I recently spoke @nfptweetup with Max (and help from Yvette) about the UNICEF own a colour project. Here’s the slides for anyone interested.
To see with speaker notes please view here and use the ‘actions’ option.
Category Archives: digital
the ideal transition digital team
In a week where the Government’s digital champion Martha Lane Fox said there was a digital skills gap in charities [ref: ACEVO conference] it seems only right that I finally write this blog post.
Round two on what everyone ‘just doing digital’ means; “the nirvana where everyone is ‘just doing digital’ may come, but what’s the ideal transition digital team?”. I’ve been contemplating this mind boggler and avoiding writing anything for a good few weeks. But the quote from the ACEVO conference tipped me over the edge.
What does the ideal transitional digital team look like?
It might be big or small, digital all-rounders, or specialists in discrete areas. These specifics are dependent on the organisation size and needs. In this transitional time those factors are less important than the ethos and culture of the team.
I think it’s crucial that the individuals are avid life-long learners who enjoy passing on knowledge. It’s only with these traits that a digital team can help close the skills gap talked about. Remembering of course that the organisation needs to provide the space and resources that allow them to act in this capacity.
It’s even more important that the transitional digital team is not over protective or territorial. A true collaborative approach is needed to make the hub and spoke model work. Other teams need to bring their expertise to the table and own the integration of digital into their work. This means a digital team letting go – occasionally even if you’re doubtful something will be a success. As long as the risk isn’t high, letting others learn through trial and error is the quickest way.
Being a change agent isn’t without its challenges. So patience and persistence are the final facets of a great digital transitional team.
So… what do you think? Are there other skills digital charities teams need right now?
BTW: Thanks to David Bull for tweeting the quote that tipped me over.
maximising mobile marketing – @Brandrepublic conference
Last week I attended a conference on maximising mobile marketing. I tweeted. A lot. Here’s the best bits.
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“#brmobile over 1billion in bets through mobile says @betfair speaker – people using dead time
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First speaker… Comscore
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“40% consumers use mobile when see an interesting ad – even if not a mobile ad #brmobile
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“10% of UK smartphone users (4.7m) accessing mobile banking now #brmobile
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“Don’t forget SMS – it can give significant response 1.9mil out of 19.9mil #brmobile
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“July 2011- 2.9mil scanned a QR code – mostly for product discovery #brmobile
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“3 takeaways from comescore-1.Mobile growing rapidly 2.consider carefully the audience you want to reach 3. don’t get left behind #brmobile
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Next speaker… Expedia
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“80% of apps less than 1000 downloads (consumer healthcare). Less than 1% branded apps pass 1mill downloads #brmobile (Deloitte research)
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“. @expedia decided not to silo mobile with a specific mobile person. Had mobile champions but integrated into core business #brmobile
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“4mil monthly mobile visitors to @expedia mobile, and it’s not cannabalising website bookings #brmobile
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Top tips for creating a mobile experience from @expedia #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154325602
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“Community/ gaming layer, local immediacy layer, social layer, self-service layer – the components of @expedia mobile experience #brmobile
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Next speaker… Weber Shandwick
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“Intent vs Content: @jamesdotwarren discusses the results of WS’s #smartmarketing report at #MaximisingMobileMarketing conference #brmobile
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“Mobile mkg = teenage s*x. lots of talk, not much doing, and if doing the doing is not good. #brmobile
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“44% of people feel naked without their smartphone. 36% changing way think and interact with products and services #brmobile
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“Search lifecycle- desktop 30day journey search to purchase, 1hour on mobile! #brmobile
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Next speaker… Sky
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“Sky have over 1m people viewing live tv via mobile devices every month #brmobile #skygo
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“23% of online time is spent on mobile. If you work in digital you should spend at least this on mobile too #brmobile
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“3 screen strategy is core @sky. From content build through to advertising – becoming agnostic to a degree #brmobile
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“‘integrated marketing is the output of an integrated business’ Tim Hussain, Sky #brmobile
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“Ultimately it’s still about single consumer view. Just multiethnic touch points and screens #brmobile
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“Mobile USP to a campaign- it’s personal, it’s a second shadow (always there), it’s immediate, it’s feature rich #brmobile
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Next speaker… Autotrader
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“Used 4m mkg strategy- Mindset:test,learn,iterate. Method:awareness,education,trial. Mix:mobile,ATL,partners,autotrader. Msg. #brmobile
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“Bounce increased by 20% when off season. They hit saturation with their activity. Too much share of voice #brmobile
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Maturing the mobile strategy from autotrader #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154340838
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“300k year 1, 500k year 2, 1mil year 3, next years target is 2mil mobile users of autotrader #brmobile
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Next speaker… Pizza Express
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“Now up- pizza express: In oct 27% of all traffic to pizza express sites came from mobile #brmobile
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“Optimising for mobile search by creating restaurant pages for local sites. To avoid bouncing people into a location search #brmobile
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Next up a panel discussion
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“panel with @nicholascumisky – says don’t forget Nokia is still biggest handset producer #brmobile
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“French connection fail – build an app before a m.site and it didn’t work. So now building one. Doh! They needed proper analytics! #brmobile
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“HTML5 offering new innovations. Yodel mobile working on an interactive ad unit for the reader Kobo #brmobile
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“Unilever lynx case study means they now see mobile as a horizontal not just an add-on. They ask how mobile can extend the story #brmobile
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“3G vs 4g question is diluted by fact that huge amount of mobile connectivity is via wifi. Cloud is on the rise instead of apps #brmobile
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“By 2015 estimated 1.5bil mobiles will have NFC built in. Perhaps some will be dormant – but it’ll be there #brmobile
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Next speaker… Debenhams
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How @debenhams see mobile in their business strategy #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154371429
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“mobile providing link between channels as always on @debenhams #brmobile
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“700k downloads, £3mil sales, over 1/3 use @debenhams app repeat times #brmobile
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“Use push notifications when people close to store – result in 67% app open #brmobile
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Next speaker… WWF
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“Goal to increase fundraising by £1mil so @wwf targeting countries where mobile already surpassed desktop use #brmobile
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. @wwf sms conversion case study – Austria 2007 #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154377697
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Text num on @wwf street team shirt low rsp but ‘text facing’ good #brmobile < note @UNICEF_uk pic http://lockerz.com/s/154379603 http://lockerz.com/s/154379620
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Next speaker… FT.com
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“Mobile users 20% of FT traffic, 30% page views from mobile. Overall 4mil reg users, 250k subscribers #brmobile
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“15% of subscriptions direct from mobile. Mobile users twice as likely to consume content at wkds #brmobile
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“Last year FT kept launching apps in response to market. But not sustainable. And then apple changed subscription payment journey #brmobile
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“So took a risk – June launch of HTML5 site – within a week 100k downloads so removed apps from iTunes #brmobile
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“Big marketing benefit – can send people straight to content in web app. Not to an iTunes download page #brmobile
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Next speaker… Visit Britain
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“First Mobile @visitbritain app in 2008. Too expensive but learnt. 2009 next app learnt need PR to have app found. #brmobile
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“Found more success by tying in mobile to bigger picture – overall digital and marketing strategy rather than just a silo app #brmobile
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“Love UK @visitbritain app used Facebook places. Users 50% more likely to buy and 20% had bigger basket value #brmobile
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Last speaker… Barclays
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Mobile payments and services @barclays #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154395549
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“Big challenge is awareness and education about mobile payment options #brmobile
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“Digital wallet is not just a replacement of physical wallet-bump you phone to share money-identification is key #brmobile
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Mobile wallet should do more than your usual wallet – @barclays ideas here #brmobile http://lockerz.com/s/154397648
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Parting thoughts …
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“Fair to say native apps haven’t fared well at todays #BRMobile conf- scope for them certainly- but mobile internet has more potential
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“#smartmarketing #brmobile ROI anyone? 80% of branded apps get less than 1k downloads
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“Great loyalty case studies on Starbucks and Pizza Express. Shows what can be done with mobile loyalty. #brmobile
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“Very thought provoking day at #brmobile mobile marketing conference. Glad to see we’re not alone in our barriers
will digital teams continue to exist?
My recent posts have sparked some real world discussions around two questions:
- If everyone in the future is ‘just doing digital’ what will digital teams be doing?
- And, as best posed by Alison Daniels, “the nirvana where everyone is ‘just doing digital’ may come, but what’s the ideal transition digital team?”
I’m going to explore the first question here and dedicate a separate post to the other one (watch this space!).
The easiest way to explore this question is with a definition of what everyone in an organisation ‘just doing digital’ could look like, and identifying some of the questions this creates.
Everyone is ‘just’:
- creating web content – they’re writing web pages, creating short videos, and posting pictures.
- using social media – through networks like facebook they’re servicing and attracting customers / supporters, through networks like linkedIn they’re making business connections, and they’re using all types of social media to co-create strategies and products.
- building websites – they’re using drag and drop online tools to create simple web pages that ‘do stuff’.
- doing digital marketing – they’re creating (or commissioning) search, affiliate and display advertising campaigns.
So here are the questions:
- How do you manage the quantity Vs quality balance?
- How do you prioritise for the greater good rather than individual interests?
- How do you avoid duplication and cannibalisation where it matters?
- How do you avoid fragmentation and make integration happen?
- What if existing off-the-shelf tools don’t do what you need them to do?
- How do you stop your digital activity looking identikit if you’re ‘just doing’ what everyone is ‘just doing’?
- How do you keep on top of the next new thing if you’re busy doing the day job?
I see the role of future (and perhaps existing) digital teams is to answer these questions. In fact, stepping back, these questions are not too different from those that marketing teams have worked with for a while. So a logical conclusion might be that digital teams will become the marketing teams of the future.
And so we see the rise of creative marketing technologists – this presentation summarises it nicely.
So what do you think? Are you a future creative marketing technologist?
who owns digital in charities?
If I had a penny for every time someone asked me where a digital team should sit within an organisation I’d have a lot of pennies. The debate has changed over the years as digital has become more important but the core consideration remains the same.
So I always find it useful to start with my own personal context. As someone who has worked in digital for my entire career I’ve been ‘all over the shop’:
- At the Multiple Sclerosis Society digital was part of the Services directorate, a sub-team of Research and Information.
- At RNID (now Action on Hearing Loss) digital was a sub-team of the Marketing and Brand team, and after I left the team moved into an External affairs also within the Comms directorate.
- At the British Heart Foundation digital was in the Policy and Communications division, at one point as a sub-team with Marketing and Brand, another point just a separate Digital team, and then a part of a Multimedia team that includes traditional media officers who were spreading out into digital PR.
- At UNICEF UK the Digital hub sits in the Fundraising division, following the merge of a Digital Marketing team from Fundraising and a New Media Resources team from Comms.
But in my experience the digital team have always been a cross organisational team no matter where the line management happens. So back to that core consideration I mentioned; “Where will the team have the influence and resources it needs?”. A question you could ask about any team in any organisation, but it’s the need that might be different.
A digital team needs to be more than just a service team during this time of transition between traditional and digital mediums and ways of working. A digital team which is only about direct delivery misses the opportunity to catalyse the skills and behaviour change that is needed for the whole organisation to embed digital.
As I alluded to in my post which mentioned the hub and spoke model, there will be a time when everyone needs to ‘do’ digital and it’s not far off. I often use two analogies to explain this:
- When electricity was first around every business had an electricity manager. Now they just call in the electrician (experts) every so often.
- Businesses used to have typist pools, now everyone (ok – almost everyone) does their own word processing. It’s only when you need to do something complex or special that you get expert help in.
Any organisation which isn’t leveraging the expertise of its digital team to change the ways of working and spread digital skills across the organisation is, in my opinion, going to be left behind. So the team should sit wherever in the organisation it’s possible for this to happen, and that depends on the organisation.
getting more digital resources
Let me get to the point – you will never have enough people in your digital team to do everything your charity needs to do digitally. There will always be something you don’t know and something that blows your ‘to do’ list out of the water.
So how do you get enough digital resource?
I completely advocate a hub and spoke model where shared ownership for delivery of digital activity sits across the entire organisation. This is enabled by a central digital team who develop and oversee a framework (tools, guides, training, processes etc) that empowers the whole organisation, a team who are able to drive a digital strategy and also trend spot for the next big thing. At times of course the central team will still have to knuckle down and deliver too.
So it’s rather convenient that my new role of Head of Digital Engagement for UNICEF UK comes with a recently formed and aptly named Digital hub team!
What are the benefits?
Spreading the work is of course the most obvious benefit but there’s a few others worth highlighting:
- Subject matter experts become closer to the audience meaning more authenticity, more accuracy and more timeliness.
- The whole organisation starts to think about digital as an embedded need, rather than an add-on which is rushed at the last moment.
- Career development, lets face it everyone will need to know their digital stuff or risk being overtaken by digital natives who are joining the workforce.
- Ideas, ideas, ideas. Fresh perspectives are the melting pot that generates new ideas. The more ‘spokes’ the more perspectives.
- Cost efficiencies. Firstly there will be fewer middle men, less briefing more doing, a shorter chain of requests for delivery. Secondly, technology is addictive, once someone knows how make something easier with technology they’ll look for other things they can do this with, the digital bug can spread to internal working practices.
How do you achieve this model?
It can take a while to get this mindset and way of working spread through an organisation. After my three years at British Heart Foundation I think we were there with some teams and activities but still had work to do in to do in some areas. Getting there was a mixture of tactical development of the framework/s and individual confidence and skills, accompanied with strategic re-enforcement, sharing successes, learning and painting a picture of the future.
Of course there are pitfalls of this model. But I’m not sure any is significant enough to persuade me that the hub and spoke model isn’t what every organisation should be striving for. If you think I’m wrong – you know where the comments box is 🙂
when should you use a microsite?
Microsites aren’t bad intrinsically – they’ve just often been a lazy (sometimes expensive) way to avoid integration considerations when delivering a campaign. Fortunately it seems the needless spawning of microsites has very much slowed as many brands have realised the same aims through social media and better use of their main sites. In fact it feels a bit old school to write about them but a recent experience has made it quite fresh for me.
While at BHF I worked very hard to streamline a vast number of microsites during my three years working there ( I think we went from around 30 sites to 6). I was really quite chuffed to have shifted the culture so much and saved vast amounts of money in doing so. But before I left we broke my no microsite policy for a campaign. So why did we break the rule?
Here’s a summary of the questions that made it happen. They might be useful as a decision discussion tool if you find yourself in a similar situation.
- How distinct is the audience we’re trying to reach when compared to the main site?
- Would the audience be distracted by other main site ‘furniture’ so much that the activity effectiveness is at threat?
- Would the standard brand risk the effectiveness? i.e. put the target audience off? Or not fit with a big reveal tactic?
- Is it jointly branded and not solely owned by the organisation?
- Do we want to distance ourselves? And not get our existing audience engaged?
- Do we foresee selling / passing on the activity to an outside agency / organisation in future?
- Would the technology or messaging compromise the main site?
- Would it be more cost-effective to use a different platform but stop being cost-effective when integration is considered?
- How long will the website need to be available?
- Are we prepared to accept the following impacts:
- Burden of build and maintenance
- Potentially less exposure over longer term
- Establishing search footprint from scratch
- Fragmentation and potential for confused user journeys
- Potential reduced capitalisation of existing ambassadors.
So what happened after the campaign?
Exactly as expected, the microsite traffic plummeted, but we’d planned ahead and had our exit strategy ready. We’d purposely had assets designed with the main site in mind too – so we migrated the useful stuff to the main site, redirected the domain and called it a day.
What charities can learn from Twestival
It’s been a little while since Twestival in March so I thought it was about time I penned a short blog piece on it.
I’d been aware of Twestival for a while and so when Amanda, Twestival’s founder, called out for volunteers with social media skills I jumped right in and offered my time.
I was one of around 15 people on the worldwide social media team- a few working in each country. We were there to take the pressure off the regional co-ordinators so they could work with each of the local cities in their region. It was a new role/team for Twestival and so it started off a little loose and ready to be shaped by everyone. But it was clear from the start that we were bubbling with ideas.
Harnessing it was harder as we were lacking definition and all looking to each other to make the first move. So it was great when one of the global Twestival team stepped in to give direction – he gave shape to our responsibilities and we agreed who was taking the lead on different things.
So how did it work?
- Each channel was divided up to be led by a different person- the local city volunteers already run their own profiles while the UK national ones were covered by the social media team.
- Each city received guidance and support from the rest of the Twestival collective through huddle.
- We crowd sourced various strategies and documents amongst the social media team on huddle and skype chat. For example:
- Our first skype chat resulted in the creation of incentives for cities for the first time – this being a tactic to get the most of social media chatter and produce great content eg best team photo and best logo.
- A quick social media tips guide that covered comms, persuasion and bribery for attention- and social media fundraising tools
- We continued to have regular skype or gotomeeting calls to keep in touch with what the next focus area should be and any things that need sorting out.
Learnings
What Twestival really demonstrates is the power of a loosely formed network connected together through social media. Success in this can only come from an organisation trusting the network and letting the network shape the activity rather than having a top down approach.
Completely unconnected to Twestival I’ve been reading some of the free MIT course notes and this quote really struck me:
“The rise of networks… means that conflicts may increasingly be waged by ‘networks’ perhaps more than by ‘heirachies’. It also means that whoever masters the network form stands to gain the advantage” – John Arquilla & David Ronfeldt, Networks and Netwars (Rand 2001).
This quote was in the context of Al Queda and conflict – but turning it on it’s head and thinking about it in the context of doing good works just as well, and Twestival proves it.
So I absolutely and totally agree with Cian’s blog post which has some great references on networks. This digest of how the Plymouth City Twestival engaged volunteers is also pretty insightful too.
QR codes are rubbish
QR codes are those funny looking squares of black and white that have started to crop up on printed adverts. They’re a way to send someone straight from a printed advert to a website. Sounds great right? No way someone will forget or mistype your url, and a quick action a consumer can take to continue their journey with you.
Personally I think they’re pants. I’m somewhat contradicting the general view of others (Third Sector 2009, e-consultancy 2011) so here’s why:
- Most people don’t have a clue what QR codes are.
- You need to download and install QR software for it to work – already an effort.
- Using a QR code is almost an act of blind faith – you have no idea where it’s sending you. It takes a huge amount of trust in a brand that many people won’t have.
- It won’t be long before optical character recognition and image recognition technology is engineered to replace QR codes – Google already have a search which works on image recognition.
- Did I mention… they’re ugly and are a distraction to the other messages in an advert.
Of course you can always disagree with me – that’s what blog comments are for. And the Know How Non-Profit QR How To Guide might be useful for you too.
digital fundraising – integrating online and offline @thebhf
I recently spoke at the Third Sector Digital Fundraising Conference and gave a very hurried run through of our Mending Broken Hearts campaign. This is by far the biggest and most integrated campaign the British Heart Foundation have done. It blends an awareness message with a fundraising call to action.
It’s still early days as the appeal is for five years, but we’re already seeing the benefits of integrating across digital and traditional channels. So for anyone who wasn’t there on the day here’s the slide deck.
laila takeh thoughts on my everyday 