There have been fewer things greater than Doncaster Council’s World Cup competition to name its two new gritters.
Warm, funny and above all human the campaign has grown a life of its own taking in an appearance on Channel 4’s ‘The Last Leg’ and a tweet of support from Bob Mortimer.
😱*Puts on tin hat* 😱
We would like your name suggestions for two of our new gritting vehicles, please.
Keep em clean and be original – we’d prefer not to spend the next few days trawling through responses of Gritty McGritface and Gary Gritter. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/rCH9HneHJe
The aim of the Twitter campaign was to encourage people to come up with names for the two gritters. There was no call to action beyond that and that’s fine.
What did people learn?
That there are human being s working in local government. Some even treat the roads when the weather is icy.
In the olden days large organisations when they came in for a shoeing by the tabloids had to grimace and bear it.
Today, in an approach pioneered and perfected by the BBC they can make their own voice heard online.
The Sun – whose owner owns a media group in opposition to the BBC – ran a frontpage piece attacking journalists who were asleep at heir desk in the small hours.
The BBC used Twitter like a fly swat to point out the areas of trust:
Even with our eyes closed, it’s good to know the public trusts BBC News more than the Sun. pic.twitter.com/RBogyQSjVa
Human comms can come in different shapes and sizes from the deliberate to the instinctive.
One lovely example of the instinctive is from Hampshire’s Fire and Rescue Service.
They have many stations equipped with social media accounts to keep people informed and educated. When fire broke out at a church Rushmoor fire crew tweeted the information.
A worried social media user enquired about a memorial bench at the church.
Happily, the crew took a few minutes to find the bench and tweet an assurance with an image.
I know the value of memorials like benches. They can take huge importance.
So, for fire crew to take a few minutes to be human is excellent.
Sometimes good human content is deliberately created and other times it was an accident.
When a Gainesville police officer responded to a complaint about kids playing basketball in the street as a viewer you fear the worst. Why? Because the in-car footage of what is playing out reminds you of so many times American police officers have shot and killed someone.
You fear the worst.
But what happens is wonderful. The officer starts to play basketball with the kids. Three other kids who ran off when the patrol car pulled-up drift back.
It’s a human interaction. The officer plays and then asks the kids in a parting shot to keep the noise down a bit.
The police department – department as this is the US – release the footage and get half a million views.
Why?
Because it is recognisably human at a time when police are struggling to retain trust.
After the British Arctic Survey kind of ducked naming their new boat Boaty McBoatface every new naming contest has been shadowed by the prospect of the hive mind getting to work.
And so it came to pass.
Step forward Sydney Ferries who named their new boat ‘Ferry McFerryface’. You can see the Facebook post here:
Cost has always been a factor in helping to train comms people into how best to use video.
Gone are the days when a video production company could come and shoot a five grand video for a conference of fifty people.
Sure, there’s still a place for an externally-made video. But when you have the technology on your smartphone that’s in your pocket the smart thing to do is to look at ways to use that.
Over the past three years, myself and my colleague Steven Davies have trained more than 1,000 people. It has been a delight. Often people think the kit will be expensive. Not true. You can just use your phone or tablet if you like. But for a small investment you can improve what you do.
The sixty quid kit
If you have a device and you want the basics, a Rode clip-on microphone and a mobile phone tripod will cost you around £60. That’s roughly an Americano a day for a month. But if you want some extras, you can pay your money and take your choice.
A tablet or mobile
You can get a video camera if you must. But then you have the faff of keeping it charged, keeping it in a place where people can find it and hope that people will remember how to use it. Or you could use a smartphone or tablet. You are more likely to have that with you, have it charged and know what the buttons do.
Use your own phone if you can or your office device. But don’t use Windows or Blackberry. There isn’t the editing or social media software for them.
You’ve a choice of editing software. For ios, you can use imovie which is free. Or you can go for kinemaster which is ios or android. There is a free version. That’ll do great things and if you can live with the kinemaster logo in the top right corner even better. But the Pro version gives you extra resources to draw from and is worth it, frankly. You can get it for £23.25 a year if you pay upfront or about £3 a month pay-as-you-go. Cost: From free to up to £23.25 a year.
Music
There are sound libraries available that charge a subscription. But there are also creative commons options which allow you to use for free so long as you fulfil some simple criteria. Crediting at the end, for example, is common. I’ve blogged about this here. Cost: free.
Workshops
Our workshops help you to plan, shoot, edit, add music and text and post at the right length and in the right place. Give me a shout for more @danslee on Twitter or dan@comms2point0.co.uk.
For a good three years 365-days-a-year I was a public sector account.
I realised I was taking things a bit too seriously when I insisted that Christmas Day dinner be put back five minutes so I could post a gritting alert in 140 characters.
To make the channel work, I had to become customer services, too. Why? Because I’d post a missive and be greeted with: ‘That’s great. Can you tell me why my bins weren’t emptied?’
So, for a good while I’ve admired Edinburgh City Council. They have staff who sign on as themselves and speak human.
Hi, my name is Kirsty and i will be monitoring social media today.
Day two of a 30 day trek around comms that is recognisably human.
Step forward Doncaster Council for allowing five-year-old Jake to realise his dream not just of seeing a street sweeper but of carefully sitting at the controls of one too.
These are staff who give a stuff and go the extra mile. Instead of hiding behind process they made room for Jake to come to their depot and see a street sweeper.
Not only that, but video content shot by the council was distributed and re-used by other media outlets. Here it was the BBC who created a video that was posted to Twitter:
What is human content? It’s something that looks as though it has been shaped by real people. Why am I blogging for 30 days? Because human content can shape attitutes that makes calls-to-action more effective.
