< !--Insert logo here -- > ;)

I've moved home, check out my latest posts on Tumblr.

2013-09-14T20:33:00.004+01:00

My relationship with Blogger has had its ups and downs, we faced challenges that we overcame together, we've had good times and bad times, but sometimes you just grow apart. I'll never forget the happy times I've spent with Blogger, but we've said our goodbyes. It was an amicable split.

If you fancy checking out my latest posts, you can find them here: http://pauldarigan.tumblr.com/

Images from theyounz, Flickr

"Thank you" - A couple of questions for social media bods

2013-08-07T21:12:00.000+01:00

I'm sure that anyone working in social media or community management has a reasonable degree of experience in handling complaints. I'm sure, or at least, I hope, you've also received your fair share of 'thank you' messages if your responses have lead to a prompt and positive resolution, or if someone else in your organisation (customer services, membership support, etc.) have delivered a really good response.

I had a rather pleasant experience today. I booked some tickets over the phone* with StenaLine for a holiday I'm taking next week (yay!). The person taking the booking, Daniel, was very pleasant and polite. It was all sorted in a matter of minutes.

After a couple of hours I became worried that my confirmation email hadn't come. I was worried that my email address may have been noted incorrectly (my accent is still reasonably strong, and my phone line was poor), or that there may have been an issue with taking the payment.

Under those circumstances, I did what any other Twitter user might do, I tweeted @StenaLineUK about the time it typically takes for their confirmation emails to arrive. As sod's law dictates, the confirmation email came a few minutes after I tweeted them, so I responded saying it was fine, I'd received the email.

A few minutes later they tweeted me saying "Excellent! Have a great trip! :)". This didn't solve any problems as such, and some companies may not have tweeted back, but StenaLine did, and it made me happy. It also reminded me of the positive experience I'd had with Daniel, the guy I spoke to on the phone. I felt all warm and fuzzy, the entire process was a positive experience.

None of this is ground-breaking stuff, it's about:

Having good customer service
A friendly 'voice' online
A reasonably quick Twitter response time

StenaLine kept it simple and did it well, and that made me happy. So happy, that I thanked the people managing the StenaLine Twitter account, asked if they could pass my thanks to Daniel's manager, and am now writing a short blog post about it :)

The questions (promised in the title) are:

When you receive 'thank you' messages on work accounts, do you pass them to the relevant people/teams/managers?
When you've had good service from other organisations (over the phone, via social media, over email, etc), do you request that your thanks be passed on?

You're often among the first to receive complaints or thanks if you're working in social media, and I'm sure we're all aware that there are things to be learnt from the complaints, but I firmly believe that passing on the thanks is very important too.

Do you spread the love?

*I could have booked it online if I hadn't left it so late, but that was my fault.

The "Please RT" test

2013-06-24T19:43:00.001+01:00

Following Mark Morton's 'A very unscientific test about using ‘Please RT’' we decided to conduct our own using our main Girlguiding Twitter account.

Mark's test involved sending out the same tweet at the same time on consecutive Tuesdays, adding "Please RT" to one of them. We sent out the same tweet at the same time on consecutive Fridays. The first at 3:15pm on June 7th:

Want to work with us? We have amazing jobs in Digital Comms, Development, Programme and PR. Check them out http://t.co/vGrhpttEXG
— Girlguiding (@Girlguiding) June 7, 2013

And the second at 3:15pm on June 14th:

Want to work with us? We have amazing jobs in Digital Comms, Development, Programme and PR. Check them out http://t.co/vGrhpttEXG Please RT
— Girlguiding (@Girlguiding) June 14, 2013

Both tweets generated six retweets, the earlier one (sans "Please RT") also picked up a favourite. I was disappointed with the level of retweets and favourites on both tweets,

We also measured click-throughs, and found that we had remarkably similar results on that front too.

What does this data tell us? Not very much I'm afraid:

I should have chosen a subject that better matches the interests of our community on Twitter for the purpose of this test.
In this instance, the addition of "please RT" appeared to have little discernible impact, although there are many variables at play:

Did including "please RT" on the second tweet rather than the first have an impact?
Did people interested in the role choose not to RT?
By the time the second tweet came around, had many people already advertised the posts via their Twitter accounts?

The "Please RT" tweet appeared to have a longer half-life as far as clicks are concerned - Is this relevant?

It also raises more questions, such as:

Would including "Please RT" at the start of the tweet result in a better response, due to the call to action being given more prominence?
Would relevant hashtags such as #job, #thirdsectorjob, and #charityjob have helped, and if so, what would the difference have been?

Interestingly, tweets from my personal account generated 54 clicks, not far off the number of clicks generated for each of the two examples above, despite the Girlguiding account having more than 13-times the number of followers I have on Twitter. This raises an interesting point about relevance of content. Whilst many of the people that follow the @Girlguiding Twitter account are passionate about guiding, many may not (for a variety of reasons) be interested in working with us. On the other hand, many of the people that I chat to on Twitter from my own account are Third-Sector professionals, some of which may be interested in a new job, and others that may know someone else looking for a job in the charity sector. I guess the lesson here is; "Know your audience".

I'll close, as Mark did, with a plea: Please do not stick "Please RT" on the end (or at the front) of every tweet. Marks sums up the reasons why.

Have you conducted similar tests? What results have you seen?

BREAKING: Absolutely appalling jokes are being posted to Twitter #DistractionJokes

2013-05-29T20:44:00.000+01:00

Reports are reaching me that contend that terrible, terrible jokes are being posted to Twitter. The source of this outbreak of cliched whimsy is still to be confirmed, but the worst offenders (and their offences) have been catalogued below.

IMPORTANT NOTE: These people have terrible taste in humour and should be avoided at all costs, particularly the first person quoted.

Wanted: Award-winning writer. Must deliver puns in 140 characters or less #Eurovision

2013-05-19T18:06:00.000+01:00

Pic from Observation Desk

Congratulations to Denmark, who last night (Saturday 18th May) won the annual cheese-fest that is the Eurovision - I'm not really a fan (can you tell?).

I am however a fan of people doing interesting things on social media, and of how those ideas might apply to other situations.

The BBC did something interesting last night, they hired Dan Maier, part of the award-winning TV Burp writing team, to manage their BBC Eurovision Twitter account. Dan was also in place for the semi-finals earlier in the week. The result on each occasion was dry wit, guffaws, and some edgy humour. I didn't follow the Eurovision broadcast, but I did follow the tweets from (and replies to) the BBC Eurovision twitter account - Great fun!

My question - No doubt the BBC had all sorts of safeguards in place, but handing their Eurovision account over to an immense comic wit undoubtedly carried some risk. It paid-off for the BBC, but would your charity be prepared to do something similar, giving a donor, member or someone with a high-profile control over what you post?

If you have already done something like this. please do comment and let us know how it went.

Here's a selection of the things Dan was posting:

Hasn't David Luiz got a game tomorrow?
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 18, 2013

Whenever you see Sven-Göran Eriksson watching a football match, this is what's going on in his head.
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 18, 2013

PS. folks, I am not Graham Norton, despite the avatar. He's not *that* good at multi-tasking.
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 18, 2013

Igor is 7ft 8 with size 24 feet. You know what they say about men with size 24 feet, don't you, ladies? Looong laces. #eurovision
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 18, 2013

Real opinion-divider, this one.The writer says it’s too good to win Eurovision. Should’ve written something slightly worse then, mate.
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 18, 2013

Missed the winning entry? Here's Emmelie de Forest with Only Teardrops:

And, given this is a post by an Irish guy, here's the obligatory embed of My Lovely Horse (Courtesy of Graham Linehan & Father Ted, performed by The Divine Comedy):

#GoodIdeaBadIdea: Saying 'hello' on Twitter

2013-03-25T22:15:00.000+00:00

Edit: Luke Williams has offered a very insightful comment below on his experience, well worth a read.

For people of a certain age (roughly my age), the term 'Good Idea, Bad Idea' will bring back memories of the juxtaposition and acting out of of two phrases, often using the same words, but in a different order, leading to hilarious consequences.

Yes, I did watch Animaniacs, and I hope you did too (If not, here's a good intro).

Anyway, I reckon the 'Good Idea, Bad Idea' concept could work really well when a applied to social media, I doubt I can do it as well as our friends at Warner Bros did, but here's my first stab: Saying hello to someone on Twitter.

Good Idea

Have you just followed someone? Why not say 'hello', let them know why you've followed them, although, this isn't essential, it is polite to say hello, and that could be the start of an amazing conversation.

Has somebody followed you? If so, check out their bio and recent tweets, if you're happy that they aren't a bot, and that you might share some mutual interests, why not say 'hello'? Ask them about what they do, or tell them a little about yourself, or the nature of your tweets (just don't spam them).

Bad Idea

Setup an auto-DM to send to people as they follow your account.

Ever followed someone to receive an alert shortly afterwards? You reopen Twitter (or check your email) with eager anticipation thinking; "Has this person/org just reached out to me, do they care about me, about what I do?", and then you read something along the lines of:

"Thanks for following us on Twitter, like us on Facebook here / sign up for alerts here"

Oh, I guess they don't care...

Thankfully most accounts I've followed recently haven't done this, but some have, and some of those are major organisations that should know better. For me, it creates an instant sour taste, it makes me regret trying to make that connection.

A personal response after a follow is great, but you don't necessarily expect that after following the account of a large organisation, and that's fine. But one thing I hate is an automated DM. I would rather have had no response.

Tips

People like people, people don't like bots. People like real interaction, they don't like automated messages. People certainly don't like spam.

Say hello, and don't auto-DM

And finally...

If this post has left you with a hankering for Animaniacs, here you go:

Facebook penalising 'link posts', but by how much? About 240%

2013-03-18T22:41:00.000+00:00

Potential Reach vs Reach on link post & non-link post | Create infographics

We've all heard that Facebook penalises some posts, right?

It's been clear for some time now that Facebook affords posts that encourage activity within Facebook more reach than those that drive users away from Facebook (ie - posts that link to your website), but what exactly is the difference in reach between a post that has a link that drives users off-site, and a call to action that keeps users chatting within Facebook?

According to a test I've conducted, it's about 240%

Now, this figure is the result of one, non-scientific test. I will be conducting more tests, but the stats are interesting and demand further exploration. The raw data from my test is available here.

Test set-up:

Posted a post to Facebook twice, one including a link, the other a carbon copy of the first post minus the link.

The linked post was targeted to Facebook Page fans aged 13 -34, a potential reach of 8,200. It was posted on March 14 at 11:58am and is available here
The post without the link was targeted to Facebook Page fans aged 35 - 65+, a potential reach of 7,160. It was posted on March 14 at 12:00pm and is available here

Test results:

There was a massive difference in levels of reach and engagement between the posts.

The linked post had a potential reach of 8,200, but only reached 2,128. The non-link post had a potential reach of 7,160 and reached 7,251 (The 100%+ reach is probably due to the level of likes, comments and shares resulting in the post reaching an even wider audience)
The linked post generated one comment, 27 likes and three shares. The non-linked post generated 17 comments, 67 likes and 43 shares.

Test flaws:

As I said before, this test is not scientific, there are a number of reasons why my results/data might be skewed:

I've targeted two very distinct age groups. They may have very different typical levels of response to Facebook posts.
The post that I posted second came out on top - Does this have any impact on the stats (despite that fact that the posts were targeted to two different audiences)?
The post itself may have been a post that appeals more to an audience aged 35+.

Thoughts:

Despite all of the flaws with the test that I have pointed out above, the difference in reach, about 240%, is very, VERY significant. I need to conduct more tests before I come to any solid conclusions but the data above strongly suggests that Facebook heavily penalises posts that drive traffic away from Facebook.

You can help:

Do you have relevant data you can share? It would be great to get a broader overview of the impact of links on the reach of Facebook posts if you can share data from the Facebook Pages you manage.

Note: Obviously this requires further tests, and we should also test the impact of images and videos on reach and click-throughs. It isn't scientific, but it is very interesting.

Recipe for your Twitter background picture stew (downloads)

2013-03-11T22:40:00.000+00:00

Update 12/03/2013: Updated to correct a couple of errors including a new download link

So, I've spent my evening messing about with Photoshop to create one of those personalised Twitter background pictures that includes URLs for my other social media profiles, the result is the picture above. They seem popular, although I'm not sure of their value, but in any case I thought it was worth sorting mine out (just in case).

Anyway, if you're interested, here's how I did it.

Ingredients:

Get some lovely pictures - I'm not saying that my profile picture fits that bill, but I do like my main background picture.
Get Photoshop - If you don't already have it and are as skint as I am, you can download CS2 for free here: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

Method:

Create a new Photoshop document. I went for 1800 x 1024 pixels at 300 ppi (To ensure I avoided any ugly tiling - It probably needn't have been as wide)
Paste in your lovely background picture, resize and move until you are happy with what's on show.
Work out how much space your Twitter feed will take up, and insert a rectangle to the left that's about 194 pixels wide. Using my rudimentary Photoshop knowledge I inserted a black rounded rectangle and then rubbed that out with a 50% opacity eraser, leaving a semi-transparent shape.
On top of that, paste in a picture of yourself, and any links you'd like to include.
If you're lucky, you're good to go. When you upload the image to Twitter, make sure you centre align it.

If all that sounds like too much of a faff, don't worry, I have some useful links:

My PSD files as a starter for your background (don't forget to edit these, otherwise you'll just be plugging my links, my ugly mug, and my beautiful background picture): https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8aqNunuvPk-bm9SanlaOEo2R2s/edit?usp=sharing
In case you missed it earlier, you can download the Adobe Creative Suite 2, including Photoshop, (completely legally) from here: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html (Gimp is also a good option: http://www.gimp.org/)

Notes:

I'm not convinced many people actually use twitter.com to tweet anymore, but it can't hurt to have a personalised background anyway
I have yet to test this background on various screen-sizes / resolutions, if it proves to be unsuitable, I'll edit the files in the download to a format that works better

Additional Notes

~~The dimensions above don't quite work at the moment, will update when I have better dimensions~~ fixed :)

"Hi, you're bad at your job, buy our service" #SaleFail

2013-03-03T23:22:00.000+00:00

Picture from FailFunnies.com

I took a really weak sales call last week, it went a little like:

Salesperson: "Hi Paul, I'm John Smith from Agency XYZ, we'd like to draft nine Facebook posts for you, free of charge, that will increase your engagement levels."

Me [In firm, confident tone, suggesting contempt]: "I think we're pretty well covered on that front."

Salesperson [slightly sheepishly]: "Oh....... ok. Goodbye."

Me: "Bye."

Does this conversation sound familiar to you? I'm feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu. Sales calls like this come in far too regularly, and I'm convinced that rather than generate sales, those receiving these calls blacklist these companies.

@pdarigan boooo! Never ceases to amaze me how some agency peeps behave/think... (disclaimer; I am an agency bod)
— Paul de Gregorio (@pauldegregorio) March 3, 2013

@pdarigan Oh yes. And they get put on the blacklist straight away.
— Danielle Atkinson (@RoxyMartinique) March 3, 2013

Why do these calls fail? Well, there are a number of reasons:

You can't do your job

That's what that call said to me. John Smith was offering to do my job properly, because, y'know, I can't.

I know your community better than you do

I've spent almost two years getting to know the Girlguiding online 'community'. The more I've learnt, the more I've realised I have so much more to learn. The people that Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook are a really diverse group of about 30,000 people, they are uniformally passionate and amazing people, but they have a range of interests, cares and concerns. This salesperson implied that the experience I have gained in almost two years at Girlguiding was worthless in the face of his amazing post-writing, hyper-engagement powers.

Agency is better than in-house

Now, this might be contentious. I fully believe that agencies are great for all sorts of work. They bring new angles, fresh perspectives, and they are outside of any 'bubbles' that you may have developed from long-term in-house work. Even with social media, they can be great for developing amazing campaign-focused ideas (and all sorts of other stuff), but I am firmly of the belief that long-term 'community management' is something that should sit in-house. Your community manager needs time to learn about your organisation, and time to learn about your online communities. Community management is not something that should be farmed out to an agency bod with several other accounts that s/he manages.

Result

Another agency/service blacklisted.

Lesson

John Smith from Agency XYZ may have had a great service to sell me (I doubt it, but it's possible). It's unlikely we would have bought that in, but still, it may have been worth looking at. The thing is, we never looked at it because the salesperson went out of his way to offend me.

If you have a great service, optimise your sales pitch. John Smith offended me within about three seconds, and the call ended within 10 seconds. Damage done.

What do you think? Have you had any interesting, offensive or hilarious #salefail calls?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Engaging Young People Online

2013-02-23T15:07:00.001+00:00

I'm still in recovery-mode after an amazing, intense, and inspiring Barcampnfp at the Mozilla HQ in London. 100 or so non-profit geeks and techies came together to share their experiences, deliver sessions and to share a few laughs (thank you Luke).

This was my first Barcamp, and I must admit that Barcamp "rule" number eight had me a little bit worried:

8th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present. (Ok, you don't really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

At first I wasn't really sure what I wanted to present on, but Cath (colleague and co-presenter) and I decided to stick with what we knew, engaging with young people online. The proposed session turned out to be quite popular. The core principle behind the session was that you need to have a great deal of respect for the people you're trying to engage with online, and everything you do must flow from that principle.

The presentation is embedded below, with some additional notes below that - Enjoy!

R Real: Don't pretend to be something you're not. I'm a 28-year-old guy and I'm Social Media Manager at Girlguiding. Most of the people that form our online communities are members of Girlguiding, and many of them are young people. I don't pretend that I'm a member, and I don't pretend to have an in-depth knowledge of youth culture. If I did, I would be quite easily found out, and it would be immensely condescending. Treat your community with respect.

E Engaging: Give your audience the content they want. If you do this creatively and intelligently, you should be able to achieve the things that help you meet your business plan aims. If you're not sure what your audience wants, there are a number of ways you can find out:

Ask them (sounds obvious, right? But I don't see it happen very often)
Experiment with different types of content and measure responses (Don't have any cash for paid-for monitoring/measurement? You can get pretty rich data using free tools)
Look at what other organisations (commercial and non-profits) are doing to engage and excite young people.

S Social: Talk to your community, respond to questions, offer advice, share a joke, share criticism and use it to start a conversation and improve your offering. It's a great way to keep your finger on the pulse, to help you understand what young people are passionate about, and to build a warm and engaged community. Oh, and it's the most enjoyable part of any community manager's job, and a pretty key part of 'social' media too ;).

P Promote: Young people are doing amazing things everyday, sometimes they're doing these things with your organisation, sometimes they aren't. Promote the good work that the young people in your community are doing, even if they aren't doing it with/for your organisation. Celebrate their passion, enthusiasm and dedication. They'll appreciate it, and you'll find that your online communities will grow and flourish.

E Empower: Help your online communities to help you. You should encourage young people to become part of your decision making processes, you should encourage them to become spokespeople and ambassadors, and you should give them opportunities to represent your organisation at events that you have been invited to attend. I firmly believe that all youth-focused organisations should support, encourage and provide a platform for young people to speak out on the issues that impact them and their peers. Let them know that their views and opinions matter, and demonstrate this in a tangible way.

C Call to action: Invite young people to join your campaigns and to support your causes. Don't be afraid to ask for this support - If you've empowered young people by bringing them in to your decision making processes, the campaigns that you launch will have their backing because those campaigns are ones that your community has agreed are important.

T Teach: If you're encouraging young people to join your online communities, you have a responsibility to ensure that they are safe online. You need to ensure that you are providing access to resources that help to keep them safe from physical harm, online bullying, fraud, and personal reputational damage. If you aren't doing this, then you are failing them. This doesn't need to be overly complicated or laborious, there is a whole host of great resources already available online:

That's it from me for now. The presentation was necessarily short, but have I missed any key areas that really should be included? Sock it to me in the comments.

Six-second videos? That's Vine with me.

2013-01-25T20:31:00.000+00:00

It's here, the all singing, all dancing embeddable (but not edible) Vine, an application that publishes six-second videos that embed in tweets. It generated plenty of excitement when it was revealed (who doesn't get excited about steak tartare?), but a lot of people were also left pondering the value of six-second videos.

Feed full of " #myfirstpost" Vines, but none you'd ever use or watch but for novelty. We'll see, I guess.
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) January 25, 2013

He's right, a lot of people posting Vines were trying to get a feeling for the application, and trying to work out exactly what the heck to do with it. It isn't surprising that many of the early experiments were less than compelling.

Despite this, I have seen some strong early examples of how Vine can work for non-profits and cause-focused organisations. Check out this one from Diabetes UK:

Hi @crawls18 - we made you a little video... Keep it going! #thankyou vine.co/v/b5tnVIVjt2M
— Diabetes UK (@DiabetesUK) January 25, 2013

A beautiful example of fundraiser engagement with a really warm, personal touch. The six-second video really suits this sort of engagement.

The Dogs Trust were also very quick off the mark with their first attempt:

@pdarigan @jamesrbuk Ta! @dogstrust have just published this one, which I like: bit.ly/10J14pt
— Joseph Freeman (@JosephFreeman) January 25, 2013

A compelling combination of a good cause, cute animals and a channel that makes sharing the call-to-action exceptionally easy. I love it.

We will need to wait and see if this really takes off, but if the early examples from Diabetes UK and The Dogs Trust are anything to go by, Vine provides a fantastic opportunity to produce creative and compelling content. We shouldn't underestimate the value that increased personalisation of engagement can offer, nor should we underestimate just how much the internet loves cute animals.

As well as the examples above, Vine provides clear opportunities for telling concise and compelling stories, and inviting your online community to share their stories with you in even more engaging ways; "Tell us why you care about X in six seconds" etc.

Have you created any Vines yet, or seen some really strong examples? If you have, please link to them in the comments or tweet me

Now, all they need to do is release an Android app.

Signed
Slightly disappointed Android user

Update: Well worth checking out a collection of non-profit Vines that Kirsty Marrins is Storifying here

London Tweetups (Social & Digital Media, Non-profits and Fundraising)

2012-11-14T20:43:00.000+00:00

Image from sweetmandarin.com

Hey, so I put a shout-out on Twitter today looking for a list of regular London-based Tweetups with a focus on non-profits and social/digital media. I had a few great suggestions from @CharityChap, @Bronte_M, @RobmDyson and @JudeHabib, and @Spirals linked to the very useful Meetup.com, but I struggled to find a curated list of current Tweetups that deal with the digital side of the non-profit sector.

To remedy that, I've knocked together a Google doc that lists them along with some of their key details. I'd love you to offer your top tips, or correct any of my errors. If you do go to the trouble of helping out, please add your Twitter handle, a link to your website, or your name in the column on the far-right.

Edit this doc

Edit this doc
There are probably better, easier, automated ways to organise all of this, but I do like the personal touch, so please do only add the events that you think are pretty epic or really useful (for n00bs or experienced geeks). Cheers!

Young Trustees? No thanks!

2012-11-05T23:35:00.000+00:00

Find out more about Trustees' Week here

That was a bold title, wasn't it? I of course don't agree with it one bit, but an article I read earlier has compelled me to write this piece (apologies for the link-bait).

David Ainsworth blogged in Third Sector today about young people and their inability to organise the proverbial in a brewery. In my opinion, one shared by those that commented on the piece, it was a collection of popular but inaccurate and crass stereotypes that do not (and that never have) accurately applied to 'young people'. David hits all of the key stereotypical touch-stones associated with young people, I won't go into them here, but I do recommend reading the piece and commenting as you feel appropriate.

Before I express my own feelings on the subject, I'd like to offer some excerpts from the comments already posted below the line on Third Sector:

Catherine Murray writes:

Trusteeship is like any other job - trustees are recruited for their expertise and for what they can bring to a board. Charities are like any other organisation - a living organism with diverse needs and projects it wants to do well. Charities therefore must have a diverse mix of people on their trustee boards, as people below have pointed out.

Leon Ward adds:

I joined the Board of Plan UK when I was 18 after spending 4 years as a young advisor. Plan is a £60m organisation. I'm also a Trustee of Leap Confronting Conflict (£1m) and Ineract Worldwide (£3m). Your views of young people are archaic and wrong.

I blog regularly for ThirdSector and would like to direct you to that blog where I outline the benefits of young trustees:- http://leonward.thirdsector.co... you'll also find the perspective of a young trustee on several strategic issues for organisations

I'm sure you'll agree that both Leon and Catherine are people that have their heads screwed-on, and they both happen to be young trustees as well. Not quite the drinking, unreliable, overly-emotional and forgetful young people that David describes, but I'm sure we can forgive them that.

I have the honour of working with the UK's largest voluntary youth organisation, Girlguiding UK. We have over half a million members, and everything that we do is driven by those members. We have a range of youth panels that steer the work of the organisation, and each year for the last four years we have released a major piece of research, the Girls' Attitudes Survey, that is designed and developed by our young members.

Our young members have attended and spoken at events such as Rio+20 and CSW 56, and we have one member due to attend the climate change talks in Qatar later this year. Some of our members are part of groups such as the British Youth Council, many of them have petitioned government on issues important to young people. These young people are not the people that David Ainsworth describes, these are highly engaged, political and community-conscious young people with amazing levels of drive and a determination to help make the world a better place.

David, in this case, is selling young people short.

PS - I do really enjoy reading Third Sector, I find it an immensely valuable resource, and I am also confident that the majority of David's contributions are on-the-money (Just not the one that I refer to here)

“PR should own social media” Yes! It should, but...

2012-08-17T22:52:00.000+01:00

This piece references a beautifully frank interview with Martin Harrison by Craig McGill at The Drum – I fully recommend reading it, and then coming back to read this piece, if you’re so inclined.

The question you might ask is; “If social media doesn’t sit in PR, where the heck does it sit?”

Well, I’ve spent a little over three years, spanning two jobs and some freelance bits-and-bobs, working in social media roles. In both full-time jobs, my role began in the Web Team, and was then moved to the Press Team. In both cases, I worked very closely with the Press Team whilst I was seconded to the Web Team, and then worked very closely with the Web Team when my role moved to the Press Team. My freelance work is usually commissioned by the Press or Marketing Teams of the organisations that I work with.

It’s interesting, the core function of a social media guy or gal is to communicate, usually to speak on behalf of the organisation through branded accounts (I know the role is far more complicated than that, but talking to people online on behalf of your organisation is the basest, most simplified way of describing what people like me do to put bread on the table). That voice, or at least the person/s responsible for the formation and development of that voice, should sit within the Press Team, absolutely no question about that.

Having said that, the best social media people also have a working understanding of SEO, HTML and image editing software (Photoshop etc), and the really good ones might be able to turn their hand to some programming as well. It is this understanding of the technical side of online that can really help to drive creativity and deliver campaigns that really have an impact.

Your social media manager/strategist/other should sit with the Press Office peeps, but he or she MUST have direct communication channels with your Web Team, Customer Support Team, and any other people that speak on behalf of the organisation in any role – From your Chief Exec to an intern helping to draft some copy for the website.

The key is to ensure that your social media person is adept at razing silos to the ground, developing/fixing/maturing internal comms channels, and being able to do all this whilst developing positive relationships with key members of key teams within your organisation, rather than harming them.

Does your organisation’s social media role sit somewhere other than the Press Team? If so, where does it sit, and why?

So, your organisation is going social (Part one)

2012-07-22T20:06:00.000+01:00

This post is the first in a short series on setting up and managing a social media presence for your organisation, you can find the rest here.

You’re a social media evangelist in an organisation that doesn’t have a social media presence, you’ve managed to convince your boss that it’s essential to start doing that Twitter thing, now what?

Well, the bad news is that you’re behind the curve, with 94% of corporates and over 90% of non-profits already using social media. The good news is you can learn from the mistakes already made and make the most of a swath of best-practice case studies. Before all that, there are a few key questions you should ask:

Why are you getting on board with social media?

If the answer is “because everyone else is”, you need to rethink your position. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t jump on board, but you should have a sound business case. Good reasons for developing a presence in the social sphere might be:

To increase brand visibility/awareness
Develop leads and drive sales/subscriptions
Strengthen campaigns
Improve customer service
Network with key stakeholders

There are loads more reasons, and your strategic plan should be able to help you identify them. The initial reasons you outline can help you to develop your key performance indicators and create a formula to measure return on investment.

Who’s going to manage it?

This is one of the key questions, who do you trust to be able to manage both the technical and communications side of engaging with people on behalf of your organisation online?

Ideally, you’ll be in a position to appoint at least one full-time person to manage social media. Speaking in the most basic terms, you have two options from here:

Appointing someone internally that may make a fantastic online ambassador
Appointing a social media professional from outside

Both of these options have pros and cons, a professional new to the organisation may take a little time to familiarise themselves with the organisation (although, you would hope they do much of this before they take up the role), whilst appointing someone internally may mean you run the risk of some early social media faux pas and that you may need additional investment to cover training.

What channels will you use?

If you hire a social media professional, they will be able to help you make the right decisions. The right channels will be influenced by your demographics, your sector and your ability to produce content. I’m a big fan of experimenting with new channels (usually with a personal profile initially), but one thing that you should avoid is spreading yourself too thinly across too many platforms.

Interesting Twitter update - Changes to ToS and Privacy Policy

2012-05-20T14:02:00.000+01:00

Just received an interesting update from Twitter - changes to ToS and the privacy policy. It sounds like they're being more open (and I do have a lot of respect for the lengths Twitter will go to to protect their users), but what do you think?

Message follows:

Hi Paul Darigan,

New things are always happening here at Twitter HQ. We're growing at a rapid pace, and our commitment to simplicity, transparency, and reaching every person on the planet continues. We thought you might be interested in knowing about some of our most recent developments:

A new weekly email that delivers the most interesting news and items you might have missed from the people you're connected to on Twitter.
Now Twitter is in more languages than ever. Check for your preferred language and change your setting.
Download the latest Twitter mobile apps at twitter.com/download.
There's more to Discover on Twitter.com - try out the new Discover tab.

In addition, we've made a number of updates to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Here are some of the main changes to our Privacy Policy, with links for more information:

We've provided more details about the information we collect and how we use it to deliver our services and to improve Twitter. One example: our new tailored suggestions feature, which is based on your recent visits to websites that integrate Twitter buttons or widgets, is an experiment that we're beginning to roll out to some users in a number of countries. Learn more here.
We've noted the many ways you can set your preferences to limit, modify or remove the information we collect. For example, we now support the Do Not Track (DNT) browser setting, which stops the collection of information used for tailored suggestions.
We've clarified the limited circumstances in which your information may be shared with others (for example, when you've given us permission to do so, or when the data itself is not private or personal). Importantly, our privacy policy is not intended to limit your rights to object to a third party's request for your information.

In our Terms of Service, we've clarified how your relationship with Twitter works and made a number of small changes and formatting improvements, such as new headings for easy reference and updated descriptions of our services.

Take a moment to read our new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and thanks for using Twitter.

The Twitter Team

Twitter Visualisation Tools - In Action

2012-05-09T18:37:00.000+01:00

Holding an event? Inviting people to tweet to a hashtag? Want to display those tweets? Great!

I've pulled together a list of different Twitter visualisation tools beneath - Some of them look pretty cool, others are a little bit dull but functional. Anyway, check them out, let me know what you think.

Note: In all examples, I've chosen to display tweets for the #ff hashtag - I don't endorse any tweets that appear, blah blah blah, etc.

1. Visible Tweets

I came across Visible Tweets a few weeks ago and I really like it. You can choose from three different types of animation and all of them are attractive. The one downside is that it is necessarily a little bit slow cycling through tweets, so don't expect it to pick up and display every tweet if you're hosting a popular event.

2. Twitter Search Widget

The Twitter Search Widget might not be quite as attractive as Visual Tweets, but it does allow you a great degree of personalisation. You can edit its dimensions, colour, frequency of updates, and much more.

3. Twitter Fountain

Twitter Fountain is a handy tool, it pulls in hashtagged tweets and mashes them up with images from Flickr. There are lots of different display options that you can fiddle with.

There are more Twitter visualisation tools that I either can't embed on the blog or haven't paid for, but that I believe are still worth a look:

Twitterfall - Basic but functional, although it does scroll a little too quickly for my liking (Free)
TweetWall Pro - Looks very impressive, lots of different themes (Free trial, paid for thereafter)
Revisit - Well worth a look, really interesting layout and it 'emphasizes conversational threads' (Free)

That's it from me for the moment. Let me know if you've got any more event-oriented visualisation tools to add to the list above.

Twitter Basics: Counting your click-throughs

2012-05-09T11:56:00.000+01:00

Here we go, the first of a series of posts covering some social media basics.

There are lots of great tools for posting and measuring clicks on links in tweets, the free versions of which often provide a good but limited service - I fully recommend checking out Buffer and Hootsuite.

However, if you don't have any budget, but need to record these statistics, Tweetdeck and Bitly work really well together. Here's how you sync them:

1. Create a Tweetdeck account and add your profile/s to it. You can download Tweetdeck to your desktop, use the Tweetdeck web app, or install Tweetdeck for Chrome (my personal favourite).

2. Create a Bitly account.

3. When you've created your Bitly account, click on 'Settings', scroll down the page and find your API key (a long combination of letters and numbers). Copy this and open Tweetdeck.

4. When you're in Tweetdeck, click on 'Settings' and then 'Services':

Set your 'Link Shortening' service to 'bit.ly'
Enter your Bitly username
Paste in your Bitly API key

5. When you've saved those changes, any links that you tweet from Tweetdeck will automatically be shortened using your Bitly account (yay).You can measure the click-throughs on these links by logging in to your Bitly account.

So, what do you think - Is that useful, do you have any other/betters tools, tips or solutions? I've got a feeling that some people will flag-up Google Analytics as a solution, and it certainly is a really strong, free tool - Have you got any Google Analytics tips for measuring the impact of your social media presence?

Channel 4's exclusive Prometheus trailer in numbers

2012-05-08T21:15:00.000+01:00

Channel 4's Prometheus trailer, heralded as a world first and broadcast during Homeland on 29th April, generated some interesting figures (The Homeland episode of 29th April had 2.87 million viewers).

3 minute-long trailer

40 seconds of viewers' tweets displayed during the following ad-break

4,000 hashtagged tweets

15,000,000 potential hashtag reach

1 Ofcom investigation

Missed the trailer? Watch it below

@LASAICT's #lasatechtools tweetchat - Making to most of online tools in the third sector

2012-05-02T10:34:00.000+01:00

Today's LASA Tech Tools tweetchat (kicking off at 12:30 GMT, 2nd May) sounds promising:

...Lasa will be running a Twitter chat on online tools for charities on 2 May from 12.30-14.30. This programme of events has been funded by Google.

The tweetchat will share the latest thinking from experts in this area, who will offer tips and advice to help charities make the most of the best online tools for their needs.

LasaICT have lined up an impressive panel including Matt Collins of Beatbullying, Ross McCulloch of Be Good Be Social, Mark Walker of AbilityNet, Sylwia Presley of Barcamp Nonprofits, and Crispin Read of White Fuse Media.

* Note: The tweet chat moved so quickly that I gave up trying to Storify it and concentrated on participating instead. I'll replace the partial Storify beneath with the one created by Lasa as soon as it's available*
Now updated with Lasa's Storify:

"These views are my own..."

2012-04-28T18:34:00.000+01:00

The caveat that graces several million Twitter bios (including my own), and that is required by just about every social media policy going.

Now that I’ve added that disclaimer to my bio, I’m free to turn the twittersphere blue, endorse politically-incorrect causes and indulge in tweeting some offensive ‘jokes’... right?

Wrong.

Everything you post says something about you and adds to your overall digital footprint, which can say a lot about you. Check it out - Google yourself and see what you find, I’ll wait...

... Done? Did you like what you saw? Would a current or potential employer like it? Would clients or customers of that employer like it? You had better hope so, because it reflects on them as well.

If I see an employee of a charity posting offensive comments online, am I more or less likely to donate money or volunteer with that charity?

If my broadband contract is up for renewal and I see that a customer support officer at ‘Broadband Provider X’ tends to tweet highly offensive jokes, am I going to want to deal with that person when my connection drops?

Those examples may be trite, but if your employer has seen fit to employ you, that is both an endorsement of your skill-set and of your personality.

But I don’t reference my job in my bio

That doesn’t really matter I’m afraid. In the vast majority of cases it just takes a quick search and a few clicks to find the person behind the twitter account and to figure out where they work.

That all sounds a bit depressing

It doesn’t have to be. Protecting your employer by being careful with your posts also protects you. It helps you to avoid tweeting a stream of expletives when your football team concedes a goal and it helps to stop you getting involved in pointless spats online.

I dislike the term ‘personal brand’, but it does have a place here. Do your online posts reflect the personal brand that you would like to present and market?

*Disclaimer* The tone of tweets mentioned in the second paragraph are not indicative of the sort of content I would like to be able to tweet. The sort of tweets that I want to (and do) post are sometimes a little bit grouchy, but mostly pretty safe (some might even use the term ‘dull’)

Measuring a Twitter Campaign on a Budget

2012-04-15T19:50:00.000+01:00

Great, you’ve designed a Twitter campaign that you’re sure is going to go viral, now all you need to do is work out how you’re going to measure it.

The first thing you need to do is work out what your ‘done’ is. Is your campaign about your hashtag reaching as wide an audience as possible, is it about attracting more Twitter followers, collecting stories, or is it about driving people to a conversion page?

Hashtag Stats

Measuring stats on a hashtag is rarely a terribly useful metric, but it does have merits when used in conjunction with other key performance indicators. I use Hashtracking to measure the hashtag stats side of any campaign. The free service will measure up to 1,500 tweets over a 24-hour period. If you think your campaign will top-out at over 1,500 tweets or go on for more than 24-hours, I recommend using their paid-for service (currently $40USD).

Hashtracking will measure the number of tweets containing your hashtag, the reach of those tweets, and the impressions they generate.

This may go without saying, but if you want reliable stats on your hashtag ensure that your hashtag is unique to your campaign.

Twitter Followers

Well this is easy, you can take note of your followers before the campaign starts, and again when it’s finished. If that sounds a bit too much like hard work, you can always turn to Twitter Counter (they’ll even give you a graph).

Collecting Stories

Asking people to tweet their stories to a hashtag can be a great way of sourcing case-studies and identifying online ambassadors. Storify is a great free way to publicly curate these stories.

Conversions

This comes down to your on-site analytics package. Google Analytics is a great free tool and the good people at Google have some really useful resources to help you get started.

One final note before you kick-off your campaign – Read the Twitter “Guidelines for Contests onTwitter”

Slacktivist or online activist?

2012-04-15T15:07:00.000+01:00

Now, chances are you’ve already seen the infographic below on Mashable, and I don’t intend to do a copy-pasta job on their content. What I will do is borrow some insight from one of my colleagues, Jo Hobbs, and ask – Is “slacktivism” really an appropriate term, or is “clicktivism” more accurate?

Slacktivism suggests a lack of engagement and a lack of real-world action, but, as is made clear by the stats in the infographic beneath, this isn’t necessarily true of online activists. These figures/stats suggest that there is a great deal of value to be had from an audience of online activists, and that the passive term “Slacktivists” simply will not do – These people are active and passionate, they are “Clicktivists”.

Decision Engines - The Impact of Online Research

2012-04-08T18:18:00.000+01:00

Is your website up to scratch?

It had better be. Check out this infographic from Sortable.com:

87% of people research products online
72% of people abandon a website for a competitor to do more research...

Infographic borrowed from Sortable (Great infograph, but does contain some sales fluff):

Some Infographic Fun

2012-04-08T13:20:00.002+01:00

I'm on the look-out for great data visualisation tools - I love data and clever data visualisations but my modest Photoshop skills don't really cut it when it comes to turning interesting data in to engaging data-visualisations.

My first port-of-call is Visual.ly - A tool that automatically creates infographics based on your social media presence. They say:

"Visualizations are powerful, but they’ve required time and hard work to create -- until now. You no longer need expensive software, extensive design skills, or number crunching ability. We’re building a tool that will allow everyone to quickly and easily create professional quality designs with their own data. And when you’re ready to show your work to the world, publish it on your Visual.ly profile, your own personal showcase."

The infographic below represents my Twitter presence. Clearly some of the data has not been pulled in properly, and that's a shame, but for a free tool that takes a few moments to create an infographic, it ain't half bad.