The Campaign Company Blog

More from the "Web 2.0 and Beyond" Conference

This is my second post about this event. Further items of interest included:

• The current stats - 1.3 billion internet users, 400 million social network users, 120 million bloggers. When you add to this the 3 billion mobile telephony users, then in less than 8 years we have truly collectively created a global phenomenon.
• Google Alerts picks up about 75% of the web coverage on your organisation. There are paid for services like CyberAlert covers more.
• 20% of journalists blog. If you want to know who influences them, look at what they read on their blogroll.
• It was implied you can understand influencers by audit trailing them. TCC would probably disagree with this as the only only approach. We think the mix should also include quantitative and qualitative sampling to understand the motivations behind any audit trail. Later in the day reference was made to developing "knowledge currency" where you develop algorithms to measure usage quality and not just quantity. TCC would argue part of the quality is understanding motivations and the emotions that may drive them. This cannot be done automatically. Also later in the day mention was made of the creation of "social graphs" to track influencers - this already exists in a rudimentary form on Facebook.
• Online Videos can be very effective at spreading bad news. An example of a recent closure of a U.S. abattoir was cited. Videos can be very effective in backing up news blogs and can more effectively tell stories, thus strengthening your narrative. There is a trail off in viewers when a video is viewed, so the first 10 seconds are the most important.
• The name of an organisation or individual is likely to be used as a tag for sites like Flickr and Youtube, which means it will be difficult to control your visual image. Trade marking a name is unlikely to keep up with the rapidity of images being uploaded and distributed.
• Ted Talks is a great website on future developments in social tools. The Sir Ken Robinson lecture on children and innovation/creativity was mentioned and it makes important points as well as being extremely funny. The Ted conferences sounds like a U.S. version of the Hay Festival to me.
• Your new "first impression" in future is not as you walk through the door but your digital identity.
• Identity fraud is increasing. Have a look for what you can find about yourself and others on the web. Look at Wink, Zoominfo and QDOS and see how much of your identity is recorded on the Internet.
• Develop internal social networks. Visible Path is an example of this.
• Avoid simplistic metrics. Measurement of the success of web 2.0 products should be by business outcome not simple volume. Measure actual usage: edits and tags rather than just "hits". In other words measure the energy expended on using the webpage.
• Polls/Surveys of experience of a service should be immediate and not "moderated by time".
• If you are setting up a social network, pre-populate content as well as think of polls as well as customisable front pages to make it as interesting and interactive as possible. Reward contributions - develop a points system to encourage usage. Both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns have this.
• In future parents might want to check out whether there was an available internet domain name when choosing the name of their baby. This may be the best way to protect online fraud?

Overall this was a good event with lots of thought-provoking ideas. It was certainly a conference of the future with a lot of us blogging it straight on to the web like this posting as well as it being podcast too. It even had a great definition. Web 1.0 was "watching the television", whilst Web 2.0 was "going down the pub". Will this eventually lead to "binge collaboration"?:-)

More Live Reports from "Web 2.0 and Beyond" Conference

Following Ben Wild's Blog from the Web 2.0 and Beyond Conference yesterday, today it was my chance to attend.

A number of interesting points were made this morning:

• 70% of the US workforce are now knowledge workers.
• Knowledge Management is vitally important to deal with the plethora of information we now all face. Examples include evolving your knowledge systems rather than simply creating them fully formed and improving searchability of wikis.
• A value retail chain has benefited from blog/Facebook - which might sound surprising. It is possibly looked at by value conscious mavens/connectors collecting and distributing cost information. 100 Facebook friends each with an average of 100 friends spreads value. Echo chamber effect - 360% increase in referrals as a result of web 2.0 marketing. Cost of 12p per contact much cheaper than direct mail.
• With traditional media you have a list of contacts. In web 2.0 you have to research yourself who the influencers in the market you are operating in. This is exactly what TCC are developing as tools for our own use and to operate on behalf of clients.

Using Plain English or Dumbing Down?

Apparently the Local Government Association has published a list of words that public bodies should try and not use if they want to communicate effectively with local people. Whilst I can understand why we should avoid some of them ('contestability' and 'place shaping have always been two of my favourites!), others seem perfectly reasonable-are terms such as 'good practise' and 'level playing field' really so arcane?Certainly no worse than old cliches such as 'It is absolutely vital that residents are told how to access services' which is trotted out in the LGA Press Release announcing its'non-word' list!

Is Civil Society Prepared for the Future?

Geoff Mulgan wrote in the Guardian yesterday about the Carnegie UK Trust Inquiry into the future of Civil Society. He was Chair of the Inquiry and in his article summarises some of the key findings.

Quite a few findings were pessimistic. Societal fragmentation, inequalities, racial tension, loss of public spaces (both physical and intangible) and increased fear through raised security against terrorism were all issues that could challenge civic society.

Third sector involvement in the delivery of public services was expected to modestly expand, but there was an issue of the private sector displacing the third sector in areas where it was established.

At the same time there was much greater debate, public awareness, government interest and cross-party consensus over the need to support civil society than the past and no senior politician ever argues "there is no such thing" nowadays!

Geoff Mulgan concludes by posing the question:

"So is civil society prepared for the future? Probably not. Most organisations have to live hand to mouth, juggling short-term funding and perpetual minor crises. Even the bigger ones rarely get much time to stand back and look at the bigger picture. Many are on a treadmill chasing after contracts and new funding."

This is probably the biggest challenge out there. Only through more wide ranging community engagement and public debate can we perhaps address the question posed.

Advice for Campaigners

An interesting article by Chris Stalker, head of campaigning effectiveness at NCVO in Guardian Society this week examines some of the issues faced by campaigners at a time when "people power" is being enthusiastically welcomed in government circles.

As well as setting out some of the challenges faced by voluntary sector in its relations with the government - some of which I personally think are a little pessimistic, - the article also makes some telling points regarding how the voluntary sector campaigns:

"We must be clear about what we want to achieve, and have a narrative and model for change. We must target and influence the relevant decision makers, be agile, and monitor and evaluate for impact. The importance of assessing and demonstrating impact to stakeholders is critical at a time when campaigners are increasingly in the public eye and when weak campaigns can be exposed for setting inappropriate objectives around promotion of the organisational brand and growing levels of funding support, rather than explicitly seeking social and political change."

This is sage advice and something that TCC stresses in both the advice we give and the hands on engagement we do in partnership with many organisations.

Social Tools for Business Use

Today and tomorrow I'm attending a conference 'Social tools for Business Use: Web 2.0'. The speakers today included many ground breaking figures who've worked and continue to work to use on-line technologies and approaches innovatively in their field. These include Euan Semple who developed the use of social tools internally in the BBC and Lee Bryant who co-founded Headshift who work with Demos, Involve, the Power Enquiry and Patient Opinion among others.

There was much of interest, and I'll blog more fully on the individual speakers tomorrow. The discussion included a good balance of the practical (particular tools, specific approaches), the theoretical/big picture (what is web/enterprise/management 2.0) and case studies (that IBM are having business meeting in Second Life was the least impressive thing I learnt about the social tools they're using to work together).

Perhaps one problem I've had so far is around scaling. Most of the presentations came from people working for corporates and the message that social tools 'are those which unlike traditional tools improve as more people use them' was strong. I was struggling at times to translate this back to the view from an SME. Clearly IBM need a good tool which tells you who you're video conferencing with in any given meeting, what they look like and what time zone they're in with real time translation from English to Japanese but I can just shout at my collegues if I need their attention. Badgering each speaker about it in the Q&A helped broaden the discussion out of the corporate sector.

For more detail on the individual speakers check Roo Reynolds, he's a 'Metaverse Evangelist' at IBM, which if nothing else is a very cool job title. He gave a talk about virtual worlds, I was quite taken with it but was brought sharply to earth when I got home logged onto to Second Life thinking I could go and check out the IBM innovation center and the viewer promptly ate all my system resources and (briefly) killed my laptop. He's also live blogging from the conference.

More tomorrow...

Ingredients for Community Engagement

IPSOS Mori have recently published their report on community engagement - Ingredients for Community Engagement: The Civic Pioneer Experience. It considers the necessary ingredients for successful community engagement and concludes that the 9 key ingredients are: Community Driven; Single Issues; Local Involvement Structures; Leadership/ Champion; Organisational Culture;  Agency Partnership Working;  Targets;  Stability

Download the report here

Cop a look at YouTube...

West Yorkshire Police force has embraced the YouTube revolution and started broadcasting videos of police officers in action over the site in an attempt to improve the force's image, reach new audiences and attract new recruits.

The Guardian today reports on how videos of west yorks officers patrolling the streets and talking about their work are juxtaposed against other YouTube clips with titles such as "policeman shoots himself in foot" and "f*** the police". But the force is comfortable with this, with web communications manager, Patrick Brooke, saying “There was a time when we would have insisted our videos were safely tucked away on our own site, but not now….This has certainly opened up a different audience for us. People going to the YouTube tend to be younger and not fully aware of policing issues. This enables us to communicate with them in a new way."

Is anyone aware of other organizations using YouTube in a similar way?

Have you Seen & Heard about this...?

I’ve previously blogged on these pages about our youth engagement work with BarnsleyHospital. Last night the Lord Mayor of York presented David Brannan and Brian Whitaker, two of the Trusts’ public governors, with an award recognizing these efforts.

The BT ‘Seen and Heard’ Awards are all about recognising young people that have made their voices heard and adults and organisations that have listened to young people. Barnsley Hospital was in the adult winners group for being 'a great example of how organisations can effectively listen to young people and act upon what they have heard'.

See and Hear Barnsley young people giving their views here. For more info on the BT Seen and Heard Awards click here.

Trust Youth

Clients such as NDCs, NHS Foundation Trusts and similar organisations may find ‘Trust Youth’ helpful. In partnership with CRAE and the Governance, the British Youth Council has launched Trust Youth, a guide on what being a trustee means for children and young people and how to recruit them. The guide has been developed which children and young people; it explains what the National Occupation Standards for Trustees and Management Committees mean in words that children and young people can understand, as well as outlines the practical steps organisations can take to recruit young trustees.

who deserves a pat on the back?

The LGC awards are looking to give national recognition to local initiatives that have really made a difference.

Categories cover things such as community engagement and innovation.

Deadline is 11 October 2006 and you can find out more here.

Remember when August was a quiet month...

Time was, that August was the opportunity to sit back and relax, and think about the previous months' hard work and autumn's challenges.

No longer!  This week sees TCC undertaking a major consultation exercise in Cumbria, working in London with the Department of Work and Pensions, Ministers and a collection of young people from all over the UK developing strategies for combatting child poverty and undertaking focus groups for the Bakers' Union in Guisborough and laying the foundations for a Democracy Wall in North Yorkshire.

Look out for regular updates on all of these in the blog!

Staff newsletters

Internal communications is a key area of our work with clients. I was browsing the latest email bulletin from Idea (the ideas and development agency) and there is a discussion amongst local authority communications specialists about what type of staff newsletter they produce - printed versus e-version, etc. Take a look.

Common Purpose

www.commonpurpose.org.uk   - organisation set up to ‘inspire leaders’.  Runs programmes for local, regional & national leaders, and on young leaders – ‘Your Turn’ project is aimed at 13-18-year-old age group.

Making Reps look good

As some of you will be aware I am working on a project for a largish trade union to help them develop a communications strategy that will help them to improve communications with members and strengthen the role of workplace reps in relations between management and staff. Our recent brainstorm was really helpful and since then I've incorporated a lot of good stuff into a draft report - mainly based around how to make reps look good. This includes stuff on: formalising the role of reps; helping reps to be a communication hub; improved training; improving 2-way comms between reps and members, reps and HQ and vice versa; face to face support from senior officers; maximising word of mouth comms; better use of notice boards; promoting successes; introducing a new service promoted via reps; enabling 'elasticity', and modernising their data collection and management systems. BUT i would appreciate any further suggestions from colleagues - particularly those with trade union/membership organisation experience...?

Welcome to the TCC Blog

The Campaign Company (TCC) is a communications consultancy. 

We believe that the success of organisations depends on their ability to connect with people. This connection can only happen when there is a lasting and genuine dialogue between themselves and the communities they serve.

This connection ensures that organisations make good decisions that lead them to thrive – because better decisions are made when people have had the opportunity to participate more fully in the decision making process.

We work with many local authorities, health trusts, New Deal for Communities, Trade Unions and other bodies to increase member or public participation in decision-making processes.

We have extensive experience in community engagement, membership development, strategic communications, issue-based campaigns, political management, youth engagement, fundraising, democracy development, public opinion research, event management and marketing

Our experience and record of success in encouraging and increasing public participation, coupled with our agility and unique package of skills puts us at the cutting edge.

We have decided to launch a blog to better engage with our clients.  We hope that you will find it useful and feel able to contribute to it.