Highlights from Day 2 of Charity Comms Digital Conference
After being genuinely inspired by so many of the talks from day 1 of the Charity Comms #CharityDigital conference, I had high expectations for day 2 — and it did not disappoint!
Digital transformation is a means to an end — not an end in itself
Francis from Samaritans and Jim from RNIB shared how they led digital change that focused on what their internal and external audiences want and need — and all created with them.
The Samaritans’ journey included prioritising volunteer management and engagement, involving them in developing the live chat product to not only make it work for them to also build their interest and make them into advocates.
Both the RNIB and Samaritans talked about how their digital programmes related directly to the organisational strategy. It’s brilliant to see this theme carrying on from yesterday’s session from David from Breast Cancer Now,
Making TikTok work for you
Super impressive to hear that RNLI social team planned for a ‘soft launch’ for their TikTok to build and test content, but after the first video going viral (4m views and 100k followers in days!) they recognised that they needed to adapt and moved fast.
Holly, Fiona and Athar from RNLI shared their TikTok tips and experiences:
- Recognise that TikTok is different to other social media channels
- They had clear aim to engage with younger audiences to build advocacy and brand awareness, with a view to long term fundraising goal. It was super refreshing to hear this as many other charities want TikTok to be able to deliver quick income gains.
- You don’t need to focus on follower account in same way as other channels; your content will find an audience
- Authentic content performs the best e.g. shot quickly on phones, mixed sound quality or quickly edited. This is backed up by this stat that 65% TikTok users say that polished videos from brands feel out of place on the platform.
Turn fans in change-makers
Alicia and Rob from WaterAid gave us a whistlestop tour of their social media strategy, which was linked to their organisational strategy and also the other channels in their marketing mix. I loved how they talked about one of the purposes of their new strategy being to turn their fans into change-makers; such a powerful way to bring mobilisation into your every day social content.
They also shared one of their most popular TikTok videos (feat Eurovision and hand washing!)
Bringing health research to life
Steph talked us through Health Data Research (HDR) UK’s campaign to shine a light on mental health research data with research professionals and the public. I was quite shocked with one of the anecdotes she shared of a PhD researcher who had lost out on funding after it took 3 years to get hold of the right data!
Steph shared the campaign learnings and I particularly liked:
- Emphasis on storytelling — bringing the health research to life through case studies of researchers. She explained that this was particularly successful with those early on in their careers and dovetailed with their needs to build their profiles.
- Prioritise! She reflected that they are a small team that maybe took on too much because of their enthusiasm to do lots! They’ve decided to focus on fewer pieces of activity in future to allow for more space to make it successful.
- They used Sailboat methodology for campaign evaluation, which I think really changes how people view their work:
Wind — what helped to drive us forward?
Anchor — what held us back?
Reef — what are the risks ahead?
Sun — what made us feel good?
I’d love to hear how other people approach evaluations and if you’ve used Sailboat method too — it’d be great to share different approaches!
My top insights from day 1 of the conference
I’d love to chat more about what I’ve learnt and heard — please do get in touch with me on Twitter or yasmin@williamjoseph.co.uk
