Another month where coronavirus and misinformation has dominated digital news, here’s our latest round up of a few things we’ve been up to and some Helpful reading for the coming month.
Recently we have:
- Refreshed our services line-up
- Published the Helpful guide to social media graphics
- Delivered two crisis simulation sessions for masters students at a UK University. They did a fantastic job, and we were delighted with the positive feedback
- Reviewed and updated a client’s crisis plan to clarify roles and templates for assessing and handling a crisis situation.
- Celebrated Helpful’s 10th Birthday
In as much as firms have birthdays, today is @helpfuldigital‘s 10th. Like everyone, 2020 has messed things up a bit, so now isn’t the time for 🥳 and 🥂, but in lieu of the party we might have had, here’s a little thread of thanks to those who made the last ten years fun: pic.twitter.com/mHqoW2xqfY
— Steph Gray (@lesteph) May 17, 2020
We’ve been busy reading too, here are a selection of some of the articles we’ve enjoyed and wanted to share with you all.
Crisis management and trust
Planning for the worst helps you to deal with pretty much anything that might come your way. When Tesco ran an exercise that imagined their head office would shut down, it was described as “a bit ridiculous and extreme,” but is now proving to have been a very useful test.
Planning ahead is a vital part of any crisis response, here are some thoughts from McKinsey on planning for the next stage or the coronavirus crisis.
Adaptation and innovation are more important than ever say Nesta in this article about not going back to normal.
We’ve been hearing a lot about bots recently but if you’ve ever wondered exactly what they are and how they work this is a fantastic guide from Carl Miller.
Someone we follow on Twitter is Marc Owen Jones for his fascinating data-led threads on Twitter activity around key subjects and events.
This is a useful read on how misinformation spreads on social media, and the importance of mapping out where conversations are taking place so that you can tackle misleading and inaccurate information.
64% are now more likely to listen expert advice from qualified scientists and researchers according to research from The Open Knowledge Foundation.
Echoed by Edelman’s latest research showing there is a strong public demand for expert voices, as people want to hear from the most trusted sources of information on the pandemic: doctors (80 percent), scientists (79 percent) and national health officials (71 percent).
Good Digital Communications
Airbnb’s CEO shared this well written update to staff and a wider audience via the Airbnb blog.
The National Trust have set up this simple webpage for updates on their properties
The Royal Academy are doing a #RADailyDoodle challenge on Twitter
Helpful news and other updates
Cards Against Humanity have launched a free, family-friendly, downloadable version of their game.
Wondering why video calls feel tiring, here’s the explanation.
An interesting article about Cameo and the value of building small, passionate niches rather than large numerical followings. There’s also an example of highly targetted COVID comms in the first paragraph.
Two of the team have taken delivery of new bikes this month under our work cycle purchase scheme – we like this guide to commuting by bike for novices. https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/commuting
And our own Tim Lloyd has shared some tips too
There’s a lot of encouragement to get people riding to work.
I’ve been riding to work for almost 6 years now: here is some advice you didn’t ask for.— Tim Lloyd (@timolloyd) May 13, 2020
If you’ve got any questions on crisis preparedness and response, digital communications or cycling to work, please get in touch!