Dan Slee

I’ve always said that human comms is something you can spot but can’t really manufacture.

It’s about being human and responding with warmth and without polish.

One clip this week during the US Presidential campaign caught my eye.

In it, the son of a man shot dead at a school shooting breaks with convention and runs to Biden.

“I’m his son,” he tells him and the pair hug.

Biden responds and gives him a hug telling the boy that ‘it’s going to be okay.’

It’s a simple unscripted moment.

The boy in the video is Corey Hixon the son of Chris Hixon whom was murdered while trying to stop students being killed in the Parkland school shooting.

The full story is here.

The power of the clip comes from the human response of Biden. It was tweeted by former White House photographer Arun Chaudhury in support of Biden but really comes alive online when it was shared by a member of the public.

In an era of cynicism and hate, Corey Hixon the young man in the video shines through with his human reaction to the loss of his Dad.

So does Joe Biden in his response to him.

Public sector communications and PR people in the pandemic say they have endured verbal abuse, stress and a lack of leadership.

But they are buoyed by a strong sense of working for the common good across police, fire, NHS, central and local government.

That’s the top lines from more than 450 people from across the United Kingdom took part in the survey I carried out in June and July.

Why carry it out? I was mindful that the comments I was hearing weren’t getting mapped.

The data published in this blog is from questions asked in summer 2020 and was carried out after 12 weeks of pandemic with UK-wide lockdown being eased.

I’m now keen as the pandemic moves on to map as a tracker what people think now.

If you are a public sector communicator I’d be grateful if you spared a few minutes on the October update of the survey here.

A moment in history

In the summer, three quarters of public sector comms people felt as though they were working for the common good with a third feeling as though they were a part of history.

Almost half felt as though they worked for an organisation that was valued with the figure rising to 52.7 per cent for NHS comms staff.

Stress and a lack of leadership

Two thirds of public sector comms people felt more stressed in the pandemic with police topping the chart on 71.9 percent and local government on 70.1 per cent.

But communicators also spoke of a lack of leadership from their home government with two fifths overall complaining of a lack of direction.

Breaking down into country, just over half of communicators in England complained of a lack of government leadership compared to just 5.5 per cent in Scotland.

In Northern Ireland, the figure was 18.5 per cent and just nine per cent in Wales.

A tenth said they had trouble working and caring for a loved one and more than a third said they struggled to home school their children.

The local government experience: at the brunt of the abuse

If you work in local government you’ve had a tough summer of pandemic.

General verbal abuse aimed at the council was experienced by 70 per cent of council PR and comms people with 17.4 per cent seeing it daily. More targeted abuse against individuals was seen weekly by 14.2 percent of communicators.

Anecdotally, respondents didn’t feel as though the pandemic had led to an increase in abuse. The pre-COVID-19 baseline just continued but staff were quicker to say ‘thank you’ when something had worked.

Alarmingly, threats of violence were seen by one in ten.

Racist abuse has been experienced by a quarter of local government comms staff.

To balance this, this sector reported the highest sense of working for the common good at 77.2 per cent and at working as part of a team at 54.5 per cent.

The central government experience: the most confidence in home government

Communicators in governments across the UK reported the second lowest stress levels with 54.7 per cent saying stress had increased since the pandemic.

They also reported the lowest rate of complaints on a lack of leadership in home government with 35.7 per cent but were the sector reporting the least resources to do the job at less than 30 per cent.

Verbal abuse was seen by only a third with just 1.1 per cent seeing it daily.

The NHS experience: valued but stressed

NHS communicators have felt the most stressed but have felt the most valued.

Eight out of 10 have felt they were working for the common good and more than half felt valued.

They’ve also seen lower than average abuse with two thirds not reporting any and just 3.3 per cent seeing it daily – a fifth of the public sector average.

NHS communicators have by far the lowest threats of violence against staff with 97.8 per cent not reporting seeing any. Racist abuse in the sector is less frequent compared to other sectors with 89 per cent not seeing any.

But they have the highest rate – 40.6 per cent – of isolation and complain of the worst leadership in their organisation at 19.8 per cent.

The police experience: strong team work in the face of stress and abuse

Police communicators reported the highest levels of stress with 71.2 per cent report feeling more stressed during the pandemic.

Team work in thin blue line comms has been strong with the highest rating – 62.5 per cent – of any of the public sector.

Abuse is rife with comments aimed at their force is seen daily by four fifths of comms staff. In addition, almost 10 per cent report being personally singled out for abuse and seeing threats of violence daily.

Racist abuse was highest with a third of communicators seeing it weekly – three times higher than any other sector.

The fire experience: less stress away from the COVID-19 sharp end

Fire comms people have felt the lowest rate of all sectors for feeling as though they were working for the common good.

Unsurprising as they are less in the public health or law and order front line.

They are the sector reporting the lowest increase in stress – 42.9 per cent – but complain they are the worst informed. Almost 60 per cent say there is a lack of information from central government

Generic abuse is lowest in fire and rescue with just 4.6 per cent encountering any.

The experience in England: poor leadership from home government

A lack of leadership in UK government which managed the pandemic in England was the stand-out issue.

The problem was flagged-up by 41 per cent of public sector comms people – eight times the rate of Scotland and twice the rate of Wales and Northern Ireland.

A lack of information from government was also highlighted with a third of people – twice the rate of other countries.

Communicators in England also found it more difficult than other UK countries but they reported the highest rates of feeling part of a team at 54 per cent. More than half witnessed abuse.

The experience in Scotland: strong leadership but difficult home schooling

In Scotland, there was the strongest sense of working for the common good (83 per cent) and the lowest complaint of a lack of information from home government at less than one in ten.

Home schooling was the biggest problem in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK with 41 per cent raising it as an issue.

The Northern Ireland experience: hard but no extremes

In Northern Ireland, public sector communicators avoided the more extreme fluctuations.

A majority said they found working in the pandemic harder than before and were more stressed but the country did not top any tables.

A total of 48 per cent said they saw abuse – the lowest in the UK – and 22 per cent complained of a lack of staff – the second lowest if the four countries.

The experience in Wales: for the common good

There was a strong feeling of working for the common good (75 per cent) with comms teams in Wales reporting the highest country for working as a team with 54 per cent.

One in five complained of a lack of information and a sense of leadership from Welsh Government – up to half the comparable rate in England.

Complaints about the difficulty of home schooling were broadly similar across the UK with Wales rate of 36 per cent marginally less than other countries.

Comments

The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest upheaval to the UK since World War Two ended 75 years ago. It has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

Communicators across the public sector have responded strongly.

But behind the headlines, there is a workforce of public sector communicators working at stress with abuse in local government and police endemic.

Working at pace and under stress is not sustainable and attention needs to be paid to the long term health of those being asked to respond. A reminder email asking staff to take breaks on top of

What’s been fascinating looking at the June figures is a feeling that the landscape has changed for the worse. They’ll be a useful benchmark against a new October survey.

Of course, this survey is unscientific. But it does carry representative samples across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in NHS, fire, central government and local government.

Notes

The survey included the views of 456 UK public sector communicators with 88.2 per cent classing themselves as White English, Welsh, Scottish or British, 4.1 per cent white Irish, 1.5 percent Asian or Asian British, 1.8 per cent multiple ethnikc groups and 3.5 per cent other.

Of those surveyed, 76.7 per cent were English compared to English making-up 84.1 per cent of the UK population. Scottish respondents were 7.8 per cent in the survey compared to being 8.1 per cent of the UK’s population. Wales represented 9.6 per cent of the survey and 4.6 per cent of the population with Northern Ireland 5.9 per cent of those who gave their views – twice the comparative size of their population.

If you’re public sector, do please spare a few minutes to say how you feel in October after this months of pandemic comms.

EDIT:

References to home government in Wales were updated to Welsh Government.

How is your pandemic? I’m struck by the fact that there are many answers to this.

If you’re in-house the chances are you’ll be run ragged and struggling to keep up. I feel for you.

Me? I spent the first few weeks ill with low grade COVID-19 and it’s taken months to get back to being fighting fit again. I changed what I did from training to working on COVID-19-related special projects.

For a while I’ve been pondering online training but I’ve not wanted to rush it for the heck of it. I wanted it to be right.

After months of research, shaping, re-shaping and speaking to people I’ve launched a programme I’m calling ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER.

I want to tell you the thinking behind it.

I wanted it to be what you need to know right now to help you do important things.

But I wanted it to fit into a busy week.

It’ll be human. It won’t be watching something on a screen in an audience of hundreds. You’ll have questions. That’s fine. Ask them. I’ll use Zoom and each programme will be for a maximum of eight attendees. There’s a Facebook group for each programme where you can ask questions or share your work.

It’s five hour topic blocks manageably spread across several weeks. You are busy. I get that. You also need to refine your skills. So, hour-long blocks fit into the working day better. People have told me they can go off the grid for an hour but a half-day or a full day? No chance.

It’s okay if you can’t get to a topic block. COVID-19 and life gets in the way. So, there’ll be a recording available, notes and I’ll look to re-arrange at a time that works for you.

It’s online. Because we’re not in a place where booking a room and squeezing into it with a plateful of biscuits works. Obvs.

It’s a mix of digital comms and traditional comms. Because I’ve long thought that social media shouldn’t be this bolt-on. Use the right channel at the right time. It’s Essential Comms Skills. Of course its going to be both.

CONTENT #1: It’s got comms planning and evaluation in it. Because I’ve rarely met a comms team who have this nailed. So, it makes sense to start off with this alongside what the media landscape looks like and boy, lockdown has made it change.

CONTENT #2: It’s got the algorithm. What the algorithm says should shape what you are creating. I’ll go through pointers for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

CONTENT #3: It’s got the new platforms. If you’re too busy to find out about NextDoor’s 4 million UK users, TikTok’s 12 million and WhatsApp’s more than 25 million then here’s the place. I’ll look to tell you how to practically deploy them.

CONTENT #4: It’s got Facebook groups. With Facebook pointing its future direction at friends, family and groups it makes sense to head this way. I’ll show you proven strategies.

CONTENT #5: It’s got dealing with online abuse. This maybe for the Facebook admin, the elected member or the officer. When to engage, when not to engage and the strategies and legal routes that are open to you if things escalate. It’s here.

You can find full details of the programme here with details on how to sign-up. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

Yet again, Ofcom should stand up and take a bow.

Quietly the telecoms watchdog have published a 614-page XL spreadsheet of data collected last month on COVID-19 media consumption trends.

Like Bletchley Park operation Ofcom are producing quality intercepts that can give you a headstart if you are communicating advice on the pandemic.

Because I love you very much I’ve read it and I’m blogging it here for you.

It’s fascinating reading.

The majority of all UK adults use social media everyday

Social media consumption in the UK is voracious across all age demographics.

Three times as many over 65s use social media every day compared to those who don’t use it at all.

Just look at the use once a day v don’t use at all data.

Aged 16-24: 96 per cent use social media daily versus one per cent don’t use

Aged 25-34: 93 per cent versus one per cent

Aged 35-44: 87 per cent versus two per cent

Aged 45-54: 76 per cent versus 11 per cent

Aged 55-64: 73 per cent versus two per cent

Aged 65+: 69 per cent versus 20 per cent

UK adults check COVID-19 information daily more the older they are

If you’re over 65 you are checking COVID-19 information more often than any other age group. That’s no surprise. The group most at risk also have the most spare time and watch the most TV. But across all age groups there is an interest whether that’s TV, radio, email, web or social media. Just three per cent of any age group say they’re not interested.

Daily COVID-19 information consumption by age group

Aged 16-24 – 77 per cent

Aged 25-34 – 81 per cent

Aged 35-44 – 85 per cent

Aged 45-54 – 81 per cent

Aged 55-64 – 84 per cent

Aged 65+ – 91 per cent

The near-universal popularity of BBC TV News

Perhaps surprisingly, the most popular channel for getting COVID-19 updates isn’t Facebook, TikTok or Twitter… it’s BBC TV News.

From youngest to oldest, across the UK, BBC News presenters Jane Hill, Fiona Bruce and Huw Edwards are the most influential suppliers of pandemic news.

Surprisingly, the youngest sector, 16 to 24-year-olds, cite BBC TV News as the most regular source of coronavirus updates. Forty per cent of this demographic pointed to this while 77 per cent of over 65s chose BBC TV News.

Only 25 to 34-year-olds ranked BBC TV news in second place with Facebook coming top for them.

Public sector sites are a minority information source

The number of people getting their data from UK Government rises from 11 per cent for the youngest to 15 per cent for over 65s. NHS websites, email and post fares little better with 14 per cent for 25-to-34s being the highest.

Community health services are seen by barely more than eight per cent of any age group.

Radio cuts through to a minority

Commercial radio peaks with 17 per cent of 55 to 64-year-olds with BBC local radio faring best with over 55s with more than a quarter listening.

Non-mainstream media isn’t cutting through

Sites like Breitbart, Russia Today or Skwarkbox with highly partisan slants on events aren’t reaching a wide audience. No more than three per cent of any age group see their content regularly.

Online news sites like Joe and Huffington Post are five times more popular with younger audiences but don’t attract older audiences.

E-mail schmeemail

The largest demographic getting pandemic info from email are over 65s with 13 per cent.

If you’re 16 to 24-year-old…

This demographic is more likely to get their COVID-19 information from BBC TV news more than any other channel. Forty per cent watch the Auntie’s broadcast news.

Friends and family (34 per cent) come second with Facebook third (26 per cent), BBC News online on 25 per cent with Twitter on 24 per cent.

The single lack of one dominant channel makes communicating with this age group more time consuming.

YouTube and news aggregators (both 20 per cent) and Instagram 21 per cent also make up the landscape.

Overall, 16 to 24s have seven ways to find out information which are used by a fifth or more of their number.

News sites like Huffington Post or LadBible reach a combined 17 per cent.

You’ll find this surprising, but this age group are twice as likely to get the low down from traditional media – 75 per cent – than friends and family.

They rank traditional media (45 per cent) and broadcasters (42 per cent) as the most important sources and they’re most likely to see public sector content on than any other pandemic source.

Influencers? Four per cent see COVID-19 content from them.

Snapchat? 12 per cent.

Mind blown?

Totes.

If you’re 25 to 34-year-old…

If you’re late twenties and early thirties, you’ll use social media every day and you’ll see, watch or hear pandemic info every day too.

For this group, Facebook is your channel of choice (39 per cent) outranking BBC TV News (33 per cent) and BBC Online is third on 27 per cent.

Like their younger relatives, traditional media and broadcasters are the most important sources with around 40 per cent rating this group.

If you’re 35 to 44-year-old…

Social media and COVID-19 updates are daily and BBC TV (45 per cent) is where you get most information.

Friends and family and Facebook which both are seen by a third.

Newspapers make an appearance with 25 per cent while traditional media overall is 72 per cent.

Broadcasters and traditional media are the most important sources.

If you’re 45 to 54…

Every day, three quarters use social media daily and four fifths consume pandemic information.

BBC TV News is top with 56 per cent with ITV News on 31 per cent beating Facebook into third place with BBC Online and Radio close behind.

Broadcasters are the most important source.

If you’re 55 to 64…

Almost three quarters use social daily with BBC News 66 per cent the largest source of information far ahead of ITV news on 38 per cent.

Friends and family are third with BBC Online and News close behind.

Yet again, broadcasters are the most important source.

If you’re over 65…

A total of 69 per cent use social media daily and 91 per cent are consuming COVID-19 info daily.

A bumper 77 per cent watch BBC TV. That’s almost double the nearest most popular channel – ITV News- which has 40 per cent.

In third place are newspapers (38 per cent) friends and family (28 per cent) with BBC Radio 4th a point behind.

Overall, there are 15 different ways 10 per cent or more over 65s get COVID-19 information.

Anti-vaxx tops the misinformation charts

More people have seen anti-vaccination content than any other and it is the content most likely to be challenged.

Overall, 46 per cent have seen content claiming anti-vaxx statements are true rather than 23 per cent debunking them. This must be a long-term challenge for public health. There’s no point scientists working on a jab if the info war has been lost.

Almost one in seven would have a jab declared safe by the NHS.

The one piece of misinformation likely to be attacked is the idea that mainstream media are exaggerating the pandemic. That’s outscored by 25 to 47 per cent.

Picture credit: Flickr / Documerica.

While you’re here, I’ve just launched a new online workshop programme ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER. I’ve done the research to pin down what comms people need. See more here.

Across the UK there are 130 Universities with two million students.

Chances are, if you have a University in your area you’ll be coming face-to-face with locking down a hall of residence or a block of flats.

In Manchester, two Metropolitan University blocks with 1,700 have been locked-down for two weeks after more than 100 positive tests.

Alun Ireland, Manchester City Council head of comms, in a Zoom chat on the Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group ran through the early learning. In Manchester, the episode drew national attention. 

Shots of angry students unable to leave their flats dominated coverage.

So what do you need to know? 

As Alun is one of the good guys he’s keen to share what he learned.

Alun’s halls lockdown check list

Build relationships with partners in peacetime.  If you’re local government this means building bridges with the University ahead of time. It helps makes things go more smoothly.

Expect little notice. The Manchester lockdown came in with only a few hours notice. There will be little time to act so prepare well ahead for the eventuality.

Expect enforcing the lockdown to be difficult. Much of this is appealing to people’s better nature. There’s every chance the police will be telling people they won’t enforce the restrictions as it puts them in a difficult position too – so try to agree your lines in advance. 

Be clear on the decision making. Be clear whose decision the lockdown was and the reasons for it. You will get asked.

You will get targeted by no-win no-fee solicitors. Within 12-hours of the decision being made students were being targeted by solicitors eager to try and win compensation. 

Support the students: with food. If there is a supermarket around the corner that students usually use, talk to their head office to arrange a block booking of delivery slots. If you’re offering to help with food deliveries you need to have this help ready immediately.

Support the students: financially. If there is a package to offer to students be clear on what it is immediately.

Support the students: testing. The lockdown hinges on the eventual testing numbers. You need to work with Public Health England to block book a batch of tests and prepare how to get the results back to people.

Students who have part-time jobs will worry about working. If they stack shelves during term-time they’ll be worried about their job. The good news is that providing a headed letter confirming their status will help protect their jobs and their pay.. They’ll need to know this and where they can get the letter from.

Students’ mental health will be a genuine concern. Many will be away from home for the first time worrying about University life, bills, making friends and their course. This adds a huge extra layer. Work out ahead how you will prepare for this. The support offer will be needed immediately, out of usual hours, and for the duration  

Leaflet the neighbours and businesses. Explain that some students have been asked to take part in a local lockdown and explain why. Also explain that people will still see students on the streets and in the shops. They may not be affected.

Yes, there will be protest signs in the windows. No you won’t like them all. No, there’s not much you can do about them.

And then there are elite athletes. If you have an elite athlete they have a special arrangement that allows them to go about their business unhindered. Be aware of this. 

Thanks to Alun Ireland for sparing the time to take part in the session.

Picture credit: Flickr / Documerica.

Hello, reader. If you’re not a member of the CIPR you may want to scroll past this post.

Normal service will resume.

However, if you are a member of the CIPR you’ll have a vote on who will be President of this institute in 2022.

Can you spare a minute?

I’ve blogged this thread from Peter Holt posted earlier tonight which sets out why there is an urgent need in changing times for pressing change in the CIPR.

There are two good candidates in the race but there’s a number of reasons why I’m voting for Pete. This thread is part of it.

I’d also add that there’s another reason why I’m voting for him.

I first heard the story about Peter Holt 10 years ago and heard the same story repeated from different people in different parts of the UK. Always, the story was about how he got the need to change and encouraged those around him to work out what that change would look like. People looked back fondly. When I met him two years ago I could see the story I heard is true.

Here’s an example.

Over the summer, he was on a Zoom call with a former colleague who was going through difficulty at work. Peter sympathised and patiently talked through the options. It was wise counsel and encouragement generously delivered.

From talking to others this is entirely in character. A generosity of spirit and a determination to see people prosper in the profession he loves.

He’s got my vote.

Do take a read on where the CIPR is and what the answers could be.

Social platforms like old soldiers don’t die they just fade away.

We’re at the point where Twitter is fading and I’m not sure if the public sector has realised this.

If you want to talk to your audiences in 2020 you needs to wake-up to this and re-calibrate.

It’s been clear for years, the public sector has become too Twitter-focussed when people have quietly moved elsewhere.

Twitter’s first romance

Twitter has been the public sector platform of choice for a decade. It’s easy to see why. Brief. Concise. Good at breaking news and without the claustrophobic threads of the chatrooms that came before it.

When the penny dropped with me in 2008 with social media it dropped with Twitter first.

Twitter was where public sector people connected and shared ideas. Twitter was a magical garden where early events, ideas and connections were worked out. It allowed a junior person to talk to their senior person without having to go through the PA.

Liz Azyan’s research from 2008 is preserved online. It is a snapshot of where Twitter was in local government. St Helens Council were lauded as the first. Barnet Council had the most followers – 210. Twitter was the answer.

No wonder the public sector set-up Twitter accounts by the dozen.

Twitter’s honeymoon ends

As time went on, Twitter changed. The early hope was it would be a force for good faded.

Early Twitter advocate Steven Fry quit Twitter in 2016. ‘Too many people had peed in the pool,” he wrote in a valedictory on his blog. “Just one turd in a reservoir is enough to persuade one not to drink from it.”

Just this week a far right personality accused a critic of being a paedophile because he disagreed with him.

And Donald Trump.

At its worst, Twitter is a deeply unpleasant place. I’d call it a sewer but sewers are a Victorian invention to take away waste, prevent disease and recycle it so it becomes clean and pure again.

At its best, Twitter remains funny, witty and a place to organise. Just this week, Gay Twitter flooded the #proudboys hashtag with tweets of gay icons to undermine a far right group. There is still the light if you go looking for it.

Twitter has always withstood warnings of its imminent demise. I’m old enough to remember people forecasting it would die when it got rid of twitpic, moved beyond 140 characters and allowed threads.

Twitter remains good at some things.

It’s brilliant for breaking news in its first minutes, taking the temperature of opinion, for reaching journalists, stakeholders and there are communities of PR people and others.

After #commscampstayshome an eminent communicator told me how much he enjoyed the event and that it had pointed out new people to follow on Twitter. I stopped and thought. That’s just it. They’re not on Twitter or if they are they’re not sharing insight ideas and opinion on it in the way we did in the early days.

So, where are the interesting PR conversations?

They still exist but they’re on WhatsApp, LinkedIn or in Facebook groups.

This is fine. This is the evolution of change.

Today, when I want to hear from the newer voices like Lucy Salvage, Sara Hamilton, Cara Marchant, Leanne Hughes, Vicky Happer, Alex Thurley-Ratcliff, Will Lodge, Kate Pratt, Gemma Dawen, Benedict Wallis, Katherine Toms I turn to WhatsApp and Facebook groups.

It’s the same when I turn to more experienced voices like Mandy Pearse, Kerry Sheehan, Thom Burn, Giuseppina Valenza, David Grindlay, Carolyne Mitchell, Peter Holt, Naomi Smith, Abha Thakor, Steven Waddington, Patrick Fletcher, Al Smith, Andy Green, Sarah Waddington, Sarah Pinch, Karl Conner, Stuart Bruce, Ian Curwen, Bridget Aherne or Paul Compton.

The interesting comments those voices aren’t on Twitter so much but closed Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats or LinkedIn. Safer conversations in less public places is where the value is.

People don’t use it so much

Forget the PR bubble.

It’s what the public themselves are doing that’s really changed my ideas about Twitter.

The Ofcom communications market report for 2020 has Twitter in 6th place with 25 million users. Ahead of it are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Messenger, WhatsApp. Twitter isn’t the favoured platform for any UK age group in the report. Adults think its the 7th best site at protecting children in the UK.

Twitter users spend four minutes a day on the platform lagging behind 43 minutes for YouTube, 30 minutes for Facebook and 18 minutes for Snapchat.

Let’s be clear. Twitter isn’t about to die but it is fading. If you are setting policy and direction as a communicator you need to know this and reflect this in the advice you are giving.

The default request ‘we need a Twitter account’ is as thoughtless as ‘we need a press release’ was back in the day.

You need to think if 20 Twitter accounts across the public sector organisation are the answer when other platforms are barely touched.

You need is to work out where our audience is and go and talk to them there.

If I wanted to reach younger people I’d be thinking YouTube or TikTok because more people from that demographic use those platforms.

Twitter has been an amazing place. So, if you go back far enough was Friends Reunited. As it fades there’s no need to feel sad that it no longer has all the answers. As I said, its good for journalists and breaking news.

As Socrates said, the secret of change is not to be concerned with fighting the old but building the new.

What your new looks like all depends on you being able to understand the changes and react.

Picture credit: Flickr / Documerica.

There has been a big round of changes announced for the way Facebook groups operate if you’re interested in communicating with people you need to know what they mean.

Changes to the algorithm and extra tools for groups to make them work better are on the horizon.

The big changes were announced during the Facebook Communities keynote streamed live on the platform. As I’m fascinated with this stuff and I love you very much I’ve blogged them for you.

The TLDR summary: Facebook are putting more emphasis on groups and you’ll see changes in the coming months. If groups aren’t part of your Facebook strategy it even more needs to be.

The data says groups are flying

Data around groups is hard to get hold of so it’s fascinating to hear there are 1.8 billion Facebook users who use groups at least once a month. That’s 66 per cent of all users.

Overall, there are nine billion Facebook group memberships – that’s five each on average for everyone who uses groups.

Of these there are 70 million group admins and moderators. As a wild guess, I’d estimate there are around 30 million groups globally.

Facebook’s algorithm is going to reward public groups

The algorithm is the all powerful all-seeing eye that governs the direction Facebook takes so when Facebook give an insight into how they’re changing it it’s worth listening.

Content from public groups will be placed into your news feed if its relevant to things you are interested in. That’s a huge, huge game changing step. It turns public groups from niche areas to places where you can reach far wider than its audience.

For the public sector, it makes creating public groups around communities or topics more of interest. So, a public health page encouraging healthier living could reach a wider audience.

It’s clear that particular sunshine will be shone on public-facing groups. Facebook are going to actively allow sponsorships as way of making them generate cash for admins. That’s interesting. But it does raise the prospect that money will change things.

They’re also going allow collaboration with brand managers. I’m not sure what that looks like but this may have a bigger impact to private sector people than public sector.

New tool: Chats

This will be a tool where users can talk about a particular topic on an individual thread more easily.

New tool: Q&A

An admin can add a post that invites more discussion and a Q&A on a topic.

New tool: Admin

Extra tools for admins are going to be introduced to allow admins to run their groups. Applications to join public groups will become automatic but a limit can also be put on posting. So you can join. But there’s the option that you may not be able to post for a month. This will limit spam, potentially.

There’s also the option to limit the type of post. So, maybe during election time community groups that don’t want election rows can ban them altogether.

New tools: customise profiles in groups

As part of this, John Smith can join a Facebook group for gamers and change his profile pic to his gamer image and add his gamer tag to the group. He’ll still be identified as John Smith but he’ll also have a tag and a different pic.

This could work both ways in some community groups by encouraging the feeling of anonymity.

More policing of groups

The algorithm will be tightened up to clamp-down more on hate speech and individuals who consistently break rules won’t be able to set-up new groups.

Interestingly, a million groups have been taken down for violating community standards.

The bottom line

I’ve long argued that the data p[oimnts to Facebook pages on their own being of limited value. However, a page that takes its content to Facebook groups is hugely powerful.

Nothing in these changes has changed my mind about this.

Picture credit: Flickr / Documerica.

A quick post about online rumour.

Every year, conspiracy theorists darkly allege that poppiers won’t be sold in your town because of them Muslims.

Every year a few days ahead of them the Royal British Legion put out a post that shoots it down.

Quite brilliantly, they add the take-down as text in an image but they also repeat it in body text.

Cunningly, this allows for people to download the image and post it as a meme response on Facebook threads the Royal British Legion will never see.

You can also see the admin for the RBL engage with people in the comments section which is brilliant.