Let Them Tweet Cake

I'm celebrating almost a month - time flies - with the digital team at Macmillan after taking over as caretaker social media officer.  And I've been both immediately impressed and inspired by the approach they are taking to social media and their online community.

There was cake in reception when I arrived on my first day. Not for me, admittedly, it was one of the receptionist’s birthday - but quite a first impression.  And on being led through the greenery of the office for the first time I noticed sweets and cakes at the end of virtually every bank of desks.  It's obviously something that's encouraged I thought. Or a philosophy that breeds lots of micro-sugary actions.

And that's not the only thing I like that's being encouraged. What's really refreshing is the desire to involve staff in social media and encourage them to actively uphold the principles and values that underpin the organisation: the values that give them immense pride in the work they do.  By helping them to understand the tools they can use to communicate the brand.

But it's by no means about asking them to shout loud and demand action from supporters.  Nothing is demanded of any member of staff.  Simply, the language of social media is explained so that they can feel confident joining the conversation. And be sure of the place they're coming from when they engage in their social networks.  If they see something they like they can share it with confidence.

And it's an approach that I think will lead to an increase in inspiration being turned into action. Because when you do need action, when you do need a few ripples for a cause, you know the power of the people in your network, you know how to reach them, and all you need then is to ask them to have their cake and tweet it.

The real cost of social media

Here's an interesting infographic on 'the real cost of social media'.

I like the comment:
'Sleep is the real cost of social media.'

ChildLine increases traffic by 900% thanks to Facebook

With Comic Relief just around the corner next month the charity sector is picking itself up after the busy Christmas period. However, although the Comic Relief website has been increasing its market share of visits to the charity sector in the last few weeks, the fastest climber last week was ChildLine.

ChildLine increases traffic by 900% thanks to Facebook

 

Santiago Dreaming

I thought I'd dredge up a link from my blog archives that's just as interesting in today's social media environment.

"When Pinochet's military overthrew the Chilean government 30 years ago, they discovered a revolutionary communication system, a 'socialist internet' connecting the whole country. Its creator? An eccentric scientist from Surrey. Andy Beckett on the forgotten story of Stafford Beer"

OpenDNS Report - 2010

Okay, so most of this is booooring, but just take a look at what businesses are blacklisting and filtering.

They really don't like social networks, so they block their staff's access to them, but they also seem to then have to add them back in using whitelisting.  This is presumably when business practices like Social Media engagement make it necessary to allow access.

So, here's to understanding how we engage through social media with businesses and corporate partners.

OpenDNS Report - 2010 - on Scribd

 

Campaigns for social good

Some interesting things here - I really like number 4, if we could have a corporate partner agree an action on the basis of what we can get fans to do? That would be cool! And are we brave enough to ask someone to donate their facebook status for a period (no.4)?

http://mashable.com/2010/09/30/creative-social-good-campaigns/

Mini-Survey on the effect of Social Media on some UK Charity web sites

Mini-Survey on the effect of Social Media ( incl Twitter and FB) on some UK Charity web sites, suing analytics in an interesting way.

Conclusion: visits from social media sources are growing but from a very low base.
Around 1% of all visits come from Social Media. More details here:
http://bit.ly/9vuP3K

Photo/Graphic: deanmeyersnet

Social Media Exchange training

In case anyone is interested, this could be interesting - can mix and match the workshops you want to attend....

http://socialmediaexchange.org.uk/

Facebook Changes

I meant to mention Open Graph.  Bullying UK have been using it on their site and were asking for feedback

• www.bullyinguk.org.uk

I like the integration.

Q&A: Gerd Leonhard on why social media beats search

Thought I’d share the following link on Social Media and Search:

• http://econsultancy.com/blog/5968-q-a-gerd-leonhard-on-why-social-media-beats-search?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

New Types of Social Networks

Not sure if you’ve seen this, but an interesting development in Social Networks and the web:

Social Media Brief

This is a really interesting presentation on social networks. It’s very long, but worth reading - real food for thought!

• http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-real-life-social-network-v2

Customer Loyalty and Social Media

In the mood to share today.

3 Keys to Increasing Customer Loyalty with Social Media