There’s a moment when I’m delivering training that I tell people they’ll like the first part but they’ll hate the second.
The first part is talking about what makes people share with examples that show emotion and story telling. It’s joyous and people enjoy it.
Then comes the second part when I go through the algorithms and show how much all the platforms really hate links and will actively penalise you if you post links. Hey, it’s a real mood killer. People shuffle uncomfortably. There’s almost a thought bubble hovering over people’s heads with the words ‘but that’s what we do.’
Yet for all the uncomfortable feelings its important to know this.
Data shows link traffic from Facebook to news sites has collapsed
Those are the numbers from Facebook itself. The numbers from publishers themselves are also bleak. Data from Chartbeat publisher by the UK Press Gazette show that referrals are a quarter of what they were in 2018.
In basic terms, there’s been a 75 per cent fall in people navigating away from Facebook to news sites.
That’s a huge number.
Yes, news sites are feeling extra pain after Facebook has fallen out of love with news. But public sector people shouldn’t just hurry past and think this has got nothing to do with them.
Why?
Because if you are STILL posting links on Facebook then this has got everything to do with you. Facebook have told you that this is a bad idea. Now publishers are showing you that they weren’t messing about.
Firstly, this means a period of intense innovation in news sites. It’s reached a point of change or die and it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.
A new generation of subscription email first sites have been attracting attention if not yet swathes of readers, for example.
But there are lessons to draw closer to home.
Stop posting links.
No, really. Really stop posting links.
The phrase ‘drive traffic to the website’ is as obsolete as ‘answers on a postcard.’
There are ways to change your strategy. Tell the story on the platform itself so people don’t click away. Or if you absolutely have to have a link put it in the comments. Or support the post with a Facebook ad.
While it articulates visually the maze of tools that are out there it also works as an interactive map that checks and logs new tools by category.
Martech – short for marketing technology – lists applications and websites with added Artificial Intelligence.
Move your mouse across the link on the website you can see a range of different categories from PR, content marketing, display and programatic advertising, mobile marketimng, CRMs and also tools for print.
You can also find out basic information as your mouse hovers as well as click through to the site.
So, there’s a list of almost 80 tools that use AI that are PR-specific. This includes mainstream platforms such as Cision, Veulio and pr.com’s press release tool.
There’s also more than 300 for video including YouTube but also a tools that allow a range of skills such as animation, voiceovers and text to video.
It’s as close to a search engine for AI tools as I’ve seen which is going to make experimentation easier.
It’s also important to note that the 14,106 figure is a 27.8 per cent growth year-on-year. Less than three per cent of vendors have pulled out their services in the past 12-months.
There’s also hundreds that work with Open AI’s ChatGPT tool.
Curious, seven years ago as an experiment I started a Facebook group for public sector comms people to see if it world work.
One chum assured me this was a dreadful idea because Facebook was for family.
I knew for sure it would fly when a beleaguered NHS comms person posted in the group in openmouthed shock a request for them to commission a butterfly logo… made of human ears.
This jaw-dropping request made by a senior clinician was a landmark in the history of the Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group.
At that moment, people rallied, sympathised and offered advice on how to handle the subject. Part therapy and part sensible advice the thread helped resolve the problem.
For the past seven years the group has been a go to corner of the internet for local government, fire & rescue, police and central government people. We also hold the door open for third sector people too.
Today, there are almost 8,000 members and each request to join is checked by myself or fellow admins David Grindlay and Leanne Hughes. They both do a sterling job aside from that every day.
The group’s ongoing prosperity is so much due to the almost 8,000 members from heads of comms to new recruits who daily delight, inform and entertain. At a rough guess I’d say there was maybe 15,000 public sector communicators.
One departing member this week remarked that the group has been the fizz in their gin over many, many years. It has given rainbows when others were handing out clouds. I love that description.
It entertains, informs and helps.
If anything, all this is a reflection of the generosity public sector people have for each other.
If there wasn’t that mutual co-operation and sharing the sector would fall over. The group reflects this.
Some reflections on what works
The content
I’m in the backend of the group looking down the data Facebook provides. The best performing post in the last 28 days? Dogs at polling stations.
Also in the list, an anonymous request for help working with a toxic manager, a check to see if there’s anyone else neurodivergent, tips on Facebook video, praise for Aldi comms and the impact of back-to-back video calls.
People like to see what others are doing. It all circles back to people connecting with people.
The numbers
Looking into the backend of Headspace, there are almost 5,300 active members in the past week. That’s an astounding 66 per cent of all members liking or commenting. I’m not sure how that equates to Facebook page but as a starting point engagement is higher in a group than a page.
There is a joy in local government people learning from fire & rescue and from NHS people sharing with police comms. In the house of public sector comms there are many unique rooms and a lot of corridors everyone walks down.
Make it easy
Firstly, it works because its Facebook. Two thirds of the population use it and two thirds of those use groups. It’s on people’s phones when they are scrolling and it’s no stretch. Installing a new app and log-in would be a pain. That’s not easy. Make it easy.
Internet walled gardens work
In the early days of social media, Twitter was the place where comms people met and shared ideas. It’s not now. It’s been toxic for years.
Safe spaces where people can talk to each other absolutely work. Headspace is a closed group which means you can see who is admin but not the discussion if you are on the outside.
But just because the space is a walled garden doesn’t mean people forget themselves and say things that would offend their boss or employer.
Have rules and stick to them
The history of the internet is dominated by spaces that turned sour. A baby equipment chain started a Facebook group called the Mothercare 2am Club. Parents with collicky babies could go online and seek advice. It all worked fine until the company pulled back on adminning it leaving it to descend into vicious rows about MMR. The site is mothballed now.
Have rules and stick to them. For us, the main ones are not to post politics, not to laugh at the bad and the Chatham House rule. And that it’s a space for public sector people.
In all the time I think we’ve been around I don’t think we’ve had to evict one person for their poor behaviour.
If you create an environment where discussion can thrive then people will fill it. If you don’t they won’t.
Post approval
I forget when it was but we switched to post approval quite early. We found that this weeded out people posting near identical posts and it improved the overall health of the place. So we kept it.
Help and the help comes back to you
Social capital is the idea that if you help you build a bank of credits and those credits are interlinked with other people. It is the invisible glue that makes people connect. If you help people tend to help you.
I’ve not blogged about the Facebook group before because I’ve not needed to. It is its own space that spreads through word of mouth.
There are other communities of practice and organisations across the public sector and they absolutely have a role to play. The role headspace has is to that moment when the day is over and you want to reflect. The busiest time to post shows this. It’s 7pm on a Thursday.
Here’s one thing to be wary of with your Facebook group strategy… rancid groups run by political parties
I’ve long been flagging up Facebook groups as being important corners of the internet for public sector people.
The data is strong. Two thirds of the population use Facebook and two thirds of them are a member of at least one Facebook group.
Their effectiveness is also clear. As newsrooms have shrunk the Parish pump of their neighbourhood group has more than filled this role with news, gossip and recommendations. But it can also slip into a much darker place, too.
There’s good and bad Facebook groups. Good can be the community-spirited Brownhills Bob with 50,000 members, five admins and a willingness to share police missing persons appeals alongside a request for a decent plumber.
But there is also the unpleasant.
There was a 5,000-strong Facebook group in West Bromwich where every post attacked the council. Daily Mail headlines were shared to attack the council. Anyone in favour of the council were shouted down.
Oddly, the admins of the group didn’t appear to be from West Bromwich.
Even more strangely, people in other parts of the country I went to they spoke about community Facebook groups with violent language and a clear political agenda. Posts in these spaces could run from opinion to outright abuse.
What was clear was that there was a strategy to spread hate and disinformation in specific locations.
Now, I’m not suggesting that those activists themselves broke the law or that other political parties may have supporters who had taken it upon themselves to foster hate.
But what this absolutely does do is highlight the issue of hostile Facebook groups and what to do.
Advice
The first problem is that the local government communications person is politically restricted. They can communicate the policy of the council but they certainly can’t jump into the trenches and conduct hand-to-hand combat.
Before the internet, the advice was to challenge misinformation wherever it was be that the newspaper letters page, the radio phone-in or the council committee. There is certainly something in this.
However, there reaches a point where threats and abuse make the environment unsafe.
Besides, people in those spaces are unlikely to listen to a balanced perspective. Academic research points to bubbles where existing views are reinforced and counter views are shouted down. This is not good for democracy.
So, what do you do?
Well, for the first part it’s knowing that there are corners of Facebook where you just need to navigate past.
Don’t use a fake profile to see what’s going in. Don’t use your own profile. There’s a strong chance it’ll end in tears.
The example of the West Bromwich group was that Facebook itself took the group down. That’ll be from people reporting it.
There’s also a balancing act that you need to strike when engaging with something. The Streisand Effect talks about the time when the filmstar took legal action to ban a tourist map that marked the homes of the stars that had her location. The result? People detoured to look at this location she didn’t want us to see.
This isn’t my regular blog post but I’m reflecting the sad news that my former news editor has died.
Bob Kane who died in hospital after illness was one of the news editors on the Express & Star and often would look after the Sandwell edition of the paper where I worked from 1998 to 2005.
It’s fair to say that in the harsh Victorian hierarchy of newspapers of my day you had to learn fast.
When Bob as a news editor had an issue with your story you knew about it. He was dry, direct and to the point. When Bob told you, you stayed told. But if you listened you learned. I was a far better reporter for paying attention to Bob.
I remember my first weekend of calls duty as a nervous Express & Star reporter. My colleague Paul briefed me through the process.
“On Sunday at 8am Dan, buy a copy of the Sunday Mercury and check through for stories from our patch. Phone them through to Bob and first congratulate him on another easy win for Glasgow Rangers but do check the score first.”
He took news and Glasgow Rangers very seriously. The neighbouring Walsall office once joked that a Turkish kebab house were staging a street party because Galatasaray had put the Scottish giants out of the Champions League. Bob did not see the funny side.
New British Army recruits when they go through basic training are put through their paces by a Corporal. At first, they live in fear and crave his approval. Bob didn’t really hand out much praise but a Christmas card from him one year read: ‘Dan, your enthusiasm is inspiring to a tired old hack like myself’ was like a pools win.
That’s the thing with Bob. He was excellent at his job and if you listened to him you’d get better at yours.
Years later, at Sandwell Express & Star reunions Bob would come. He was a reserved man but with warmth and a sharp wit. It was clear he loved his family.
His LinkedIn profile shows he went to school in Stirling in Scotland and after graduation from the University of Aberdeen we worked as a reporter on the Birmingham Evening Mail and Worcester Evening News. He joined the Express & Star in 1980 and retired in 2017.
He was held in really high regard by people who worked with him. I hope his family and friends know this. My condolences to them.
He’d moved to Worcestershire and I’d meant to suggest going to watch some cricket at New Road. I wish I had now.
Suno.com has emerged as one of those jaw-dropping AI sites that threaten to change the landscape.
The site is a music creation tool where you can input the genre and some other clues and set the app to work.
You can also come up with your own lyrics.
Last week, I was speaking at the APComm online event about AI & comms so I came up with some audio that referenced the session.I used the audio to make a film and here’s what it came up with. Have a listen with sound on.
There’s no wonder that musicians have been throwing their hands in the air about it.
A £6 monthly subscription means you have a general commercial licence. It’s worth looking at the fine print of this but this may well be enough to create your own music for video creation.
A while back I wrote a blog post on how to write a comms plan and the icebergs for you to navigate past.
It’s a subject that keeps coming up so I thought I’d take a fresh look at it and simplify things.
Yes, comms planning and evaluation is still important but its so often the thing that gets squeezed out.
Do it well and it saves you time in the medium and long term. It also demonstrates your worth.
Who should be involved in comms planning?
You should be and you should be holding the pen, too. You should be involving the service area and maybe two or three others too. The service area bring the data and you bring your expertise.
What can go wrong?
The comms plan is shaped by one person. This is a collaboration between you and other people. If it goes wrong it’s the fault of whoever drafted it.
They’ve got no data. If they’ve got no data you’re stuffed. You need to understand where you are now and where you’re going. You’ve got 100 volunteers. You need 120. So, that’s 20 recruits. That’s a different shaped campaign compared to one that needs 200 recruits or 2,000.
They’ve already made their mind up. It’s posters we want, choppety chop. This is not a comms plan. This is the text of an email to Prontaprint. You need to sit down to work through this plan.
They’ve left it too late. At this point you are managing expectations.
Here’s what an effective comms plan template looks like
Here are the questions for you to ask.
Where are you now?
2. Where do you want to go and why? (5 minutes)
3. You’ve done these two before the meeting, so there’s no need to spend too long on this. This points out on the map where you are.
4. Who do you want to talk to and why?
5. What’s the one thing you want them to do and why?
6. How much work time and money do you have to help you reach them? (15 minutes)
7. How long have you got?
8. When and how are you going to evaluate?
9. Who are you going to tell that you are doing this so you can tell them how it has gone?
10. Whats the timeline of tactics for it all?
Do this in advance and you’d got more chance of making the thing work.
The template can be found as a downloadable Google doc here.
Sitting in the UK, I’m trying hard to be bothered about the story about TikTok being sold but some people who should know better really are.
If you’ve missed it, the US Government have passed a motion to demand TikTok’s owners sell the platform together with its algorithm. Give the relatively short time 10-month proposed timeframe, this would see any sale as cut price.
The alternative is for TikTok to stop being available in the US. Given the US remains the largest economy in the world this is significant news for the company.
Why could TikTok be sold?
There’s a couple of reasons why TikTok have found themselves in this position. Some have speculated that it could be because campaigners skillfully used TikTok to embarrass Trump by grabbing event tickets to sell out rallies and then not going, meaning Trump was met with an audience of empty chairs.
Certainly, the Republican rebukes to TikTok have made the platform a Democrat platform rather than a Republican one and as a result its become a political football.
The other reason is that TikTok is seen as a Chinese company and at a time when the world is pulling up the drawbridge to the idea of the global village this makes sense.
But what about the UK?
If TikTok gets banned in the US it gets banned in the US. It won’t be banned in the UK. This will hit UK companies who are using the platform to sell to the States. But for the public sector who want to talk to residents to tell them about places to go, recycling messages and pothole news this really doesn’t matter a hill of beans.
However, what may be a side effect is that those people who don’t like or understand TikTok will feel vindicated in their views.
But those people aren’t the audience for TikTok. But there‘s 23 million people in the UK who are.
Picture credit: Wikimedia Commons Seattle Municipal Archives, CC BY 2.0
Take a scroll, I’ve announced dates for my Summer and Autumn training.
I’m having to make an increase of 4.4 per cent with the cost of one place on a session moves from £225 + VAT to £235 + VAT.
So, a tip-off… to beat that rise get ahead and book before May 1.
Why is it worthwhile?
Well, for the past decade, I’ve delivered thousands of hours of training and advice for 1,056 organisations.
In a changing landscape the learning will see you impress your boss, impress your bosses’ boss and a wow potential new boss.
All the training sessions are based on a mix of experience, data, best practice and analysis. In a changing world that’s handy.
Scroll down to see the dates and times for…
ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER
ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS FOR COMMS REBOOTED.
ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS
ESSENTIAL TIKTOK & REELS
ESSENTIAL SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CANDIDATES OR ELECTED MEMBERS
Book a space on a public session OR drop me a line to arrange an in-house session.
To book a space on a public session or to enquire about in-house training for the team use the form on the bottom of the page.
ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED
This is the workshop that helps you plan, shoot, edit and post effective video.
If you’ve some experience of shooting video or none, this workshop is for you. Developed by Dan with the help of filmmaker Julia Higginbottom this will take you through what you need to know.
We’ll look at the ingredients needed to make effective short form video, TikTok, Reels and live video.
Updated in 2024 to reflect incoming moves towards vertical video that Facebook are introducing as well as how to shoot vertical video.
We’ll look at staying legally safe with GDPR and copyright laws.
What: Online four two hour long sessions.
Who: Anyone looking to develop their skills and knowledge of creating content.
To book a space on a public session or to enquire about in-house training for the team use the form on the bottom of the page.
ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER
There has been more change in the last 12-months than the last 12-years with communications.
This workshop was drawn-up in answer to the cry from a colleague ‘can’t someone just run a course that shows me all I need to know?’
This will show you everything you need to know from media landscape, how to create content and up-to-date steers on what content algorithms reward and penalise. The knowledge will give you the ability to create more effective content.
You’ll also go through new channels like Nextdoor, Instagram Broadcasts, Threads and WhatsApp Channels as well as ChatGP, how to connect with Facebook groups. You’ll also know how to use LinkedIn as well as hope to deal with comment, criticism and abuse.
What: Online five sessions up to 90 minutes.
Who: Anyone looking to refresh or build their skills.
To book a space on a public session or to enquire about in-house training for the team use the form on the bottom of the page.
ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS
Dealing with a journalist can be stressful whether you’re pitching a story or answering a question.
In this three part session we’ll go through how to be proactive as well as reactive by following a series of easy to follow steps. You’ll understand what makes a reporter tick and how to handle the trickiest media query.
You’ll understand how journalism in the UK is changing as it moves away from print to online as well as the new generation of email first news organisations. By doing so we can better see what content would work.
What: Three online sessions.
Who is this for: Anyone who may need to pitch a story or pick up the phone or answer an email to a journalist with a question.
To book a space on a public session or to enquire about in-house training for the team use the form on the bottom of the page.
ESSENTIAL TIKTOK & REELS
This is the specialist training for vertical video which looks at techniques for TikTok & Reels.
We’ll look at the differences between vertical video and how to plan, shoot and edit for this rising platform. We’ll look at how to make content using BBC approaches as well as more creative filmmaking andtrends.
We’ll look at staying legally safe with GDPR and copyright laws.
What: Online four two hour sessions.
Who: For people who are looking to learn how to make vertical video.
To book a space on a public session or to enquire about in-house training for the team use the form on the bottom of the page.
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ELECTED MEMBERS & CANDIDATES
This is how an elected member can choose which social media channel to use as well as how to use it effectively.
From the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum onwards social media has helped more voters make their minds up than traditional media. In this session we’ll look at how a candidate or councillor can first choose which social media channels to select.
You’ll then look at how best to use social media, to avoid pitfalls and to stay legally safe.
Dan drew-up the first social media guidance for Councillors for the Local Government Association for England & Wales as well as Scotland through the Scottish Government’s Improvement Service.
To arrange an in-house delivery for your team use the webform below.
What: Sound advice for Councillors and candidates to use social media while staying on the right side of the law.
Who: Councillors and candidates looking to use social media.
If you are public sector comms you need to know about the strengths and weaknesses to Nextdoor.
Yes, I know you’re busy. That’s why I’ve written a brief post to explain the platform with the help of some nice people from the Public Sector Comms Headspace.
Firstly, here’s three key things you need to know about this platform.
Three key Nextdoor facts
Nextdoor’s audience is over 55s
The first key Nextdoor fact is that it’s mainly used by over 55s. If you’re in the public sector these may well be a key audience. They tend to vote and also be service users.
Nextdoor is arranged into neighbourhoods
Fact number two is that Nextdoor operates rather like a rigid community Facebook group. Want to join as an individual? You need to put your name, address and postcode. This way you are assigned into a specific area Nextdoor.
However, you can only be in one Nextdoor. So, no glancing over the fence to see what a neighbouring area is up to. This is a strength and weakness. A strength because you get local content but a weakness if you are interested in more than one area.
This is a pain as I’m in the Brierley Hill Nextdoor. Can I see if there’s a plumber recommended in the Halesowen Nextdoor three miles away? No, I can’t. That’s annoying.
Nextdoor really likes the public sector
When I say Nextdoor really likes the public sector it really, really likes the public sector. You can get a free partnership agreement as a public sector organisation. This means your content is automatically sent to ALL Nextdoor members in a geographic area. So, none of this messing around with a Facebook page and begging for likes.
On the Nextdoor website, they are keen to push testimonials from the Metropolitan Police in London as well as the Police Service of Northern Ireland amongst ‘hundreds’ of public sector users.
One suggestion is to post as the council rather than the council comms team.
The size of the Nextdoor audience
Irritatingly, Ofcom does not have data in their social media release.
Digging around for UK stats is tricky. The platform’s UK pages talk of one in four households being registered. Indications from other sources are that 8.1 million people have used Nextdoor in the previous month. That’s 11.9 per cent of the population.
This is not the strongest set of figures available but the public sector partnership agreement approach really puts a rocket under those numbers.
The hyperlocal approach
Where Nextdoor does well is that it taps into the broad approach of hyperlocal walled gardens which reflects where the internet has been heading. Facebook groups are now a cornerstone of effective public sector comms.
Nextdoor also reflects the need for the public sector to go to where the eyeballs are. Just posting on a site and then expecting people to read it is no approach.
Content in Nextdoor works best when it is hyperlocal. For some, this can be cloying. The discussion around what the police helicopter was doing last night or the bad parking in your street may not be everyone’s cup of tea but there would appear to be value in it.
A public sector partnership with the platform allows the council, fire and rescue and police comms team to post to their entire borough, city, district, town or county and also if required to target a specific ward. This is huge.
NHS can also use it, from what I can gather, if they ask nicely. Health is a private thing in the US where Nextdoor is based so it isn’t promoted on their website but anecdotally NHS Trusts in the UK have successfully signed up.
However, Nextdoor does perform ahead of radio, newspapers, email bulletins and Reach plc news sites for 25 to 64-year-olds.
What content works well
Hyperlocal content works well. The ability to pinpoint a ward with roadworks, consultation or other issues appears richly valuable. If it is tailored to a community the community will listen.
So too, apparently, is flooding and extreme weather comms. So, expected snow fall will work well.
Feedback is that the platform needs a longer run up than say, X, formerly Twitter has been in the past. Post your news in advance for routine updates.
Is this a place to put all your content? No. Be choosy.
Councillors
Bright elected members have been using Nextdoor to tap into the hyperlocal nature of the platform.
Snark
Do expect some online snark in Nextdoor. The internet can be a rowdy place these days and post-pandemic the conversation that includes the public sector can often be tetchy. Have a set of social media house rules in place would be my general recommendation for Nextdoor as well as every other platform.
Thanks to Public Sector Comms Headspace members who contributed to this blog including Annwen Bates, Fraser Serle, Isabella Gamble, Katie Jane, Sian Williams, Will Lodge, Kulbinder Mann Cara Marchant, Jade Mizen and Helen Chater-Franks.
