Okay, confession time: I try my absolute hardest to avoid books on social media.
Books on climbing? Yes. Books from self-styled social media ninjas? no thank you.
One of a few that stands like a shining beacon is the excellent ‘Organisations Don’t Tweet, People Do’ by Euan Semple.
I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve recommended this hardback work to. Even if you don’t go out and buy it you can take something from the title.
One of the reasons why I’m rather keen on it is that it strikes a chord with some of the work we’ve done.
One example that Semple comes up with is ‘Trojan mice.’
In other words, in an organisation do lots of little things to see where they end up and if they work without shouting about them to the world. Or senior management. He writes:
“Conventional initiatives are like the more familiar Trojan Horse. Big, lumbering, slow moving. It takes a lot of people to move it and it is very hard to get it to change direction without a lot of effort.
“As we deployed low cost small tools and kicked off little initiatives at the BBC we began to describe our approach as deploying Trojan Mice, a metaphor borrowed from British consultant Peter Fryer.
“Set up small, unobtrusive inexpensive and autonomous tools and practices set them running and cajole and nudge them until they begin to work out where to go and why.”
It’s an approach that in spirit chimes with Dave Briggs’ line about JFDI – Just Flipping Do It.
Thinking back, some of the things I’ve done have worked well. Others haven’t. None of them we’ve made a big noise about from the word go.
Of course, there is the argument from some PR people that everything – Trojan Mice and otherwise – has to be linked up to a campaign with objectives, key messages and things to measure. I’m just not so sure about this. This feels like trad comms sellotaping itself to the new stuff and forgets that fact that to make this new stuff work you have to embrace the fact it’s a conversation.
With Trojan mice you can make some mistakes. Do five things. If two work, tell your bosses’ boss about them and see how you can nurture them elsewhere. Even the quiet failures you can learn things from.
Sometimes you can hear someone say something that makes complete sense.
Twice in the last few weeks that’s happened to me.
Firstly, at Digital Futures in Shrewsbury Futuregov’s excellent Carrie Bishop spoke of using ‘just enough of the internet’ to get something done. That feels such a perfectly weighted, perfectly observed comment to make from someone who can comfortably grandstand by talking shiny tech.
Secondly, Coventry City Council’s Martin Reeves at the 10 by 10 WM event in Coventry.
The chief executive popped in to deliver a 15-minute speech to those that had gathered. We’d just finished hearing 10 examples of really good innovation across the region and were feeling just a little bit pleased with ourselves. There’s some really good things happening in the region and I’m really proud to be part of that.
“You are doing great things,” Martin said. “But I’ve just spent a few days locked away with other chief executives to discuss things that face us. Not once. Not once was social media mentioned in that time.”
The fact that Martin, who is one of a growing handful of chief executives who tweet, was telling us this was significant. Martin is an advocate. He’s a believer.
“How do you need to change that?” he asked us. “Stop being evangelists. Stop talking about the technology. Talk about the solutions. Talk about the solutions that may just have social media as part of it. Then you’ll get people listening.”
It’s a brilliantly clear, well thought through approach to take.
If there’s one thing that social media people are is passionate evangelists. Sometimes that passion comes from a belief that if only others could share this vision then the world will be a better place. The reality is that some people just don’t think that.
It’s not the shiny technology that matters to most people.
Thinking it through the good things at my own council have happened it’s been around finding a solution.
How do countryside people find better ways to connect? By having a ranger like Morgan Bowers on Twitter. How do we dispell rumours in a crisis? By using Twitter alongside people like the police. How do we stop people thinking we don’t grit? We tell them on Twitter.
But that hits one of the great conundrums about social media for an organisation. Organisations use it to get real life results. They want ticket sales or units shifted. But social media is a conversation. If you use it well you’ll use it with a human face and with a human voice.
So, maybe we need to be two things.
We must talk with a human voice when using technology to those outside the organisation.
Back in March 2010 at Walsall Council we staged Walsall 24 an idea we shamelessly borrowed from the inspirational GMP 24 which saw every call logged to Greater Manchester Police’s call centre.
It was fun, inspiring and brilliant to do and we learned loads.
But it dawned on us that actually, this is how it should be everyday. If we’re doing good things then we should tell people in a variety of channels.
But most of all it underlines why devolving social media access is important and that the sweets should be shared. Something I never tire of banging on about.
It’s public relations that’s taken out of the pr department. Or comms that can be done by non-comms.
Because stories from the frontline handcrafted and authentic are like bullets of gold in telling the local government story.
Making the most of a Twitter 24
The big lesson we learned in Walsall was that things like this shatter glass ceilings.
This is the important bit.
Take screen shots of what you’ve done. Print them out. Circulate them. Turn them into posters. Put them where people can see.
Add them to your intranet.
That piece of praise for the parks department that came back from a resident? Tell parks.
That shot of the roadmending machine out and about? Put it on the noticeboard in the Town Hall.
By taking things offline we can show the benefits of using digital communications to people who may never have thought that this is for them.
I bet that’s what the real legacy of #ourday will be if you’re careful.
Wouldn’t it be good if…
Next time we did this there are lots more of the difficult stuff to cover. The social care people, the binmen, the teachers and the housing staff.
And wouldn’t it be good if there was a single issue – as well as everything – to focus on too. Whether that be signing people up to a library. Or doing a specific task.
But maybe more important than that is the fact that it starts conversations and makes local government appear what it can be best. Human.
Sometimes something happens that leaves a big glow with everyone who hears it.
Sometimes something just flies unexpectedly on Facebook and goes viral.
That something happened when Paralymic swimmer Ellie Simmonds, who started her career in Walsall won her second gold of the London 2012 Olympics.
An outburst of deep joy on Ellie’s face was reflected back by all those watching and especially by those in the borough where she was born and learned to swim.
She’s moved to Swansea since to build her career but still has close ties to Aldridge in the borough of Walsall.
Straight after the race the debate was about where in Walsall the gold letter box would be. As a marketing ploy the gold letter boxes and the stamps of the winners takes some beating.
We’d spotted a picture posted on Twitter using Twitpic by a BBC reporter James Bovill of a workman painting the postbox in Aldridge High Street.
We shared it on Facebook acknowledging where it came from in the spirit of the social web. You can see the page here.
And 24 hours later the image had been liked 3,215, had been shared 273 times, commented on 117 times and had been seen by a potential audience on Facebook of 29,608. We also put on 100 new likers.
The point that both make is that it doesn’t have to be polished content to work. Just something that captures the imagination.
The team behind the the Team GB Olympics team as well as GB Paralympics team know this too with a cracking use of licensed images of athletes in action, medal successes on Facebook. Every athlete and team, it seems, gets their picture added to the page with some staggering numbers of shares and likes. The Team GB Facebook page is one example. The Paralympics GB page is another.
Here’s five things it shows
1. Reporters with mobile phones can reach big numbers by putting mobile first.
So, if the Army can use social media what exactly is your excuse?
Just lately I came across a rather magnificent link to the MOD’s digital guidelines.
As a starting point for beginners or for the more advanced they’re pretty handy. The US Army Social Media handbook has been around for a while and it’s good to get a British perspective too.
You can find the link right here. The MOD social media hub is here.
UK Service and Ministry of Defence personnel are permitted to make full use of social media (such as social networking sites, blogs and other internet self-publishing), but must:
Follow the same high standards of conduct and behaviour online as would be expected elsewhere;
Always maintain personal, information and operational security, and be careful about the information you share online;
Get authorisation from your chain of command when appropriate, and seek advice from your chain of command if unsure.
There’s some interesting social media presences that have grown over the past few years.
The UK Forces Afghanistan Facebook page has more than 12,000 likes and has a social approach with shots of servicemen and women. There’s a big input from families which is interesting to see. The feel is upbeat and focussed on the safety of the soldiers, sailors and airmen. The cover shot of a soldier waving to the Afghan passing by is unmistakably hearts and minds territory.
The Royal Navy Facebook page has more than 160,000 likes and seems more focussed on recruitment with careers advice prominent. There’s galleries of PR shots and links to the newspages.
A rather good Flickr page Defence Images gives a feed for shots with creative commons licences for re-use.
The Ministry of Defence blog is a useful round-up of links as well as news updates. It also covers the deaths of service personnel.
There are two voices that come through the MOD social media pages. First is servicemen and women themselves. Second are their families. This is less of a forum to debate and question the rough edges and controversy of war and it feels like a deliberate decision for this. But as a means for the MOD to talk to people direct this is an interesting resource that will only grow.
Of course, the great thing for those in the public sector is that the fact that they are doing it at all is a battering ram to break down barriers. After all, if the Army are doing it sensibly and with rewards where’s the risk?
A world united in sport? Or an Olympic army of occupation that is taking over London causing tailbacks and mayhem? What’s the truth of it?
Taking a look at a snapshot of tweets some surprising facts emerged.
Using a tweetreach report on the #olympics hashtag that covers a three hour period just after rush-hour on Monday July 24 four days before the games started more than 1,300 tweets were analysed. They were not limited to a geographical area.
Yes, it was a bit tedious going through them all and yes, some of the results are a bit surprising. It’s also cross-posted on Comms2point0.
This could never be a definitive study of opinion. For that more detailed evaluation and market research would need to be done. But what it does show is a snapshot of what Twitter was thinking in the run-up to the Olympic games over a three hour period.
Each tweet was assessed and graded as being positive, negative or neutral – the standard press office monitoring yardstick. I also kept a check on how many complained about LOCOG or the policing of the brand guidelines.
Headline findings
37.8 per cent of tweets sent were positive about the Olympics.
36.0 per cent of tweets sent were neutral about the Olympics.
26.2 per cent of tweets sent were negative about the Olympics
6.5 per cent of tweets sent were critical of the commercialisation or emforcement by LOCOG of brand guidelines. They’re counted in the overall negative list.
Overall:
More than 4 million accounts were reached by the tweets.
More than 6 million impressions were made by the snapshot – that’s all the individual tweets added up.
On the face of it, just after rush hour on the Monday morning before the event starts may well be a low point in the run-up to the games. It’s Monday. The event hadn’t started yet and none of the razzle of the opening ceremony had begun to kick in. Athletes were still getting to grips with the traffic.
The top three tweets
All three of the top tweets from the survey were classed as negative with the third using the hashtag of the far right English Defence League – the EDL.
“The #Olympics have colonised what I see, read, watch, how I move, what I drink and what I wash my hair with” on.ft.com/OaJCqG
Critical tweets. To have a quarter of tweets in the #olympics hashtag with four days to go would show a surprising degree of dissatisfaction. But with the event yet to start there is still time to change things.
Dissatisfaction with LOCOG. To have 6.5 per cent critical of the commercialisation of the games and how LOCOG are enforcing the rules is a significant number for a non-sporting issue. But while the issue is big in some quarters it’s simply not amogtst many.
LOCOG not engaging. LOCOG are not engaging with Twitter criticism and the Olympics Twitter account with more than a million followers is just tweeting a handful of times. Surprising when there is so much to communicate.
Brands are not engaging with the #Olympics hashtag. The main sponsors – McDonalds and others – were absent from the snapshot of tweets.
Excitement. There is genuine excitement amongst many people that the games are almost here, that they are in London.
Is hashtag crashing the new guerilla marketing? A handful of smaller companies are using the #Olympics hashtag to target the event. Accomodation companies, bookmakers and others are tweeting using the hashtag.
Athletes. For the first time at a big event competitors themselves are having a large say.
A cross-section of tweets in the run-up to the event tells a limited story. But it does show some pointers. With the Olympic movement not connecting with social media the conversations and chatter are clearly being shaped and dominated by those outside the corporate VIP area.
There is also much excitement ahead of the games – the majority of tweets are positive.
It will be fascinating to see how it pans out.
A snapshot of tweets…
Postitive, negative, LOCOG bashing and hashtag squating…
It’s time for the whiners to stop complaining. Let’s enjoy the event. The #olympics and the world have arrived in London.
Severe delays on the tube and now stuck in traffic on the bus… And it’s not even 7am #London#Olympics — Charlotte Gower (@CharlotteGower) July 23, 2012
Already there are reports of heavy handed policing in run up to #olympics. You can’t keep folk out of their homes! bit.ly/MCrnZF — Caron Lindsay (@caronmlindsay) July 23, 2012 Anger at LOCOG’s brand guidelines enforcement
There’s also no doubt that in 10 years time the landscape will have shifted. Once AOL was an internet giant. Remember how Friends Reunited was going to be the future of the internet?
But please don’t run screaming from the room. That would just be silly.
The lessons you’ve learned on the social web are portable and will stand you in good stead.
A few weeks back there was an excellent session for local government people at localgovcamp in Birmingham that looked at new social media platforms.
As a comms person who is doing more and more digital it was fascinating.
Rather than being just a check-list of which ones we should be using – and Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram were mentioned – the best discussion was around a broad approach rather than being platform specific.
As someone who managed to dodge the Google Wave boat that rather appeals to me. Google Wave, by the way, was an ill-fated Google product that arrived in a blaze of hype then died.
6 ideas on approaching new platforms
1. Should I horizon scan? There’s no harm at all in being on the look out and have an ear to the ground. But life is too short.
2. Should I use it as me first? Use a new platform as yourself first. Kick the tyres. See how it flies. Make a few mistakes in your own name. Then think about it for the organisation.
3. Are there numbers? Ask yourself if there’s a sizable community that use it. And is that community people you’d like to connect with?
4. Will this platform do something for you or your team?Shane Dillon, who I rate enormously, pointed out that sometimes a platform isn’t about the big numbers. It’s about that little thing a platform can do. The free video conferencing on Google+ alone can make it an attractive proposition ahead of huge numbers.
5. Is there best practice? Have a look to see how others are using it. Be an ideas magpie.
6. Then launch quietly. Don’t enter into a platform in a blaze of publicity. Let it grow naturally. If it’s a success you’ll make your own waves.
There’s this sinking feeling you get as a football supporter when you look down the team sheet for the first game of the season and see a lot of the old faces missing.
There’s no-one you know in the back four and your midfield playmaker is missing. You know it could go one of two ways.
So it was for the fourth year of localgovcamp in Birmingham with a lot of the old timers missing and new people coming through.
What is localgovcamp? It’s an event for local government people who give up their time to kick around ideas on doing things better. There’s no agenda. It’s decided on the day and anyone can put up their hand to suggest a session. As a comms person I go to get ideas and inspiration.
So in football terms how was it?
Very well, actually. Very, very well. It was another convincing victory and the newer faces really stepped up to the plate. Team manager Dave Briggs could go home happy he’d recorded another triumph and the digital trophy cabinet that has been well stocked since the event first started has been added to.
A good unconference can be powerful. Ideas can flow, connections can be made and your opinion counts for just as much as the chief exec who had come along to see what the fuss was about.
Why do I go to these as a senior press & publicity officer? For the inspiration, excitement, beer, curry, discussion, connection and learning.
In previous years I’ve waited for a week or so before blogging. Now after an event I try and chuck some thoughts up.
those 29 things…
1. localgovcamp doesn’t need a big number of veterans to make it work.
2. There is absolutely a need for it in the calender.
3. It inspires people. It makes them think in different ways. That’s powerful.
4. It can remind you why you work in local government. Despite everything.
5. The new people came to the fore. In one session, on local government blogging, I was really happy to sit back and see some cracking feedback from people who hadn’t been to one of these things before. That’s brilliant.
6. Blogging is a good idea. But telling your boss, pinging them what you write and making sure you’re not an idiot are good things to do.
7. Kabul is a place we can learn from. I just don’t care how many people I tell how great a project and a model for story telling kabulacityatwork.tv is. Start at ‘Who Is The Taxi Driver?’ if you haven’t come across it before.
8. Comms people are coming in good numbers. That’s brilliant to see.
9. There seemed to be fewer open data sessions. With fewer of the open data community there.
10. Si Whitehouse reminded comms people that open data can tell stories too. Good work, Si.
11. There appeared to be less about the shinyness of tech platforms and more about getting things done.
12. Mess about with new platforms as an individual. Evaluate. Then see if they’ll work for you in local government.
13. Lloyd Davis will write a book or thing that I’ll re-re-read in years to come to remind me what it was like to be around when the social web was relatively new. I’m sure of it. And it’ll stand the test of time. I can’t wait for this to happen.
14. Some people are unduly precious about the word ‘geek.’ To me it’s a word that celebrates someone who knows their stuff backwards and gets excited about the detail of it. There were a lot of such geeks here.
15. It’s not the social media platforms your organisation adopts, it’s the culture that matters (thank you @simon_penny)
16. The Anchor in Digbeth, Birmingham is just a brilliant pub.
17. Press officers must realise that they need to do more than just write press releases to survive. More are realising this.
18. I wish I could have had a proper chat with many people. Like Peter Olding, Nat Luckham, the bloke who does @actonscottmuse, Kate Bentham, Paul Webster and bunch of others. Including Simon Penny.
19. Post-it notes don’t stick to whiteboards without bluetack. Definite learning point.
20. localgovcamp is actually a place to make connections and ideas. It’s not about the suits who do or don’t go. I see that now. It’s not even about the ideas you’ll put into place on Monday morning (and there’ll be some.) It’s about coming across ideas that’ll hove into view in your day job two, six, 12 and 18 months down the line. Then knowing who to talk to about them because you heard / met / saw / followed them on Twitter at localgovcamp.
21. Digital press offices are a good idea.
22. I missed speaking to the old timers who didn’t make localgovcamp. But when I see them next I’ll tell them they missed out on some terrific first timers.
23. How do you handle augmented reality as a comms officer is a question that’s around the corner.
24. There is a splintering of unconferences to focus on more niche things. That’s fine.
25. Some of the best ideas I’ve had as a comms person have originated in conversations with coders, bloggers, policy people, engineers and others.
26. It must be great to have free time. The free time that Gareth Young and Glen Ocsko have now they’ve retired from We Love Local Gov. Yes, I’m jealous.
27. The West Midlands is a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant place to be working in digital.
28. It would be great to find a way to get first timers pitching session ideas. Maybe postcards into a cardboard box is the way forward? Yes, I know it’s not web 2.0. That’s the whole point.
29. Some of the possibility and excitement we glimpsed at localgovcamp in 2009 is coming true. Best bit? We’ve only just started.
Sometimes a press release just isn’t enough to tell a story. Living day-to-day as a carer can be tough. To give a flavour of just how tough Walsall Council comms team members Tina Faulkner and Becky Robinson live tweeted four hours to show – with sensitivity – how dementia affects the life of one couple Sheila and Ron. You can follow it here and you can also read their story here. But this one powerful story is just part of a wider drive to highlight often unseen work carried out in social care in Walsall. Tina explains the background to the innovative campaign which uses a mix of old and new media:
If I could wear a t-shirt that best describes how I feel about work right now it would bear the slogan “I heart Social Care”.
Sheila and Ron Haynes. Sheila gives round-the-clock care to husband Ron.
I can see some of you now, exchanging a knowing look with your laptop or iphone and thinking, “Yep, she’s a social worker.”
Not a bit of it. In fact I’d be a rubbish social worker. I’d just want to scoop everybody up and take them home with me and we just haven’t got the room. Plus the retired greyhound would have something to say about that. He’s very set in his ways.
No, I heart social care as a press and pr officer who is working to try and dispel some of the myths about this area of work and highlight some of the innovative things that are going on. The things that are making a real difference to people’s lives and should be shouted about.
I have been working with my colleague Becky Robinson, a public information officer, to run week-long multi-media “events” called Who Cares? (see what we did there!) to show a side to social care that’s not picked up on.
The first one we did was last November and we featured the story of a paraplegic man who left residential care after 27 years to live independently, with support.
We Tweeted the calls coming into our social work teams which ranged from adult safeguarding tip-offs to families and carers wondering how to make life easier for loved ones leaving hospital.
We also showcased the stuff done by the community social work scheme which can sometimes be a simple as helping someone find a friendship club in their community to get them out of the house a few times a week.
And our Neighbourhood Community Officers got a look-in too as they go into some seemingly hopeless situations and bring about a sea change.
All in all it was a great week and we know it made some people sit up and take notice.
So it seemed only right to do it all again. And make some more people sit up and take notice.
This time round we’re tweeting from the home of a lady who cares for her husband with dementia to try and convey the relentless demands and challenges that this role brings and to try and make us all a bit more aware of dementia and mental health issues.
We’re tweeting from a carers’ consultation session too and featuring the partnership work being done in our communities to offer people of all ages, something to do and somewhere to go.
And we’re looking at people with learning and physical disabilities who were sent out of the borough for care many years ago, away from their families and communities, who are being supported to come back.
If we can achieve this in social care with all of its perceived “barriers” we can achieve it anywhere.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from all this it’s “Don’t assume people won’t want to speak about their experiences.”
In our experience they have no problem with speaking up – it’s getting people to listen that’s the key.
You can follow the tweets from @whocareswalsall on Twitter or via this link on CoveritLive:
That’s just a bit mad. But in 2012, in Walsall in the West Midlands it’s not as surprising as all that. As a local government press officer, emergencies land in our lap. Even when they’re not directly ours. Here’s some thoughts on social media in an emergency.
Bigging up West Midlands Police on Twitter
For some time the West Midlands Police force have been trail blazing with their use of digital channels to connect to the people they serve.
The payback comes in many ways but when the chips are down it comes by having a ready made channel to shoot down rumours. Andrew Brightwell from Public I blogged a cracking piece on how Wolverhampton Police joined with bloggers to help explode myths. You can read it here.
One of those bloggers was Steph Jennings of Podnosh whose site wv11.co.uk was in the frontline against the rumours worked around the clock on Facebook and Twitter. Their Facebook page drew 200,000 hits in a week. That’s just an incredible figure.
Post riot lessons
Last summer, not long after the dust settled there was an informal meeting between police, local government and bloggers to see what worked.
It became clear that in a time of crisis people just wanted an authoratative voice. The role of local government comms people was not to stand by but to retweet on Twitter police messages. That’s a big step to take but an important one.
Lessons in rumour scotching
At the excellent Bluelightcamp In Manchester there was a brilliant session from researcher Farida Vis.
She spoke about analysing six rumours and how they went away. Heard the one about the tiger on the loose from London Zoo? Or Birmingham Children’s Hospital being attacked?
Farida mapped all of the tweets and drew some interesting conclusions. First, you sometimes need to scotch rumours repeatedly. Especially if they’ve gone viral. Secondly, often rumours are shot down by trusted people online. In teh case of Birmingham Children’s hospital, it was Andy Mabbett – @pigsonthewing on Twitter – who pointed out that the hospital was directly opposite Steehouse Lane Police station, so it probably wasn’t true.
She also posed the interesting point that we need to identify trusted people in the community for times of crisis. That’s an interesting thought but I’m not sure if we’re there yet.
You can see the reseach and some excellent data visualisations here. Farida Vis is on Twitter as @flygirltwo.
Post riot lessons put into practice
Within weeks that lesson was put to the test in Walsall when 150 homes were flooded in Streetly.
The first mention on Twitter was at 6.13am when PC Rich Stanley then tweeted that there was flooding.
As the picture built, confirmation that 150 homes were involved was tweeted at 7.54am.
Major Flooding from Barr Beacon Reservoir water main affecting housing estate in Streetly..Approx 150 homes..Aldridge Rd/Blackwood Rd estate
There was misinformation from people but what was striking was that this was drowned out by the multiple retweets of the police messages.
On election day in Walsall in 2012, part of the town centre was evacuated by police because of a security alert. We retweeted the @walsallpolice stream which did a great job in keeping people up to speed. It wasn’t anything major in the context of other events. But it did have a major impact on the town.
SEVEN things you can do for public sector crisis comms
Here are the lessons learned from the Walsall and Wolverhampton police – blogger debrief, from practical experience as well as from Blue Light Camp. Feel free to agree or disagree.
1. Talk to your colleagues in the emergency services. When it’s not busy. Establish if and how they are using Twitter.
2. When an incident starts, use Twitter’s search function to see what people are saying.
3. Use Twitter’s search functions to seek out what fire, police and any other official channels are saying.
4. Retweet the official streams only. Monitor but don’t RT non-official streams. They may or may not be accurate.
5. Think web first. Before you get the press release signed off agree 140 characters to put onto Twitter. Even if it’s a holding statement. It’s fine to say we’re investigating reports of a chemical leak at a council building if that’s what you are doing.
6. Scotch rumours before they spread.
7. Keep scotching rumours. It may take several times as rumours re-ignite.
