Excitingly, it’s the week of commscamp scotland and I thought I’d write a quick few pointers if you’re new to an unconference.
If you’re going then congratulations you’ve got the hottest ticket in town.
If you’re going to an unconference for the first time you’d be forgiven for feeling a touch of intrigue.
An unconference is very different from a traditional conference.
UK Government civil servant and Brummie James Cattell describes the two simply:
“A conference agenda is set by organisers. An unconference agenda is set by attendees.”
That nails it beautifully.
To put more detail on it, the conference agenda is designed by a small group of people months in advance. There is limited chance to ask questions and discuss. There are many, many PowerPoint slides.
An unconference’s agenda is drawn-up on the day to reflect what the people in the room on the day want. It is flexible and it is reactive. There are no PowerPoint slides.
On the day of commscamp scotland, the agenda will get filled by the attendees with the help of the organisers. There will be a series of breakout spaces across the venue which will each host sessions suggested by attendees. Anyone can suggest a session.
At an unconference, there is no hierarchy. The opinion of a marketing assistant in their first month is just as valid as a veteran head of comms. Given the changing pace of the media landscape that’s not such a bad idea.
Will it work?
It’s the first time in Scotland. Will it work?
I’ve done a lot of work in Scotland in the past decade and I’ve found a group of committed well networked public servants who want to do a better job. I can’t wait to hear what they have to say and what I can learn.
There is a process to the unconference model that works. Find a room. Invite people. Collaborate. Go home. That’s it.
What makes a good session?
There will be more than 20 sessions at commscamp scotland. All will be proposed by those in the room.
What makes a good one?
I’ve given this a bit of thought this week.
After 10 years of organising unconferences I’ve reflected on what makes a good session idea.
If you make a session pitch the only thing you have to do is to go to the session and start the ball rolling. That’s it. You don’t have to bring slides, a speech or be expected to provide all the answers. A session is a discussion where people are encouraged to have a say.
I’ve found good pitches often start with the following and if you’re in two minds whether or not to pitch, think how you would fill these.
“I’ve never pitched an idea before but…”
If you’re in two minds do it. Share what you’d like to learn or share. Some of the best sessions I’ve been to have started like this.
“I really don’t know how to do X. If anyone else is in the same boat shall we put our heads together?”
I remember in the early days of social media someone came along who’d been asked to draw-up a social media policy and didn’t know the first place to start. She frantically scribbled down ideas and came up with some great ideas.
“I’ve just done X which worked quite well. Let me tell you what I did and the mistakes I made so you don’t make them. Have you done similar? Can we swap ideas?”
The great danger of standing up at a conference is to represent your employer. It’s all got to smell of fresh paint, right? But what’s of much more value is to hear about the errors and crossings out along the way. A conference rarely tells you this. A chat over coffee sometimes does. An unconference isn’t live streamed, doesn’t have a slide audit trail and can dip into Chatham House Rule when people don’t want the detail of the tatty truth exposed. How fantastic.
“I’d really like to get this off my chest.”
Often at an unconference there’s a session under Chatham House rules that’s just a chance to show and tell what’s bugging people. Sometimes it’s to search for a solution. Sometimes it’s to just vent. In the past titles have been ‘Local government rant’ or ‘And another thing…’
“I’m worried about X, are you?”
There can be horizon scanning and the good thing about this is that not everyone has the answers.
Road testing your session idea
People are at liberty to pitch a session on the day. If you’re an attendee that’s fine. Come along. No experience necessary.
I’d heard that the biggest single threat posed by deepfake isn’t video at all. It’s deepfake audio.
Audio rather than video, the argument runs, is easier to create and easier to believe.
Of course, I put this to one side onto the pile of things I’d look at when I got around to it.
Days later but hours before Labour leader Keir Starmer was due to make his speech to the Labour Party conference audio was posted that appeared to be of him swearing at an aide for forgetting a tablet.
“F-king idiot,” he appears to say. “I f-king told you, didn’t I? F-ks sake. Bloody moron. No, I’m sick of it.”
Here’s the clip.
The 25-second clip posted to X, formerly Twitter, by an anonymous account with a track record of criticising Starmer, appears to be the politician caught in a private moment.
Online, it was greeted with critics of the opposition leader who gleefully greeted the clip as evidence he has feet of clay.
A follow up tweet claiming to be a screengrab from left wing Skwarkbox website quoting a named audio engineer as saying it is authentic.
Ernest Hemingway wrote that everyone has a bullsh-t detector.
I was detecting bulls-t.
Interestingly, the Labour Party weren’t all out shooting the audio down. I can see there’s two good reasons for this. First, how fast would it be to authoritatively fact check the contentious audio? It would take time. Secondly, what happens when we deny? Rebuttal should never repeat the lie because it just reinforces the lie.
Thirdly, a denial can breathe life into a story. What’s that? What’s the thing they don’;t want me to hear? I’m off to hear it.
Experience shows the best source of online debunking is a trusted third party.
Here, it was a Conservative MP.
But we’ve known this since The Guardian and Reading University’s excellent Reading the Riots research. In it, amid riots blogger Andy Mabbett debunking the rumour that Birmingham Children’s Hospital was on fire. That hospital, Andy pointed out, is right opposite Steelhouse Lane Police Station. That’s hardly going to happen is it? As a result the rumout stopped being shared.
But it got me thinking, why audio and how easy is it? And can fake audio be spotted?
Why audio? It’s got a long history
There’s a long track record of secret recordings tripping people up.Far before the internet was invented there was a cricketer caller Ian Botham. Fans love him. The cricket establishment hated him because, in good story fashion, he was a maverick who didn’t play by the rules.
So, when Ian Botham was secretly recorded at a charity event calling those who ran cricket ‘gin slinging dodderers’ which didn’t go down well.
Those people warning that deep fake audio will have an impact have got a point.
A problem far, far away?
Of course, it’s tempting to look at this and dismiss it as a story about far, far away.
I don’t think it is. This is likely to drop into the inbox of public sector communications people.
First, a story.
In 2009, the far right English Defence League came to Birmingham to protest. Twitter was still in its infancy and we were all working out how it could be used. A tweet from one of the group claimed that a white youth had been attacked by a gang of Asians. It was reposted. It sparked a flurry of accusations that increased tension with sporadic fighting across the city centre.
At first, the police were baffled as to how to respond until a police Superintendent frpm Wolverhampton worked out that if he was in the police’s Gold Control command centre with his smartphone he could monitor Twitter and if a rumour was posted he could shoot them down in realtime.
So, he did just this succcesfully when the EDL returned.
This example set a gold standard for online rumour. Use a trusted source to debunk it in realtime. Not in tomorrow’s papers but a message within minutes.
Just as Twitter was weaponised to spread rumour deep fakes will undoubtedly be used to cause trouble.
It doesn’t need that much imagination.
For example, a school is facing protests on religious grounds from a section of the community about how they teach their children sex education. How is it going to run if deep fake audio was released of the headteacher abusing that religion’s Holy book?
Or how about the council election where the politician is subject to a deep fake about bribery?
How hard is it to create audio like this?
I thought I’d take a look.
What are social channels’ attitudes to deep fakes?
“the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake)”; and the post would mislead an average person to believe that “a subject of the video said words that they did not say.”
The trouble is that complaining through the official channel can take time. Relying on that alone is the definition of bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Creating deep fake audio is really easy
I’m looking at this not so anyone creates deep fake audio themselves but so they’re aware of the issue.
One of the largest AI audio platforms on the internet is resemble.ai. With it you can create audio firstly with some generic voices. Paula J, for example, has an English, accent. Beth sounds like an American. There are more than 20 off-the-shelf examples.
Secondly, things start to get even more interesting when you explore the other functionality.
You can add your voice to your resemble.ai account. So, I did. I recorded 25 voice clips of myself reading prepared text with which to train the tool. There is also the option of uploading audio but to do this I had to explain to them why I was looking to do this. I did and they said they’d email me back. After five minutes of waiting and no email I pressed on ahead to use a generic voice.
I’m sure resemble.ai would say that this is a step to stop potential bad actors. But I’m just as sure there are other tools out there that don’t do this.
The plan was for the AI tool to read back some of the script fake Keir Starmer had said.
So, painstakingly I typed in about 15 seconds of audio.
“F-ing idiot. Have you got it? The f-ing tablet. F-ks sake. I literally told you. F-ks sake. Bloody moron.”
Deep fake audio
I downloaded the audio.
Just to make sure, I also screen recorded the playback of the recording on my mobile phone.
Of course, this audio emerged in one burst without the required pauses so editing to insert suitable gaps would be needed to make it sound more authentic.
I also needed some ambient background noise. So, I screen recorded 30-seconds of audio from a cafe from a clip I found on YouTube.
I then used the Kinemaster video editing app to put together a clip that sounded plausible to the untrained ear. I used the app to add a bit of distortion to the audio and change the sound balance. But this was not a hard thing to do.
A basic knowledge of video editing and I was able to record the clip from start to finish in less than half an hour.
Here it is.
And yes, that’s a stock pic of a couple arguing in a cafe.
For audio, there’s annoyingly few tools. Resemble.ai say they have such a tool. But the webpage is behind a wall which harvests contact details and there’s a promise to get in touch. If this is needed in a hurry it’s not the answer you’re looking for.
So what to do?
Well, a piece on Ampere Industrial Security’s website talks about research being published by researcher Siwei Lyu from University of Buffalo, State University of New York. There is such a researcher called Siwei Lyu, I found. But there isn’t the source of the research there. Does that mean it doesn’t exist? You spend anytime looking at fakes online and you start to get a bit sceptical of the most ordinary looking things.
The Keir Starmer example shows that yes, it will happen. But the debunking should probably come from a third party rather than yourself.
Sometimes people ask me what makes journalists tick and I tell them this.
There are two things that make a journalist tick.
Fear and ego make a reporter tick.
I can say this cast-iron fact after 20 years as a reporter and answering media queries.
Fear because they are under pressure. The pressure is to get the story, fill the paper, post to Facebook or fill the bulletin. Above the journalist is a news editor and above them is the editor. Editors often tend in my experience to be somewhat psychotic and as the saying goes ‘sh-t rolls down hill’.
Fear because they don’t want to miss the next story. A relationship between reporter and comms person could be the length of a phonecall or it could be something more cultivated that stretches weeks and months.
One of the first lessons I learned as a reporter was that in a small town paths will cross. Be fair with people even in a critical knocking story and they’ll be fine.
If you’re the contact for a project that’s likely to be exciting, worthwhile and newsy then the fear is that they’ll miss out. The reporter won’t want to burn that relationship.
Ego because they want the front page bulletin leading story. They want the scoop that everyone else is chasing. It could be something that’s landed in their lap or it could be something that they’ve worked on for days, weeks, months or years.
Fear and ego are so important.
I say all this with absolute love, affection and professional respect. It’s was what I thought when I was a reporter and what I still think now.
Very often people are dismissive of the role journalists play and that’s a big mistake. True circulation is down and there are other games in town. But Ofcom data during COVID showed how a crisis, people turned to content shaped by a journalist be that in print, online, on TV or radio. Even 75 per cent of under 24s were getting their COVID news from a trusted news source.
We overlook the reporter – comms relationship at our absolute peril. How we consume news has changed but what motives a reporter fundamentally hasn’t changed. Understanding what makesa reporter tick helps with this relationship.
A common mistake
I can understand why some comms teams insist the reporter email the query. But by doing this you are not doing as much as you can to build a relationship. Recently, I heard a Reach plc editor talk about how she would agree to give more time to a PR officer to get a response if the reporter had a good relationship with them. That doesn’t surprise me. Fear and ego? They don’t want to burn that relationship for fear they’d need it again in the future.
Isn’t it all about changing the world for a reporter? No, I tell them. It isn’t. It may be at the start but once they’re working in a professional environment fear and ego are the day-to-day influences. You’re not going to save the world if you’ve got an angry news editor shouting at you.
If you understand what makes a journalist tick you’ll know better how to approach the relationship.
In 2010, social media was so simple. Your video was YouTube, Instagram was your pictures, Facebook told you whose children were going to school and Twitter was about your breaking news.
This version of social media – lets call it social media mark I – has changed without many of us realising it.
Today, it is so much more complicated. All of them are about video. All of them penalise links. All of them are keen on creating safer spaces away from the notion of the big Town Square.
Fast forward to today and what do we have? Video is everywhere. All of them have algorithms that select what we see rather than the order they were posted in. Increasingly, they are all selecting content from outside of our networks.
We are also less happy about having a public discussion on a public network. In social media mark 1, the Town Square was where all human life ideas and opinions are. But we are moving to safer spaces where like-minded people are.
Quietly, WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups and LinkedIn have emerged as places where people now are. Groups are self-selecting so if you want similar voices you can have them. Messenger is also very much a thing.
There are two reasons for this.
The first is online abuse and the second is TikTok.
But first, the early optimistic days.
The optimism of early social media
Back in 1999, early web adopters got together to figure out how the social web may work. Their work is contained in the Cluetrain Manifesto. This far sighted document describes how they thought the social web would work. It is the founding document of social media mark I.
In the manifesto, they described the human tone of voice that would work on the social web, that it would be a conversation and that online communities would be powerful. They wrote how hyperlinks would subvert hierarchy. That sharing links would be instant and powerful and we would no longer have to go through existing structures to reach people.
In 2008, the public sector had started to switch on to social media with local government leading the charge. Back then only Derbyshire County Council, Newcastle City Council and Devon County Council were using Twitter. I was at Walsall Council and we were the 4th. Those that were were often taking risks to do things we today expect from our public services. When Derbyshire’s Sarah Lay put election results on the council Facebook page she did so at considerable personal risk.
The connections between these early risk takers and door pushers were all first made through Twitter.
Then came Trump and Cambridge Analytica
Looking back, the inflection point was 2016.
Jon Ronson in his book ‘So You’ve Been Shamed Publicly’. Overnight, everything Lindsay Stone loved in life disappeared when the web lashed out at her for an ill-judged prank photograph in a cemetery. The human cost greatly outweighed the action. This was Town Square as mob.
But by the end of the book, Ronson discovered one shining truth. To be internet shamed you needed to feel shame. So, when Max Mosley was outed in a News of the World expose as taking part in a nazi-themed orgy with prostitutes he was indignant. It was an orgy with prostitutes, he confirmed. But it was not nazi-themed. Shamelessly, he took on the Murdoch title and won.
And Cambridge Analytica.
The company used personal data acquired through rule breaking to game Facebook and skew the 2016 Presidential campaign for Donald Trump. Allegations they also worked on the 2016 Brexit Leave campaign are unproven.
The algorithm was rewarding argument, bitterness and abuse. So, with print declining some newspapers pushed the envelope and prioritised divisive content. Clicks meant eyeballs. Eveballs meant ad revenue. They still do.
I remember thinking that the time that all this was not what the early promise of social media was for.
Online abuse
In the early days of public sector social media abuse was rare. People were largely just pleased to see you engaging in a space where they were. But things change.
If you work in public sector communications you are even likelier to see and be the subject of online abuse.
During the pandemic at three month intervals I ran a tracker survey of how people were faring in public sector comms. Just over 50 per cent said that they were seeing verbal abuse aimed at then organisation at least weekly, 14 per cent were seeing abuse aimed at named individuals weekly and five per cent received threats of violence in the same period.
I’m tired of talking to people who have been worn down by a drone that ranges from abuse to a background hum of microaggressions that chip away.
So where has all this taken us?
Anti social media
It’s taken us away from the Town Square.
There has been a race to create a Twitter competitor but I’ve a feeling they’re looking in the wrong place. We don’t want so much of that version of the social web, we want something far safer.
What is safer?
I’ve sometimes heard apps like WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram as ‘anti-social media’. I see what they’re trying to say with that tag. I don’t agree with it. It is less about being anti-social in a trolling way and more about finding corners of the internet where people can more be themselves. It takes the danger laced serendipity of social media mark I and swaps it for something less unpredictable and more calmer.
But we haven’t divorced ourselves from the more helpful elements of social media mark I. Breaking news can emerge first on the social web although for calm context a trip to a trusted news source online is what 75 per cent of us do for our news.
Even TikTok
Even TikTok is part of this trend. Find 100 TikTok users and the videos they’ll see will be 100 different streams.
The TikTok algorithm is framed around ‘interests’ not connections. So, if you like videos of dogs, mid-week recipes, places to go with children and cricket then the algorithm will find you out by what you swipe past and linger on. This is not the Town Square. It’s the cafe on the town square that serves exactly what you want.
In the UK, TikTok is in the top three of most favourite channels from everyone from aged 18 to 52, Ofcom say.
TikTok has changed socials mark I because it has subverted it. By subverting it it has proved successful and those are numbers that all the others want.
New developments in messaging
Scroll back through the announcements and developments and you’ll see so much activity around messaging.
So, the landscape changing WhatsApp Channel rollout which makes a potential mass audience tool available for the first time. That’s broadcast.
None of these tools are yet in the API which can be used by third party tools. This means if you are a slave to Hootsuite then you’ll have to go off-piste in order to experiment with them.
Little remains of social media mark l but we’re still working out mark II
Today, little remains of the early version of social media. What used to be sorted for you by the time it was posted is now a highly-curated feed. Not just a curated feed based on your connections but one based on what the algorithm thinks you’ll like. Where TikTok went first by prioritising interests others have followed. Facebook, forever the magpie of others’ ideas are doing the same. They call this the Discovery Engine to make it sound like they invented it. This explains why you are seeing things in your timeline that you aren’t following and aren’t ads.
What social media mark II looks like
In the early days of social media evangelists would consider the word ‘broadcast’ a dirty word. This was now, we were told, what the future looks like. In a recent workshop where WhatsApp Channels was discussed the broadcast nature of the platform was welcomed.
“You mean,” one said, “Each message won’t have a queue of people telling us we’re f–king idiots?
“Where can I buy one?”
But this won’t be a move away from elements of what has come before. There is value in testing the temperature, breaking news, canvassing opinion going to where the eyeballs are. We just want space where people won’t shout all the time.
Conclusion: embrace change
What this means for public sector comms people is this. What felt like something set in stone is not. It has foundations of sand.
This means that a tweet with a link now looks like this.
We have staff knocking on doors across #Dudley borough and speaking to residents about updates to the electoral register. Always check ID and if you’re unsure of anything, just get in touch https://t.co/EH6QMCgIGJpic.twitter.com/YQS0VXvWys
Firstly, there’s always building a thread to help you tell your story which tends to get rewarded. A thread in this context being a series of connected tweets rather than Threads the Meta-launched Twitter rival.
Yes, this does involve more work and no, not every social media management tool can allow you to post threads meaning that you may have to do so natively.
Besides, the answer may be in telling the story on the platform itself rather than asking people to go somewhere else for it. The aim here isn’t to drive traffic to a particular website. You are not a web manager. The aim is to put the right information in front of the right people at the right time.
The bottom line is if you want people to see your message then you’ll have to change and evolve.
When recording studios started to use filters and effects pedals musicians rose up in outrage.
This was not music, they said. People were being tricked, they warned withan air of indignation.
Right now, we’re at the stage of new tools being made available and needing to think about they’re used while they’re already being used by comms people.
When I first sketched this blog post, I pulled together some big picture resources to get you started with AI. There’s some good strategic stuff from UK Government and the CIPR I’ve gone through.
But there’s also a slew of announcements by big tech companies that mean AI tools will be even further into the day-to-day.
So, this is less about needing sign-off to employ banks of boffins in labcoats to come up with great ideas. Although having the big picture covered is sensible you’ll be using AI even without thinking about it too much.
What it also is looking at the announcements by Facebook and Google is that AI is being integrated right into the heart of their social channels.
The good news is that if you use AI this will be flagged up. So, adjust the background and people will be able to see which tool you’ve used. Less Government health warning and more helpful tip to try out the tool too.
This is a good move.
YouTube and AI
And Google are following suit with AI tools around their YouTube Shorts platform. Not everyone is using their TikTok rival right now but you can be sure if it works well in one area it’ll be pushed through into other areas.
How should public sector communicators use AI? The first question might be: “should public sector communicators use AI at all?” The short answer is “yes”. In a few years, asking this question may seem as ridiculous as asking whether we should use the internet.
I’m very much of the opinion that AI won’t replace the whole of comms. But comms people who can use AI will replace those who can’t. Fifteen years ago I was at an LGComms conference on a panel to discuss social media. We were introduced with the words ‘there’s only two things wrong with social media, it’s not social and it’s not media.’ This was at the time a ridiculous thing to say and that individual left the sector not long after.
It’s interesting that GCS are looking to develop their own version of ChatGPT. In other words, a large language model that when asked for a comms plan will use GCS’s own version of a comms plan.
Personally, I’ve found that GCS’s comms planning tool may work for Government but its too unwieldy for a lot of what local government, NHS, police, fire and rescue do. Government departments may think of a dozen campaigns a month. In local government, that can be a dozen issues a week easily.
WhatsApp Channels is poised to become a truly game changing tool.
For the first time organisations can use Channels to use WhatsApp at scale to reach an audience.
This isn’t private messaging it’s provate broadcasting.
Given that more than 50 per cent of the UK population uses the messaging app this opens up a new vista of communication.
Yes, there’s an audience on WhatsApp
WhatsApp chugs on in the background being an entirely effective way of talking to a small group of people. It’s also widely used by everyone from families, work colleagues, professional networks and other communities.
It’s also not just young people or older people. It’s all demographics as Ofcom data shows.
Table 1. UK WhatsApp by demographic 2023 (source: Ofcom)
What WhatsApp Channels is
Basically, Channels is a new piece of functionality in a new area of WhatsApp. You’ll find it in updates.
With UK Government now joining WhatsApp Channels this gives a green light for other public sector organisations.
WhatsApp describes their Channels as:
“Channels are a one-way broadcast tool for admins to send text, photos, videos, stickers, and polls. Channels can be found in a new tab called Updates on WhatsApp – where you’ll find Status and channels you choose to follow – separate from your chats with family, friends, and communities.”
WhatsApp blog
It’s also one way and yes, its GDPR compliant
If you’re an admin fed-up of getting abused when you post something then this will be a pleasant change. It’s broadcast. It’s one way. So there’s no replies that others can see and nobody else can see the names and phone numbers like you can in a standard WhatsAp group chat.
So, it’s not going to offend GDPR.
Result.
Updates can be forwarded on
One part of the WhatsApp Channels functionality that hasn’t been highlighted is the ability for people to forward on a message. For me, this misses much of the point of Channels. An update about recycling really should have a call to action to forward to people who live in that area. This can hugely amplify the reach of a message.
There’s a layer of privacy
Interestingly, Meta have made great play about the privacy element. Updates stay on servers for 30 days and then disappear. Admins can stop people from taking screenshots directly from users phones.
This absolutely follows the trend of walled gardens
At first, social media was all about the town square where different voices could be brought together. Then people started shouting and people got a bit fed up of that. The trend has been towards walled gardens where people are happier to be. So, messaging tools have been part of this trend. For Meta to now launch Channels really puts the accelerator down on the walled garden idea. If they could move Facebook pages into a private space maybe they would. This is the next best alternative.
But how are brands using WhatsApp Channels?
Firstly, WhatsApp Channels is being limited to big brands right now so there’s no real public sector use.
The first few weeks has been a time of experimentation and I’ve taken a snapshot of football teams, news providers, arms of the UN and Meta themselves have been using the platform.
Name
Posts
Followers
Text
Meme
Pic
Video
Links
UNICEF Supply
1
231k
–
–
–
0.1
–
Newsweek
44
822k
–
–
–
–
0.02
UNICEF Parenting
2
723k
–
–
–
–
0.19
Politics Joe
2
3.5k
–
–
–
–
0.19
Real Madrid
13
14.1 million
0.3
7.03
–
–
–
Lad Bible
15
89k
0.8
4.7
0.3
0.7
–
BBC News
6
542k
–
–
–
–
0.3
Manchester City
8
7.7 million
–
–
0.4
–
0.2
LBC Radio
2
18.3
–
–
–
0.2
–
Sunderland
11
11.2
–
1.7
–
–
1.4
WhatsApp
1
22.3 million
–
–
–
0.001
–
Mark Zuckerburg
4
8.8 million
0.6
–
–
–
–
Take a bow Real Madrid who have been acing it so far.
What works for them are images with text. I’ve used this as a definition of a meme. It’s quite loose, I know. But images with a message on have been working really well for them with an engagement rate of more than seven per cent. That’s an astounding figure and one that I think we can all learn from.
The images have set out starting XIs, celebrated a moment from the game or an achievement.
What’s striking for me is that clearly, Real Madrid seethis as a global channel. So, there are kick off times posted on an image that go around the world.
I’ve never seen that before.
What’s not effective… links aren’t effective
Newsweek have absolutely gone link crazy. There’s 44 posts over a four day period and a breakneck 10 or more a day on average.
That feels way too much.
While links can be posted onto the platform which ia real shift in approach from WhatsApp it’s clear that this strategy of volume and links isn’t working at all. There’s an engagement rate of 0.02 per cent.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
It will be interesting to see how the platform evolves.
Using WhatsApp Channel as the public sector
As far as what type of channel tro create the jury is out.
The organisations currently using Channels are established and are using Channels in the same way they’d maybe use other channels.
I wonder if the public sector may fall into a bear trap if they use their corporate name. I live in Dudley. Do I want Dudley Council on my WhatsApp? Hmmmm. Local government with its 1,200 services struggles to get all residents in all what it does.
Besides, councils are pretty unpopular organisations.
So, to use the Dudley example, I’m not sure if I want all updates, thanks.
But Yorkshire Dales National Park, for example, I may sign-up for updates for visitors. Places to go, images, short video clips and events that’s maybe something I’d be interested in.
Do I want the date and time of the next national park meeting? Do I heck.
Permission to create a WhatsApp Channel is being rolled out.
As a general tip, I’d find and join some WhatsApp Channels to see how they work.
You can do this on WhatsApp by scrolling from Chats to Updates and hitting the plus next to the Channels header. You can search for keywords or for the most popular Channels in your country. You can also create a channel from this point, too.
For content, you can add an image, text or a URL but as we’ve seen elsewhere the URL is least effective. Mainly because WhatsApp by habit isn’t a URL kind of place. We’re not used to it. You can also create a poll on your WhatsApp Channel. There is also the functionality to share voice notes as you would using your own WhatsApp account with friends and family.
Content
When you post something to your WhatsApp Channel you will go to the top of the list of Channels people have, when they open their updates. However, for people to read your update they still have to open up your Channel and scroll through.
One thing you may consider doing is to restrict what emoji people can use as a reaction to your post. You can change in your Channel settings from any to default only. This gives a thumbs up, heart, laugh, shock, crying emoji and praying reaction.
For what works best, take a look at the research towards the top of the blog. Links? Not really. Images and text on images? Yes.
Right now, the direct route is for people to find your channel via their own WhatsApp with them navigating to updates and then searching.
That’s not the most obvious way for people to find you.
Interestingly, Real Madrid while they are kings of Channels don’t have a single link, follow button or reference to their Channel on their website.
The Daily Mail, who have a sport WhatsApp Channel, are promoting sign-ups via a link through a story which takes you through to the WhatsApp site.
Having a link feels like the way WhatsApp for Business generated followers with its link, QR code and the ability to synch a Facebook page to WhatsApp.
Earlier this year Meta announced plans for this tool and was launched as a trial in two countries in Asia.
They’ve now rolled this out to the UK.
What’s WhatsApp Channels? Basically, it will allow organisations to be able to use WhatsApp itself as a way to reach people on the platform.
This is huge, huge news given that around 80 per cent of 18 to 64-year-olds use the platform (source: Ofcom).
Previously, using WhatsApp was limited to WhatsApp for Business with a limit of 256 subscribers.
Now?
The sky is literally the limit. We talk about Threads as a competitor for X (formerly Twitter). I wonder if its WhatsApp Channels may fill part of this role in an emergency given the existing interconnectedness of existing WhatsApp.
The ability to use WhatsApp Channels and the ability to create is being rolled out as of September 2023.
We’ve appreciated all the positive feedback from our initial start in ten countries. As we expand Channels globally, we’re introducing the following updates:
Enhanced Directory – you can now find channels to follow that are automatically filtered based on your country. You can also view channels that are new, most active, and popular based on number of followers.
Reactions – you can react using emojis to give feedback and see a count of total reactions. How you react will not be shown to followers.
Editing – soon, admins will be able to make changes to their Updates for up to 30 days, when we automatically delete them from our servers.
Forwarding – whenever you forward an Update to chats or groups it will include a link back to the channel so people can find out more.
A quick look at channels so far
Taking a look at what’s available in the first days
BBC News 79,000 subscribers
Manchester City Football Club 3.7 million subscribers
Liverpool Football Club 3.3 million subscribers
LadBible 6,8k follow
Content so far
I’ve taken a look at the limited pool that’s out there.
The big observation is that there are links in content.
That in itself is huge as links were discouraged in version 1.0 of WhatsApp.
For me, the LinkedIn corporate page is that unexplored bit of the internet is ripe for a fresh look.
Years ago the channel was lazily dismissed as ‘Facebook for Accountants’ but in recent years it’s really come to the fore. It’s a safer space compared to other platforms. It’s also where a lot of professional discussion now is.
LinkedIn now has 10.9 million monthly users in the UK.
I’ve updated the training I run to take on more of LinkedIn and thought I’d share some things you may well be missing.
So what of it?
Simple ways to improve your corporate LinkedIn page
Have a LinkedIn page in the first place
Pages on LinkedIn used to be pretty dull corners of the internet that HR took over back in the mists of time as a place to pimp jobs. Thankfully they’ve improved a heck of a lot.
Have more than one admin
LinkedIn give a number of levels of admin to allow the smooth running of the page. The super admin is top of the tree with the content admin the next rung down having around 80 per cent of the permissions. Below that is the curator who can create and edit content. Below that in permissions is the analyst who can see the backend and that’s it. Use the admin levels rather than just have one person.
On your LinkedIn page know your audience
This feels absurdly obvious but I’ve come to realise that not everyone in your organisation will realise that LinkedIn is for professionals. Post content that is likely to land with your audience.
Push back on the request from the middle manager for the table top sale to be posted on LinkedIn as well as every other available channel. This blunderbuss approach to communication last worked in 1973. You are only going to irritate people if you use that approach.
Age demographics are remarkably consistent for LinkedIn. Around 20 per cent of all age groups to 65 use it but you’ll see your own audience in your page insights. If you are starting your career or maintaining it a LinkedIn profile is really important.
So have a LinkedIn page content strategy
You have a page and so you’ll get insights so you’ll see your audience. Experiment with content but do come at it from a professional perspective. If you’re a company in public transport you may want to talk about journey times, safety figures and big picture announcements. But you should also focus on staff. The long serving employee, the HR person who has done something really interesting in HR and wants to share it by writing a blog on his or her own profile that the page can share.
It’s maybe about posting a pdf guide to how farmers can apply for a certain grant and what help is available if you’re a rural council. Or maybe there’s a meet the buyer day where a house builder wants to connect with electricians, plumbers or safety equipment suppliers. That’s the value.
For me, there’s a mix of staff to make people want to join that company and also some innovative work that can help so the other part of your audience can plug in.
This is a really usnderused tool. The retweet back in the day was a powerful resharing of content. The reshare button does the same on LinkedIn. Maybe its a post from an organisation you are sharing or maybe its from an individual.
Use LinkedIn groups and encourage your staff to too
LinkedIn groups are an underused tool and it maybe there is a group you can set-up for a specific reason. Have a look first to see if there’s a group that you’d want to plug into as an organisation. But I’d recommend doing so via the people in your organisation who need to talk to professional people.
But this is also where you want to encourage people to use their own LinkedIn profiles.
When I worked in local government, the deputy leader who was cabinet member for regeneration used to go to the Chamber of Trade business breakfast to talk about town centre redevelopment. He’d go along with some senior officers. Of course they were the right people. Think of LinkedIn groups as the same.
I was born in Staffordshire, and a quick search of LinkedIn shows more than 200 groups. So, if there’s things in the offing in Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, the 520 people of the Uttoxeter Business Network would be the space to go to.
Happily, LinkedIn is a space that more people are happy to use in their own name. Yes, there is a problem with women being sent unsolicited messages but there are tools to clamp-down on that.
Aside from campaigns, the HR person talking about HR to their network of HR people is good karma for a place where people would want to work.
Experiment with LinkedIn Newsletters
The platform has been pushing LinkedIn newsletters as a tool for LinkedIn. To work this would need to be tailored for a specific audience rather than be a receptacle for every piece of content.
Your new chief executive is likely to be found via LinkedIn. So is that niche senior post. There’s really good functionality with LinkedIn for jobs. Other jobs where you’ll need fewer qualifications maybe more successful with a post to Facebook.
Experiment with LinkedIn live video
You can find live video either on a page you are following or through the events page. Live video can create more comment and engagement than a standard video. Basically you creator an event and then you add a date and time for people to sign-up to. You can run it through a third party tool like Streamyard or your own URL which can point at something like Teams.
As a summary
As with anything, this is about investing time and effort for the medium to long run. If you’re worried about being locked into a channel that you maybe don;’t want to be wedded to that’s fine. Call it a three month trial. At the end of the trial and it;s not worked just say thanks and dial back. If its worked then what do you know, you’re listening to the public and keeping on LinkedIn use.
One of the thing. The arc of conversation on LinkedIn has always been longer than other channels. Post something to X (formerly Twitter) back in the day and within 20 minutes you’ll know if that content worked. For LinkedIn, its around a week for the discussion to take hold and for there to be a back and forth.
National Trust A well resourced membership organisation that uses a variety of content.
English Heritage The organisation that looks after historic buildings in England has a good range of content.
Counter Terrorism Policing is a niche area of policing with more than 80,000 followers on LinkedIn through their content mix.
Cheltenham Borough Council This council doesn’t have the resources of larger orgabnisations but is using its page and content wisely to reach an audience.
Out of sight out of mind, Voter ID sits on the list of things to do but is buried below a pile of other things for local government comms people, I know.
But rather like Christmas shopping, it’ll soon swing round and the trick is not to be in the 24-hour garage on Christmas Eve looking for the last box chocolates.
With that in mind, I commend local government think tank LGiU’s ‘The Impact of Voter ID’ which I suggest you read or at the very least favourite for later.
While the document is aimed at election office administrators there’s plenty for communications people, too.
Whether we like it or not, its legislation that needs to be communicated because it’s about the absolute building block of democracy and that’s the ability to vote.
Bottom line: if you’re English, Welsh or Scottish local government you need to unederstand these lessons well ahead of the next general election which is only just over the horizon.
Yes, Voter ID comms is difficult
First, there’s no surprise in the feedback. Around 83 per cent of people said that communicating Voter ID was slightly or much harder than in previous years, the LGiU findings showed..
Key findings
Election administrators are split on what impact Voter IDS had on turnout. The body of evidence from one election doesn’t conclusively prove that it had any significant impact on sections of the population.
A strong local campaign is needed. A national message with a local accent is my take on this. Yes, there’s central resources but giving that a local flavour would be useful.
Innovative comms is needed. Do the usual but think of all the ways that you can additionally get the message out. Putting the message on paper bags in pharamacies was done along with on the side of bin lorries.
Don’t look to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for all the help. Less than 50 per cent of election administrators said the UK Government department were helpful while around three quarters pointed to the Electoral Commission and more than 90 per cent praised the Association of Electoral Administrators. Comms people should make friends with the elections team who are members of this group.
People were confusion on the what ID they needed. What’s also striking is that feedback from people at polling station was that often people knew they needed ID but were confused about what kind to have with them.
General Elections will be a flashpoint. There is an expectation that while local elections will be tricky the real problem will be when Westminster goes to the polls.
Now, make a note to talk in the New Year with your elections team about communicating Voter ID.
