Helpful Links: July

Recently we have:

  • Launched our After Action Review workshops, taking clients through an audit and review of their response to coronavirus so far, a facilitated workshop with digital tools to test ideas for how things could be done differently, and finally an action plan to implement lessons learned
  • Published the Helpful guide to photography for non-photographers
  • Written a detailed guide to Twitter’s new reply functionality 
  • Delivered a digital proposition for a philanthropic grantmaking organisation
  • Facilitated a crisis plan review and virtual crisis workshop to train and test the leadership team of a charity
  • Run a series of virtual social media training sessions for a global energy company for teams based around the world

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.

Trust

Medical scientists have been at the heart of government responses to Covid-19 featuring regularly at press conferences. For many years data has shown that scientists, doctors and nurses are trusted more than journalists and far more than politicians. So we have long advised that they should be part of a good crisis response on anything health related. But is that changing? The evidence is inconclusive.

Pew data suggests trust in scientists is holding steady in the US. But a Reuters Institute report suggests that trusted voices are taking a hit in the UK.   Most recently though this report from the Institute for Public Relations shows the value of experts getting involved in social media conversations to correct misinformation. As of April 2020, trust in the media’s coverage of COVID-19 was relatively high in all countries, at a similar level to national governments and significantly higher than for individual politicians. Media trust was more than twice the level for social networks, video platforms, or messaging services when it came to information about COVID-19. We’ll be keeping a close eye on research into this subject over the next few months. 

 

Social Media

The major social media channels have continued their work to try combat misinformation and hate speech. But this hasn’t been enough for many advertisers on Facebook, and some are now boycotting the platform. 

There have also been announcements of new functionality and content:

Whether you make use of these new functions or not, what is the best way to measure the impact of your social media activity? This PR Week article looks at the ‘best’ government departments. We agree that many of them are doing a good job, but aren’t sure about using engagement as the only measure of success. We’ve looked in more detail at how you can make the best use of social media analytics. 

Good Digital Communications 

Social distancing has been the subject of many social media posts; we put together  a Twitter thread of some of our favourite graphics to explain what 2 metres looks like: 

We’re big advocates of trusted voices using social media and this is a great example of the impact it can have.

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