Digital round-up – December 2019

Highlights this month: as well as all the Christmas campaigns, end of year round-ups, December was busy with Giving Tuesday, the election results and more.

If you were caught up in festive planning or trying to get everything done before a break, here are some of the charity highlights from December. Hope you had a good break if you got one.

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Content

• Families belong together – British Red Cross.
• Everyone has a part to play in helping refugees. UN Refugee Agency video – #EveryoneCounts.
• Shelter lent video camera to children living in temporary accommodation. William, 10, Bibi, 10 and Lewis, 8 show us round where they live.
• Powerful content from WaterAid for #HumanRightsDay.
• 31.2k likes for this response by Give Blood to Netflix’ question ‘what’s something you can say during sex but also when you manage a brand twitter account?’
• PoliticsJoe took to the streets to ask people to guess how much healthcare costs in the USA. 21m+ views.
• CRUK hosted a live Twitter chat #JoinTheCancerConversation on 5 December about NHS staff shortages. I couldn’t find a write-up or Moment documenting the discussion but it looked very active with lots of cancer charities and people affected by cancer joining in. There were four questions.
• A festival of winter walks. Routes and tips from The Ramblers to inspire people to get outside. Videos share why people love walking.
• YHA will be 90 this year. Here’s a thread of videos sharing examples of how they help young people.
• Excellent crisis comms from Network Rail Kent and Sussex explaining technical faults which caused big delays on the network.
• What does anxiety feel like Moment from Time to Change.
• How much do you know about foodbank donations? This great Twitter quiz from Brixton Foodbank dispels myths and assumptions.

Takeover of the month: For human rights day, Gisella Valle of LAWRS tookover ACEVO’s Twitter account to share insights into the work done by LAWRS to support migrant women.

Christmas content and appeals:

• #YuleSlog from CALM.
• Christmas Day content from Young Minds.
• Childline is here for children, all night, all year. Even at Christmas. Behind the scenes video.
• West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service did their own version of The Fairytale of New York to spread a safety message.
• Help families whose lives have been turned upside down by stroke – The Stroke Association.
• Did you try Shelter’s festive sandwich generator?
• Festive words in British Sign Language from NDCS.
• Christmas Eve content from Blue Cross.
• Season’s greetings from Gus the Gnome and The Epilepsy Society.
• Not a charity, but did you see this film from family-run hardware shop, Hafod in Wales which cost £100 to make?
• John Lewis-style video made for Crisis – Hand in Hand.
• Thread of Christmas films curated by Kirsty Marrins. Includes GOSH, RNLI, Dogs Trust and Re-engage.
• 10 charity Christmas campaigns in 2019 to inspire you – Kirsty Marrins for Lightful.
• A selection of this year’s best Christmas charity campaigns – Civil Society.

Highlights of the year:

• Dan Papworth-Smyth’s best of charity digital in 2019.
• Ten of the best digital fundraising campaigns in 2019 – Charity Digital News.
• Nice use of a thread by Kids of Colour to show the highlights of their year. (It would have been even better if they had included a link to a web page with an html version of the text too, as the images will be inaccessible to some.)

Predictions for 2020:

• Joe Freeman’s predictions for 2020
• Three top trends and the future of the charity brand – Charity Comms.
• The 5 purpose trends set to Lead the way in 2020 – predictions about brands by Ben Hayman.

Post-election comms:

• Some charities reported a spike in donations and signups on the day after the election including this FB fundraiser started by Jack Munroe and Arts Emergency who recruited 592 new volunteers and inspired 212 monthly donations.
• Others immediately started campaigns to capture an engaged audience. See this petition from Oxfam and these Instagram posts from Shelter.
• I shared this thread of actions.
• My favourite results tweet was this one from Streets Kitchen. (Contains very strong swearing.)

Comms

• Hashtags – Best practices for charities across different platforms – Tereza Litsa for Lightful.
• 2020 Comms: UK social media user data shows Twitter slipping to 6th – Dan Slee.
• How other charities do… health awareness days. Tips and examples by Richard Berks.
• Awareness Days for charities – why they matter and how to join – Lightful.
• Charity Film Awards shortlist announced.
• Chloe Stables of NCVO asked for examples of big charity achievements and got a flood of responses. Why don’t we all shout about these more?
• Putting your subject first, the key to effective co-creation – Charity Comms.
• Never underestimate the power of thank you. Catherine Raynor on working with volunteer storytellers.
• By avoiding jargon, do we risk missing the point? – Integrity Action.
• Engaging examples of annual charity reports – JustGiving – featuring CLIC Sargent, The Wallich and Dementia UK.
• Quirky video for NHS Digital’s Shadow Me programme (now closed for applications).
• comms – it’s a kind of magic. so let’s not be unkind – comms2point0’s post of the year from April.

Digital – strategy, design, culture

• As a response to the Lloyds’s Charity Digital report saying that 45% of charities have leaders that don’t think digital is relevant, Matt Collins set up a scheme to match charity CEOs with digital people. One hour digital call – for charities.
• Why are personas so important in UX design? Nomensa.
• Creating the right content strategy for your charity – Charity Digital News.
• Lean Lab — testing tech without touching code – Rachel Beaumont at Citizens Advice.
• Why we started out with ways of working – Jessica Kyriacou on being new to the Citizens Advice team.
• Your digital tools look great — but are they doing any good? David Scurr.
• A site migration SEO checklist: Don’t lose traffic – Search Engine Land.
• Why everyone should get behind the campaign for a biryani emoji – Wired featuring Melissa Thermidor.
• Race: The elephant in the room that never goes away – Tracey Gyateng at DataKind shares discussions from an event looking at the relationship between tech and race. Includes useful reading list.
• Supporting parents and carers of seriously ill children: Turning a life-changing idea into reality through a user-centred digital product design sprint – more great work from Reason Digital.
• Best digital advances of the decade – Charity Digital News.
• Five steps to plan a successful PPC campaign – Charity Digital News.

Fundraising

• Good grantmaking – prototype website of resource for grant-makers. Includes tools for service design in philanthropy, designing partnerships and ecosystems, setting tech policy positions and digital grantmaking. More about why this is needed in this blog post from Cassie Robinson – Skills and capabilities for effective grant making.
• Lovely thank you image from One25.
• Howard Lake asked fundraisers to share ‘helpful’ careers advice they had received from relatives.
• £10,000 a minute was donated via Visa cards to charities on Giving Tuesday – Civil Society.
• On Giving Tuesday Tiny Tickers smashed their target (read more about the 150 dolls going to hospitals to help sonographers detect congenital heart disease in the womb). Camden Giving raised £6000. Rethink used the day to send thank you letters. @ZurichVolSec shared examples of the different ways smaller charities used GivingTuesday.

People and organisations

• Do you really trust your team? (and do they trust you?) – Harvard Business Review.
• How to be a good manager – thread by Ella Dawson
• Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation announce merger.
• What makes a good charity? NPC’s guide to charity analysis.
• Top tips about freelancing / being self-employed from Fran Swaine.
• Who is more likely to volunteer – Veruca Salt or Charlie Bucket? – an insight into student volunteering from LSE.

And finally….

• Give dignity to homeless people – Billy Chips scheme in Bristol.
• Pre-Christmas fun – do a gif search for your surname.
• Dogs choosing their own Christmas presents.
• The paper bag baron of London – Londonist.
• The Secret Barrister live-tweeted through Love Actually with legal advice for the characters.

Your recommendations

What did you read, watch or launch? 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.

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

How to use a Twitter Moment

Twitter Moments were launched in 2016. They are generally underused in charity comms. A quick survey of 50 charity’s Twitter accounts found that only 18 had ever done a Moment. Most of the 18, had only done one or two. Yet they are a quick and easy way to present and preserve content.

Engagement levels of Moments seem to be generally low but if you are using them infrequently and only sharing them once, this isn’t surprising. You need to have a content plan for sharing and integrating them within your comms.

Value shouldn’t just be based on likes, shares and opens. Having a permanent document of something is useful for lots of different reasons. For example a Moment can make it easier to share the story of an event during and afterward. Having an archive of Moments can help you to take stock and plan future comms. A Moment can be a great way to show Twitter activity to colleagues. Moments can also be used and reused as evergreen content.

Here are the most common uses for Moments:

• to share an event
• to preserve or share fragmented content
• to have a permanent record of something important
• to showcase your community
• to present content in a different way.

1. Events

Runs, fundraising challenges and other events can generate a lot of tweets. The good ones can get lost in the noise or missed altogether. Having a Moment is a great way to showcase and celebrate what happened. They can brilliantly show the live atmosphere and hype of the event better than any write-up. And they can be useful months later when recruiting for next year or sharing the impact of what happened.

• Macmillan’s London Marathon 2019 Moment captures the energy and atmosphere of the day. It starts with scene setting (number of runners and a map of the route), includes videos and lots of people in green.
• Young Minds made a Moment of their #HelloYellow fundraising and fun day in 2017.
• British Red Cross shared highlights from Red Cross Week 2019.
• Social CEOs documented their awards night.

Top tip: Try and make the Moment as soon after the event as possible. People get home and want to relive it. If your Moment is ready then, more people will look at it and share it with their friends. A Moment made a week later has missed the boat.

2. Content curation

Moments are also a great way to curate content on Twitter. Think of them as a simplified, single channel (much missed) Storify or Wakelet.

A Moment can be used to bring content together that would otherwise be hard to find. For example, responses to a question (user-generated content) or a series of tweets not made into a thread or when you want to include tweets from other people into your messaging.

• Time to Change share lots of Moments collecting views from their community. See ‘These are the reasons people say they are fine when they are not.’
• This example from Virgin Money London Marathon shares tips for and from runners. They created another one after the event with the responses to Show Us Your Medals.
• The Association of Chairs made a Moment of tips for effective chairing.
• Whizz-Kidz made a Moment of ‘Stupid questions wheelchair users get asked‘ using 10 different videos.
• JRF marked the launch of a big piece of research including press coverage and responses from other charities – UK Poverty 2017.
• Oxfam GB shared Hifsa and Jacqui’s story of their visit to Nepal in See for Yourself.
• Blue Cross shared favourite images for the International Day of Happiness.

3. A permanent record

If something big is happening, why not make a Moment of it? Tweets will soon get lost in your back catalogue, never to be seen or used again. Document it live or after the event to help others follow what happened.

• Heads Together marked the #MentalHealthMinute for those who missed it.
• Sue Ryder make Moments of their Twitter takeovers. Fight Bladder Cancer made a Moment of their 3-day MADL takeover. The curated @nhs account have been doing Moments since they started – 98 to date!
• NCVO Volunteering documented a Twitter chat.
• Scope documented events in their Say Sorry Phil Moment.
• The Prisoners’ Education Trust shared tweets from an important meeting. Likewise, The Young Foundation who curated tweets from a conference.
• UK Parliament curated tweets from multiple partners telling their bit of the story of The Gunpowder Plot.
• Orkney Library shared the story of how they helped get a book into every school in Orkney.
• Could you use a Moment to mark a significant anniversary? See RNIB’s 150th anniversary Moment.
• Amnesty UK’s shared footage and tweets from #FootballWelcomes 2019. The Princes Trust created a Moment to share highlights from the National Prince’s Trust Awards 2019.

See also: Rocur and Twitter takeovers – blog post from 2017.

4. Community building

I didn’t find very many examples of Moments being used to showcase community action. How could you use a Moment to thank or celebrate your community?

• Cambridge CVS showcased small charities during Small Charity Week 2018.
• Cats Protection gathered some of the best responses to their #CatMenDo campaign.

5. Fun / interesting content

Be creative. Moments can work in lots of different ways. Could you use a Moment to show your impact or as a brochure to your services or present complicated information (such as symptoms or research) in a Moment? Here are some examples of more unusual uses.

• The British Red Cross make Moments of their year in review. Take a look at 2018’s review.
• The Princes Trust made a quiz (although this is only one tweet).
• Eight things you didn’t know about St George – nice list from English Heritage.
• Charity Comms shared highlights from #InternationalDayOfHappiness to share the joy and inspire good comms.
• Marie Curie used a Moment to document the night shift of one of their nurses on clock change night.
• RNLI shared a story from their archive about When lifeboats went to war.
• The Museum of English Rural Life shared unsolicited duck pictures they were sent by other museums. Gaining 1.3k likes – the most I saw in any Moment.

How to make a Moment – tips

If you haven’t ever made a Moment, they are pretty simple to do, just follow the steps once you click ‘Create new Moment’. Here’s a how-to guide from Twitter if you need one.

Here’s are some tips on how to do them well.

• Choose a great cover image which will will be eye-catching and sets the scene for your Moment. I tend to put this tweet at the end of the Moment so that people don’t see the image twice straightaway.
• Think of a Moment like an essay with an introduction, main points in the middle and conclusions at the end. Ease people in with a tweet which introduces the topic and at the end finish with something fun or silly or thoughtful. Don’t just trail off. I have sometimes written a tweet purposefully to use at the end of a Moment either in thanks or to ask a question or to signpost to further reading or a donation.
• There should be a rhythm to your Moment. You have to curate it, so it flows and tells a story. For example you might put tweets next to each other which use the same colours.
• Try not to include tweets which are very similar to others. Be ruthless. Not many people will make it to the end of a 20 tweet Moment. Put some good ones at the end – reward people for getting there!
• Try to use tweets which only have one image. Tweets will multiple images take up more space and can disrupt the flow.
• Include tweets with video or gifs or graphics to keep it interesting.
• Make the title clear and short. Include the #hashtag if you are using one.
• Tweet your Moment and @mention some of the accounts you have included to broaden engagement.

Top Moment makers

• Scope wins at Moments, using them in lots of different ways.
• See also The British Red Cross’ collection of 11 Moments.
• And RNIB who use Moments to share rich content and campaigns.
• @ZurichVolSec now have a collection of 48 Moments documenting awareness days and charity comms. If you want inspiration for Halloween or Pancake Day, start there.

More about Moments

• Charity Comms guide – Making the most of Twitter Moments.

Do you use Moments?

Have you used Moments? Do you like them or think they are a waste of time?

Share your favourites and top tips in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

10 tips for great online legacy fundraising

In 2013 I wrote about online legacy fundraising content. Although well written persuasive copy is still key, digital trends move on. So four years later it is time to see whether the web pages about legacy fundraising have improved and what has changed.

I looked at a random sample of over 50 large, medium and small charities. In most cases the pages were pretty dull, especially from smaller charities. It is hard to write warm, engaging copy about legacies as we often fall over ourselves trying to be sensitive. But the charities who get it right have a confidence and a clear sense of themselves and their audience.

Here are ten ingredients for emotive and effective online legacy fundraising.

Be clear and persuasive

WaterAid’s legacy site stood out as the go-to example of a persuasive and well designed site. The page starts with a clear call to action – leave the world with water – which sets the tone. They use eye catching and engaging links and headings (leave your mark / what would you like to pass on?) which include and challenge the reader. Images are positive and inspiring. They also include a photograph and name of a person to contact as well as a legacy promise which are both reassuring and clear.

Save the Children UK also use clear and inspiring headings (write a child’s smile into your will) and use bold to highlight important words. They use beautiful pictures of smiling children to reinforce their words. Their writing is confident, concise and persuasive (make a lasting difference, your kindness).

Use social proofing to normalise the action

Many charities talk about ‘thousands of people who leave a legacy’ or ‘thanks to people like you’. This social proofing is refecting and reinforcing the decision that the reader is almost ready to make.

Events like Remember a Charity week help to promote legacy fundraising. Many charities use the event to reinforce their ask, showing that remembering a charity is a normal action that everyone can do.

The Migraine Trust makes a clear statement which makes leaving a legacy accessible – “a gift of just 1% will make a real difference to supporting our charitable work”. This is a clearer way of what they were saying in 2013 (see below).

Use video

Since 2013, many more legacy pages include videos. Take a look at this personal message from a supporter on Prisoners Abroad. Or this slick video from ActionAid showing Mrs Harben’s legacy. Or this simple beautiful video from RSPB. Or this speaking from the heart story from Glenys who supports the Alzheimer’s Society.

Talk about impact

What difference will someone’s gift make? Talk big picture about your vision / mission or about specific services. More charities are making big statements about what a legacy means to them.

RSPB’s opening statement is clear and bold: Your legacy is nature’s future.

Refugee Action’s Leave a legacy page goes into more detail. It is beautifully written using storytelling and sense of urgency. It frames the problem and talks about what they can do with a legacy gift. The page is short, concise and powerful. A great example of a small charity getting it right.

East Lancashire Hospice talk about leaving a legacy of love and explain that last year, legacy gifts paid for three months of care.

If your organisation is all about solving a problem or finding a cure, talking about legacies could be difficult. How do you frame the ask when you might not be around or needed in the same way in 20 / 50 years? Don’t avoid the issue – think about how you can present it effectively.

Macmillan Cancer‘s legacy page says: “In the future, doctors and nurses are going to get much better at diagnosing cancer earlier, and treating it.” But stresses that half of us will get cancer at some point so Macmillan will still be needed.

Say please and thank you

Choosing to leave a legacy to a charity is a big deal. The fact that someone is reading your page about this is a good sign. Keep them with you by recognising this. Say please and thank you in the right places. If you come across as kind and thoughtful at the asking stage, it will reassure people that you will behave in the same way when you are processing their gift.

Think about motivation

Why do you think someone might have reached your page? What are they thinking. This page by the Miscarriage Association is written really warmly and in a gentle tone of voice. The quote perfectly positions the ask.

Include appropriate images

Brighten up a serious subject with colourful or inspiring images. Reward visitors to this page and make them want to stay. A collection of several images may work better than a single one. For example, this landing page for the British Heart Foundation includes images of family, medical research as well as a big thank you.

Many organisations seem to rely on stock images of grey-haired couples on their legacy pages. Remember to use images which reflect the demographics of your readers. Also people often write their will triggered by big life events such as getting married or having children. Your audience isn’t just people in later stages of their lives. Make sure you are using images which reflect their own image back at them.

Take a look at NSPCC’s page which includes quotes and images from supporters at different stages of their lives. Their stories may chime with readers, validating their own idea to leave a legacy to NSPCC (another example of social proofing).

Think about a hook

What could make your legacy fundraising stand out? What stories do you have to tell? Has a legacy gift allowed you to do something special or unusual? Is there someone you could write about or feature to make your ask come to life?

Mencap’s gifts in wills page is based around the inspiring story of Lord Brian Rix. The page says that he “helped change the future for people with a learning disability. With a gift in your Will to Mencap you can too.” It uses beautiful images from their archive and talks about what he achieved in his lifetime. It says that although lots has changed, people with learning disabilities still face challenges so by leaving a gift in your will, you can help change the future too.

Similarly, Leonard Cheshire, marking its centenary say “Leonard’s legacy became our legacy. It could be your legacy too.”

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity includes information about JM Barrie’s legacy gift in their pages. Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity talks about your final chapter and how to write your own ending.

Include practical information

Make it as easy as possible for someone to actually get the legal stuff right. So include:

• information about different types of gifts (see this handy guide to the types of legacies by Demelza Hospice)
• your official name (and any previous names) and charity number
• suggested wording
• information to help someone work out the detail of their estate
• information for executors
• contact details so a potential donor can get in touch.

A promise can offer reassurance about how a legacy will be dealt with when the time comes. A few charities included these – see WaterAid’s promise, RNLI and Breast Cancer Now.

Be interesting

There were a few examples of charities who’d produced interesting supporting content. For example:

• Blue Cross reminds readers to think about their digital assets (passwords, data, photos, social media etc)
• Cancer Research’s campaign with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Two Thirds of a Spring reflects the vital impact that one third of funding has on their life-saving work
• Alzheimer’s Society has an online book of remembrance
• visitors are invited to make a personalised video with Unicef UK. (NB Unicef UK have been running a campaign of promoted tweets about this recently, the only social media content I spotted about legacy fundraising during the research for this post.)

 Get the navigation and terminology right

Think about where your legacy pages sit. How easy are they to find within navigation or search? Be your own mystery customer and check.

Don’t bury your pages – make them prominent, especially if legacies make up a sizeable proportion of your income. Don’t just stick them under ‘Other ways to give’.

Check where they appear in your content rankings on your Google Analytics. Are you using the right terminology for your audience? Test whether the word legacy or will works best. Many charities use both.

See my previous post on legacy fundraising (persuasive and engaging writing in online legacy fundraising) for some tips on terminology and placing of legacy pages. Also how to talk about legacies on social media.

How do you measure up?

Is your online legacy fundraising content strong enough or is it dull and unconvincing? Give your copy a facelift before Remember a Charity week in September. If you are not sure how well it comes across, get your mum to read it or do a page swap with someone else from another charity. Get some feedback and think about how you could bring your content to life.

Share your examples

Have you seen (or written) any good or bad examples of digital legacy fundraising? Please do share them here.

My top five online legacy fundraising sites are listed in a JustGiving blog post. I’d love to hear what yours are.

 

 

See also:

• Online legacy fundraising content (previous blog post from 2013)
• Taking legacies online (Charity Digital News) – packed with other examples

 

#firstfiver – a democratic viral fundraiser

I have been watching the spread of the #firstfiver campaign since it started just under two weeks ago. It has been great to see how many organisations have joined in with this very simple idea.

Unlike other viral fundraisers (such as #nomakeupselfie which I have blogged about before) this was not connected to a particular cause. It also didn’t feature a complicated or strenuous ask (such as the Ice Bucket Challenge or the current #22PushUpChallenge).

Instead it was simple and easy to ask. And simple and easy for supporters to join in with.

Examples

If you haven’t come across it yet, look at my storify showing the spread of the campaign and how different charities have responded.

It includes examples from small charities such as Trinity Hosice, Harrogate Easier Living Project (HELP), The UK Sepsis Trust, Freedom from Torture and Make Lunch. And large ones including War Child UK, the Children’s Society and Sue Ryder.

Images, videos, thank yous and shopping lists showing the difference a £5 donation could make, all help to make a request stand out.

#firstfiver Storify – showing tips and examples

Get involved

If your organisation hasn’t joined in yet, it is not too late. The hashtag is still going strong and many people still haven’t had a new £5 note yet.

Share your views

Have you seen any good examples that I have missed? Any particularly humourous or creative or persuasive posts?

Has your organisation had (m)any donations? How easy was it for your organisation to join in with this campaign?

Have you made a donation yourself?

Please do comment, I’d love to hear from you.

Images on social media

Images are crucial to social media. This post looks at how charities can use images to grab attention or tell their stories. It uses lots of examples from Twitter but many of the rules also apply to Facebook

Just two years ago, images were a nice-to-have. Now they are a must-have to grab attention. This screenshot from my Twitter feed shows the difference. In 2014 in a random sample, just one tweet out of nine has an image. In 2016, four out of five, does.

Personally I used to scroll through tweets sifting by account. Now I primarily sift by images. Images have to be eye-catching and engaging to make me stop and read. But, what makes a good image?

Images which tell a story

Images can tell a story themselves or can be a gateway into a story – a hook to get the reader’s interest. For example, the image of 101-year old volunteer Maurice at St Paul’s Cathedral makes you want to read his story. The image from Toilet Twinning of a jar of coins is intreging, it makes you ask questions about how much they are trying to raise and how. This BHF image of Rio following his life-saving heart transplant shows him in hospital surrounded by medical equipment and with a breathing tube. Each is a powerful image, hooking us in to want to read more.

Images which are cute / beautiful

Images are like a reward, they can brighten someone’s day. Social media is made to share cute or beautiful images.

Unsurprisingly, animal charities such as Blue Cross, share lots of cute images. These are rewards for people who love guinea pigs / cats / hedgehogs etc. The images are useful to illustrate messages about rehoming and general education about animals. Images are also crucial to support social media fundraising. See this tweet from the Barn Owl Trust – awww.

Many museums and galleries share items from their collections via social media. For example, the East London Group and the Royal Academy connect with their followers with an #imageoftheday often connecting this with something that is topical. Heritage organisations are great at using images of their properties. The National Trust share their amazing collection of photos brilliantly on Facebook and get a high level of interaction.

You don’t have to be the National Trust to share beautiful pictures. Do you have a garden or view to share (see tweets from Canal and River Trust or Lewis-Manning Hospice)? Are you having a cake sale (see Maternal Worldwide’s Muffins for Midwives campaign)? Think about what is cute or beautiful in your organisation.

Images which are fun

Fun images are harder to get right as humour is very subjective and hard to translate through technology. You can be creative, playful, topical and fun but only if it is relevant and appropriate for your brand and audience. Take a look at Give Blood’s recent use of emojis or YoungScot’s use of animated gifs.

Images can be fun because the people in them are having fun (think fundraising or volunteering activities) or include notoriously fun people (see this tweet of Bill Bailey with an owl on his head from the Barn Owl Trust).

Images can also be fun because they join in with something lots of people are talking about. Memes, TV shows, the weather, news stories can all be used to join in with existing fun. See St John Ambulance’s first aid tips for Game of Thrones characters.

Organisations sometimes create an alter-ego for their brand which can do the fun stuff. Examples of this are RSPB’s Vote for Bob and Dave The Worm from Parkinson’s UK.

Images which are shocking

Images can be shocking because they show things we wouldn’t usually see (such as Dr Kate Granger’s moving deathbed tweets).  Or because they show a truly shocking situation (think of the images of the young Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015). Images which are shocking may provoke feelings of disgust, anger or sadness. However, reactions may vary; it can be difficult to predict where an image goes too far (think of the backlash against Barnado’s adverts in 2000).

Whether you use shocking images depends on your cause and what you are trying to achieve. Remember that you have a duty of care. Images don’t need to be graphic to have impact.

Think about your audience and what they will tolerate. Think about what you are trying to achieve, what action you are trying to prompt. Think about balance. If your subject matter is only ever shocking, how can you illustrate it in a sensitive but impactful way which brings people in to find out more?

• Sometimes text can add impact to an image. This example from Oxfam International shows a beautiful image of a Burundian mother and child with the words ‘A refugee is a person who doesn’t have any options’.
• This Greenpeace campaign about the recycle-ability of disposable coffee cups uses images of Caffe Nero, Costa and Starbucks cups with a shocking fact (7 million coffee cups are used per day in the UK. 1% are recycled).
• An image can be shocking without being obviously sad. This example from The Brain Injury Hub shows toddler Harmonie-Rose who had meningitis playing with her dolls.
• This image shared by Aspire is a still from a Channel 4 news item. It shows a man cutting food with a sharp knife using his prosthetic hand.

Images which give information

Effective images can also be ones which give infomation or are just interesting. This could be a photo of something which helps someone to understand a situation or topic (such as this tweet from Thames21 showing microbeads), or an image which illustrates data (see using graphics to illustrate data on social media for lots of examples) or illustrates text (such as Mind’s series of quotes).

Information pictures also play an important role in inspiring people to get involved. Images of people doing fundraising or volunteering can inspire other people to do the same (‘there’s a picture of people running, they look like me and like they are having a good time, I could do it too’). This example from GoodGym is great as it shows runners in bright T-shirts running along a street, smiling!

Your image strategy

An image strategy may be an over-inflated term but it is important to spend some time thinking about and documenting how you will use images.

• Do your images fit into the categories above? They can of course just be window-dressing, there to look pretty or eye-catching (see this tweet from MindApples).
• Do you have something in your housestyle or brand guidelines about the types of images you use? What about your social media or content strategy?
• Do you have a different style for social media or do you use the same image for the same story across all your channels?
• Do you use an image for every tweet or post or just when you have something appropriate ready to use? What is your policy?

What thinking or analysis have you done about images? It is worth testing out what style actually works for you and on what channels. What works on Facebook might not necessarily work on Twitter. And what works on these ‘news’ channels might be different than what works on other types of social channels such as Instagram. Don’t assume that your audience are the same.

Spend some time testing out different techniques and using the analytics within Twitter and Facebook to find out the impact / level of interaction.

The rules

Images are very subjective. What appeals to one person, might not work for another. Whether you are taking the picture yourself or are choosing from your image library, there are some basic rules which apply.

• Don’t use pictures which are unclear or blurry or dark – on social media you have seconds to get your message across or to attract attention. Images need to be instantly appealing with strong contrasting colours (like this RNIB tweet of a bright green broccoli in a red colander). If you only have poor quality images, why not make them into a collage to make them more interesting. This this collage from Muffins for Midwives which tells more of a story than a single image.
• Don’t use images which are cluttered or hard to understand – photograph your subjects on a plain background if possible. Your tweets and posts will be looked at on all kinds of devices and may appear very small. Sometimes this rule can be broken if the background tells a story. For example, the BHF image of Rio above or this image from the Trussell Trust of a big group of children in a warehouse.
• Avoid pictures which are too complicated or badly cropped – these can lose meaning. Strangely cropped images may attract attention but might just be too wacky (see MyCommunity’s spade image).
• Don’t be boring – do you really have to use that giant donation cheque image?! (Just do a search for ‘charity cheques’ to see how universally boring these are.) Of course it can be politic to take a cheque photo but does it really work on social media? There are lots of ways of showing a fundraising total without having to show the dreaded cheque / handshake (see this press release about JD Wetherspoon’s CLIC Sargent fundraising which shows the total in giant golden balloons or this big thank you from SeeAbility).

>>See more about cheques in this newer post – Say no to GIANT cheque pictures

Remember also, that not everyone following your social media channels will be able to see your images. Twitter and Facebook do now have some accessibility features, although on Twitter it is applied manually and only via apps. Unless you use alt text, avoid using an image on its own. Instead include meaningful text about what the image is showing and ideally a link for more information (the Mind tweet above is a good example of this).

Checklist

• Do you know what is right for your cause / brand / audience / channel?
• What is your image policy and style?
• Do your images follow the rules of good pictures?
• Do you use images which tell a story?
• Are your images cute / beautiful?
• Are your images fun – do you use humour or respond to topical stories or memes?
• Do you use images which are shocking?
• Do your images give information?
• Are they just window-dressing?
• Are you using images accessibly?

Bottom-line is, don’t be boring!

Experiment, be creative and involve the team to take new images. Use analytics to check what is working. Find your image style.

Further reading

• Taking charity photos that pop (CharityComms)
• This is nice from Marie Curie showing how they use images – five key social media pillars.
• Simple graphics can bring your data to life (CharityComms) – case study from MakeLunch

See also, my previous posts on using graphics to illustrate data on social media and how to illustrate difficult causes and subjects. Also, my chapter on images in the Charity Social Media Toolkit on the SkillsPlatform.

Do you agree?

When have you broken the rules and it has worked? Do you have a style guide for images? How do you manage your images and how they are used? What images have you seen or used recently?

Please do share your experience and examples by adding a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Charging for content?

I recently did a proposal for a charity (here after known as MyCharity) who amongst other things were interested in exploring how they could generate funds from their content. Is it possible? Let’s look at the challenge…

Costly information sites

Charity websites generally have one big section which contains lots of useful information about their cause (such as information about living with XX condition / legal rights about XX / how to look after donkeys etc). They work hard to make the information clear, up-to-date and easy to find. It is worth doing this because they want the information to help people. Also they want to be high up in the search results to raise profile and to build relationships with new supporters.

However, it takes a lot of time and money to maintain so much information. When I was at KnowHow NonProfit we had lots of discussions about how to reduce the cost of maintaining information which lead us to experiment with wiki-fying sections of content. Hooray – the sector would maintain it’s own information! Not so fast…. It worked to some extent but took just as much time to nurture relationships with potential wiki editors.

A wiki is just not going to work for authoritative medical, legal or care-based information. So are there ways charities could generate funds from content to cover costs?

How to make content pay

1) Ask for donations

MyCharity was interested in how they could monetise their information guides as these were read by thousands of people each month (on and offline). There are lots of examples of information leaflets with a donation ask at the end such as this one from Epilepsy Society.

Online it is a different story. Lots of sites have a donate button at the top of the page but don’t specifically ask for a donation related to the transaction which has just taken place (ie the user reading, downloading or sharing the content).

This example from Blue Cross is the only one I found of a charity clearly and calmly asking for a donation at the end of an information page. The button at the end of the content says ‘How much was this information worth? Click here to donate’. They don’t give a suggested donation and the link goes to the general donation page.

I imagine that someone reading this would be inspired only to give a small amount. Many online donation forms have a minimum amount, usually £5. So what happens if someone feel inspired to give a donation of £1 or £3? If this type of ask is only likely to generate small donation, an SMS donation option (eg JustTEXTgiving) may be more appropriate. Doing it this way is quicker, has fewer stages and doesn’t obviously lead to the donor being added to a database and sent further requests for money (often off-putting for small amount donors). Of course it means that the charity gets this type of donation without the personal details but that’s the trade off.

A suggested figure may also help here (as with online donation forms – see previous blog post). For example, a sentence in the style of a church sign ‘it costs £X to heat this church everyday, please consider making a donation’ or a museum ‘thanks for visiting today, please consider making a donation of £X’. This is stronger, more persuasive and gives the user a clearer idea of what is appropriate.

2) Ask for contact details

It may be more valuable to capture data than small donations. MyCharity was keen understand and communicate with their readership as well as ask them for money. With thousands accessing their content guides each month, they felt like they were missing an opportunity to connect with these people more deeply. So it may have been appropriate for them to ask people to register for more detailed content to start that process.

There are lots of non-charity examples of this such as this report download from nfpSynergy ‘to download this report for free add your name and email address’.

And organisations giving premium content to members (whether membership is free or not) such as this exclusive fundraising video from KnowHow NonProfit.

Charities often have additional, special content produced for members, such as a magazine which can be accessed online.

I haven’t managed to find any examples of charities asking people to register for premium content or information guides. Would this work?

3) Asking for payment

Are there any examples of non-profits asking for payment before access is given aka The Times paywall?

Conclusions

Generating funds to pay for expensive and complicated websites is a big issue for charities. However, it doesn’t feel like many are testing out ideas or that anyone has cracked this yet. Publishing detailed information guides online is the standard and we all want people to read them. But many may fear that applying the three methods above could mean a loss in traffic or trust. But in these tough times, can we really continue putting so many resources into something which people use for free?

If you have examples or experience to share, please do add a comment we can all learn from.

Make your errors useful

Error messages are so often given little thought when re-launching a website but actually they could be one of your most visited pages. It’s worth spending some time on them to get them right. Turn them into positive pages by making them sound like they were written by a person rather than automatically generated and making them useful, maybe even fun. Here are some examples of 404 (page not found) errors from big charities and companies.

404 – computer says no

No branding, robotic language (‘the requested resource has not been found’), assumption that it is the user’s fault (‘please ensure you have typed the address correctly’), no alternative links, this is a desperate, desperate place to find yourself. This charity’s error page could have been marginally worse if the heading had been in red.

A confusing error is sometimes worse. This example says error three times and gives a code which is meaningless to the user. We don’t know whether we are seeing this as a result of a technical problem or  a broken link? To ‘go back’ is the only option given.

Be helpful and approachable

WaterAid make it very clear what has happened (‘file or page not found’) and what they want you to do (email).

Oxfam’s 404 works through some solutions (‘here are some tips which might help’) alongside a confused goat.

The British Heart Foundation’s 404 starts with a sorry, has a please and lots of ideas for alternative destinations (presumably based on the most common interactions).

Connect with your cause

RNLI’s error message connects the error to their strengths. They have a picture of a man looking through binoculars and text which says: ‘We’re sorry – we can’t seem to find the page you’re looking for. That’s a shame, as we’re usually quite good at navigation.’ Nice.

Missing People’s 404 does something similar: ‘Page not found, neither is Thi Nguyen’ then full details about the missing person.

Add personality

Dog’s Trust have bags of personality online (see their brilliant fetch (rather than search) button). DT’s 404 page has a cute dog, friendly heading (‘Oops – this page isn’t here’) and a pointer to the site map and other links. Their technical fault is even better.

Of course, animal charities have more potential to add personality / fun / cute pictures than say a health charity. Blue Cross say ‘Oooooops’ and have a snoozing cat. RSPCA say ‘Whoops’ and ‘Looks like a dog may have run off with that page. Sorry about that. Perhaps he’s buried the page out the back?’

A nice picture is a good way of brightening up an error page, even better if it’s of something relevant. Here, the BBC’s 404 page has gone retro with our old friend the clown dusted down from the 70s, now with 404 written on the chalk board – genius.

Lego’s 404 is just weird.

How do you match up?

Go check your error pages:

• are they helpful?
• do they generate a positive reaction?
• could you add an image?
• is the language clear and approachable?
• are there clear links to get people back on track?

Think about what you can do to improve your user experience. Reward people for finding this ‘secret’ page rather than punishing them with an unhelpful, dull page.

While you’re there, check errors in forms. Are you nicely hand-holding to help people complete a purchase, enquiry or donation or SHOUTING AT THEM for making a mistake? (See previous post on donate forms for some examples.)

Want more?

If you need more inspiration for dull vs fun error messages, just do a search for 404 in google images or look at Wikipedia’s page on 404.

Comments?

I looked at hundreds of charity error pages in the interests of research and these were the most inspiring I found. Please do share your tips and favourite examples (good and bad). Leave a comment, go on.