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SOCIAL MEDIA & THE THIRD SECTOR: SOME PROVOCATIONS

simon collister@simoncollister

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“If the late 19th century was the ‘golden age’ of mutual

institutions, clubs and societies, the early 21st century is a new

golden age of networks and online communities”

- NCVO Report, ICT Foresight: how online communities can make the internet work for the Voluntary and Community Sector

A NEW GOLDEN AGE?

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DRIVEN BY TWO KEY TRENDS

1. Self-organisation --> Networks created and sustained through easy-to-use technology

2. Social capital -- > Networks motivated by rewards from social cooperation to achieve shared goals

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MOMENT OF OPPORTUNITY

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BUT… PR INDUSTRY “MISSING THE BOAT”

“Within minutes of PRWeek's interview starting, Grant is lambasting the PR industry for 'missing the boat' on digital, allowing advertising and media agencies to steal a march.”

- Robin Grant, Global Managing Director, We Are Social - PR Week, 24th

May 2012

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WHAT’S GONE WRONG?

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CURRENT CHALLENGES [IN A NUTSHELL]

1. Increasing commercialisation of social

2. Rise of the ‘social business’ or ‘social organisation’

3. Growth of data-driven communication

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1. COMMERCIALISATION OF SOCIAL

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WHAT’S HAPPENING TO FACEBOOK?

Post-IPO social interaction within Facebook is becoming increasingly commercialised

Shift from ‘organic’to paid communicationpushes Facebook moreinto the domains ofmedia and ad agencies

Similar happening withother platforms,e.g. Twitter

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HOW…?

Newsfeed not ‘open’ communications channel Determined by Facebook’s ‘EdgeRank’ Visibility determined by Affinity, Freshness &

Weight of ‘edges’, e.g. links, photos, videos, etc Only about 16% of fans see Page content

See this link for a great overview and analysis:

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THE WORD FROM WITHIN FACEBOOK

‘While news feed posts are fine for everyday engagement, businesses should consider using ‘Sponsored Stories’ [i.e. advertising] to ensure business critical information reaches users’

Personal advice from Facebook employee

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WHAT THIS MEANS…

Potentially useful for targeting specific audiences with clear calls to action

Makes day-to-day engagement and relationship building more difficult ot costly

Facebook is introducing a ‘Promote’ feature to help small pages market their content – but still costs money

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WHAT THIS MEANS…

Potentially useful for targeting specific audiences with clear calls to action

Makes day-to-day engagement and relationship building more difficult ot costly

Facebook is introducing a ‘Promote’ feature to help small pages market their content – but still costs money

In short, will there be no real free, effective way tocommunicate with your Page fans?

Will Facebook shift to become a paid mediaplatform with layers of social underneath?

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2. THE RISE OF THE SOCIAL BUSINESS

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THIS YEAR’S THING…

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ABSORBED ACROSS ORGANISATION

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WHAT THIS MEANS…

When social media becomes transformed into: Social fundraising… Social CRM… Social campaigning… Social information and advice

Who manages it?

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REQUIRES CULTURE CHANGE

“Get your organisation and culture right and the social media will look after itself.”

Martin Thomas, author of Loose: The Future of Business is Letting Go

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SOCIAL CULTURE

x Distrustful (C.Y.A.?)

x Bureaucraticx Process orientedx Hierarchical

TrustingAgile InformalCollaborative

Source: Loose: The Future of Business is Letting Go

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WHAT THIS MEANS…

Opportunity to become more like social movements

Tension between status quo and culture required for effective use of social

Investment in developing new internal guidelines and policies

Investment in training employees

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3. THE RISE OF BIG DATA

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WHAT IS ‘BIG DATA’?

Term applied to the vast quantities of data being generated by contemporary socio-technological systems whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used tools to capture, manage, & process data

David Bollier- The Promise and Peril of Big Data

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BUT...WHAT *IS* IT?

Search engine marketing performance Digital ad acquisition metrics Website analytics Email communication performance Online surveys Social media conversations Media content

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AS A RESULT…

Free tools becoming insufficient…

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AS AN EXAMPLE…

Sysomos has database of 20bn social media conversations

Indexes 8m new posts every hour Social media and

newssourcesgathered

SOURCE: Sysomos MAP

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IMPACT ON PR?

“Metrics driven communication, advocacy and outreach efforts are now becoming the expectation.”

Big Data comes to the Communications Industry

Campaign planning now “involves the computer-automated analysis of blog postings, Congressional speeches and press releases, and news articles, looking for insights into how political ideas spread”

The Age of Big Data

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BUT… INSIGHTS NEED HUMAN ANALYSIS

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WHAT THIS MEANS…

Potential to plan and execute highly focused, evidence-based campaigns that can be measured across multiple levels

Increased technology and resource costs

Short-term skills deficit

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THANK YOU!& QUESTIONS

simon collisterwww.simoncollister.com

@simoncollister

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

The next two Social Summer sessions are:

Wikipedia 101: The Basics – 21 June

Social Media Newsrooms – 28th June