Digital round-up – January 2020

Highlights this month: personal stories driving donations, lots of new campaigns, #BongForBrexit, #DollyPartonChallenge, the climate as a global risk.

January is such a long long month. Luckily there was lots of great charity content and good reads to get us through the dark days. Catch up here with some gems 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

• You’re full of it – new campaign from BHF about air quality. This thread includes branded gifs (also seen on billboards) plus a quiz and link to the campaign site where you can check the air quality where you live.
• Great reactive comms from Generation Rent. Welcome to the world of renting Harry and Meghan.
• 2019 in review – nice video from British Transport Police Specials and I like this end of year thank you video from Oxfam – ‘with your help, people have changed their lives’.
• Examples of New Year’s Resolution comms from across the sector.
• New #ThisGirlCan video. 920k views!
• Action Aid shared the numbers from their Gifts in Action.
• Greenpeace created a quiz thread about being an environmentally conscious shopper.
• Friends of the Earth thread about ecoanxiety.
• What have vegan sausage rolls got to do with Universal Credit? Helen Barnard of JRF shares in this topical vlog post.
• New campaign from national poverty charity Turn2Us about appliance poverty – Living Without.
• Beautiful animation and poems for The Mayhew’s #StayInseparable campaign.
• Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust respond to conflicting stories in the news about cervical cancer.
• Books Trust are great at finding thorny issues to tackle. Are you a book vandal?
• Together we can stop visible hate – new campaign from Changing Faces.
• Don’t be dogfished. Dogs Trust campaign to raise awareness about puppy sales.
• Is eating chicken bad for the planet? New explainer videos from WWF. See also How have you helped fight the Australia fires?, a thank you and update.
• Nice use of a Moment from Guide Dogs.
• Top responses to the #DollyPartonChallenge! This one from The Vagina Museum was my favourite.
• Nice promo film from the National Trust to celebrate their 125th birthday. ‘We all need quiet. We all need beauty. We all need space.’
• The science behind Blue Monday – a thread from Rethink.

Comms

• Public sector comms, PR and digital predictions for 2020 – Dan Slee.
• Content style guide – how to write for digital NHS services. I love a juicy style guide! Listen to Radio 4’s Word of Mouth episode about NHS language too.
• Language matters. Think carefully about the words you use to describe the people you support. Join in with the #SayItBetter campaign to spread respect, kindness and empathy.
• Why We Are With You – designing a name and brand that makes it easier for anyone to ask for help. Great post explaining the thinking behind Addaction’s rebrand and name change due to launch in late February – Laura Bunt.
• Last year Trussell Trust’s choose your own adventure Twitter thread about Universal Credit generated 350k impressions. Shifting narratives on social: choose your own adventure highlights real issues – Charity Comms.
• The #DollyPartonChallenge magnified the best and worst of museum social media manager life – Lori Byrd-McDevitt.
• Nine ways to spread positivity and #ReclaimSocial professionally and personally – Tereza Litsa for Charity Comms.
• British Red Cross are on TikTok with their new #ShopDrop challenge. See also #PEtBFF from Blue Cross and #MusicShapedMe from Youth Music. Dan Slee shared some useful tips if you are thinking of taking on TikTok.
• When was the last time you shared your mission / purpose on social media? Here’s one from Parkinson’s UK.
• Love these alternative sympathy cards as shared by Zoe Guy. Bereavement cards than don’t suck, produced by Let’s Talk About Loss are already on their second reprint.
• If you want to know what prisons are really like, watch BBC’s The Choir…. Philippa Budgen
• Top tips on telling children’s stories – Catherine Raynor of Mile91.
• Ever used Google Street View to tell a story? This tweet about a woman finding her grandfather on SV prompted a large response.
• Finding the best time to post on social media – Brendan Rodgers for Lightful.
• Have you used any of the new emojis? This thread introduces the 117 new emoji for 2020. BHF are big fans of one!
• Writing a great social media bio for your brand – Social Media Today.
• Bluffer’s guide to framing 2020 – Sho Konno. Includes lots of examples.
• Crisis comms – responding to a fundraising boost. How Epilepsy Society responded when a Twitter thread went viral. To date the original tweet has had 32k likes.

Digital – strategy, design, culture

• Digital 2020: 3.8 billion people use social media – detailed stats and trends on global digital use from we are social.
• Lightful predicts digital trends for 2020 – Tereza Litsa.
• Digital trends for the Church in 2020 – The Church of England’s tips to help churches use digital comms.
• Pinterest launch wellbeing resources.
• Is the charity sector prioritising digital ethics? Charity Digital News.
• Supporting more people in more organisations: what the digital fund will help us achieve – Megan Griffith Gray of NCVO.
• Bookmark empower’s charity digital and tech for good events calendar 2020.
• Catch up with Charity Comms’ Unlocking the potential of your data seminar. Including this thread about creating a healthy data culture using Street League as an example.
• The state we’re in – Helping colleagues (who aren’t interested in tech) understand the health of an IT estate. Polly Thompson from 2018.
• If high street shopping was like online shopping – great video from BBC Wales.
• Should we use a microsite – flowchart from Dan Brown. See also Should this go on the homepage.
• Creating focus using Design Sprints at Shelter – CayleeFarndon Taylor.
• NPC Labs: Why we’re embracing open working at NPC.
• Digital Candle – new platform from Matt Collins connecting charity leaders with digital experts who can give an hour’s phone time. Book your call or volunteer your services.
• Monthly accessibility tip 1: Accessible images on social media: what every government agency needs to know – Kate Rawlins for Helpful Digital.
• Accessibility tip 2: 7 ways you can make your Twitter feed more accessible – The Big Hack. Lots of useful tips here.
• PDFs and accessibility – a thread by Jack Garfinkel of Scope.
• ‘I wish we could connect on this level.’ Memes still aren’t accessible to people who are blind. What’s being done about it? Rachel E Greenspan for Time.

Fundraising

• There were a few #BongForBrexit anti-fundraisers. This from Bloodwise was widely shared.
• Aaron smashed his £3000 target for Mencap and is almost at his £9000 target. He wanted to prove people wrong.
• CAF shared 5 myths about giving to charity.
• Combat Stress announced a service redesign – “Whilst we have adapted to meet the demand of veterans, we are now faced with scaling back our workforce and services nationwide and have begun a consultation with staff on our proposals.”
• Does your charity do thankathons to connect with supporters? See The Mines Advisory Group (MAG).
• The global impact of Giving Tuesday (issuu report).
• St Johns Hospice supported their patient Keith’s dying wish to hit his £500,000 fundraising target for RNIB. Known as Sootyman, Keith had just £10k to go. The target has now been reached and excess will be donated to the hospice.
• Top 20 charity shop window displays.

People and organisations

• Australian Red Cross criticised over how they were spending donation money given in response to the bushfires.
• Time to Change movement recognised as one of the top public health achievements of the decade.
• Making Change Happen: An emerging approach to planning for impact – Social Finance.
• How to be a better white person in 2020 – Michael Harriot for The Root.
• New year, new decade: ten Change Collective resolutions for equality, diversity and inclusion – Elizabeth Balgobin for IoF.
• Where are England’s charities? asks Dan Corry of NPC.
• Thinking of going freelance? Two good-read threads. First Heather Parry shares useful advice about tax returns and running a business. Second, Kirsty Marrins wrote this blog post about managing your mental health and wellbeing as a freelancer. Plus this from Work Notes.

Climate crisis

• The 2020 Global Risks Report from World Economic Forum. All five of the top risks by likelihood and three by impact are climate related.
• NCVO’s Road Ahead report included climate change and activism as one of the social drivers in 2020.
• The climate crisis: the five shifts the sector needs to make in response – Kirsty McNeill of Save the Children for IoF. “Every single one of us is – or has the potential to be – a leader in the climate movement.”
• National Trust to be carbon neutral by 2030.
• The Natural History Museum declare a planetary emergency.
• Culture has a carbon footprint, and data matters – Museums and Heritage Advisor.
• Local newspapers featured climate change on their frontpages as part of the #Do1Thing campaign.
• What can I do about climate change? – Woodland Trust.
• How to make your events more sustainable – Just Giving.
• Village halls responding to the climate crisis – Zurich article for Village Halls Week.

And finally….

• 51k likes for photoshopped lifeboats on paintings by Andy Doe.
• Quick quiz – which railway station was the UK’s most visited in 2018-19 with 94million entries and exits? ORR share the stats.
• University of Liverpool found an unusual cheesy bookmark.

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

Digital round-up – May 2019

Highlights this month: mental health awareness, campaigns about talking, animals (dogs, cats, ravens) and lots of great digital charity reads.

Not sure where the summer has gone! Pop the kettle on, turn off the news and catch up with some of the things you might have missed in May.

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

This month, it was #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek so there was some great content around. For example, have a look at:

• conversation starters – 20 questions to use to open conversations with your child about mental health from YoungMinds (the website has more detail about starting the conversation)
• animation from Time to Change with over 2000 RTs and this text message one
• video about body image from The Children’s Society which had 29k views
• a simple reminder about sources of help from Combat Stress.

Also this month:

• Great video from the Campaign to End Loneliness – #LetsTalkMore!
• See also #AskUsAnything from Alzheimer’s Society.
• Talking to children about lymphoma – YouTube playlist of five videos from Lymphoma Action.
• Action Deafness produced these powerful posters showing how not to talk to deaf people for Deaf Awareness Week.
• Diabetes UK launched their #ItsMissing campaign about the lack of emotional support available for people with diabetes. These stories help to show the relentless pressure on people like Kaja with diabetes and mum Sue caring for her teenage son.
• A simple, positive, enriching tweet from Dogs Trust with 900 likes.
• What would your funeral song be? LOROS Hospice shared theirs for #DyingMattersWeek with this great video!
• There was some nice content for #WorldBeeDay.
• It was hashtag-tastic for #MuseumWeek – one for each day.
• Nice post from the Science Museum about expanding their collection of menstrual products – (NB snazzy way of displaying their blog tags too.)
• Game of ‘would you rather…?’ as part of Crisis’ Cover the Cost campaign.
• Lovely video of a community shop in Oxfordshire from Plunkett Foundation.
• Raven chicks at the Tower of London. Proud dad.
• Did you see The Cats Protection new campaign – #CatMenDo? Go to the website for more men and cats pictures plus Father’s Day card downloads.

Twitter takeover of the month: Ceri and Krissie’s Twitter takeover of the Scope account showing how Scope have developed their digital experiences to make them easy to use and accessible.

What are you doing for #SmallCharityWeek next week (17-22 June)? If you don’t work for a small charity, why not find a local one to support. Keep an eye out for the #BigSupportSmall campaign too.

Comms

• More than words – report exploring how voluntary sector organisations in the UK are developing, embedding and sharing their communications strategies – Ariadne Network. Here’s a short thread about the report from Neil Crowther.
• How to communicate: a tip from Sir Terry – Sarah Browning.
• Working with storytellers: ‘It’s never our story to tell, it’s theirs’ – Hayley Tomkinson, stories manager, Anthony Nolan for CharityComms.
• A guide to low-cost social media content creation – Seb Baird of Time to Change. He also wrote this for Media Trust – Four ways to boost your social media content.
• Nice an example of how to use a Moment as part of an awards evening, showcasing the winners and sharing a bit of the atmosphere from the event – The King’s Fund’s GSK Impact Awards. It was released next day giving all involved something to share. See more in my post How to use a Twitter Moment.
• FACE TIPS: Facebook have just posted a ‘how to’ guide to make videos that will get seen and it’s really handy – Dan Slee
• Increasing impact through cause-specific dates – Deborah Alsina CEO of Bowel Cancer UK shared five reasons to take full advantage of awareness periods.
• New global logo for Water Aid – more info from Water Aid Australia.
• Five essential steps for a low-cost, high-impact rebrand – CharityComms.
• What strategies do you use to share your impact report? Here’s a Mailchimp summary from the #IWill campaign, twitter thread showing some highlights and their news story.
• If you are a medical charity, how often do you tweet about symptoms to raise awareness? Here are some nice examples from Fight Bladder Cancer and Ovarian Cancer Action this month.
• 5 outlets for positive news – curated by UK Fundraising.
• Love this! Top 10 most irritating phrases as voted by comms people and curated by Dan Slee. How many do you recognise?

Don’t miss CharityComms’ Getting ahead in your comms career conference next week (20 June). Follow #CommsCareer if you are not there.

Digital – strategy, design, culture

NCVO have updated the Digital Maturity Matrix to include service design, data protection and security. Have you used this tool to assess the digital maturity of your organisation? In today’s Charity Digital Report, it was cited (question4)  by just 23% of respondents. Do take a look if you haven’t seen it already.

Once you have done that, read Digital transformation is a leadership problem about team culture and blockages by Mike Bracken. Here’s his definition as he says the term has got lost in all the noise: “digital transformation is the act of radically changing how your organisation works, so that it can survive and thrive in the internet era.”

• The Service Transformation team at Parkinson’s UK have started blogging. Here is the first post sharing their team principles – The Challenge Ahead.
• What is Service Design and what does it mean for charities? Kirsty Marrins talks with Giulia Merlo of CRUK in this Lightful article.
• Charities, young people and digital mental health services – new report from NPC looking at the capacity level in charities needed to develop these services and suggesting strategies how funders can support charities to do more in this area.
• Monthly accessibility tip: How to write more accessible social media posts – Australian Network on Disability.
• Accessibility update: sample accessibility statement, monitoring and enforcement – GDS blog post about the new regulations covering public sector websites (not charities) from September.
• Did you know that there is an accessibility checker in Word?
• Glasgow Women’s Library have a policy to not RT tweets that don’t use image descriptions. Does anyone else have similar accessibility rules about sharing content?
• Scope launched The Big Hack – a reporting tool where disabled people can share experiences with digital technology and help to make things better.
• Auto pop-up chat windows, a bit like Marmite – Lizzie Bruce
• About Culture 24’s Let’s get real 7 project: developing deeper human connection across digital channels.
• Research about the digital skills needed amongst museum staff and volunteers – One by One project phase 2 findings.
• Seven not-for-profit websites with great UX – eConsultancy.
• Making the case for investment — turning data and insight into a compelling strategy – Megan Griffith Gray’s latest post about the development of NCVO’s digital strategy.
• 146 responses to Matt Collins’ question, what is strategy?
• How to keep technostress at bay – Don’t end up as digital roadkill by Caroline Rook.

Fundraising

• The sustainability of large-scale challenge events – research and recommendations in this thread from Russell Benson.
• Who do you view as your competition? Might not just be your direct peers. Take a look at this list of binary decisions. Taken from How donors choose charities (2013) by Beth Breeze.
• The golden rule of fundraising – the single identifiable beneficiary – Craig Linton.
• Why fewer people are giving to charity and what we can do about it – Daniel Fluskey.
• Animal welfare charity doubles text giving total – Charity Digital News.
• 11 Facebook fundraising myths demystified – Nick Burne.
• Why it’s not a good idea to message your Facebook fundraisers on Messenger – Kirsty Marrins on givepanel.
• Motor Neurone Disease Association launches VR tour in legacy drive – UK Fundraising.
• Legacy stewardship gaining more prominence, Legacy Foresight research reveals – UK Fundraising
• Samaritans launched Samarathon fundraiser.
• Macmillan Cancer launched Milestone Moments.
• As a funder, what three questions would you ask to make a decision? Interesting discussion started by Tom Steinberg.
• Useful thread from James Heywood about online donations.
• Nice reminder why it counts to include personality in your asks – email from Link Dementia.

Don’t miss the free online conference from Resource Alliance – 12 & 13 June: Fundraising Online including an international line-up of speakers.

People and organisations

• Future of advice: our strategic framework 2019-22 – Citizens Advice share their three-year plan. Here’s a tweet sharing the five elements of the vision too.
• The Co-op Foundation’s Impact Report 2018 has a nice section about their values in action.
• CoppaFeel’s Impact Report gif tweet (and link to more information).
• ACEVO’s leadership competencies – six skillsets every active leader needs.
• Making diversity count in the charity sector – ACEVO.
• Who is sitting round your board table? – Janet Thorne for Association of Chairs.
• Andy Haldane: ‘We have allowed the voluntary sector to wither’ – Civil society will be crucial in the technological age, says the Bank of England’s chief economist. We must rebuild it reports Patrick Butler in The Guardian.
• Managing staff on social media – good read from Zoe Amar.

And finally….

• How Orkney Library became involved with getting copies of The Lost Words to all schools in Orkney.
• Lessons from a secret library worker about digital literacy and the importance of libraries.
• TfL are rolling out wifi tracking across the network – geeky thread about data and surveillance.
• Very cool stuff in this year’s RSA Student Design Awards.
• Fab thread about JoAnn Morgan, the only woman inside the control room at the launch of Apollo 11.
• Knitted representation of gender mix of speakers at a council meeting.
• Sir David Attenborough was 93 – this 93 second video shares many joyful clips.
• Video of the pendulum motion. [AD: brightly-coloured balls hanging on strings all the same length are released at once in a line. Initially they swinging backwards and forwards, then move in changing sequences including at one point like a caterpillar].

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

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!

Does your digital team blog?

Digital teams going the extra mile to share their knowledge.

I love our sector. We do so well to connect and learn from each other. From attending meet-ups, mentoring and shadowing, or learning from hashtags or other people’s top takeaways from events, there are lots of free ways we can share and learn from each other.

One of my go-to sources of knowledge and inspiration are the blogs of big charity digital teams. More and more digital teams are starting them. Here are some examples and ideas about the benefits.

Charity digital team blogs

Here are a few of the team blogs I have found (updated in July 2019):

• Citizens Advice digital team blog
• CRUK’s technology team blog
• Macmillan’s digital team used to blog but now focus on Twitter at @Mac_digital
• NSPCC’s digital team blog (they also tweet via @thedigitaldunk)
• the content team at Scope blog
• Service Transformation team at Parkinson’s UK blog
• Addaction Voices blog which includes posts from service design and other areas of work
• The British Heart Foundation Technology@heart blog
• Barnardo’s also have a blog which includes posts from the service development team.
• Action for Children’s digital and innovation blog.

I regularly include posts and links from these blogs in my monthly round-ups as they are so useful. As well as an excuse to peep in at the window of these big charities, the shared thinking and best practice is good food for thought for us all. Posts can prompt discussion, collaboration and new ideas.

Other good digital reads

There are quite a lot of councils and other public sector blogs from digital teams around too. For example:

• the GDS blog
• CAST’s blog
• HackIT – Hackney Council’s ICT team
• DigitalFirst from Brighton and Hove City Council
• Digital Media team at the V&A Museum
• Co-op’s digital blog and @coopdigital on Twitter.

Benefits to the team

If you work for a big charity or are part of a team, how do you share your knowledge internally? Or externally with peers?

Although producing the posts and curating the accounts can be time-consuming, the task brings other benefits. For example:

• Team building – done collaboratively, creating posts about projects can help the team to reflect and review the work they are doing. In busy teams, it is easy to move on to the next task, project, crisis with no time to review or think about how to share successes, challenges or failure with others. Creating a culture of review and sharing can help to give space for reflection and improvement.
• Knowledge sharing and skills development – if members of the team read each other’s posts, it can help them to learn from each other and appreciate stresses and demands. This can drive better future projects.
• Internal comms – content can help non-digital internal colleagues to understand the processes and thinking behind digital projects. If writing for a non-digital audience, it can be good practice for team members to be more careful about the terminology used in their posts, cutting out the jargon too. Posts can be repurposed for internal channels.
• Profile raising – well-shared posts can help to raise the profile of the digital teams, helping with future recruitment. Who wouldn’t want to work in a team doing cutting-edge work?
• Creativity – a blog gives the freedom to be creative, finding different ways to share knowledge. It feels nice to do the thinking around a topic, write it up (or draw pictures or make a video) and share it. A blog can be colourful and fun showing the personality of the writer and team. And no-one gets bored of seeing photos of post-its (do they?).

Follow and write your own

So do follow / subscribe to these accounts.

And if your team has knowledge to share, why not start your own team’s blog to share your processes, successes and failures? We can all learn from them.

Your top tips

Are there other blogs or Twitter feeds run by digital teams you’d recommend? Have you contributed to your team blog? Any top tips for making it work? Do you have a content calendar or a blog owner who manages / edits it?

Please share in the comments.

<Headline image drawn by my son, found on my desk recently!>

Can I help you?

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

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Digital round-up – Jan/Feb 18

In case you missed them, some of the best reads on crisis comms, digital strategy and charity content from last month.

Crisis comms

Charities have been in the headlines ever since the start of the year (Oxfam, President’s Club, Oxfam again, Jo Cox Foundation). There’s lots we can learn from these events in terms of how we need to respond to a crisis and rebuild trust.

• This from Jon Ware about involving the social team in crisis comms is excellent – Is your social media response helping during a crisis?
• And this about what it is like to be inside a major crisis by Outrageous Impact.
• Plus this – after Oxfam, charities are no longer untouchable by Vicky Browning of ACEVO – in which she tackles the public call for charities to be transparent while resenting money spent on admin.

Read, then review your crisis comms plan. Does it include the right people? Have you got clarity about the messages? Do they work across all channels? Have staff done media training? Are there enough people with social media skills to be able to respond to comments? (NB Oxfam put a call-out to staff for help and drafted in 40 colleagues to help with front-line messaging.)

It’s worth noting that it’s not just Oxfam who have been effected by this story. NCVO have been working tirelessly to share safeguarding best practice and represent the sector in media interviews.

Digital skills, design and strategy

• Dr Simon Davey says that charities can no longer be digitally defiant and argues that digital doesn’t have to be difficult.
• Read about the digital journey of Parkinson’s UK.
• The digital team at CRUK’s blog is a good read. Find out about their approach to user centric digital learning and development.
• Test. Test. Test. You are not the user. A useful reminder about the false consensus effect from NN group.
• Macmillan’s Senior Digital Editor, Rebecca Cryan, talks about accessibility audits.
• Seb Baird from Time to Change shared insights from this year’s #TimeToTalk day in which they shared over 40 pieces of unique content across different social channels.
• Benchmark your stats with the new (subscription needed) Charity Comms Digital Benchmark! Based on data from 46 charities.

Content

#WorldCancerDay is a big day for lots of health charities. Macmillan launched this lovely #LittleActsOfKindness video. I really liked the way they displayed the subtitles.

In addition to the usual fundraising and bad poems, there were some harder-hitting Valentine’s Day charity comms. None quite as cringy as the DWP’s festive message though thankfully.

Other charities joined in with #TimeToTalk day. This gentle video from the Mental Health Foundation makes us think about answers to ‘how are you?’

How can you use your archive to connect with topical stories? There were lots of charities marking the 100 years since (some) women got the vote. Age UK told the story of one of its founders Eleanor Rathbone.

I am a sucker for maps and data. These examples of (non-charity) content marketing campaigns using maps could give food for thought. How can you use your data to tell a bigger story?

This blind Twitter user’s plea which has now had 179k likes seems to have done so much more to raise awareness about image accessibility than any charity or Twitter themselves. Have you changed your settings? This guide to getting alt text right is a must-read if you are new to describing images.

Good to see Doncaster Council’s Chief Executive maintaining the gif standards in her comms.

And finally…

• Never swallow a bombardier beetle. Urgh!
• Take a moment to appreciate police dog Max’s hair.

What did I miss?

I spent January doing an interim comms manager role as well as going to BarCampNFP and SMEX18 so might have missed other good stuff. What did you read / watch / produce this month? Please do share.

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Did you miss November 2017’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!

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#GivingTuesday 2017

Now in its fourth year in the UK, #GivingTuesday is a chance for charities large and small to ask, thank and share news of the difference they make. It is the antidote to #BlackFriday and #CyberMonday (all of which seem to last much longer than a single day).

Here are some great Twitter examples from this year’s day.

Short and simple

#GivingTuesday is a hugely busy hashtag (trending across the world on the day) so there is a lot of competition. On all channels, a simple, eye-catching ask stands out.

The standard digital fundraising rules apply – cater to short attention spans, make donating time or money easy to do and pleasurable and give a reward.

This tweet from Dogs Trust ticks all the boxes. It clearly lists four ways to give support, it uses eye-catching emojis and readable / edited bit.ly links plus a bonus video of a dog rolling in the grass!

Similarly, LSE student volunteer centre shared four images on Twitter along with four actions.

• Independent Age clearly listed their text giving options
• Crisis showed what someone who attends Crisis at Christmas receives
• Lumos produced a simple animation of five words which explain what they do
• Refuge were asking people to buy a Christmas dinner parcel for £5
• Breakfast in a Bag simply asked for £3 donations.

Giving thanks

#GivingTuesday is as much a chance to say thank you as it is to ask. It is an opportunity to celebrate all your amazing fundraisers, donors, campaigners and volunteers. Personal thanks or general thanks work well.

Help for Heroes produced this lovely video to thank their fundraisers, volunteers, supporters and partners. It means more as it is a face-to-face thanks from the people whose lives have been helped by the charity.

The British Heart Foundation are expert producers of thank you gifs and images. Their feed is full of great thank you images like this one.

Marie Curie produced hand-drawn doodles for a selection of their supporters to say thank you.

There are lots more examples of how large and small charities used #GivingTuesday to say thank you (ZurichVolSec)

Taking full advantage

For one day only, Facebook matched donations made via their native giving tool (not those made by clicking a donation button on the platform which links elsewhere).

This tweet from Winston’s Wish explains the ask. A link to the Facebook page would have helped to encourage supporters to shift platform.

Selected Big Give charities are part of their Christmas Challenge which launched at midday on #GivingTuesday. The 500 organisations lucky enough to be included are benefitting from doubled-donations to their listed projects. In the first five minutes, half a million pounds were raised!

Eye-catching campaigns like Cats Vs Kids from The Childhood Trust, aim to inspire new supporters as well as current ones through #GivingTuesday and the #ChristmasChallenge17.

CAF were offering to add a bonus £100 to a £10 donation for individuals opening a new account before 30 November.

Action on Hearing Loss Scotland devoted the whole day to share stories of amazing fundraisers, achievements, future events and their #earringforhearing campaign.

Using targets

The Myton Hospices were aiming for a Christmas miracle, raising £3220 in 24 hours, enough to pay for an inpatient bed for one week. Through persistent tweeting, a thunderclap and rallying of their supporters, they smashed their target! Throughout the day, they updated supporters with a total. (Read more about their campaign in my JustGiving post on #GivingTuesday highlights.)

Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust‘s campaign aimed to raise enough money to plant 100 trees.

(NB Toilet Twinning are really good at sharing regular News Flush updates with a running total on World Toilet Day, pinning the latest total as a top tweet on the day.)

Being creative

#GivingTuesday is a great opportunity to break all the rules, produce something special and have fun.

Southmead Hospital Charity produced a charming video which explained how a £5 donation would help.

• The Parkinson’s UK please donate video is all the more charming as it has outtakes.
• Breast Cancer Now asked supporters to send messages to their researchers. And then showed some of the results.
• Aardman Animations chose #GivingTuesday to launch their Turkey Dash featuring 8 UK charities.

Didn’t get involved this year?

UK Fundraising reported that almost 2000 partner charities and businesses joined in with #GivingTuesday this year. CAF shared stats on the reach of the day, including an impressive 383million impressions on Twitter. And CAF’s press release said that the hashtag was trending on Twitter in the UK from 8.30am to 5.30pm. Blackbaud shared data too including that 26% of online donations were made via mobile.

The #GivingTuesday hashtag was used in over 150 countries on the day.

If you didn’t get involved this year, make sure it is on your calendar for 2018 – 27 November. And think about how you can make your comms stand out from the crowd.

What did you spot?

Share your favourite #GivingTuesday examples from Twitter or other channels here. I’d love to see them.

I also shared my top three highlights from the day in this JustGiving post.

It’s interesting to see how the comms have evolved since #GivingTuesday launched in the UK in 2014. Here’s my storify with examples from the first year.

 

See also: 10 tips for great online legacy fundraising

How to share lived experiences using #rocur or Twitter take overs

Hearing someone’s story firsthand can build empathy, a sense of community and crush stereotypes or assumptions. But in a noisy world, how can we as charities get those voices heard?

Finding ways for people to engage with real experience is key. More charities are trying rocur (rotation curation) or media take overs. Find out how they could work for you.

Hearing lived experience

We’ve talked before about empathy and the power of stories (following Jude Habib’s amazing Being the Story event in 2016). Last week at the Social Media Exchange Lemn Sissay argued that charities shouldn’t be working to ‘give children a voice’ as they have voices already. Rather we should be working to find ways for their voices to be heard.

This idea was explored more deeply by Gemma Pettman in her blog post following the event in which she included reflections about the Expert Citizens programme.

We may feel like we are working hard to get the voices out there but your case study or a video probably isn’t doing this. As editors we are applying our own filters and key messages to these stories. Of course as comms professionals, we might feel like we know what makes a good story and we want to streamline the story so it ticks our boxes (we don’t want any other causes or issues getting in the way). But this isn’t the way people work.

It might feel scary or dangerous but how can we create a platform which we can hand over to the people we represent? Some charities are doing this through their blog or vlog. For example Mind invites anyone to contribute. Others are using social media to share user-generated content. For example read about Anthony Nolan’s Facebook content strategy.

To actually hand the keys over to the channels is another level, with no editorial control! Here we look at some examples.

Rocur (or rotation curation)

According to wikipedia, rotation curation started on Twitter in 2011 with the @sweden account. Rocur accounts are usually managed on a weekly basis with each new person sharing details of their lives. An administrator manages the account, ensuring every week is covered.

The Sweden account (which itself says it started in 2009) is still going strong and has 104k followers. There are now many other location-based accounts including @LondonisYours, @WeAreXPats and HI_Voices.

In October 2016, the nhs account launched with Richard who shared his experience of living with cancer. The account is ‘manned’ by staff, trainees and patients and already has 10.6k followers. It is used from 8am-8pm, Monday to Thursday and from 8am-6pm on Friday.

This account works so well because it is well curated with different voices each week. The weekly host tends to share a lot of personal information and they respond to questions and treat it as a conversation. It feels like followers are genuinely learning about someone’s job or condition from reading the tweets. Read more about the @nhs account.

In a similar vein, @Parkinsons52 is used by people who have experience of Parkinson’s. The account has been live since February 2016. It has been hosted by patients experiencing varying stages of the disease from across the world as well as health care professionals and staff from Parkinson’s UK including CEO Steve Ford. It was set up by David Sangster who saw it as a way to connect the Parkinson’s community, raise awareness and to show how the disease can affect people of all ages and backgrounds.

Take overs

Less of a committment is to host a social media take over, where someone outside of the comms team uses the account for a short time. This is generally less about lived experience and more about giving an alternative insight or perspective. Museums are good at doing this such as with their ask the curator sessions.

Kids in Museums drive an annual day where museums let children take over. Some organisations do this by letting young people use their social media accounts to share their experiences of the museum. The Teen Twitter Takeover is in August and there are useful factsheets about how to let teenagers tweet from the museum account. The guide says that the biggest benefit is that the teenagers feel really trusted to be allowed to do this. Read more about Take Over Day.

Each year local government joins in with #OurDay. This is more managed than a take over but gives an opportuity for councils to share the stories of employees and locals who use services. Through the social media activity they can show the detail and breadth of what they do. See this Moment of #OurDay in 2016 for some examples.

Could it work for you?

If one of your goals is to raise awareness, then somewhere within your comms strategy should be a way to show rather than tell.  Finding simple ways to build understanding and empathy is key.

These examples are all about showing the detail of something, the everyday impact of a condition or situation. It is the detail which connects us. And it is the detail which is often missed in our corporate comms where we are often trying to show the bigger picture to make a point.

Giving a platform in this way can be daunting. Some of the barriers could be:

• “it sounds too time consuming to administer and monitor”
• “we don’t have access to a big bank of potential people who could contribute”
• “we have a duty of care for children or vulnerable people – what if people ask probing questions or they get trolled?”
• “is it really worth it – will people listen or engage? Will it actually change anyone’s minds?”
• “our community has low IT skills or limited access to tech.”

A good plan, policy and support are key. Be realistic about what you can take on. You don’t have to sign yourself up to a year-long stint of weekly hosts. It is ok to take a pause. Why not start small, an hour on the first Friday of every month or a pilot project?

Of course, this method will not work for every cause and will be out of reach for many small charities. But as the examples show, they don’t have to be owned by a charity. Parkinsons52 works so well because it is about the disease rather than about the charity. PUK are occasionally involved but they don’t own or manage it.

For contributors it can be a real opportunity to share their experience and feel like they are helping other people to understand. It can be empowering. It can be a way of connecting with others in a similar situation.

If there are accounts out there related to your cause why not support them, promote them and even contribute to them?

Tips for recruiting and managing contributors

• Recruit a good mix of volunteers to help you get started. This will also help to establish the tone. Think about people who have interesting stories or ideas and who are used to using social media. Once the account gets going, think about how you’ll find new people to contribute. Make it easy for them to sign up and keep good records of who has contributed and who is to come to make sure you have a good mix.
• Produce tips and guidelines to give to contributors. Include an idea about how often to tweet (5 times a day is achievable for most) and best times of day to get a conversation. Be very clear about your posting guidelines (eg no obscene, offensive or self-promoting material) and what contributors can do (such as unfollowing or DMing people).
• Provide instructions for the practicalities of using the account such as the handover between people and logging in. Will you change the password each time a new person uses the account?
• Help your next contributor to prepare for their time. Ask them to think about what they do and don’t want to tweet about, what questions they will ask to prompt conversations and how they’ll deal with people they disagree with. Help them to think about a ‘message’ they’d like people to go away with at the end of their week if this is relevant. It is also useful to help them prepare for the lull days in the middle of their stint. Polls can be a good way to drive interaction. As can photos.
• Be ready to step in if they need support. It can take a brave person to put themselves out there (especially on mega accounts like @nhs). You should also do some thinking about the things that could go wrong and have strategies in place to deal with these.
• At the end of their time, think about how to support them – it can be hard to get used to normal life after having so many people listening and talking to you!

Tips for getting the most out of the content

• Pin a welcome message for the new account holder so your followers can understand what is going on.
• Personalise the avatar and username – the nhs account do this really well.
• Curate the best tweets from the event or week. For example take a look at the @nhs Moment from Yvonne’s week and the full list of @nhs Moments. Think about how to showcase these on other channels.
• Prime some friends, colleagues or family to ask questions to get the conversation going, especially as the account gets established.

Share your examples

Have you seen any other good (or bad) examples of rocur or take overs? Are there any other charity or public sector examples? Do share them here.

If you are looking to experience a take over firsthand to get a feel for how it works, accounts like @LondonIsYours are always looking for new contributors. Why not see if there is an account you can contribute to?

With thanks

Big thanks to rocur users Leah Williams Veazey and David Sangster who shared their experiences for this post.

Empathy and the power of stories

We laughed, we cried, we empathised. Yesterday’s Being the Story event, curated and organised by Jude Habib of SoundDelivery was a showcase for stories.

It wasn’t a traditional charity conference. There was no mention of digital comms channels, no talk of impact measurement. We shimmyed our pom poms, we boxed, we walked in other people’s shoes and sang. But most of all we heard people’s stories, told first hand. It was moving and powerful and upsetting and inspiring. It was all about the experience.

The stories

Each speaker shared their story in their own way. The common thread was how the speakers had used their own experiences to do something amazing. I can’t even start to represent the power of the stories which were shared. So here is a very brief summary, with links to more information on the BeingTheStory website. We heard from:

• Pastor and community campaigner Lorraine Jones whose son Dwayne Simpson was fatally stabbed in Brixton in 2014 and set up Dwaynamics to help young people develop life skills through boxing and fitness
• Sam Smith whose own troubled start in life inspired him to support young people
• Jodie Clark whose own experience of disability discrimination by employers led her to become an advocate
• Solicitor Sue James who tells the stories of the people she represents in Hammersmith and Fulham Law Centre
• Mandy Thomas‘ who told the harrowing story of domestic violence
• The Empathy Museum’s project of ‘A Mile in My Shoes’ which was recently used at the NHS Conference to help health professions understand the experience of patients
• Brititte Aphrodite who shared sections from her punk poetry show about her depression
• Naveed and Samiya Parvez who created Andiamo to fit and 3D print orthotics after their experience with their son – “we realised that we’d always had healthcare done to us, not with us”
• Emma Lawton who shared how her diagnosis of Parkinson’s at 29 changed her life in a positive way
• Hassan Akkad who shared his 87 day journey to the UK from Syria
• Photographer Giles Duley who shares the stories of the people he photographs via his humanitarian projects
• The Micro Rainbow International Interfaith Choir.

How stories are told

The stories they told were amazing. But more than that, it was how they were told. Hearing directly from someone in the same room, is very powerful.

In some cases the delivery was a performance. Watching Emma Lawton peg visual representations of the things that had happened to her, then cut the piece of string held by her parents was one of the most moving things I have seen. It brought the house down.

First-hand storytelling

First-hand stories are powerful. You might think you are doing this already through your case studies. But it is not the same.

This is about creating a platform and a culture where people want to share their stories for you. They are the ambassadors for your cause, not your charity. They help people to understand and empathise about the condition / experience which helps to inspire someone to help do something about it (through donating / volunteering etc).

How to harness this is crucial. The strongest channel must be the in-person delivery. The top of the comms pyramid is the opportunity to be listened to for 20 minutes with no distractions. How could you not be affected?

There are other examples which come close. The audio / shoe experience from the Empathy Museum connects sound with something physical. The WeAreHere installation in June bought the stories of WW1 soldiers to life.  There must also be examples of individual storytelling using Virtual Reality. These are all about intimacy and experience. By sharing an experience we can feel empathy.

Can this be done in other ways? Watching a video of that person is good but not the same as in-person delivery. You have to be so engaging that the hovering swipping finger stays still until the end. Can you distill someone’s story into 140 characters, a written case study or blog post? It is of course possible but is it enough? Maybe it depends on the complexity of the story?

There are some organisations doing this. For example SeeMeScotland’s recent #myunfilteredlife campaign where people have been sharing images on instagram with many saying ‘I don’t usually join in with social media shared like this’. An intimate picture and powerful words, directly from the person helps us to share the experience.

Start with empathy

There are organisations who have expert ambassadors who publicly talk, for example CoppaFeel’s founder Kris Hallenga who was the highlight of one Media Trust conference and the Expert Citizens programme. Emma Lawton is herself an ambassador for Parkinson’s UK. And many organisations have beneficiaries who speak to the media.

SoundDelivery’s mission has been to help organisations collect and use the stories of the people they work with. They understand the power of putting on a pair of headphones, listening to someone speak and sharing someone’s world.

The question for us all as charity comms people is how to find and share the authentic voices. Whether you take inspiration from Emma Lawton’s performance or ideas from the Empathy Museum, now is the time to be creative. Now is the time to find ways to put empathy rather than sympathy at the heart of your comms.

More from #BeingTheStory

Do look at the Being The Story 2016 Wakelet to get a sense of the day (as well as the hashtag from the event). Lots of people have also written blogs, sharing their thoughts:

• A dog called Guiness and stories and the social good by Nick Booth
• A mother whose son was stabbed to death reminds me of the power of storytelling by Dan Slee
• If you believe in a story, keep on telling it by Gemma Pettman
• Storytelling: why I am all ears by Claire Bridge
• The benefits of storytelling or why you should spend your training budget on stories – more by Nick Booth
• 5 reasons we should all be telling more stories – Jessica Southgate
• Being the Story – from Dorset to London.

Spotted any first-hand stories? Do share them in the comments. This week I read this story in the Metro Online for World Alzheimer’s Day – My nan’s dementia and me.

Other Being the Story events

• Being the Story 2017 – cathartic and powerful storytelling.
• Being the Story 2018 – Go outside your echo chamber, it is where the reward is.

See you at the next Being the Story?

(Images with thanks to @magnetogaby @katiecubbage and @sushi_juggapah. )

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.

How digital is your organisation?

A recent Guardian Voluntary Sector Network article by Zoe Amar argued that charity boards are failing to adapt to the digital age. And Karl Wilding argues on the NCVO blog that digital changes everything.

Some organisations already have digital at their core. Just look at how Parkinson’s UK advertised for their new role of Director of Digital Transformation and Communications. Whereas many know they should be doing more but don’t know where to start and others just don’t see digital as a priority.

Charles Handy at this week’s Cass CCE Charity Talk talked about the need for organisations to find their second curve to survive and in particular the impact of digital on this. He predicted that online platforms (such as Uber) will be central to the way we live our lives.

Two free resources this week look really useful to help organisations understand where they are digitally and improve their skills. Share them with your boards / Senior Managers / colleagues.

Measure and develop digital skills in your organisation

NCVO released a new free toolkit developed by Helen Ridgway. Building a digital workforce ‘includes templates, resources, tips and examples – and a series of bespoke workshops, training and support – to help you plan, design and deliver a comprehensive digital skills development programme for your organisation’. It is packed with 25+ documents including several about conducting a skills audit.

Also on my radar this week is the Third Sector Digital Maturity Matrix developed by Breast Cancer Care. It was developed to ‘to assess the maturity of an organisation’s digital capability (i.e. the current state) and compare it to where they aspire to be (i.e. desired to-be state)’. Download it for free.

What do you use?

Have you spotted any other useful resources? Or like NCVO and Breast Cancer Care, have you shared your own tools for other people to use? Please share in the comments below.