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WOMMA UK Espresso: Breast Cancer Care and social media

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When a person is diagnosed with cancer, the last thing they want is to visit a website packed with hard-sell calls to action. Instead, a site should serve as an online resource and a place of support for all those affected by the disease. This is something that Bertie Bosredon, Assistant Director of Services (Information and Multimedia) at Breast Cancer Care, understands.

Bertie was at cubaka HQ to present to London’s finest word-of-mouth specialists at this morning’s WOMMA UK Espresso briefing. Citing his blogging, Skyping mother-in-law as an example, Bertie explained how web users were savvier, more empowered and more demanding than ever before. As such, Breast Cancer Care’s social media strategy is underpinned by the simple, democratic question: how do users want to consume information online (and how should it be provided)?

You only have to glance at breastcancercare.org.uk to see how Breast Cancer Care has answered this question. The discussion forum is hugely popular, with 60,000 visitors and 1,500 active users per month. When Katie Price made a comment about scarring in a promotional interview for Asda’s 2009 Tickled Pink campaign, it caused such an uproar among the Breast Cancer Care community that a representative from Asda took to the forum just days later and agreed to pull Price from the press shots. A great illustration of the power of the groundswell.

In a refreshingly open move, the charity has put Twitter in the hands of every employee. Members of staff are encouraged to set up their own handles, with the week’s best tweeter playing host to ‘Twevor’, a small toy bird, on their desk. This approach may seem light-hearted, but it’s proven to be a real incentive that has raised the online awareness of the Breast Cancer Care brand while strengthening the social media credentials of its employees.

Bertie’s insightful and entertaining presentation can be found below. You can follow Bertie on Twitter @cafedumonde.

Breast Cancer Care and social media

View more presentations from WOMMA UK

Everything in this post is a lie

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“Don’t believe everything you read.” It’s a byline for today’s cynical media consumer, ingrained into us from a young age by our parents, teachers and peers.

But it catches journalists out too. This morning, PR Week published a story claiming that HSBC was launching a ‘distinct digital offering’ to rival that of Facebook. It quoted directly from the 35-page pitch document, giving details of the pitch process and target demographics, and included a comment from HSBC’s head of press.

But two hours later, the HSBC press office tweeted the following:

This has been met by scepticism from PR Week, implying that perhaps the document is genuine and was leaked. So now who do we believe?

This is still being played out on Twitter as I write, but what is clear is that HSBC has reacted in a very relaxed manner, responding to questions in an informal, chatty tone and employing tongue-in-cheek hashtags (#sticktoyourstrengths). This reaction has already been described as “weird” and “patronising” by some – but if this is a genuine leak, HSBC is keeping its cool impressively well. Whether this scores points with the many thousands of people who were affected by HSBC’s online banking and ATM outages last week, however, remains to be seen…

Socialising Media Training

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cubaka social media trainingProper media training is vital for anyone in business exposed to regular TV, radio or press interviews. Our partners LansonsLive are specialists in media training: ”saying the right thing at the right time in the right way and to the right people is never easy. Whether you are talking to journalists, politicians, investors or clients, we can help you get your message across effectively.”

But being ‘media-savvy’ now spans more than broadcast. Being truly savvy means developing your social profile and your total web ‘footprint’ (or ‘shadow‘) so that it is consistent and reflective of you and your views. This means developing an appropriate Twitter profile, knowing where the line between private and social is, knowing what is and isn’t appropriate to discuss, and coming to terms with the relationship between personal and business content and contacts.

The need to introduce ‘social’ into media training was highlighted recently when a young Liverpool footballer felt the need to express his alternative theory on 9/11 via Twitter. Not necessarily the right thing to do with such a sensitive subject, especially when your employers are an American Company (we contributed to the debate via the BBC here). This highlights the need for company-wide governance and individual social as well as broadcast training for individuals exposed to the media.

Is social media to blame for antisocial behaviour?

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Whether there were riots in your area or not, you will have been shocked by the sudden outbreaks of violence that spread from London across the country. Politicians and the media were quick to highlight the role of social media in the co-ordination the riots, but this doesn’t make social media a force for evil, I argue in Lansons Communications’ recent Britain in Turmoil bulletin:

The role that communications technology played in the London riots is being scrutinised in the press, in Parliament, and throughout the tech industry.

The argument goes that the riots were only possible because the rioters stayed several steps ahead of the police. They did this by organising times, places and next actions using social and communications technology – namely Twitter, Facebook, and BlackBerry Messenger.

David Cameron, speaking to the hastily recalled House of Commons, put it this way: ‘Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media.

‘Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill.‘

He went on to say: ‘We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.’

So it’s clear that the UK Government will be discussing plans for increased data-access, regulation, and the development of new powers to override or shutdown services if they suspect a return to civil unrest is being planned in these spaces.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) in particular has been positioned, if not as a cause of the riots, then certainly as an enabler. This technology allowed for coordinated planning in the hours prior to, and during, the riots as thousands of messages appeared across networks encouraging people to gather in numbers and behave in the way they did.

Sadly, our authorities were not listening to these messages effectively, so the majority of this ‘buzz’ went unnoticed. This raises questions as to exactly what methodology and processes the authorities need to put in place and what responsibility the technology providers have to help make this happen – thus the Government meetings with Twitter, Facebook and RIM.

Of course it’s not the first time social media technology has been at the heart of a social movement and thus drawn the attention of Government. In June 2009, while Western journalists were banned from entering Tehran, tech-savvy citizens organised and reported live on the revolution taking place from the streets. Technology was positioned as being a vital force for good; indeed the US State Department asked social-networking site Twitter if they would delay their scheduled maintenance in order to avoid risking disruption to communications.

The underlying question, of course, is not about the technology itself, and whether it is a good or an evil thing; by nature it is neither. The question is not about social media, but society itself. After all, rioting is not a modern phenomenon.

To read the rest of the ‘Britain in Turmoil’ bulletin, which includes views from a range of practice areas across Lansons, click here.

Oxfam Oxjam in Chiswick

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We nipped into High Road House for bacon and eggs this morning, and were pleasantly surprised to stumble across this pop-up concert in the window of Chiswick’s Oxfam Store.

An enthusiastic lady handing out leaflets explained that this was part of the ‘Oxjam‘ Music Festival. A number of artists have been recruited to play in the windows of Oxfam stores, which of course draws a crowd and, presumably, helps sales. Oxfam have run these concerts since 2004, it must work for them.

The artist in this instance was Anoushka Lucas; a regular at Ronnie Scotts and a real class act. She goes straight on my watch list – I’ll expect to see her on Jools Holland before too long.

When Mel met Mark O’Meara

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It’s always nice to escape the urban jungle for a bit and do some work in the field (almost literally in this case), especially when it’s to interview an internationally successful, two-time championship-winning sportsman. Lexus-sponsored American golfer Mark O’Meara is currently competing in the British Open, so I popped down to Sandwich in Kent to chat to him about life, links golf and Lexus.

http://www.youtube.com/officiallexusuk#p/u/2/5mnap33dR7M

As you can see, Mark is a fantastically nice, very friendly and down-to-earth chap. It was a genuine pleasure to catch up with him. And he makes a superb cup of tea.

Best of luck for the rest of the championship, Mark!

To read the full Q&A with Mark, click here.

Lansons Communications and cubaka digital ranked 24th in the Reputation Online Top 100 PR Agencies Guide

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Since cubaka partnered with Lansons Communications at the end of March this year, we have collaborated on a diverse range of projects including producing films of the Lexus LFA and redesigning the Pay YOUR way site.

It is fantastic that, after only three months of working together, cubaka and Lansons have now achieved 24th place in Reputation Online’s Top 100 PR Agencies Guide. We are all extremely happy with this news…

Unfortunately, the launch party, which was set to take place last night, was cancelled only a few hours before it was due to start. This news came soon after yesterday’s announcement that Reputation Online is closing, although the site will remain live to be used as an archive for digital PR news, and editorial will be integrated into new media age. While this is sad and surprising news for the whole industry, we’re glad that nma continues to maintain a strong online presence, and we can’t wait to see what Vikki Chowney has up her sleeve next.

Reputation Online’s demise by no means detracts from the fantastic recognition we have received, which bodes really well for the future as cubaka and Lansons cultivate their combined digital and PR offering.

Lansons takes stake in cubaka

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To say we’re pleased is an understatement.

PRWeek ArticleIt broke in the press this morning that Lansons Communications has bought a 25% stake in cubaka. This is hugely exciting for me, Grant, Mel, Damian, Paul, and all associated with the agency. It very much marks the beginning of a new phase in cubaka’s development; it wasn’t so long ago that we took the leap into the great unknown, and for Lansons to show such faith in us is a great boost.

So what does this actually mean for cubaka? Well, we’re moving offices straightaway (by all means pop in and say ‘hi’) so we can osmotically integrate with our new colleagues at Lansons HQ. We’ll be sharing our knowledge of social media, and hope to bring a new perspective to Lansons’ approach, having spent the last 2 years at the coal-face for brands such as Toyota and Lexus.

But we’re also ready to learn. Lansons is one of the leading independent PR agencies in the UK (and not a bad place to work by all accounts). Some aspects of what we do – outreach, blogger relations, reputation management – have their roots firmly in PR rather than marketing, and so come very naturally as part of the Lansons offering.

Together, of course, we want to be the best in the business. We’ll continue to offer our current and future clients the best in social media strategy and celebrated social space development and content, with award-winning PR to boot.

I’ll also be regularly failing to resist the English Breakfasts at Smithfields – so drop me a line if you fancy a chat over a bacon butty.

The Power of Product – some wise words from Scott Monty

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I saw @ScottMonty speak at Google’s biennial Gearshift event earlier in the week. He is a leading-light in Automotive Social Media, having helped Ford out of the toughest period in their history, and in to one of the most promising.

Without question, Scott has managed to develop clear and consistent principles to guide Ford into the era of social communications. While he makes it sound simple (“ninety percent of social media is just showing up”) it was clear, hearing him speak, that his close relationship with Alan Mullaly has helped, as he has been given a direct remit to get things done with the blessing of the CEO.

But the other thing that has really helped to establish Ford’s confidence in Social Media has been the step up in quality of some of its product. The way Scott Monty described it, they had to fix the business problem first. Then, and only then, could they approach social media in the belief that their reception would, on balance, be a good one.

Talking of a quality product, we were lucky enough to get some time with Toyota’s upcoming new sports car in Brussels last week. With Sam Christmas behind the lens we got some good shots (working around another shoot), and pulled together a short film.

The film and pictures have already run on Autoblog, Toyota’s official Blog, Tune86.com, and numerous other sites.

Ford UK and Toyota GB were the top 2 automotive companies in the recent SB100 survey of social brands in the UK (Automotive provided just 4 of the top 100 companies, Financial services just 1). With Scott Monty in charge of Ford on a global basis, it will be interesting to see how he adapts Ford’s US-centric social media principles and spaces (such as the Ford Story) to face the variety of issues and challenges around the globe.

You can review Scott Monty’s Gearshift presentation on Slideshare.