Always when you know human comms when you see it and it can be in unexpected places.
Hurricane Florence caused $38 billion in damage when it swept across the US leaving high rainfall and flooding.
Advice was to evacuate but some places just couldn’t get out.
The Davis Community is a nursing, retirement and care home in Wilmington, North Carolina. The patients and residents couldn’t just jump into a truck and drive off so they battened down the hatches and stayed.
The units kept in touch with the outside world through a number of means but Facebook was a prime way of telling the wider world what was happening.
They did it with professionalism, care, love, humour and a human face. Even when some staff’s homes flooded they stayed with residents. That’s amazing.
Of course, the pictures show staff at work and all hands on deck.
At other times there simply wasn’t the time to photograph what was going on so a basic update did the job.
What was striking was the messages from the family of residents who felt reassured at the care their loved ones were getting.
A thousand words a frame? 30 frames a second? You can see how the digits soon add up.
As a comms person in 2018, I’m fascinated by how this works. I’m always impressed by new approaches.
Here are some that caught my eye.
1. Enlisting a child who wrote a letter
Good feedback is all around. The thank you card on the noticeboard or the letter.
When Wigan Council had a letter from five-year-old Ember they realised they had a star on their hands and made her the star.
Why this works: A five-year-old can tell you something a 45-year-old council officer can’t. Besides, her family mobbed the finished Facebook video when it was posted to like and share it. That’s an army of defacto press officers right there.
2. A thank you in their own words
As part of a recruitment campaign, Manchester City Council social care staff read a thank you card with a list of nice things people had to say.
Why this works: Reading anonymous feedback gets around GDPR and it shows the team is diverse, varied and make a difference. They’ll also be more inclined to like and share.
3. Celebrating an area
Sefton in the North West is often overshadowed by neighbouring Liverpool. Yet in the urban spread of Bootle and the seaside of Southport there are people and places to be proud about.
Why this works: Using frontline staff gives a human face for the organisation.
Check out this really cool video showing off the very best of our beautiful borough 👏😏📸 We know you’ll like it just as much as we do #MySeftonpic.twitter.com/kK4ZiM0zPY
The US Air Force used to spend 70 per cent on TV ads but has flipped the number to 70 per cent online after experimenting with sixty 15-second and 6-second videos. They know the audience they are after and will serve them a series of ads to build rapport. This led to a 16 per cent rise in people likely to apply.
Why this works: Snackable content served in bite size chunks slowly builds a picture that helps deliver evaluated results.
5. A human story of people whose lives have been helped
Charities have become wary of what has been tagged ‘poverty porn’. You may have seen it. The emaciated child next to the appeal for money. Also out of favour is the white man going to Africa being moved by their plight to solve all their problems.
It’s been a Comic Relief staple for years but is falling out of favour with those who work in the sector.
Charity: Water have taken a different approach and have a maried couple chatting about how fresh water has helped.
Why this works: It feels natural. It feels human. It could be a married couple from Dudley talking about something and above all it comes across as a bit of a love story. There they are Lijale and Alemtsehy. They’re a bit soppy about each other.
6. Focus on the real people to show how the grant has been spent
The Mayor of London’s office used instagram to show how Hackney Wick FC have used money from the Young Londoners Fund. Money has been handed over. But this is far from a cheque presentation picture at City Hall.
Why this works: By showing the players excited faces you can see how the money has made a difference. By over-laying text it reinforces the story. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is a supporting actor. Which means he comes across more naturally. And those in the video will like and share.
The attack ad is a staple of the US landscape but this one really stands out.
Why it works: To an audience that puts family at the heart of what they do this makes an impact. Watch it to the end.
Full disclosure: I’ve trained Manchester City Council. Wigan Council and Sefton Council comms staff. Big thanks to Luke Waterfield for spotting the attack ad.
In 2018, much has changed and not just the faces of the attendees.
One big improvement?
A nice surprise
The best surprise of all was that central government has money to reward digital projects. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on the Friday of the two-day event announced how councils could get their hands on £7.5 million. This is great news and the local digital team from the Ministry are keen this goes to good projects. It was a coup for the event organisers to have a short video with local government minister Rishi Sunak encouraging people at the event to get their thinking cap on.
But one thing does worry me and in the spirit of working in public it is this.
Bad comms kills bright ideas
Anecdotally, new projects fail not because they are not great ideas but because the right people aren’t told about them in the right place at the right time. We’ve all been there and we’ve all seen it.
The new way of registering for a scheme is buried on a 5,000-page website.
The new approach to decision making that fails to tell staff.
We’ve all been there.
Just last week, I was reflecting on how a small thing can make or break a project. It can even be quite analogue.
Good comms can save bright ideas
It doesn’t have to be something big. It can be something small.
The cancer campaign aimed at Afro-Caribbean men which got back on track by targeting their barbers.
The NHS Trust that recruited a Roma-speaker to reach the Roma community.
In short, bad communications will kill a good idea stone dead and good will save it.
If you are lucky, there’s a handful of things in your career that you’re really proud of.
I’m lucky. I’m proud of several. I bet you are, too. But one of the things I’m most proud of is helping to develop a workshop to make better use of video that has helped comms, PR, digital, internal comms and frontline people.
It came about through a beautiful mix of data, serendipity and experimenting about three years ago.
I’d been looking at the data at how people in the UK were using video far more but that the quality had lagged. People had the tech in their pockets with a smartphone but didn’t know how to use it. So, bumping into filmmaker Steven Davies who was talking how to shoot video with a smartphone it made sense. I come at things as a former journalist and comms person. Steve comes at it with a filmmaker’s eye. So we developed the session and we’ve continued to adapt it.
Our sessions give people baby steps and set them on a path. One of our delights is to see someone grow in confidence and do amazing things.
Here are 30 things we’ve learned in training comms people:
You don’t have to be Steven Speilberg. In fact, if the only video you’ve ever shot is by accident, that’s fine.
You need to know that mobile phones sold in 2018 shoot broadcast quality footage.
You need to know that people watch shaky footage online all the time. If you make content with a few rough edges and you are public or third sector people are unlikely to shout.
You absolutely need to know that video should be one of the core skills that any comms person should have in 2018. How to use it and how to make it.
You need to know when you are editing to put your best content at the start. It keeps people watching.
You need to know not to use copyrighted music unless you have permission.
You need to know its okay to be creative with video.
You need to know that a man in a suit talking against a wall is more than a million times less interesting that baby ducks on a waterslide.
You need to know how to film using the smartphone in your pocket.
You need to give frontline people the skills so they can shoot when they are out and about with the right training.
You need to know that GDPR affects video, too. You’ll need permission.
You need to relax a little.
You need to practice making video in a risk free environment. So, your cats, your dogs, the view from your commute can all be chopped and edited.
You need to know that snapchat and Instagram stories video is upright and the rest is broadly wide.
You need to know that a video of a GP giving earache advice led to 100 fewer parents bringing their children for an appointment at a single practice.
You need to know that including real people in your video will see more people watch, like and share to their network and friends.
You need to take your video and put it in front of people. Go find the local Facebook group about local history for the video of the new exhibition at your museum.
You need to know that a 35-year-old parent talking about why school gate parking is a bad idea while standing outside a school will cut through to parents far better than someone in a suit in an office.
Your best content is outside an office.
You don’t need a new expensive video camera. You need a smartphone that is ios or android.
Just last week I wrote about what the first 50 days of blogging examples of human comms looks like.
One observation was that human comms seems like a thing that takes place out-of-London, not on corporate accounts and definitely from people on the frontline.
One person, quite rightly, pointed out that there were examples of just this in the capital. Tube messageboards are the perfect example of comms in the 21st century. Something physical. Something human. Som,ething transient. And something that can at the same time be quickly shared in a photograph online.
There have been wipe clean whiteboards at London underground stations for decades. Their primary role is to share travel advice and important information.
But at some point in around 2009 they started to crop up on Twitter as a picture where a member of staff had written a thought for the day or a homily.
Two great things then happened. First, people took photos of them and then shared them. Second, and I’m only guessing at this, when their viral spread was reported back to the comms team nobody moved to close them down.
They are beautiful and they are human precisely because they have a human message written on them.
What do they say? That London Underground staff employ real people who, like you, are trying to get through their day as best they can. It’s a spirit that corporate London Underground posters to remind people not to abuse staff attempt to tap into.
Tube messages as fake news
In the aftermath of the London Bridge attack, Prime Minister Teresa May read out a message that reminded terrorists that “THIS IS LONDON… We will carry on.”
It was a message that struck a chord and was widely shared. That it was created by a Tube message generator raised eyebrows. But it didn’t detract from the message itself.
For me, tube messages represent the best of many worlds. Easy to deliver. Shareable. Funny. Witty. Reflective. All in a human voice.
But how to take this approach in your organisation? That’s the tricky part. You need trust. You need engaged workforce. You need a whiteboard and a whiteboard marker. But most of all you need trust.
In 2018, our need to learn has never been stronger for PR and comms people.
It is said that when we look back, 2007 will be a landmark year. It was the year the iphone, iplayer and android was launched and we struggled to keep up.
What faces us is simple. Change.
What that change looks like is the more complex question.
· Artifical Intelligence can automate 16 per cent of what PR does right now. This rises to 32 per cent by 2023, a CIPR study shows.
· More than 90 per cent of adults used the internet in the past 12-months, ONS stats show.
· One in five adults are online for more than 40 hours a week, Ofcom stats reveal.
· 78 per cent of online audiences are already watching live video, livestream say.
· 80 per cent of internet will be video by 2019, say Cisco.
It’s never been a more exciting time to be a comms person.
Its also never been harder to keep track of how to best communicate and to sharpen skills.
What does good content look like?
And how can you create it?
For the past four years, I’ve been working on comms2point0 full time. One of the great joys has been to offer training. Over that time I’ve ran a range of sessions from social media, comms planning, social media as an elected member, story telling, media training, photography, digital comms and video skills. At each session, I’ve learned something.
I’ve launched a new range of dates for workshops. They’re ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS FOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL DIGITAL SKILLS FOR COMMS and SKILLS YOU NEED FOR LIVE VIDEO.
You can use your attendance for CIPR CPD points.
And yes, there will be cake.
I hope you can make them.
ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS FOR COMMS With Dan Slee and Steven Davies.
This day workshop gives you all you need to plan, shoot, edit and post effective video using just your smartphone or tablet.
We’ll look at where video sits in the big picture so you can plan your strategy. We’ll look at the optimum video length for each platform. We’ll look at how you can get the most out of your device when you are shooting. We’ll show you how to plan a video using BBC principles that also helps you politely reject bad ideas.
We’ll help you shoot a set-up video then guide you through how to edit it and tell you where best to post. I’ll be joined by Steven Davies, a University lecturer and filmmaker who has worked for a range of people including BBC, Channel 4 and S4C.
Sold Out? Or do the dates not work? Drop me an email dan@comms2point0.co.uk and ask about arranging an in-house workshop or join the waiting list for a future event.
SKILLS YOU CAN USE FOR LIVE VIDEO With Dan Slee and Steven Davies
But how to do it? We’ll talk through the landscape where live video sits. We’ll talk through how to plan a video using BBC principles. How to stay GDPR-compliant and what content works.
We’ll show you some best practice examples and give you tips on how to start with your mobile and build-up to a multi-camera broadcast that will knock the socks off your audience.
I’ll be joined by Steven Davies, a University lecturer and filmmaker who has worked for a range of people including BBC, Channel 4 and S4C.
Sold Out? Or do the dates not work? Drop me an email dan@comms2point0.co.uk and ask about arranging an in-house workshop or join the waiting list for a future event.
ESSENTIAL DIGITAL SKILLS FOR COMMS
Back in 2008, I set-up one of the first 100 public sector Twitter accounts in the world. Since then, I’ve looked at best practice and what works best.
We’ll look at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat. We’ll look at the algorithm to maximise the best chance of making effective content. We’ll also look at what audiences use each platform.
We’ll look at dedicated Facebook research on Facebook groups and how to navigate them and reach a new audience.
Lastly, we’ll look at how to write a comms plan that will help you achieve effective results.
Sold Out? Or do the dates not work? Drop me an email dan@comms2point0.co.uk and ask about arranging an in-house workshop or join the waiting list for a future event.
Back in 1999, when a mere 200 million people were using the internet some big thinkers gathered on a web forum.
They debated about what the internet would look like and came up with a list of 99-points they called the Cluetrain Manifesto. It’s an amazing document. It predicts the future of the social web.
The third of the manifesto’s 99 points is that the social web will work best through conversation. And those conversations will sound human.
Why your organisation needs to have a human voice
So often, when I’m helping organisations use the web better to communicate I hear frustration that their social channels aren’t working. Almost always, the fault lies in a lack of human voice in what they post.
A good social channel should look, feel and be human.
If you do this 80 per cent of the time it earns you the right 20 per cent of the time to make a call to action.
Break this balance on the web and you come across like a pizza delivery company stuffing pizza menus through people’s front doors.
Why I’ve gathered a list of human comms
Gradually, its something that bright people in organisations have woken up to but as I’m training I’m struck by the struggle some people have. So, I decided to gather together examples of organisations sounding human.
What I learned
Starting a while back I thought I’d find a handful of examples and leave it there. Instead, I found a trend for people in organisations to want to sound more human. When I stopped and thought about it, the answer is obvious. Why would they not?
Being human isn’t a London thing
One thing that struck me in the examples that bubbled to the surface was the wide variety of places that were experimenting with an approachable tone. But one thing shone through. Very few were in London or were large corporate accounts.
It is the police officer on the frontline, the Mayor or the member of the public who loves something that the organisation does. In the argument for devolved accounts, the ability to be human and connect is important.
Being human needs common sense
The farewell tweet from the railway company or the Mayor who books a cinema seat and asks others to join in with an Abba sing-a-long has something in common. Being human is good. But knowing when to be that informal is just as important. Announcing the death of the Mayor needs to be done with common sense not a row of sad faced GIFs.
Being human leads to rewards
I get absolutely that comms people need to evaluate what they do and make an appreciable change to the organisations. The blood donations, the foster parents, the library users need to increase. It’s what finance listen to. So they should. But the 80 per cent human content earns you the right to do all that.
It’s not messing about on the internet. It’s a hard-headed data-driven approach to using the web in 2018.
Sometimes, the mix of image and text works brilliantly.
So, step forward Devon and Cornwall Police for using this image of a swan in a police car from British comedy Hot Fuzz.
(Full disclosure: I’ve delivered training for Devon and Cornwall Police.)
Why is this good? I’ll recap.
Because it says police are human.
It reaches a different audience than that which tunes into every day crime issues.
It paints a picture of the challenges they face.
It builds an audience who are attracted by the pop culture and stick around for the missing person appeals.
Call received reporting a swan on the M5 near J30 (Exeter Services) this morning. A unit attended and managed to lure the swan to a coned area near J31, before putting it the back of the car and taking it to the nearby canal for safe release! pic.twitter.com/lbo979wgHz
A level results are here. A date in the calendar that has moved from the traditional newspaper to Facebook Live.
Back in the day, newsrooms would have sorted the jumping for joy results picture.
There’s still a bit of that around but its interesting to hear that some news organisations don’t cover it anymore. That means a chance to celebrate good work from students by the council comms team.
This short Facebook Live from the trailblazing Newcastle City Council team does just that:
It’s interesting to see the news values operate just as well online as they do in print.
In print, students’ Mum, Dad, family and friends would have been the audience.
In digital, the same audience is true. Rather than heading to the paper shop for the pic the audience now likes and shares.
Refreshingly, the live video here doesn’t have a councillor. Why? Because this is a day for some students just to celebrate.
There are risks inherent in a live broadcast and this navigates this by having it with students who have pre-opened their results away from the risk of others sobbing with disappointment in the background. There’s also little chance of it being gatecrashed by less happy pupils.
The council page isn’t called the council page at all. It’s ‘Our Newcastle, Our Great City.’ I love that. The aim surely is to reach an audience and give them information. There is a lesson here.
