30 days of human comms: #6 Sydney Ferries name their new boat Ferry McFerryface

ferry

It had to happen.

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:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNSWPublicTransport%2Fposts%2F832580740259092%3A0&width=500

This is the greatest thing to happen in Sydney ever. Including England lifting the 2011 Ashes.

Why is this great? Because it is the boat company being human and rolling with it. The local media saw the funnyside too.

As someone pointed out, there will be hundreds of tourists just waiting to take a selfie with the ship and its name.

Be more human.

VIDEO KIT: Your essential kit-out-your-team-for-video-for-around-sixty-quid guide

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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.

If money is no object, I’d reckon my colleague Steven suggest a Google Pixel 2 phone. Cost: Around £700.
Pixel 2 Phone (2017) by Google, G011A 64GB, 5″ inch SIM-free Factory Unlocked Android 4G/LTE Smartphone (Just Black)

I’d recommend a Samsung Galaxy S7. Cost: Around £400.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 32 GB SIM-Free Smartphone – Black

Or if you are after a tablet, the ipad will suffice. Cost: Around £300.

Apple iPad 9.7″ 2017 32GB Wi-Fi – Space Grey

Sound and shooting extras

A tripod is a good idea. A pocket one will work just fine. Cost: around £10.

Rhodesy Octopus Style Tripod Stand Holder for Camera, Any Smartphone with Clip

A Rode Smartlav clip-on microphone is handy to improve noise and has been roadtested by Steven. Cost: Around £50.

Rode Smartlav+ Lavalier Microphone for Smartphone

As an optional extra, a cable extension for the Rode Smartlav clip-on mic is an idea. Cost around £18.

Rode SC1 Cable

Shooting video can be a drain on your phone battery. So, a powerbank you can plug in to top-up your charge is always a good idea.

Anker PowerCore 10000, One of the Smallest and Lightest 10000mAh External Batteries, Ultra-Compact, High-speed Charging Technology Power Bank for iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and More

Editing

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.

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS FOR COMMS

Birmingham on January 22. More here.
Manchester on January 24. More here.
London on February 1. More here.

SKILLS YOU’LL NEED FOR LIVE VIDEO

London on February 2. More here.

Pic credit: Kurt Clark / Flickr

30 days of human comms: #5 Virgin Trains’ new train poster

For me, trains get people from A to B quickly so long as there are no leaves on the line.

Virgin Trains are pretty good at coming across as human while getting people from A to their B.

So, it was no surprise to be sent a phone camera shot of the company’s announcement of a new train.

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It’s fast?

It’s crazy fast.

Be more human.

 

30 days of human comms: #4 Edinburgh City Council’s out-of-hours customer service

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.

In the evening, they also pass their account onto the out-of-hours team who sign on as themselves and monitor out-of-hours.

Be more human.

 

30 days of human comms: #3 Place marketing Finnish style

Helsinki in November is a grim place.

The weather hovers around minus one and you get seven hours of daylight.

So, this banner nails it:

Rather than gloss over things, the poster celebrates the awfulness by making braving it a virtue. 

Be human. 

30 days of human comms: #2 Jake the five-year-old street sweeper driver

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.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Doncaster Council has excelled at communications. Their tweeted thread of an abandoned speedboat caught the imagination of the internet.

What works?

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.

30 Days of Human Comms: #1 Dudley Council’s spoiled tea sign

castle gate

For a while now, I’ve argued for the need to be more human in your comms.

In the public sector, this is especially important as more than 1,200 services are delivered to people.

What is human comms? You’ll recognise it if you see it. It’s engaging and it connects. Sometimes it delivers a message. Sometimes it just works to show that human beings also work in an organisation, too.

I’ve blogged before about the need to have a mix of content in your social media channels to make them work. If you are 80 per cent human and 20 per cent call to action, that’s fine.

So, an experiment, for 30 days I’ll find a thing a day that looks human.

#1 Dudley Council’s Spoiled tea road sign

This has long been a favourite of mine. More than a decade ago, Dudley Council built a new road around Castle Gate in the town. How could they get motorists to take a different route home? Easy. Talk to them in Black Country.

The sign read:

“If yowm saft enuff ter cum dahn ‘ere agooin wum, yowr tay ull be spile’t.”

After living in the Black Country for almost 20 years I know this translates as:

“If you are silly enough to come down this road you will take so long your tea will be spoiled.”

Class, be more like Dudley Council.

 

 

FREE LESSONS: A free webinar that Public Sector comms people may like

5960779696_e3f6d18b46_oYears ago, it was all about putting press releases out and managing the message. Now, a fifth of public sector comms teams have an income target to meet. An income target? Yup. Here’s some ideas if this is you and some advance warning if it isn’t.

The world has changed and we are changing with it.

Income targets have become a reality for 20 per cent of public sector comms teams and that figure is likely to rise.

What the heck does that mean? A survey we ran with Granicus UK gave some fascinating insight. At the conventional end of things the income target was getting targeted by web ads and ads in your residents’ magazine. At the more creative end was hiring out car parks, hiring out co-working space and a whole lot more.

What he heck does all that mean?

Well, trouble, if you are not careful. The issue isn’t straight forward. What will your organisation stand? What buy-in do you have? What ideas can you come up with? How do you turn-in a profit? What skills do you need?

Together with my comms2point0 colleague Darren Caveney and Granicus UK’s Emma Howard we produced a rather fine download on income targets, comms and the public sector. You can download it here.

Back in September, myself and Darren spoke at Granicus UK’s annual event in London. I’m really pleased that a flavour of that will be offered as part of a webinar on Thursday November 23 from 2pm to 3pm. If you struggled to get to London that day this is perfect. It’s free.

Also taking part are:

Nicola Goode, Marketing and PR Manager, Bournemouth Tourism at Bournemouth Borough Council. Imre Tolgyesi, Partnership Manager, Commercial Services, South Staffordshire Council.

Dave Worsell, managing director, Granicus Europe.

Pop by. If you are having to sort an income target, this is for you. If you want toget up to speed in case you do, this is for you too. I can’t promise cake but you can bring your own.

Webinar: Income Generation Strategies and the Comms You Need to Succeed takes place from 2pm to 3pm on Thursday November 23. You can register free HERE.

Picture credit: National Archives UK / Flickr.

DO A DONCASTER: The greatest piece of digital content from local government ever

Ladies and gentlemen, in Northern England this week a powerboat was dumped on the street and as a result Doncaster Council won the internet.

The speed boat will not be the only thing dumped across the country with the cost likely to top £50 million across the UK.

Every council across the country is forced to pay to clean-up illegally dumped waste. But aside the financial cost there’s the cost to communities blighted by bags of rubbish.

An everyday story told in GIFs

GIFs are short animations which date from the 1990s. For the past 30 years GIFs have been used across parts of the internet to make a point or tell a story. The public sector at first hesitant to use these animated devices have started slowly to use them.

Doncaster Council’s comms team decided to tell this everyday story using GIFs. It is magnificent. Human, witty, warm and engaging. Will it work for everthing? No. Does it work for this? Absolutely.

The great twin triumph of this is not the web architecture of GIFs that creates it. What makes it a triumph is the reaction it gets from people, firstly. They smile and connect. But most of all it is the willingness to experiment.

A story told as a thread of GIFs

And the story begins…

The chief praises the work…

But perhaps the cherry on top of the cake is that Doncaster Council’s chief executive used Twitter to send them a fist-bump.

The idea is to tell stories every week using the technique of Twitter thread and GIFs. That’s fine. But the real win in this is experimenting with how people are already using the internet. This won’t work in every piece of communications. That’s fine.

But where this does win is by creating human and engaging content. As a resident you’d want to follow the account.

LISTED: The 55 skills a comms team needs in 2017

 

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The best day to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best day is today. It’s the same for you and your team.

The skills you need to communicate have been changing. A few years back I blogged a list of skills that every team needed. This started as a list of 40 skills. No more. This is now 55. But do you want to know the good news? I don’t think everyone needs all of them. But your team’s strength should be drawn from different areas.

I’ve divided this into nine areas. Everyone should get the strategic. Everyone needs the core skills.

Strategic

  1. Be clear about your organisation’s priorities. Its priorities are the comms team’s priorities.
  2. Report up weekly on . List what you are doing against the heading of your priorities. Otherwise you are just making noise.
  3. Be able to look finance in the eye. Attach a financial value to the results you are achieving. Fewer GP appointents because of that YouTube clip and receptionists who triage? Attach a value to that.
  4. Have a team of specialist generalists. If you expect everyone to know all the skills they – and you – will fail. Have them know core skills and excel at others.
  5. Be gate openers not gatekeepers. Some of your best comms work will be done by frontline staff equipped with a smartphone. This is fine. It is to be encouraged.
  6. To know what an income target is and to either plan for them or offer evaluated comms savings. A fifth of public sector teams have an income target. If you have one you’ll need entrepreneurial skills in the team rather than relying on ex-hacks to sell ad space.

Core skills the team will need

  1. Know how to evaluate. If you are doing something, know why. Count the tweets and press releases you send. But count what people did as a result of all that. That’s far more important.
  2. Know that social media isn’t about calls to action. Its being human and engaging 80 per cent of the time.
  3. Know all the channels and who uses them. There is no one size fits all channel that will reach everyone. You need to know the online and offline channels and their strengths and weaknesses.
  4. Be more human. Everyone’s job in comms is to carry a Field Marshall’s baton to see the big picture, wear a lab coat to know the data and have a plate of cake to speak human.
  5. Always be learning.
  6. Educate the client. Comms’ job is to help the organisation communicate better. Your job is to advise them how to do that by knowing backwards the complex and fractured media landscape. You are a professional. Give professional advice.
  7. Be a diplomat, be small ‘p’ and big ‘P’ politically aware. Know how to handle people and give advice.
  8. Speak truth to power. Know that you are able to give the right advice.
  9. To listen to the public. Don’t be afraid to reflect their views back to the organisation even when it is critical.
  10. To be able to tell stories. In different formats.
  11. To know media law. McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists is your friend.
  12. To know the value of internal comms. Engage for Success is a good starting point.
  13. To know how to write a comms plan. Like this one.
  14. To know how to interpret data. And know the right data to interpret.
  15. To know how to respond as an organisation in an emergency. Increasingly, the emergency is what tests a team. This will happen to you at a time you need it least.
  16. Look for the influencers who can influence networks. The blogger. The community leader. The campaigner.
  17. To be able to communicate to the head and the heart. And know the difference.
  18. To manage time. To know what meetings to make and those to break.

In person

  1. To be professional, warm and engaging.
  2. To present. To create a deck of slides and stand up and speak to an audience.

In words

  1. To understand jargon but to communicate in plain English.
  2. To write effective emails.
  3. To write effective email campaigns.
  4. To evaluate and improve email campaigns.
  5. To write a press release.
  6. To be able to write for the web.
  7. To create and run a survey.

In pictures

  1. To find copyright free images.
  2. To take and edit
  3. To record the permission of those who are photographed, update and maintain a model consent database.
  4. To select information and create an infographic.
  5. To know what branding is and why it is.

In video

  1. Know the optimum lengths of video per channel.
  2. Know how to plan, edit, film and add text and music to a video shot in-house.
  3. Know how to plan and commission and external video.

In print

  1. To know when a leaflet works and to liaise with designers.
  2. To know when a newsletter or magazine works and to liase with designers.

In data

  1. To know what data to look for and what data to count.
  2. To know what open data is.

On Social media

  1. Know the Paretto Principle. The 80-20 split is what works on social media. Make 80 per cent of your content social and engaging to earn the right 20 per cent of the time to make calls to action. People don’t want to be sold to on social media.
  2. Think of Facebook as a broad landscape rather than just your page. Most people who use your organisation aren’t following your page but they are using Facebook. But they are members of groups and pages. So go looking for them there.
  3. Make friends with Facebook group and page admin. They can help share content for you.
  4. Join Facebook groups and pages as yourself. By being a human being you can show that real human beings work for the organisation.
  5. To know what audience uses the main social media accounts.
  6. To create on each platform engaging content with words, text and video for them with the right tone for the right occasion.
  7. To know how customer services works with social media.
  8. To respond using social media in an emergency.
  9. To know new platforms and be able to experiment with them.
  10. To be able to create and schedule content at the right time.

Picture credit: Ryan Dickey / Flickr