 

This Christmas, traditional channels,recorded their lowest year ever. The highest ranking programme pulled in just 4.3 million viewers for the Strictly Christmas Special. In comparison, the Morcambe & Wise Special in 1977 reached 28.8 million viewers.

What you think about social media may be nostalgia.

Here are seven things that don’t apply anymore.

Social media is not now for friends and family 

Social media is a way of filling spare time and follow celebrities. It is not about keeping up with friends and sharing opinions. The data absolutely shows this.

TikTok was the first to blow a hole in this approach. It deliberately chose content for you to see based on your interests not your followers. Others have followed. 

For example, Facebook’s algorithm which was once just friends, family and brands is now made up of a third ‘unconnected’ updates. These updates are from accounts, groups and pages you are not following but you may find interesting depending on how you engage with content.

What you can do: Look beyond your followers and look to improve the quality of your overall content. 

Your X follower numbers are now irrelevant

Back in the day, comms teams used to report the follower numbers as a metric. An account with 50,000 followers was good going. 

In the old days, if you opened-up your device at 10.20am and scrolled you’d see the most recent tweets. Then, that got changed to follow Facebook’s algorithmically selected updates.

A few days ago X published their most recent algorithm which had a few surprises. More emphasis has now been placed on the ‘For You’ page. In short, this means that tweets will be algorithmically selected for you as you open your divice may not be from people you are following. 

What you can do: This is a further argument to pivot away from X. 

More: Here.

Instagram is about video now not pictures

Instagram used to be a place for curated and polished images. It’s now a place for video. Fifty per cent of time spent on then platform is spent watching video. Not admiring people’s breakfasts.

What you can do: Focus on more effective video.

More: Here.

On X the more you tweet now the less people will see

Not only that, but the more you tweet the less people will see your content. Why? Because X wants to avoid overloading tweets from one or two accounts. 

X used to have a central place in an emergency. One organisation would post realtime updates and others would point to it. This approach has been undermined. 

On its own this doesn’t mean posting to X in a crisis is wrong. As Merseyside Police showed after the Liverpool trophy parade car striking pedestrians others will share and amplify it.

More: Here.

What you can do: Tweet less.

Social media isn’t now about driving traffic anymore 

If it ever was, social media in 2026 is about rewarding content that users have to stay on the platform to see or watch. All the main platforms punish those who try and take people to the press release on the website. Or any content on the website, to be honest. 

This has been the case for a number of years. 

What you can do: Tell the story on the platform.

More: Here, here and here.

Images you see are likely now not likely to be real

Since the advent of AI tools, images have become shaped at the very least by AI. Forbes suggests this is now 71 per cent of all images. 

What you can do: Invest in a tool like aiornot and focus on real, human images to stand out from the crowd. 

More: Here.

Comments you may see under posts may not be genuine

Many political parties and foreign governments have invested resources into influencing the debate by taking part in the debate directly. 

More: Here and here.

Social media is now not free

No it isn’t, and I don’t mean the time you spend.

LinkedIn has a premium level that gives users a reach advantage. Facebook has introduced an optional £3.99 charge to dodge ads. X for some time has had levels of payment rewarded with reach.

Free access to the big town square is long gone.

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Picture credit: VHS camera by Dhscommtech at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

A couple of times a year I’ll slip in at the back at journalism conferences. It’s the most valuable learning I’ll do all year.

I used to be a journo back in the day. But I don’t go to reminisce or trade war stories. I go to learn what the future of public sector communications should look like. I use the word ‘should’ deliberately rather than will.

Earlier this month, the Reuters Institute published Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2026. It’s a thought-provoking document. Stephen Waddington has written a really useful analysis for PR people. 

Here’s what struck me:

• AI summaries have had an impact. Bread and butter content, such as listings or lifestyle, is better produced by AI. So news titles are moving away from it.
• The great and the good are using their own channels or sympathetic content creators. The need to only speak to a journalist is a long time gone. 
• News titles are identifying what they can do better. Human stories, investigations and on-the-ground reporting will see more focus. 
• People are consuming more news from creators rather than titles. We don’t wait for the 9’O’Clock news. We may see what a news commentator is saying.
• There will be less ‘service journalism.’ These are listings or advice to solve everyday problems.
• There will be more focus on original reporting and on-the-ground investigations has value. Here. the human beats AI. 
• There will be more video. YouTube is the particular focus with TikTok and Instagram following.
• There will be less focus on Facebook. As it becomes harder to generate link clicks this is not a surprise. 
• There has been no amazing breakthrough with AI. Jobs have not been created or lost as a result of tools. 
• Traffic from search is down and will continue to fall. That’ll be AI summaries. 

What the public sector can learn from the report

We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto. I keep saying there is more change in the last 12-months than the last 12-years. It’s still true.

• Media relations remains important. The skills of the old-style press offiocer are still needed.
• More video. I run courses that show comms teams to plan, shoot, edit and post video. Of course, I’m going top highlight this. But with titles focusssing more on video the bright media officer would be well served to add video to the text of the press release and the image. These may well be B-roll footage the journo can re-work.
• Facebook. Two thirds of the UK use Facebook and two thirds of them use Facebook groups. The platform retains a central position in the conversation. It is harder to produce clicks, sure, but that shouldn’t be a central driver of a public sector comms team.
• Content. As media titles have identified routine announcements as being their bread and butter stop expecting them to cover routine announcements. If they must be covered, use you own channels. 
• The webteam. The whole issue of AIn summaries cannibalising traffic should be a canary in the mine for the web team. I await with interest what the public sector’s response will be. Remember SEO? The web team need to be looking at AEO – answer engine optimisation. 

Fascinating, isn’t it?

For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape. 

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Picture credit: Teignmouth newsagent by M2525  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic