On Findus lasagne and the power of Twitter

It hasn’t been a good week for Findus UK, who had to withdraw its beef lasagne from sale after horsemeat was found in the beef.

I don’t envy the Findus PR team one bit. And their comms crisis may get even worse. The Food Standards Agency wants Findus to test the lasagne for the veterinary drug phenylbutazone, which could be dangerous to humans. (There is a good summary of the unfolding PR crisis on PR Week.) Findus have released a statement saying that the horsemeat was a ‘supply chain issue.’ I understand that they’re trying to distance themselves from the issue and limit liability but when a problem is this big I think that phrase could come back to haunt them.

Surprisingly, Findus don’t seem to have undertaken any social media outreach to help manage the crisis. If they’d done that, they might have been able to get control of the story sooner. I can’t even find a Twitter account for Findus. If they had one, they could have shared regular updates about the action they are taking, responded to customer queries and monitored what people were saying about them. Instead, all I can see in my Twitter feed is horsemeat jokes.

In my view Twitter is now one of the most influential and credible social networks, and what you say on it- even, in Findus’ case, if it is nothing at all- can have huge impact. This was brought home to me this week in a great blog by Matt Collins (aka @charitychap) about how HMV staff who were being fired took to the company’s Twitter account to vent their feelings. One of them even tweeted that the HMV marketing director was asking, ‘How do I shut down Twitter?’ Sorry, that’s not how social media works.

What you do- or don’t- tweet can make a big difference to how unfolding events are perceived. Findus would do well to remember that.

Is Vine the next Pinterest?

Last week saw the launch of Vine, the video sharing app from Twitter, which allows users to record and share 6 second looping videos. There’s a handy round up of Vine from Vasileios Kospanos on UK Fundraising.

There are already some great examples of charities using Vine, including Diabetes UK and Dog’s Trust. Check them on Kirsty Marrins’ Storify on Vine.

I also came across a great blog by Roberto Kusabbi on Vine, in which he urges everyone to get to know it as users first before diving in headfirst. He raises some interesting points about Vine’s potential (videos are embedded in tweets and autoplay) as well as its pitfalls (e.g. lack of data).

I really like Roberto’s ‘slow and steady’ approach, although I can see why everyone is getting excited about Vine. Vasileios tweeted me this morning about possible uses for it, including ‘silent auctions,job postings,thanking supporters,competitions’ amongst others. It could be a great way to engage supporters and thank donors. Diabetes UK have already done this- I like the spontaneous and immediate feel of their Vine.

I’m hoping that Vine will be a grower and not a flash in the pan like Pinterest. Some food for thought : I read a blog by Dorie Clark this week in which she says that organisations should focus on social media platforms that are the best fit for their audience, rather than trying to be everywhere all at once.

Vine is an interesting platform and perhaps it will be the next big thing in social. But let’s take it one step at a time. Isn’t a slow burn romance always better than a whirlwind affair?

How transparent is your fundraising?

 

This morning I took my toddler and newborn to a music class at a local church, (Emmanuel Church) in our area of North London. Whilst there I came across a great example of transparency and fundraising.

As you can see from the picture, on their noticeboard the church have displayed how much it costs to run the church each year, and then described what each individual cost element is. They’ve also said how much they need to raise each week. Beneath this (there wasn’t space to include this in the photo) they’ve explained how to donate, including regular and one off donation options.

This openness and level of detail about costs is refreshing. I’m not religious, yet I almost donated there and then. I don’t think I’ve come across any charities who are as up front about their costs. Of course all charities disclose their income and expenditure in their annual accounts, which are publically available. But isn’t there something to be said for disclosing costs as fully and frankly as this, where everyone can see them?

Contrast Emmanuel Church’s ‘ask’ with a donation box which I recently saw in a well known museum which simply said ‘donate’ and specified an amount. I appreciate that setting out the financial activities of a large charity at the point of donating might overwhelm potential donors with information. But perhaps saying what the £5 requested would help the museum do, and how it will help them achieve their mission might be more compelling?

We all know that in these tough times charities need to fight for every pound.  There are some great examples of charities who say what donations will be spent on (‘Just £3 a month will help do X’ etc). What I like about the Emmanuel Church ask is the transparency and the level of involvement you feel as a donor. I can see exactly how the church spends its income, and therefore what my donation will go towards. I know there will be some charities who baulk at this approach, saying that they wouldn’t want to disclose how much they spend on , say, office premises for fear that donors would criticise an entirely reasonable expenditure.  As a communicator though, I think that if you share information early on it is less likely to be a problem. The more that charities say what they spend their money on, including back office costs, the more donors will understand that charities have costs like any other organisation, and we are not just staffed by volunteers. More importantly, won’t potential donors be more likely to give, and give again, if they can see what their gift, however small, contributes towards?

 

 

Childsi and Open Fundraising collaborate on mobile giving

Apologies for disappearing off the map for a bit. Our baby girl was born a few weeks ago.

As a new mum, Childsi’s cause resonates even more strongly with me (I’ve been a huge fan of their work for a while). Childsi help abandoned babies in Uganda. They’ve also built up a great supporter base by using social media and powerful videos which tell the stories of the children they help. Childsi aren’t just a great cause; they are a fantastic example of strong charity marketing and stakeholder engagement. They’ve done all this despite having minimal resources.

Childsi have just announced that Open Fundraising will be helping them develop their mobile giving strategy, using Mobilise, their SMS-based regular giving platform, for the fundraising activity. They’ll be focusing on integrating mobile with Childsi’s website and Facebook pages first.

What I love about this is that the donation process is quick, clean and simple. (You can  see what Childsi’s mobile donate function will look like on the UK Fundraising site.) All you need to do is put in your mobile number, then you’ll get a text straight away to which you reply yes to set up a regular donation. No need to enter your name, address or bank details. Easy peasy. It eliminates one of digital fundraising’s problems; the high fallout rate before checkout. Paul de Gregorio has blogged about how 50% of the people who start the process of giving you a donation online won’t complete it.

As I predicted on The Guardian Voluntary Sector Network this week, smart charities will put mobile at the centre of what they do in 2013. What’s really exciting to me about the Childsi/ Open Fundraising collaboration to me is that it shows you don’t have to be a huge charity to use mobile. Innovation and strong supporter engagement need not cost megabucks. And with 1.8 mobiles for every person in the UK, can your charity afford not to use mobile?

I’ll be watching how Childsi’s mobile strategy develops with interest.

Digital: a core competency for all charity staff?

Last week I blogged for The Guardian Voluntary Sector Network about the launch of Lasa’s Charity Digital Survey.

Alongside the Digital: what every charity leader should know report (which I also worked on with the Lasa technology team) I wanted to research charities’ use of digital and how else they think it could help them. The survey revealed how charities fear that the digital skills gap could hit their bottom line.  Two thirds of respondents (66%) said that digital is “essential” to their charities, and that they would be unable to “function without it.” Yet more than three out of four respondents (78%) felt that charities will miss out on fundraising and income generating opportunities if the sector does not engage with digital.

It’s time that the sector confronted the issue of the digital skills gap, and decided how to tackle it. As NCVO’s Back Britain’s Charities campaign reveals, fundraising is down by 20%, and competition for grants and earned income has never been so fierce. Without funds or earned income, charities simply won’t be able to help as many people.

We can’t ignore the digital skills gap any longer, and I think leadership is key to making it happen.

Balancing the professional and personal on Twitter

The Guardian Public Leaders Network ran a really interesting piece this morning by Tim Lloyd (@timolloyd), on how he tweets about his professional life as head of digital communications at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills alongside his hobbies.

It’s a dilemma which all of us who tweet regularly will have wrestled with at some point. Are you tweeting too much about your life outside work? Do your colleagues think you spend too much time on Twitter? What would your boss or potential employer think of your tweets?

I’ve blogged before about how Twitter and LinkedIn are vital for what I do, enabling me to catch news as it breaks, build relationships with key stakeholders (including journalists) and market what my organisation does. I’ve also brought in valuable corporate partnerships via Twitter and other social media. Yet still, when I log on, I ask myself many of the same questions that Lloyd does.

There is no straightforward answer to this, although I suspect it simply comes down to common sense. Nevertheless, in the week when Lord McAlpine confirmed that he will be taking action against high profile tweeters such as Sally Bercow, what you do- and don’t- say on Twitter has never seemed more important. (Worryingly, this BBC article about the McAlpine case indicates that even a retweet can be libelous).

So how can you balance the personal and professional on Twitter? I think you need to ask yourself three questions:

•             What’s the purpose of my Twitter account? If you’re solely focused on tweeting about your personal interests, e.g. you’re a keen cakemaker in your spare time and want to tweet about your baking and connect with other bakers, then I don’t see why that’s a problem, unless you are tweeting about this a lot when you’re supposed to be working.

•             Always ask yourself: would I feel comfortable if my employer or potential employer saw this? If they googled your name and found your Twitter feed, would you be happy with what they read?

•             What does my organisation’s social media policy say about employees’ use of social media?

I also think you have to trust your instincts. If you feel that you may be tweeting too much about your personal life, then it’s possible that you are. But remember that it can work the other way too. Using Twitter solely to broadcast what you or your organisation does is a turn off.  And the same principles apply in real life.  Think about colleagues who you’ve enjoyed working with. I bet many of them were professional, knowledgeable and driven, but they could also have a conversation about their weekend.

Social media is a warm and personal medium and no-one should be afraid to use it in that way alongside the professional stuff. Incidentally, Ryan Holmes, the CEO of Hootsuite, has written about the value of getting your employees engaged with social media. Isn’t it time that all organisations thought this way?

Is your charity looking for trustees?

I’ve been really inspired by all the great stuff going on during Trustees Week . It’s reminded me how being a trustee is a fantastic opportunity to learn new skills and make a difference, and how charities can benefit enormously from trustees’ experience and knowledge.

I’d go so far as to say that a good board can make or break a charity. A friend of mine recently started a job heading up a service at a well known national charity. She is very talented and was offered a promotion after she’d only been there for a few months. But she turned it down, leaving for a senior role at another charity. Why? “I had concerns about the board,” she told me. “They’re nice people, but I was worried that our CEO had surrounded herself with ‘yes men’ as trustees.  Trustees only add value if they scrutinise the charity’s strategy and activities properly. If they are not offering constructive criticism and challenge then the charity could suffer.”

Does this sound familiar? I’m sure we’ve all come across charities like this. On a similar note, Charity Bod (@charity_bod) has written an interesting blog about boards and groupthink, and an article on The Guardian Voluntary Sector Network this week unveiled some interesting new research about how boards may limit themselves by recruiting trustees solely through personal recommendations.  I worry that finding trustees could reach a crisis point in the sector over the next few years. I’m in my mid-30s and know lots of professionals who could make a great contribution as trustees, but very few of them want to do it, either because they don’t know enough about what is involved or the roles aren’t advertised.  Lack of diversity is a serious issue for boards too. As a young(ish) ethnic minority woman, I want to see more people like me as trustees.

So, I’m setting out my stall here today. I’m keen to be a trustee again. I was previously a trustee and company secretary of a charity for 5 years, only stopping in 2009 when I began the intensive CIM course (now achieved). After almost 5 years at Lasa, I’ve built up a wealth of experience in marketing strategy, digital communications, PR and business development. I’m particularly interested in leadership, organisational change, professional development and mentoring. I’ve got a good network of contacts across both the charity and private sectors and I’m also a qualified lawyer. Read more about what I can offer.

I’m signed up with all the usual trustee finding agencies (as well as the excellent Young Charity  Trustees group) and have been approached about various trustee roles, but none of them have been quite what I’m looking for yet, and I want to take the time to find the right opportunity. I would like to help a national charity, ideally frontline (although that’s not mandatory), based in London. I am open minded about causes but do want to work with a dynamic and ambitious organisation who are hungry about fulfilling their mission.

If this sounds like your charity, then please do get in touch. I would love to hear from you.