The genius in the crowd

How charities can be an amplifier, not a mouthpiece

Chris Cox (@chriscox75), Digital Communications manager - Mind

mind.org.uk

The genius in the crowd

How charities can be an amplifier, not a mouthpiece

Chris Cox (@chriscox75), Digital Communications manager - Mind

mind.org.uk

Hi, I’m Chris Cox and I first presented this at a CharityComms event in early

2014. I’m the Digital Communications Manager at Mind - and used to be at

another mental health charity called Rethink Mental Illness, which is where I

was when the events I describe here happened…

Hi, I’m Chris Cox and I first presented this at a CharityComms event in early

2014. I’m the Digital Communications Manager at Mind - and used to be at

another mental health charity called Rethink Mental Illness, which is where I

was when the events I describe here happened…

We won't give up until everyone experiencing

a mental health problem gets support and respect

We won't give up until everyone experiencing

a mental health problem gets support and respect

When I joined Mind after my four years Rethink Mental Illness, one of the

things that really excited me was the vision “We won’t give up until

everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and

respect”. This is not a passive vision, it’s compelling and ambitious.

To me, key word is ‘everyone’ because its not just about the people that

come to us. It implies that we reach out…

When I joined Mind after my four years Rethink Mental Illness, one of the

things that really excited me was the vision “We won’t give up until

everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and

respect”. This is not a passive vision, it’s compelling and ambitious.

To me, key word is ‘everyone’ because its not just about the people that

come to us. It implies that we reach out…

25 September 2013

25 September 2013… sometimes we find things which aren’t either supportive or respectful

You may have heard about the outcry over ASDA’s ‘mental patient’

costumes around Halloween 2013. Here’s a clipping from the website at

the time. But what happened on Twitter next wasn’t just the usual

‘outcry’…

… sometimes we find things which aren’t either supportive or respectful

You may have heard about the outcry over ASDA’s ‘mental patient’

costumes around Halloween 2013. Here’s a clipping from the website at

the time. But what happened on Twitter next wasn’t just the usual

‘outcry’…

Managing risk

• Source: Sky News online

Managing risk

• Source: Sky News online

When this originally broke in the evening of 25th I was on my way home,

had a call from a colleague while walking through the station.

And seeing various angry tweets about this costume, felt the need to respond right

away, but also to keep eye on risk - so I didn’t deliver a direct accusation

(for all I knew Asda’s website could’ve been hacked) but instead a challenge, a

question “Please explain ‘Everyone will be running away from you in fear

in this mental patient fancy dress’ which is how it was described on the website.

When this originally broke in the evening of 25th I was on my way home,

had a call from a colleague while walking through the station.

And seeing various angry tweets about this costume, felt the need to respond right

away, but also to keep eye on risk - so I didn’t deliver a direct accusation

(for all I knew Asda’s website could’ve been hacked) but instead a challenge, a

question “Please explain ‘Everyone will be running away from you in fear

in this mental patient fancy dress’ which is how it was described on the website.

ASDA posted that on 25th

September. By the morning

of the 26th a huge amount

of people who’ve had

experience of mental health

issues were

posting selfies with the

hashtag #mentalpatient

here’s just a few of these…

ASDA posted that on 25th

September. By the morning

of the 26th a huge amount

of people who’ve had

experience of mental health

issues were

posting selfies with the

hashtag #mentalpatient

here’s just a few of these…

…for some of these people

we think,

this may have been

their first public declaration

of having had mental health

problems…

…for some of these people

we think,

this may have been

their first public declaration

of having had mental health

problems…

And that use of irony,

‘here’s me in my mental

patient outfit’ really gave lie

to the notion that this was a

po-faced protest.

It used humour to tackle

serious issues.

And that use of irony,

‘here’s me in my mental

patient outfit’ really gave lie

to the notion that this was a

po-faced protest.

It used humour to tackle

serious issues.

It was real genius, and an

amazing day to be working

in mental health.

It was real genius, and an

amazing day to be working

in mental health.

• Approx. 20k negative tweets about Asda • #mentalpatient used 7k times in period• £25k donation from Asda• Mind got 1,629 pieces of coverage • 9 media volunteers shared their stories• Celebrity supporters!

The spread…

• All those tweetshttp://bit.ly/asdatweets

• The first onehttp://bit.ly/firstmptweet

The spread…

• All those tweetshttp://bit.ly/asdatweets

• The first onehttp://bit.ly/firstmptweet

So who was the genius behind it all? This is

Bexatron, she was the very first to tweet this idea,

and she is not the ‘Head of Viral Awesomeness’ at

Mind. She is someone with an interest in the issues,

a twitter user and a genius.

And I just want to point out this is not so much viral

content as viral concept - more powerful! Like when

Apple make a new product, they produce a single

Keynote speech which inspires tons of articles,

blogs, videos, and conversation

They use remarkably little effort to promote this

launch because others do it for them.

So perhaps sometimes it’s better to inspire and

amplify than to generate?

So who was the genius behind it all? This is

Bexatron, she was the very first to tweet this idea,

and she is not the ‘Head of Viral Awesomeness’ at

Mind. She is someone with an interest in the issues,

a twitter user and a genius.

And I just want to point out this is not so much viral

content as viral concept - more powerful! Like when

Apple make a new product, they produce a single

Keynote speech which inspires tons of articles,

blogs, videos, and conversation

They use remarkably little effort to promote this

launch because others do it for them.

So perhaps sometimes it’s better to inspire and

amplify than to generate?

The next day…

• we can help educate your audience (email Rethink received from a digital agency)

• …charity took to Twitter to encourage users to post pictures (HuffPo)

• …charities have taken their own action against the costumes - on Twitter (Mirror)

• …giving a voice (Various)

The next day…

• we can help educate your audience (email Rethink received from a digital agency)

• …charity took to Twitter to encourage users to post pictures (HuffPo)

• …charities have taken their own action against the costumes - on Twitter (Mirror)

• …giving a voice (Various)

But this decentralised genius was not reflected in the

coverage the next day.

We at Rethink got an opportunistic email that

referred to the events and talked about ‘educating

your audience’

…when it was them who educated us

The media gave charities credit for originating the

idea, when we didn’t.

And even charities in general often say “giving a

voice” when our supporters and our beneficiaries

may already have them, on social media.

But this decentralised genius was not reflected in the

coverage the next day.

We at Rethink got an opportunistic email that

referred to the events and talked about ‘educating

your audience’

…when it was them who educated us

The media gave charities credit for originating the

idea, when we didn’t.

And even charities in general often say “giving a

voice” when our supporters and our beneficiaries

may already have them, on social media.

Strangely, the Asda #mentalpatient events

were very quickly followed by another similar issue

- Thorpe Park had an attraction called the

Asylum…

Still running Rethink’s digital media at the time,

I wanted to take a quick (and admittedly not

precise!) poll to find out if followers felt Thorpe

Park were out of line, so used these hashtags

#AsylumOK and #AsylumNO - a ‘hashtag vote’

Strangely, the Asda #mentalpatient events

were very quickly followed by another similar issue

- Thorpe Park had an attraction called the

Asylum…

Still running Rethink’s digital media at the time,

I wanted to take a quick (and admittedly not

precise!) poll to find out if followers felt Thorpe

Park were out of line, so used these hashtags

#AsylumOK and #AsylumNO - a ‘hashtag vote’

And the AsylumNO hashtag ended up

being adopted by a campaigner called

Katie, getting 6,000 people to sign a

petition and some media coverage. I

cannot take credit for inspiring this as I had

not the slightest intent of sparking

something like this off!

I underestimated our audience. And this

seems to be happening a lot.

[NB This presentation pre-dates the

#nomakeupselfie phenomenon that also

created by users!]

Here’s another more recent example of a

slightly bigger brand who underestimated

their audience…

And the AsylumNO hashtag ended up

being adopted by a campaigner called

Katie, getting 6,000 people to sign a

petition and some media coverage. I

cannot take credit for inspiring this as I had

not the slightest intent of sparking

something like this off!

I underestimated our audience. And this

seems to be happening a lot.

[NB This presentation pre-dates the

#nomakeupselfie phenomenon that also

created by users!]

Here’s another more recent example of a

slightly bigger brand who underestimated

their audience…

…this is a protest about Coke’s

failure to use their power as a sponsor of the

Sochi Olympics to speak out against Russia’s anti-

gay legislation. It’s using a web app that Coke

made for people to ‘personalise their own Coke

can’

There is an old world that is being left behind

here…

…this is a protest about Coke’s

failure to use their power as a sponsor of the

Sochi Olympics to speak out against Russia’s anti-

gay legislation. It’s using a web app that Coke

made for people to ‘personalise their own Coke

can’

There is an old world that is being left behind

here…

This is the old world, where digital marketing was all about getting clicks

Let them come to us, we said, as if sat on a digital throne…

This is the old world, where digital marketing was all about getting clicks

Let them come to us, we said, as if sat on a digital throne…

The power of story

• Blogs as a way of helping someone accept a life event

The power of story

• Blogs as a way of helping someone accept a life event

People coming to us is not a bad thing of course

and we at Mind use personal stories to help

people who come to our website.

Perhaps after they or someone they know has

been diagnosed with a condition

to help show the human side,

show that there is life after diagnosis

People coming to us is not a bad thing of course

and we at Mind use personal stories to help

people who come to our website.

Perhaps after they or someone they know has

been diagnosed with a condition

to help show the human side,

show that there is life after diagnosis

But sticking to one-way engagement is fatal.

Conversations are happening everywhere.

And this is more like the modern world of online

engagement… Terrifying isn’t it?

But this is where the power lies, in countless

conversations that span various different social

platforms …Conversations we may need to get

involved in.

But sticking to one-way engagement is fatal.

Conversations are happening everywhere.

And this is more like the modern world of online

engagement… Terrifying isn’t it?

But this is where the power lies, in countless

conversations that span various different social

platforms …Conversations we may need to get

involved in.

What’s the answer?

What’s the answer?So how do charities stay visible,

deliver on their mission and

use the benefits of having a respected brand

in this scary, decentralised conversation?

The word curation is used a lot about user-

generated content, but perhaps that sense of

simply finding and presenting is too passive, too

high-handed considering what’s really

happening out there?

We need to find a way of thinking and talking

about digital contact with our supporters

which respects them and helps unlock their

genius…

So how do charities stay visible,

deliver on their mission and

use the benefits of having a respected brand

in this scary, decentralised conversation?

The word curation is used a lot about user-

generated content, but perhaps that sense of

simply finding and presenting is too passive, too

high-handed considering what’s really

happening out there?

We need to find a way of thinking and talking

about digital contact with our supporters

which respects them and helps unlock their

genius…

What’s the answer?

So my model for the future is to do with this woman…So my model for the future is to do with this woman…

The choir

• Not giving a voice - making them all bigger and bolder

• Collective strength

• Support, respect and nurture

That’s Sam Stevenson from the Military Wives

choir in 2011. And choirs are used a lot in

metaphors for good reason. It is a community

and the collective strength is emotionally

binding….

That’s Sam Stevenson from the Military Wives

choir in 2011. And choirs are used a lot in

metaphors for good reason. It is a community

and the collective strength is emotionally

binding….

The choir

• Not giving a voice - making them all bigger and bolder

• Collective strength

• Support, respect and nurture

But most importantly culture of empowerment

is absolutely essential. As I see it, confidence is

possibly the most important commodity. Leaders

don’t just dictate, they coach and keep the

group on track.

And that is the power that charities have…

But most importantly culture of empowerment

is absolutely essential. As I see it, confidence is

possibly the most important commodity. Leaders

don’t just dictate, they coach and keep the

group on track.

And that is the power that charities have…

The choir

• Not giving a voice - making them all bigger and bolder

• Collective strength

• Support, respect and nurture

Not simply by getting more people to respond to what we say

Not just kindly ‘giving supporters a voice’

Not by acting as picky curators of their best efforts

But by giving supporters the skills tell their own stories…brilliantly

…and then why not equip them to help others to tell their stories?

Not simply by getting more people to respond to what we say

Not just kindly ‘giving supporters a voice’

Not by acting as picky curators of their best efforts

But by giving supporters the skills tell their own stories…brilliantly

…and then why not equip them to help others to tell their stories?

The choir

• Not giving a voice - making them all bigger and bolder

• Collective strength

• Support, respect and nurture

If we can nurture confidence and ability in people affected by the issues that

drive our missions, our supporters could be inspired to give us something

tremendously valuable back…

To donate to us the trust and strength that it takes to stand up and sing.

We all have choirs - they all have voices - let’s help them to take the stage.

If we can nurture confidence and ability in people affected by the issues that

drive our missions, our supporters could be inspired to give us something

tremendously valuable back…

To donate to us the trust and strength that it takes to stand up and sing.

We all have choirs - they all have voices - let’s help them to take the stage.

Thank you