Digital round-up – October 2018

Highlights this month: big hashtags, user-generated content, AI, voice tech, digital skills and more….

The nights are setting in and seasonal content is upon us. October is a very busy month of awareness days. There was lots of great content launched. Pop the kettle on and catch up.

How to use: Pick and choose links to read, or open in new tabs for later. Or bookmark this post. Even better, subscribe and get future round-ups direct to your inbox.

Content

10 October was #WorldMentalHealthDay, #WorldHomelessnessDay and #HousingDay. I have never seen my list of trending topics look like this for an hour, let alone all day. The trending hashtags and topics were consistently related to these issues. Nothing else got a look-in all day.

There was some amazing content including:

• A powerful poem from Crisis for #WorldHomelessnessDay.
• 22 local charities donated their HOMEpages to homelessness charity St Basils in the West Midlands to raise awareness.
• Did you see Time to Change’s new #AskTwice video? And their Moment of user-generated content – these are the reasons people say ‘I am fine’ when they’re not.
• Love these prompt cards from Young Minds.
• Mental Health UK produced beautiful images to illustrate people’s stories in their Let’s Talk series. See Nathaniel’s story.

Also this month:

• Plan International UK launched a video about sexual harassment. It has had 94k likes and over 7 million views.
• Check your breasts video from Breast Cancer Now.
• Love this promo for the Charity Comms podcast.
• Parkinson’s UK launched their list of approved apps and devices for people with Parkinson’s. A charity first.
• It was RNIB’s 150th birthday.
• This is how to promote a new area in a museum. Top video from Eureka! Museum.
• SCVO’s what is modern charity video.
• The warning signs of genocide, powerful video from RightsInfo.
• Choose your own next line for #NationalPoetyDay. Great use of a thread / polls by the Museum of English Rural Life.
• Charities don’t usually tweet on a Sunday night. I liked this moment to paws from RSPCA.
• There was some great halloween content around.

Twitter takeover of the month: CoppaFeel’s Kris Hallenger / @nhs. Kris who has been living with stage 4 breast cancer since 2009, talked about treatments and good health.

Comms

• This excerpt from Clic Sargent’s impact report was widely shared and celebrated as a great example of transparency. Could your charity do something similar to show what didn’t work?
• What if we scrapped the annual report and started again? asks David Ainsworth in Civil Society.
• Why do we ignore digital impact? Matt Haworth asks why the impact of digital services isn’t included in impact reports.
• Go on, go on, go on, go on! What charities can learn from Father Ted’s Mrs Doyle by Anna Pietrowski for Charity Comms. (best URL I have seen for a while!)
• Thread about the future of advertising by Nik Sharma.
• FRIENDS IMPACT: A tongue-in-cheek shoplifting appeal led to 50 per cent of Blackpool people thinking better of their police by Dan Slee.
• Does your search strategy match how people expect content? Think about the Netflix effect say The Royal Academy.
• If you missed Being the Story, here’s my blog post about it and links to others’.
• Will you join in with #YouMadeItHappen on 19 November? Find out about this new day, led by NCVO. >> I’ve written a blog post with some ideas about how to get involved with #YouMadeItHappen.

Digital – strategy, design, culture

• Internet-era ways of working by Tom Loosemore of Public Digital.
• 6 tough questions third sector organisations need to explore in a digital age from SCVO’s digital team. Linking to their ‘what next’ report.
• Digital is growing up, is your charity maturing with it? (Spoiler: probably not!) by Anya Pearson, Contentious.
• Digital strategy: The four fights you have to win from McKinsey.
• 15 principles of good service design by GDS for Digital Leaders.
• Why Amazon, Alexa and #TechforGood can’t be in the same sentence by James Mullarkey.
• Five ways to engage with responsible technology by Sam Brown.
• How Cancer Research UK is exploring AI and voice tech in Charity Digital News.
• Welcome to the Golden Age of Data – examples from a brave new world of personalisation – NSPCC’s Digital Dunk.
• Dealing with digital changes – useful tips about keeping up with platform changes and changing tack if needed, by Montfort.
• Blockchain: the next radical change for charities by Stromi for Digital Dunk.
• How to create a great charity website experience, case study from MS Society on Charity Digital News.
• Digital user tests which are easy, fast and affordable – YoYo Design for CharityComms.
• 4 user research guides from co-op digital.
• Monthly accessibility tip: RNIB shared 10 #DigitalAccessibilityTips including this one about colour contrast.
• And if you have never heard a screen reader, here’s an example of how they read image descriptions from Dr Amit Patel. See more about access tech in this Moment of his Twitter takeover for Scope.

Fundraising

• Did you join in with the first ever Gift Aid Awareness Day?
• Digital fundraising trends for small charities not to miss by Charity Digital News.
• Putting fun into contactless donating at two historic sites in Scotland. Tap the past to preserve the future.
• Hospice fundraisers tend to go the extra mile, like 10-year old Harriet who played her cello at the top of a mountain for Compton Care.
• Are you ready for #GivingTuesday on 27 November? Here’s a guide to using the day to say thank you.

People

• How we teach digital skills at PwC for Harvard Business Review.
• 3 steps to growing a digital culture – Clive Gardiner of NSPCC shares what they are doing.
• Three amazing Ted Talks for charities by Kirsty Marrins for Lightful.
• Critical lessons for charity trustees by Beth Clarke for CAF.
• The Association of Chairs asked Chairs to share their top tips to mark their 5th birthday. Here are the best ones in a Moment: tips for effective chairing.

And finally….

• Feeling helpless about the state of the world? Here’s a thread about the little things we can all do to make things better.
• A thread of perceptual illusions to mess with your brain.
• Have you ever looked for treasure in the Thames (or any other urban river)?
• An otter eating – happy noises!

Your recommendations

What did you read, watch or launch this month? Please add your links in the comments.

Can I help you?

Get in touch if I can help you with content planning, training or strategy. I work with charities of all shapes and sizes. I can help give your comms or digital processes a healthcheck and ideas injection.

——

Did you miss September’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!

Advertisements

Are you going to #BeingTheStory 2018?

There’s now just a week to go until this year’s Being the Story event in London.

Sounddelivery have put together another amazing line-up of people who will tell their stories in creative and powerful ways. You really don’t want to miss this.

Why should I go?

The event will be moving, thought-provoking and inspiring.

• See what other people said about last year.

It will make you think about your use of case studies and storytelling.

• Here are some examples of organisations who are using first-person storytelling in their comms.

It will open your eyes to different experiences and views. Get a flavour from previous Being the Story events:

• Cathartic and powerful storytelling – 2017
• Empathy and the power of stories – 2016.

Get tickets

Book your place today! Friday 19 October, Conway Hall near Holborn in London.

Hope to see you there.

Digital round-up – September 18

Highlights this month: AI, ethics, the Human search engine, and hope.

September is a busy month of awareness days and a good time to launch new brands or websites before the noise of seasonal fundraising. Pop the kettle on and catch up with some content and good reads you might have missed.

How to use: Pick and choose links to read, or open in new tabs for later. Or bookmark this post. Even better, subscribe and get future round-ups direct to your inbox.

Content

• Love this video of people with dementia using VR headsets by The Wayback.
• Video from Rights Info – do we have a human right to sex?
• Nice behind the scenes / call to action film about Oxfam’s shops.
• 17k likes for this picture of a Barnardo’s shop with the writing round the wrong way, yet only a handful for Barnardo’s Scotland’s response.
• Did you see Mind’s new Mental Health at Work website?
• #WorldAlzheimersDay Moment of tweets from large and small charities supporting people with dementia.
• Lovely copywriting from Toilet Twinning in this tweet.
• Great content from The Blurt Foundation – We’ve Answered 10 Popular Google Searches: Why Does Depression…?
• And from Gingerbread –14 things not to say to a single parent (and seven things you should.
• Time to Change made a Moment of What people want you to know about suicide for #WorldSuicidePreventionDay. Here the tweet where they asked for people’s views.
• Lots of charities joined in with #InternationalSpeakLikeAPrirateDay such as this cheeky tweet from CoppaFeel.
• There was some great content around for Remember a Charity’s Human search engine. For example, take a look at material from Dogs Trust, Scope, and Shelter.

There were new websites from Sue Ryder, and NPC this month. Plus new brands from National Autistic Society and RNIB who created a short video about the change..

Comms

• How content is your content? – nifty quiz from Contentious.
• A reminder about the difference between copywriting and content design by Sarah Richards.
• 4 charity campaigns with stories at their heart – Helena Hastings for Lightful ahead of Being the Story on 19 October. [Don’t miss Being the Story. There might still be a few spaces left. Buy your tickets today.]
• Truly ethical images must tell a complete story by Water Aid.
• 5 doodles that help to make sense of UK poverty – JRF blog.
• 5 secrets to Instagram success by Dawn at Morello Marketing.
• 7 tips for social media advertising success by NSPCC’s Digital Dunk.
• Facebook advertising for charities: A guide to designing your first ad by Lightful.
• Live tweeting at events: seven tips for avoiding the pitfalls – Sarah Myers for Charity Comms. I’d add an extra tip about using threads to tweet from particular sessions. This makes it so much easier to follow what is being said.

Digital

• Five things an NGO learned about Artificial Intelligence – excellent blog post from Friends of the Earth’s Innovation Team. See also Time to trade Ai power for responsibility on Digital Agenda.
• Screw tech ethics says Matt Howarth also for Digital Agenda.
• Great blog post from the outgoing #SocialCEOs overall winner, Matthew Hodson about using social media for social good.
• Designing our design principles – more useful stuff in the CRUK blog.
• NHS’s manual for designing and building digital services.
• A guide to procuring service design by Sarah Drummond.
• Digital = Potential Part 1: The power of an app to help people in crisis by Gillian Murray, CEO of Pilotlight.
• 6 key new trends for charities on digital – CharityDigitalNews coverage of the Salesforce report.
• Why our communications team is going Agile – Citizens Advice blog.
• Data doesn’t have to be scary: why insights should inform your digital projects by Dee Russell for Charity Comms. Includes Google Analytics video tutorials.
• ‘Our sector needs to respond with urgency. People are seeking support more and more expect a digital ‘way’ of solving their problem.’ Important post from Dan Sutch about bringing digital into service delivery.

Fundraising

• Ethical fundraising: 7 critical questions for the board and Chair by John Williams.
• Is compassion fatigue inevitable in an age of 24-hour news? Text from a Guardian podcast.
• This thread by Jon Arnold about fundraising applications was widely shared.
• PayPal / NSPCC video about their donation journey. Accompanying article from PayPal talks more about the redesign project.
• Brathay launched their 3.7 programme with the funds raised following Matt Campbell’s tragic death during the London Marathon in April this year.

In case you missed it, I wrote this about donor experience / in-memory fundraising.

People

Hope… and where to find it – read this moving post by Kate Carroll to help remind yourself why your comms / information / fundraising work, really matters.

• Simple ways to keep your digital team adaptable and creative – love this from Seb Baird of Time to Change for CharityComms.
• 5 ways charity leaders can make better decisions – Zoe Amar.
• The Post Office: How can a 375-year-old brand attract the best in digital talent? – eConsultancy.
• How to spread digital knowledge to other teams – Platypus Digital.
• The ageing population: what impact will a 100-year life have on charities – predictions from Joe Saxton.

And finally….

• Different messages on boy’s and girl’s t-shirts in Primark. FFS.
• How The Weather Channel Made That Insane Storm Surge Animation in Wired.
• Top charity shop idea of the month – Jeff Goldblum in every photo frame. This had 144k likes!

Your recommendations

What did you read, watch or launch this month? Please add your links in the comments.

Can I help you?

Get in touch if I can help you with content planning, training or strategy. I work with charities of all shapes and sizes. I can help give your comms or digital processes a healthcheck, skills review and ideas injection.

——

Did you miss August’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!

Digital round-up – August

Highlights this month: ethical marketing, voice search, digital evolution and shopping with a giant fundraising cheque.

It’s back to school / work time. If you were off in August or just head-down because everyone else was, here’s some great content and good reads to catch up with.

How to use: Pick and choose links to read, or open in new tabs for later. Or bookmark this post. Even better, subscribe and get future round-ups direct to your inbox.

Content

• Scope launched their rebrand, disability gamechangers campaign and have been running a series of takeovers on Twitter. Here is a Moment from Sam’s takeover day.
• Nice promo for Woodland Trust’s family membership package.
• Simple, strong 11 second video from social enterprise HeyGirls challenging period poverty. No link for the call to action though. See also BloodyBigBrunch who invited followers to illustrate their periods in gif form.
• You have 5 ambulances and 9 patients – what would you do? Great content from North West Ambulance Service.
• Lovely video storytelling from the Mayhew. Here’s Nayan’s story for #InternationalFriendshipDay.
• Bake Off is back. Selection of the best charity fundraising bakes and cake content in this GBBO Moment.
• Museum Meme day included lots of absolute units and curator frustrations.

Here are some useful reminders about how images can reinforce negative stereotypes. I spotted a call for #NoMoreWrinklyHands and an article shared by Time to Change about the rise of the head clutcher image to illustrate mental health stories. >> Review and improve your use of images.

Comms

• Why the battle for our attention matters for charities by CAF’s Rhodri Davies for Charity Digital News.
• More on ethical marketing in this opinion piece from Sam of NSPCC – Smarter targeting or smarter content? Is a new standard of expected ethics forcing us to change how we think about digital marketing?
• You had me at hello – the importance of a welcome journey and how to get it right via email. Top tips from CharityComms.
• How to think strategically about email personalisation – eConsultancy.
• More email in this from Charity Digital News – Five great automated email marketing programmes for charities.
• Get your split testing right. There is Nothing Magical About 95% Statistical Significance – CXL.
• Our writing guidelines (they’re for everyone, not just for writers) – the Co-op’s approach to writing.
• Downloadable comms planning guide – in the style of snakes and ladders.
• Five Steps To Create A Social Media Content Plan by Teresa Litsa of Lightful.

Digital

• How does your organisation measure up? The latest global charity technology trends: results from the latest Global NGO Technology Report – Civil Society.
• The emoji report: analysis of every emoji published over 2 years on Twitter – Brandwatch.
• What will social look like in the next 10 years? We Are Social.
• Why we need to stop repeating the “50% by 2020” voice search prediction – eConsultancy.
• And what Government are doing about voice search – GDS.
• Facebook subscriptions and content monetisation by Dan Papworth-Smyth.
• The Anatomy of an Optimized Web Page [Infographic]– Social Media Today.
• Your monthly accessibility reminder: image descriptions on Twitter.
• Four Google Adwords scripts that retailers can use to supercharge sales – eConsultancy.
• The New York Public Library release classic books on Instagram Stories – this thread by Jack Appleby shows it in action.
• Promos’ survey found that 44% of consumers watch at least five videos online per day. Read their research into online video habits 2018 based on a survey of 500 people.
• 4 of the top innovative charity digital products – JustGiving – featuring the BECCA app from Breast Cancer Care, Austica’s app, RSPCA’s pet search function and Wateraid’s online donation platform.
• 5 things learnt from the Childline #UnderstandMe campaign by Marnie on NSPCC’s Digital Dunk.
• I am seeing many more organisations recruiting for data analysts in their digital teams. This is interesting from GDS showing how data capture, use and application moves on in an organisation. They are bringing the disciplines of user research and analytics together to reduce the artificial divide created by data created in different ways and by different teams.
• This is also about digital evolution. Cancer Research UK share the things they have learnt through their digital adaption journey. It’s time to throw out your ‘digital’ strategy.

Fundraising

• These charity experiments successfully nudge people to give more – interesting results of research encouraging people to see the broader picture of their giving.
• How to improve your online donation journey by Tim Dixon at nomensa.
• Losing the donor relationship – as we lose access to data about donors, Beate Sorum asks whether this will be fundraising’s digital disruption.
• Truth or dare: why are some causes harder to fundraise for than others? Examples and tips by Olivia Fuller for UK Fundraising.
• YouTube Giving

Alzheimer’s Research UK show some love for a giant fundraising cheque. Here we see it in action at the station, in a shop and on a train. A cheque picture with personality! >> Here are more examples of alternatives to cheque line-up pictures in my post Just say no to giant cheques.

People

• Getting comfortable talking about diversity and inclusion in the third sector. Take part in healthy conversations argues Sushi Juggapah of CharityComms.
• 55 steps to workplace happiness by Henry Stewart.
• The Independent’s Happy List 2018.
• Free digital skills courses from Accenture.

Have you booked your ticket for Being the Story in October? Here’s more about last year’s inspirational event. Being the Story 2017 – carthartic and powerful storytelling. Don’t miss 2018.

And finally….

Blue Peter explain the world wide web – from the BBC archive,1995.

Your recommendations

What did you read, watch or launch this month? Please add your links in the comments.

Can I help you?

Get in touch if I can help you with digital copywriting, content planning, training or strategy. I work with charities of all shapes and sizes. I can help give your comms or digital processes a healthcheck and ideas injection.

——

Did you miss July’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!

Cathartic and powerful storytelling

“Sharing my story helped me to be saved from it” – Forgiveness Project participant, shared by Marina Cantacuzino at Being the Story 2017.

Using creativity to form and tell a story can be very cathartic. The process of writing or singing or producing images – just getting ideas or thoughts out of your head, onto paper, shared with others – can be very powerful.

Several of the speakers at the second Being the Story from the mighty Jude Habib and Helena Hastings at sounddelivery talked about how being creative helped them – either with recovery, or to give a sense of purpose or as a way of making sense of experiences.

So we heard from:

• Eddie who had found a new addiction to photography to help him recover from his addiction to alcohol
• Amanda, who as part of a collective of 12 women told their stories of street prostitution through their book An Untold Story
• Homelessness support worker Bryony who writes amazing poetry and ‘dabbles’ in blogging to share the experiences of the people she works with and the frustrations of the system (see some of her work in this Storify from a Lankelly Chase twitter take over she was part of)
• Simeon and Dylan who were launching a YouTube channel, DatsTV to change the culture around street violence and gangs, following their powerful documentary One Mile Away
• Ric who worked with young people and shared his experience of being in care.

The day closed with the Missing People’s Choir, fresh from Britain’s Got Talent, made up of families with missing loved ones, joining together to make music. (You can pre-order their Choirs with Purpose album.)

Harnessing creativity

Being the Story shows that storytelling has many forms and is a powerful tool for the originator as well as the listener. Take your comms hat off, step back from the corporate end-goal of influence via a comms strategy or fundraising ask. Think instead about the creative healing process.

How can you help the people you help to creatively represent their stories (with of course all your professional duty of care and support)? And the next step, think about whether sharing or publicising those stories could heal or hinder that person. For some sharing a story can be empowering, for others it could make them feel even more vulnerable.

How can you use your own creativity to help tell the story of your work? As frontline staff dealing with difficult issues or complex problems, we need a way to process these thoughts and experiences too.

As with last year’s event, the delivery was the most impactful thing. Hearing someone’s story first-hand, there in person through whatever means (poetry, rap, photos etc) was everything. A written case study doesn’t do it justice. Video and audio are the closest alternatives to being in the same room, hearing someone’s story.

Do you know of examples of organisations showcasing the creativity of the people they help? I’d love to see more examples.

Solving problems

The day also shared stories of people solving problems.

• Ray set up a group of Geezers to combat loneliness in Bow, East London.
• Nick set up a brewery, Ignition Beer to employer members of the Tuesday Club.
• As part of the Power of the Periphery Rachel tackles class inequality via the RECLAIM project.
• Onjali set up HerStory to support women escaping domestic violence.
• Marina founded the Forgiveness Project to encourage people to consider alternatives to resentment, retaliation and revenge.
• Dom is producing an app called the Patient’s Virtual Guide to fill information gaps and social isolation for children in hospital.

Such brilliant people doing brilliant things!

Want to know more?

Read the highlights from the event in the Wakelet. And watch the videos on YouTube.

Plus read blog posts from Gemma Pettman, Karin Sieger and Katie Duckworth sharing their reflections from the day.

Previous Being the Story events

• Being the Story 2016 – empathy and the power of stories. You can also watch videos from Being the Story 2016 including the amazing Emma Lawton which has now had 13,500 views.
• Being the Story 2018 – Go outside your echo chamber, it is where the reward is.

See you at the next Being the Story?