At some point as a kid I called round for my childhood friends and we played out for the last time although we didn’t know it.
At some point I won’t be involved in commscamp anymore and it’ll all be a fond memory. Until then I value every time I’m involved in one.
I’m glad to say that there is still a demand for the event which puts people in a room and just lets them get on with it.
At the first round of #commscampnorth ticket release for Bradford on October 13 the 40 tickets went in two minutes. Like a big online frenzy they were gone before they were properly even here. There were people both praising their fast broadband and others cursing being stuck on a coach.
The second ticket release on June 14 at 4pm will be twice as big with 80 tickets up for grabs.
That’s the mecahnics of it.
If you want to be in a room with real people who also do your job and know what you’re up against then do try and come. You’ll be very welcome. If you’re not sure what happens at an unconference I’ve added an explanation ‘How does it work?’ here.
What an unconference does
In really simple terms, an unconference puts people into a big room and lets them get on with it.
Everybody in the room is on the same level because job titles are left at the door. So, a junior marketing assistant has just as much right to put their hand up as a veteran comms director.
I’m not overstating it to say that going to my first unconference blew the top of my head off and made me change how I think and do things.
We are not attendees at an unconference, we are all participants and that’s where the magic is.
I’ll be happy when I see someone I’ve not met before talking about something I’d never considered in a way that makes those around them think differently.
#commscampnorth in Bradford on October 13 is organised by a team of volunteers including David Grindlay, Emma Rodgers, Bridget Aherne, Josephine Graham, Kate Bentham, Kate Vogelsang, Leanne Hughes, Lucy Salvage and Sweyn Hunter.
Of course, the time-honoured advice is to spend at least a month getting to know the platform yourself. That’s hard to beat. Do that and you’ll work out what works and what doesn’t.
Once you’ve done that TikTok’s guidance will make even more sense.
Analysis I carried out a couple of years point to 16 seconds being optimum. The TikTok guide points for it to be even shorter. They now suggest for ads between nine and 12-seconds which calls for briefer narrative arcs.
Brief?
Be briefer!
Narrative
Have a clear user friendly narrative through your video, TikTok suggest.
So, @poppycooks ‘What is the fuss about this chip shop?’ sets it out clearly. So does historian @jdraperlondon ‘When was a monarch last assassinated.’ As does Isle of Man Police ‘Why white helmets?’ is in response to a comment that poses the very question.
By doing so you set out exactly what your viewer will get.
Stimulate senses
Grab attention with editing techniques, they suggest. TikTok’s own camera has a range of editing tricks you can use with 40 per cent of the most watched content being made directly on the app itself.
Sound
They suggest to think about the role sound will play from the start. This makes sense as trending music can be a way of reaching a wider audience. Watch one clip with an attention-grabbing sound clip and people will often scroll through more for compare or contrast. You are, therefore, rewarded for remixing existing content. This is a big difference from Facebook’s Reels which aim to beat TikTok on its own game.
Use captions and overlays, please set out the world. You can do this through picking out key messages and highlighting them as a piece of text.
Space
Fill the screen, they say. That’s easier said than done. My old colleagues Express & Star photographers would be excellent at making each part of the picture visual and busy. Dead space was the enemy. That’s a good approach to take.
Go native
TikTok is a hugely democratic app. A lack of polish is encouraged and authenticity is at a premium. A glossy film just makes people suspicious n TikTok. So, your mobile phone is actually more powerful that a Ridley Scott commercial. Use your device to edit using TikTok’s app.
A few weeks ago I was lucky to take part in a re-union of former colleagues from the Sandwell office of the regional daily paper I worked for.
We met, we laughed and we shouted over the loud music and it struck me – again – that the newspaper industry I loved doesn’t exist anymore.
Once, the Express & Star based in Wolverhampton was the largest regional newspaper outside of London. In 2010, it was still selling 120,000 copies a day. In 2022, it was 17,000. When I joined there weas 50 reporters and today there are seven with five photographers.
This is all just the fond memories of a former hack really isn’t it?
It’s true the good memories are fond. As a team we would go the extra mile for each other in a way that my time since never got close to.
Newspapers today
Well, firstly they’re not newspapers they’re news brands. In the early years of my time in local government saw the press release and photo call king. From 2008, my battle was to lead the council towards a more digital future.
Everywhere I’ve taken a close look at the content newspapers produce has centred on Facebook being a huge driver for local journalism.
The classic loop has been for a reporter to spot a story in a Facebook group, write it up then re-post it into the Facebook group. Even the smallest newspaper posts 20 times a day to their Facebook page.
One review I did carried out this year in the south of England showed just 55 per cent of Facebook content was local news and 20 per cent national stories. Around five per cent were traffic generating memes. ‘It’s Friday, what’s your favourite place to get fish and chips?’ is one example.
Now, all of this would have appalled the news editors and chief reporters I had at the Express & Star. Yes, this re-balance is building an income based on a digital future. But I’m not convinced battling through pop-ups to reach a story that’s actually from 200 miles away builds trust in journalism.
Newspapers tomorrow
What’s heartening is the level of innovation in news.
I took at a look this week at The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University’s Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2022.
As an industry, they’re looking at podcasts with 80 per cent saying they’d invest more with 70 per cent saying they’d do more with email newsletters.
Interestingly, as an industry they’re looking to do less with Facebook and Twitter and more with Instagram (54 per cent said they’d do more), 44 per cent more with TikTok and 43 per cent YouTube.
The relationship between comms and journalism has often been at arms length. They’re two bickering cousins who often rely on each other more than the’d like to say. Of course, the public sector should think of ways to talk to its audience directly. That’s important. But so is keeping an eye on where journalism is going.
Burnt out by a decade of austerity and two years of pandemic I’m not sure that public sector comms is chomping at the bit for change. But I’ve never met a comms person yet who doesn’t want to reach an audience.
There’s been a big announcement on messaging from Meta that smart comms people need to be aware of.
If you’re a Facebook or Instagram page admin or have been using WhatsApp this is going to be something for you.
If you work in leisure, a political campaign or customer services then there’s also things for you here, too.
So what’s the skinny?
In short, Meta at their Conversations business messaging event have unveiled tools to make it easier for Facebook and the closely linked Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp into customer service channels. All of this opens up a range of new options for the organisation.
The Meta argument goes that people are happy to talk to family and friends on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram DMs why shouldn’t we make it easier for them to speak to organisations that way, too?
The changes map a direction of travel that show people move away from the big public market place to small intimate spaces, Mark Zuckerburg said at the event.
“In recent years the way we connect online has seen some meaningful shifts. You might remember in the early days of Facebook we used to share everything to our wall. Then our feed out in public for all to see and react to.
Today, most of us use our feed to discover interesting content and stay up to date. For deeper levels of interaction messaging has become the centre of our digital life. It’s more intimate and private and with encryption more secure too.”
– Mark Zuckerburg, May 2022.
People would rather speak to people where they are without having to call a hotline or send an email that often gets ignored, the Meta argument runs.
Does that mean Facebook will make it easier to be contacted?
As one wag put in the comments, does this mean that emails to Facebook that simply disappear will be replaced by customer services that work? Well, don’t hold your breath.
More places to be told you’re an idiot?
Now, the first reaction of many public sector comms people is to shrink from having an extra place to be told that you and your employer are idiots. That’s absolutely fair enough. But before you reach for the reverse gear hold on. This can change things for comms people on a few fronts.
Social media as a proper social media channel
The first shift this makes is with customer services. If Facebook, sorry Meta, are keen to do away with calls centres and contact emails then this means they’ll make it easier for customer services to answer questions. Listening to the chat, they think savings can be made through setting up FAQs so some of the answers can be automated.
Of course, customer services for small business with a small product line isn’t the same as customer services for local government’s 1,200 services.
But this is more ammunition for the discussion that yes, customer services should take ownership of incoming routine queries that ask for an answer. That’s as opposed to incoming snark, for example.
Social media as a transactional channel
The second shift is with catalogues. Setting up catalogues means you can make it easier to monetise a channel and introduce e-commerce. You may have a legacy route of selling tickets through the box office’s legacy systems. This does offer a new route that seems worth experimenting with.
If you’re a Facebook page admin for events, theatre, museums and leisure this is an important door that’s opened up for you.
WhatsApp integrated into the Meta Business Suite
I’ve been advising people for several years to use the Facebook Business Manager platform to admin not just a page but to keep oversight on dozens of other pages. It’s a brilliant – and free – tool for the person with overall responsibility for social media management to be using.
Of course, the name of the platform has now changed to Meta Business Manager and there’s a strong hint that WhatsApp will be added to the platform in the near future.
What it could mean for WhatsApp for Business broadcast lists
In training, I talk about WhatsApp for Business being the best way for comms to tap into the UK’s 45 million WhatsApp users. Go down this route, you’re able to message up to 256 people who have agreed to be sent messages on a particular topic. Importantly, subscribers won’t see each other’s names or phone numbers. In other words, its GDPR compliant.
There’s nothing in the announcement that undermines this or makes it harder.
Meta are making the WhatsApp API available for free
Previously, you had to be a company to use the API and the company declined to make it available to the public sector. Now, the API is being made available to any business. Working with an API is above my skill set but I’m sure there will be people in the public sector who may come up with good ideas they can make real.
This would, on the face of it, also throw WhatsApp into the mix for future political campaigns.
WhatsApp has been growing like topsy without an obvious way for comms and marketing people to plug into it. This looks like the beginnings of that plugging in.
“Don’t hate the player,” I tell people “hate the game.”
I tend to do this during training when I’m running through the Twitter algorithm.
You see, Twitter has been run by an algorithm for several years and it’s an algorithm that wants you to stick around as long as possible. So, as a result it hates links. It’ll mark you down for using them.
This is the point when I deliver the line.
The next question after a 10-second pause is what the hell are we supposed to do then?
This is the point when I talk about a thread.
Tell the story you want to tell on Twitter using a thread and tyou’ll be rewarded.
Why?
Simple.
You’ll spend more time reading and scrolling through the thread so you’ll spend more time on Twitter. The more time you spend on Twitter the more attractive your audience is. That’s why you’ll be rewarded.
Here are some example of what threads look like and what they can achieve.
A thread of threads
Thread: Digby the amazing lifesaving dog
Digby the dog helped stop a woman from jumping to her death.
So, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue told the story with a thread.
The results were off the scale.
This is Digby. Today he did something amazing and helped save a young woman who was thinking of taking her own life on a bridge over the M5 near Exeter (thread👇) pic.twitter.com/eMnIG0Dve7
— Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (@DSFireUpdates) June 15, 2021
Thread: What the council did in the floods
When flooding hit Doncaster the council built a thread of realtime coverage to spell out what it was doing in response.
The pictures were shaky, the staff looked sodden. Good.
Today has been another busy day as we continue to support people around the clock affected by floods at the same time as preparing for any more bad weather.@DoncasterDamian and @MayorRos have been on hand to see the many examples of amazing partnership work in action…(THREAD) pic.twitter.com/jVZES1QaXg
Thread: What a reporter saw on a tour of a recycling plant
“What are you thinking, St Paul?” remarked reporter Frederick Melo as he walked around the recycling centre looking at the crap some people tried to recycle.
Exasperated, Glasgow City Council built a thread of a dumped sofa and linked places where it could be recycled or donated.
🔷THREAD 🔷
🔻Bulky Waste🔻
If you have large items that don’t fit in your bin, please don’t fly-tip 😔 You can take items to your nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre, donate them, or request a bulk uplift !
This thread I love because it tells a story any age can relate to.
Pirates, it seems, have been pigeonholed in history as stripey shirt wearers.
Historian and knitter draws upon pictures, text and historical resource to show how all this came about. It’s lovely.
Museum staff, are ye watching?
Hello, fellow pirate enjoyers! Ever wonder why fictional pirates and sailors are often depicted wearing striped t-shirts? Here is a thread for you! pic.twitter.com/qWnw4qExcr
— Capital Socks & Guernsey Frocks (@FiftyFathomKnit) May 3, 2022
Thread: Traffic chaos around Edinburgh
As much as we can tell stories we can also be informative.
In this thread, Traffic Scotland show the disruption in a thread of pictures and traffic warnings like an eye-in-the-sky traffic helicopter.
Thread: A court story with a successful conviction
Northants Police tell the story of a night that turned dark for a domestic violence victim.
The woman jumped out of a window rather than face her tormenter.
The content comes from a court story and it’s powerful.
*Thread*
This week, a 28-year-old man was convicted of offences after he caused so much distress to his partner that she fell through a first-floor window trying to escape him.
Read that again.
This woman willingly jumped out of a window rather than having to face this guy.
— Northants Police (@NorthantsPolice) May 13, 2021
Thread: The view from an NHS chief executive
In this thread Chris sets out the hardships and problems the NHS faces.
There’s multiple audiences for this from government to staff and the public.
Things are hard and here’s exactly how he spells out.
1/25 NEW THREAD. Where's NHS up to? Flat out, doing its best for patients, as ever. But struggling with covid and impact of long term fault lines. Concerning pressure, despite front line effort. Sits alongside interview today with @thesundaytimes : https://t.co/W5Y0POEhgt
This is useful, a list of online audiences for news organisations.
Press Gazette published this list for March 2022 online here.
Why its useful is that it looks at national titles and local titles equally.
They’re not newspapers anymore, either. They are news brands That embraces the fact that they’re often in print (declining) but also online (increasing).
Here it is:
And also…
What the numbers say
Leading the pack on 38.7 million is the BBC.
But what’s striking is the number of local titles and very often Reach titles led by Manchester Evening News 17.5 million in 10th, and Birmingham Live 11.1 million on 19th and Liverpool Echo 10.8 million 20th.
Examiner Live is 29th on 6.2 million, My London 6 million in 31st, Newcastle’s Chronicle Live 5.4 million (32nd), Hull Live 3.9 million (38th), Lancashire Live 3.3 million (45th), Bristol Live 3.3 million (46th),Nottinghamshire Live 3.2 million (48th) and Leeds Live 3.2 million (49th).
All this points to the importance of local titles in the media landscape.
There are those, of course, who will point out that the content mix of Reach titles in the mix is low on news and high on culture war memes like this one.
TikTok is no longer a fringe platform. It’s becoming mainstream. Amongst the vanguard of the public sector are South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue who now have 100,000 followers.In this post he shares some of the secrets of their success.
We made the jump after weeks of planning, discussing and lurking on the channel in a desperate attempt to understand how it worked.
Having done a ‘quick and dirty’ social media audit at the start of the year, we knew that setting up an account on the platform was essential, not desirable, as it had become clear that we weren’t hitting enough 16-24-year-olds through our existing channels.
But what had become apparent is that TikTok is like nothing we’ve ever used before – and it would take more than some South Yorkshire overconfidence to make it a success.
Videos we didn’t find funny at all were blowing up, whereas what looked to us like good content was flopping. And then there were the trends. And sub-cultures. How did all that work? Oh, and what’s ASMR when it’s at home?
Eventually we decided that, having had some brilliant training to get us warmed up, the only way we would fully understand the channel is by diving in head first.
So, armed with our one page strategy and social media audit results, that’s what we did.
Here’s six top tips for anyone else considering doing the same…
Have a purpose
Whilst we eventually decided to take a gamble and dive in head first, we did set a clear purpose and strategy for our work on TikTok.
By clearly outlining why we needed to use it, and how the channel would help meet certain organisational objectives, we put ourselves in a strong position to deal with the inevitable questions we would get from curious members of staff.
Given TikTok has built up a (largely false) reputation for being a place that teenagers go to mess around and do ‘silly’ dances, this proved extremely useful.
Understand the audience
It’s no secret that being human, rather than corporate, on social media is generally the way to go when it comes to getting good engagement.
However, when it comes to TikTok, this rule applies more than ever. People use the channel to be entertained and educated, not hit over the head with dull public messaging.
There really is absolutely no place for anything that isn’t, in one way or another, entertaining. So yes, feed in your core messages, but find a way to make it fun.
Assemble your squad
One question we keep getting asked is around how we’ve got our staff on board. It’s a good question, given what’s already been covered above regarding TikTok’s reputation.
The answer, in a word, is persistence. Since launching the channel we have asked everyone we know across the service if they’ll be involved.
We knew from the off that not everyone would be game, and a key lesson we learned early on is that if people are only ‘lukewarm’ then there’s probably no point using them – their lack of energy will only kill your Tok vibe.
So our mission has been to assemble a squad of people who are up for it – and who will give us extra when we come calling.
Keep it snappy
When I close my eyes at night, I can still hear Zander’s voice telling me to mercilessly cut, cut and cut my edits down until there is hardly anything left.
And he’s right. Our figures suggest that the shorter the video, the better. After all – TikTok is a platform designed for short form video, and who are we to argue?
Embrace the chaos
With over 100,000 followers in the can, and the numbers continuing to grow, TikTok has now become our biggest social media channel by a country mile.
But that won’t stop me holding my hands up and saying, in the name of complete honesty, that this platform is completely bonkers.
Unfortunately for the more organised amongst us, it’s not a place where you can have and stick to a clear content plan. Trends will appear, and disappear, right before your eyes.
For us to be successful on the channel, we had to throw ourselves into it and accept the fact that it’s all a bit crazy.
Roll with the punches
Whilst we wouldn’t change anything about our TikTok journey, it’s certainly not been easy. In fact, it’s been a complete rollercoaster.
We’ve had days where we couldn’t sleep for excitement. Our videos have been ‘blowing up’ and, simultaneously, our follower numbers have been increasing at rates we’ve never seen before in our careers.
But then we’ve had days, weeks and even months where nothing has stuck. Videos we thought would do well have flopped, and we’ve felt like giving up.
The algorithm is a cruel beast that will chew you up and spit you out. But, as long as you have a purpose and a strategy, stick with it – your time will come.
Jack Grasby is campaigns manager at South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue.
Every now and then I’ll crowdsource daft requests made to comms people.
I thought it high time to ask the same question again of the 6,500 Public Sector Comms Headspace.
Here you go. Can you beat this?
Daft comms requests
“Can you make this go viral at 2pm on Wednesday?” – Lucy Salvage.
“The man on the left of the group in this photo is standing sideways can you change it so he’s looking at the camera?” – Steve Collins.
“Can we have more white faces in the brochure for BME?” – Anon.
“Can we have a Twitter account to reach young people” and “Can we do a Facebook Live to stop drug addicts taking ketamine?” – Nick Lakeman
“‘I need to submit an awards entry on Twitter by 5pm today. Can you set up a company Twitter account urgently so I can do this.’ Bearing in mind the organisation had no Twitter account and no plans to have one either.” – Becky Kasumba
“‘Here’s a template 1200 word spokesman press release from industry body and four A4 posters for our awareness raising month.’ That’s it. That is the request.”– David Grindlay
“Can you send an all staff email, someone has taken the scissors from the post room and I need them back.” – Pete Le Riche
“Graphic design job: can you make the white, whiter?” – Victoria Edmond.
“There are three cars parked on the overspill car park and the circus has just arrived to put up the Big Top. Please can you send out an all user email to tell them they need to move their cars?” – Louise Sharf
“Call from a member of security direct to me, head of internal comms: ‘There’s a student in the library wearing a t-shirt that says: ‘Jesus is a c**t’. What should we do?’ In the end security stared for so long trying to figure out their next steps that the student got a bit self conscious and sheepish and put their hoodie back on.” – Alice Oliver.
“Can we have a QR code? We want to email or text it to people”– David Bell.
“Can u send an email to let everyone know all the emails are down?” – Ghazala Begum
“Incoming media query: ‘Can you tell me if the Bat Plane will be landing near the A9?’” – Sarah Anne O’Loughlin.
“Can you write an awards submission for this survey-based campaign, but we should only enter it if the survey-based campaign results are favourable. Awards submission deadline is early June, survey-based campaign results expected early July.” – Stephanie Robinson Cutts.
“Photographing the 5’6 Town Clerk presenting an award to the 6’4 Mayor – ‘Just fiddle with the photo and make us the same height.’” – Emma Bye.
“Can you photoshop eyes onto the Trust Chair in this group photo? My colleague tried and the results were HILARIOUS.” – Charlie Grinhoff.
“Can you make this look pretty?” – Megan Olivia Duggan.
“One from my charity days but my favourite 4pm on Friday media request ‘I understand you hold the media rights to Captain pugwash?’ We didn’t. The journo had looked at the wrong line in their contacts spreadsheet. But being the media professional I am, I didn’t immediately rule it out and said I would go away and check.” – Suzi Robinson.
“‘You’ve sent us this mock design of how our leaflet would look in the wrong language.’ Lorem Ipsum anyone?” – Karen Rowley.
“Going back in time regarding a print quote submitted with a new brochure: “Well if I’m paying for 4 Colours I expect to see all of them.” – Philip Mackie.
“Please can Comms turn off the fog horn, I’m struggling to concentrate.” We work on the waterfront.” – Cath Akins.
“Asking us to remove a post and ban a user from a Facebook group that has nothing to do with us, because they complained about bad service they received from us and named a staff member directly.” – William John
“Can we have a map with QR codes linking to things to do in each area? Sure, just send me the links. Oh, there’s no links, we don’t actually have a list of things to do, a website, or any intention of producing one.” – Ruth Fry
“‘Can we have lines to take, Q&A, full comms plan, photos, videos and the moon on a stick by COP a week last Thursday please for something maybe might be happening in 2044, we dunno yet. We have no idea on the hook or the key messages, but will definitely need a press release for it.’ Obviously, not a real request, but sums all requests up in a nutshell.” – Pam Pye.
“At 3pm. The awareness day is today, can you just chuck some content out both internally & externally that links it to something we are doing, be great if you can get some staff and customers to take part.” – Caroline Howarth
“‘Make the most accessible website, ever.’ Same person, same website: ‘You need to use this specific shade of light green behind white text.” I suggested many accessibility compliant combinations, but eventually relented to make it that specific light green, only to be told it was the wrong green and change it all again to a different but still non-compliant shade.” – Keely Gallagher.
“Make this go viral,” will always be my biggest head-banging-against-wall moment.”– Sarah Rochester.
“I’d like everyone in the organisation to know what great charitable work this team is doing, without writing an article about it, or doing anything that may be perceived as us promoting it.” – Brioney Hirst.
“Can you email everyone to tell them that emails are down?” – Penny Gibbs
“Can you send me a word document of the entire website so that I can use it to learn how to create an App version of the website?” – Sacha Taylor
“Can you ‘comms’ this?” – Christine De Souza
“Got asked if I could make a video go viral again this week. You think I’d still be working if I could make videos go viral?” – Tøbias Der Mönch
Thank you to Anon, Tobias der Monch, Christine De Souza, Keely Gallagher, Vicky Croughan, Nick Lakeman, Becky Kasumba, David Grindlay, Alex Thurley-Ratcliff, Sarah Rochester, Penny Gibbs, Brioney Hirst, Pete Le Riche, Victoria Edmond, Louise Sharf, Alive Oliver, David Bell, Ghazala Begum, Debbie Goodland, Sacha Taylor, Sarah Anne O’Loughlin, Stephanie Robinson Cutts, Emma Bye, Charlie Grinhoff, Megan Olivia Duggan, Suzi Robinson, Karen Rowley, Philip Mackie, Cath Atkins, William John, Kaylee Godfrey, Lucy Salvage and Steve Collins.
One of the beautiful things about the internet is remix culture… taking something and making something else.
It’s been at the heart of the internet since it started. Think CassetteBoy back in the day. Or creative commons licences. Or memes.
TikTok has really taken the idea of remix culture and given it an oxygen mask filled with pure mountain air. Baked into the platform is the abillity to re-use and repurpose.
So, the duet can be a video you shoot where you respond to another video, for example.
Or it can be using the audio of another video to create your own take on the original.
Scrollingh through TikTok I noticed four examples of remix culture not in high fashion or pop culture but… cricket.
Cricket? You mean that stale sport played in front of a handful of elderly people?
It turns out that cricket is really embracing remix culture on TikTok.
Why is this useful to a comms person?
Because people like remix culture. They like and share it. It builds your audience because they’ll stick around for your next video. Your next video may be one you really want them to see with a call to action.
I’ve said it dozens of times before but if 80 per cent of your content is not about selling things that’s a decent number to aim at.
Durham cricketers react to a village cricket clip
‘That’s so village’, is a term attached to really bad cricket. It’s the red ball equivalent of being a pub team.
Thanks to the advent of decent cameras and the internet there’s a whole host of clips that are attached under the village umbrella.
Shooting reactions is a well established way of generating content. In this case, Durham County Cricket Club show village cricket clips to a couple of their players and they film their reactions. They then mix the original with the reaction. It’s not hard to do.
The result is a fun clip with LOLs…
Reacting to a reaction video
Even more meta is Worcestershire County Cricket Club’s reaction to a reaction. In this case, football pundit Rio Ferdinand reacts in the studio to a goal being scored.
That clip is repurposed by WCCC as a means of underlining just how good a wicket one of their bowlers has taken.
Clever.
Remixing the audio
David Warner is Cricket Australia’s pantomime villain. He’s been suspended for his role in cheating in the past.
In this clip, they get Warner to lipsync what looks to be a Bollywood clip about violence.
What does the film do? It underlines the player. The player makes a joke about his reputation. It reaches an audience who probably are not listening to Test Match Special.
‘We’re a data driven organisation,’ many organisations boast before throwing the data out of the window when it comes to ordering staff post-pandemic to return to the office.
If you work in Government you may have observed the sight of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Minister for government efficiency, touring offices to count civil servants at their desk.
More is better, he argues.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is leaving this note for civil servants who aren’t at their desks… pic.twitter.com/7KzBcGKVJP
So, I thought I’d read through the academic evidence over whether the office or WFH – working from home – is better.
The simple answer is that it depends.
However, one core thing that runs through all of the research is that one size does not fit all. All WFH or all in the office is not the best outcome.
For those that do work from home, working out where the boundaries lie between work and non-work is the biggest single challenge to keep burn-out at bay. And the danger of burn-out is real.
The downsides, they found, were home office constraints, work uncertainties and inadequate kit. That the survey spanned 13 European countries including the UK strengthens the findings.
Well motivated workers thrive
If you’re self-motivated and are well led you will thrive with WFH, is the finding of Jelena and Rosa’s research. However, those not well motivated won’t adapt well and a purely online approach can lead to burn-out, unhappiness at home and a lack of sleep.
During the pandemic many areas of life went online. In this research amongst psychologists, 80 per cent enjoyed working from home but 42 per cent found it difficult at some stage.
While there clear benefits for working from home there are far fewer for women with young children. The burden of looking after them falls proportionately more on them than it does on men.
Back in January, I asked the question of where people were with the process of the return to the office. Of almost 300 public sector comms respondents, most – 43 per cent – were working from home and 39 per cent working hybrid.
Working practices of public sector comms, January 2022
Just over 10 per cent were in limbo waiting for a new process, five per cent never left the office and just one per cent had moved back to the office.
