‘Communicating in a Big Society’

Nat Wei, key architect of Big Society

“The aim is to put citizens in charge, and less vested interests that lie in […] Big Charity (which is more how people are made to feel small rather than actual size or turnover) – whose models will need to change if they are to keep up with the changing times.

“One way large organisations can find their place in the new world is to see themselves increasingly as markets for innovation, allowing the small and local to thrive in their supply chain or on their platform.”

Implications of Big Society for the third sector

• Government not so keen on funding “Big Charity” (see Timebank’s funding cut earlier this year) - promotion of micro-local social action

• Charities have key role, but waste will not be tolerated: we must demonstrate our social impact

• Be resourceful: maximise output with minimum input

1. Maximise the local & amplify your communities

If you build it, they will come…

We also found them here..

Top tip: Search Samepoint.com for mentions of your charity (including misspellings) in

social media and online blogs

e.g. Nurturing our Facebook community

Thank, congratulate, inspire

opening a space for peer to peer advice

& debate

Ask a simple question, get a simple answer…

Bringing people with us,staying ‘local’ to loyal champions

audioboo campaigning – local voices

Detail

Share & embed

Relevant

pic

Locate

Title & tags

2. You don’t own your brand

Myriad of groups, pages, & fundraisers out there

Think Oxjam…devolving effort for local impact

3. Broadcast is dead: so be agents of trust

Referencing outside media…

…to create an appetite for our own work…

Spreading conversations across networks -

Polling opinion of our followers…

“to be truthful its very imaginative! good thinking by the whizz-kidz team *APPLAUSE*” twitter.com/jamandcheese “Nice one. Will certainly get the attention of your target audience!” twitter.com/rachelbeer “Great poster Could you do one for the ladies?” Childsi, Child's i Foundation

234 views on Flickr - within 3 days - spread via Twitter

Tell your stories - everywhere

The viral loop: cross-promoting all of our sites

• Building narrative into tweets

• How can we tell our stories, vividly?

Sharing stories directly on Flickr Fin’s mum:

“If sharing Fin's story helps raise money and awareness then it is our way of saying thank you…

“And it makes Fin feel special and like a celebrity! He loved seeing his photo on flickr!”

Flickr: Host campaign materials, posters, user-work, press coverage: anything

• Annotate objects within pictures

• Add url links

• Tag people & add playful tags

Flickr: be innovative

Influencing the influencers

TweetingStories thatcaptureimagination

Magic FM helped us out during Marathon because we “tweeted” them…

4. Users, staff – we’re all part of our story

A good first day

Users (of services) can be producers (of content)

• to learn new technical & storytelling skills• to encourage top fundraisers to double their

target• to supplement Charity of the Year Corporate

pitches

Jess, London Marathon Co-ordinator, set up “Jess Whizz-Kidz” Facebook profile to connect all of our London Marathon runners

2010 feedback: What worked…

Great feedback from runners about this use of social media to build their Team Whizz-Kidz London Marathon experience…

“Really nice idea - easy to leave a message or question without having to call etc. Jessica put statuses on regularly with updates etc which were

really useful.”

“very good reading and some of

the tips by other runners were

great”

“made you feel like a team and took some of the nerves out of the day as it felt like you already had a relationship with the team”

“Jessica was always quick in responses and

advice given. It was something not available on

my first time last year and must have been

useful for many first time runners.”

“Was great to see others’ thoughts leading up to the big day.”

“I used this to get to some faces, so as not to feel like a total stranger on race weekend”

“It was lovely to see the photos.”

• Personalised approach

• Significant level of engagement with LM10 team (and team engaging with each other). Generating real community.

• Great feedback from runners

• Reaching engaged and interested audience – easier to direct communications

• Personalised/warmer approach has stronger effect for promotions than straight ‘marketing’ approach

In Summary

• Be real – be trustworthy and conversational

• Recognise the smallest community fundraiser up to the biggest corporate partner; everyone matters and goodwill spreads.

Big Society is about local community

• Staff and users are storytellers too – how can you use conversation to ‘market’ – and even fundraise?

Photo credits• Big Society

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54180144@N08/5447730993/

• Oxfam tattoo http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfamdeutschland/4926613482/

• Best Stories Lastminute.com Metro newspaper advert

• Broadcast is dead http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordbigfire/1351793772/

Thanks for listening. Let’s talk

robdysonpr.comtwitter.com/robmdyson

@whizzkidz@3rdsectorComms