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.

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

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Digital round-up – May

In the month that we were all swamped in GDPR emails and RNLI and Dog’s Trust were responding to endless negative comments following misreported press stories, there were lots of great reads. Pull up a comfy chair and catch up with some great charity content and digital reads you might have missed from May 2018.

Warning – you may need longer than a tea break to catch up. 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. Enjoy!

Digital

Useful resources and reads if you are working on digital projects, thinking about future technologies or just getting on with your everyday digital tasks:

• Build the right thing in the right way – 10 design principles to help charities build better digital services by CAST.
• Super useful conversation menu produced by CAST. Use these prompt questions when starting digital projects.
• A guide to agile communication by Giles Turnball.
• Have you seen SCVO’s beta Digital Check-up tool?
• Key findings from the LBG Consumer Digital Index. And the full Consumer Digital Index report 2018.
• 8 free digital tools for small NGOs – useful list from Thomas Worley at BOND.
• CAF’s Future:Good project.
• The highs and lows of social media marketing in 2018 (eConsultancy).
• 6 steps to create a persona that drives your marketing (Social Media Today).

Inspiration from other organisations getting stuck into digital:

• Going digital is bloody difficult by Adam Koszary of MERL.
• Small charities smashing it with digital – Mandy Johnson blogs for JustGiving. Includes 5 top tips and examples.
• Research into the impact of health tracking following chemotherapy and about Anthony Nolan’s My Transplant Tracker app.

New websites / rebanding:

• New website from MS Society.
• New website from Alzheimer’s Society.
• About the rebrand and new website by Canal and River Trust. New Canal and River Trust website too.

Events:

• Becca Peter’s notes from the Charity Comms Engaging Digital conference.
• Doing more with less: tips for busy communicators. Slides from the CharityComms seminar.

Content / comms channels

• Why your content wants to be bad. Love this post by Jack Garfinkel of Scope about the impact of bad processes.
• How the British Red Cross revamped its website from 4000 pages to 400 (eConsultancy).
• How to position your brand as a knowledge centre through content (eConsultancy). Many charity websites are already ‘knowledge centres’ but is your knowledge the type and in the right format for your audience? Are you the go-to for your subject or are your peers or non-charity competitors doing it better?
• How to spot the passive voice in your writing using monkeys. Simples!
• Investing in a content strategy leads to better ROI with video. Video content benchmark report by Raw London on Charity Comms.
• How to write a video brief – tips from video agency Magneto Films.
• Best practice guide to Facebook by Kirsty Marrins for Lightful.
• What I learnt about impact in Oxford by Richard Sved.
• Your monthly reminder to caption your images on social.
• Talking about poverty in the UK – what works? JRF share a 10-step guide based on research by the FrameWorks Institute. See also this thread from a Universal Credit sufferer which got 4k likes and kick-started some #FoodBankChallenge action.
• Crisis also worked with FrameWorks to research attitudes to homelessness. Reframing homelessness in the UK (PDF).

ICYMI – I updated my 2013 post about trustee / staff pages on charity websites with new best practice and examples. How does your site match up?

Fundraising

• Charities have a problem with men according to a CAF report (UK Fundraising). Includes questions and a flatpack fundraising guide to address the issues. Handy!
• The landscape for grantmaking in 2043. Slide share of predictions by Rhodri Davies of CAF.
• Solo fundraising: how to make it work for your charity – Julia Pitman on CharityComms.

Working with people

• A letter to my extroverted boss, from an introvert by executive coach Emma Taggart.
• Measuring wellbeing – free tools for charity use (UK Fundraising).
• Tweets about stress for #MentalHealthAwarenessDay. (And did you see this film of Michael Rosen talking about how drawing helped him following the death of his son?)
• Why is flexible working not mainstream asks Kirsty Marrins.
• Similar questions about trust and good management from Kate Brennan-Rhodes in this thread.
• And this by Madeleine Cassidy on Charity Connect about the mental health of people in the charity sector – The elephant in the room.
• Stop. CollaboRaise and Listen by Lisa Clavering.
• If charities really want to be more diverse, then they need to change by Kirsty Weakley in Civil Society.
• Debunking Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (BPS).
• Results of the ProCopywriters Survey 2018.
• Some brilliantly inspiring people on this year’s Alternative Rich List.

Great content

• What’s the difference between a healthy brain and one with Alzheimer’s? Engaging video from ARUK.
• Marine Conservation Society use a shocking image to prompt petition signings about single use plastic.
• Have we forgotten how to make friends asks the Campaign to End Loneliness.
• Cheeky Question Time tweet from Shelter.
• Live scenes of hay fever at Asthma UK.
• Love the pantone colour matching tweets from National Library of Scotland.
• Refugee Action campaign.
• NCVO’s nifty animation showing highlights from the Almanac.
• There was lots of activity for #ChildrensHospiceWeek. Also for #DyingMatters week (though there was no Moment or news round-up to link to, to show you).
• Instead watch this cute video and song from Dog’s Trust.

Plus there was lots of nice content around for the Royal Wedding, such as this knitted couple from Age UK and this blue blood image from NHS Give Blood.

This Royal Wedding Moment contains lots of fundraising related fun from large and small charities. Great examples of how to join in with a feel-good event.

Strawberry Social even did a comprehensive thread of an A-Z of Royal Wedding tat which should have got more likes than it did.

See also

• Love this visualisation of the T&C’s of different apps.
• Nice buttons and dials from Present and Correct.
• Gammon People (not) by Pulp in a thread.
• Sick of hearing about the floss but not actually sure what it’s all about? This handy guide by TES for teachers so they can keep up with the kids, is for you!
• Scan paintings with a new app at the National Gallery.
• How to build a fly stimulator and annoy little girls.
• 279k likes for this cool interaction between biker and bus driver.

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 April’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!

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