the emerging art and science of engagement
DESCRIPTION
Presentation to the Third Sector Digital Communications and Social Media Conference 2011-06-14TRANSCRIPT
The Emerging Art & Science of
Engagement
14th June 2010 / www.cogapp.com
/ Introduction
/ Engagement and the Digital Revolution
/ Four Case Studies
/ Five Principles
/ Questions
Presenter Agenda
Alex Morrison - Managing [email protected]
@Alex__Morrison
www.cogapp.com
Cogapp
Founded in 1985
35 professional staff
Offices in Brighton and New York
Museums • Publishing • Charities • Public Sector
• Culture, Media & Sport
Our practice deals with technology, people and
organisations to deliver long-lasting results
Engagement and the Digital
Revolution
EngagementMany people may care about
your cause but reaching them
via conventional media is difficult
and expensive.
Engagement
Engagement is Relationship + Action
Action is what we want i.e. participation, support,
donations, sponsorship campaigns, shopping,
subscriptions....
Action depends on relationship
Digital media reduces cost and increases capacity for
relationship (and therefore action)
Engagement
A few weeks ago I saw a TV programme about the
English National Ballet
I went on their website and signed up for their e-mail list
Engagement
This feels like a perfect example of digital engagement
English National Ballet has gone from nothing to being
able to ask me for £150
The cost to them is almost nothing
Everyone who buys a ticket via this e-mail contributes
£150 and self-identifies as a potential top-tier supporter
Even if I don’t sign up, I have a positive experience - it’s
always nice to be asked to a party
The Digital Revolution
Anyone who has any doubts about the importance
of digital media should review the following chart
Case Study: Kidney Patient
Guide
Kidney Patient Guide
Renal failure is essentially incurable
Treatment (dialysis) is enormously expensive
Patients do not feel direct benefit from medications and
self-management
Patients who are better informed do better with self-
management and have better outcomes (and are less
expensive to support)
Kidney Patient Guide
Initially funded by Wellcome Trust to look at medical
animation for patient information
User base was a renal clinic in Wrexham
Scope quickly expanded to cover all aspects of patient
experience
Project launched 1999
Kidney Patient Guide
Project always included an element of social media -
a bulletin board
Community carefully curated at start by project team
including clinician
Now essentially self-managing
Volunteer moderators
Technical and admin assistance from Cogapp
Kidney Patient Guide
Original board had to be replaced in 2004 (hacked)
Currently 2,322 registered users on new board
44,557 posts on 5,183 topics
Top post has been viewed 267,596 times
34 current users have made more than 100 posts
Kidney Patient Guide
Virtual user community has taken itself into the real
world
They organise meetings and have done a sponsored walk
Kidney Patient Guide
Our challenge now is to turn
success into funding and growth
We’re delivering value but potential funders don’t
yet recognise it
Case Study: ICONS of
England
ICONS of England
Campaign of public engagement funded by Culture
Online
Asking the question: What are the icons of England in
the 21st century ?
Wider purpose was to get people to engage with public
culture
ICONS of England
Launch based on an old-fashioned PR campaign
On the day (6 Jan 2007) we had coverage in every
national newspaper except the FT
Worldwide coverage included the Hindustan Times and
the Chicago Tribune
The New Zealand prime minister gave us a mention
The Sun nominated their own Icons: including Jordan’s
boobs, Chicken Tikka Masala, St George’s Cross,
Blackpool Tower, Chips and 12 pints of lager
ICONS of England
ICONS was ambushed by the fox hunting lobby
We managed our way to an honourable draw
ICONS of England
A key part of our strategy was collaboration
ICONS worked with 39 partner organisations on joint
projects and promotions
Notably Mencap, Age Concern and the Enviroment
Agency
!
Target Visits Actual VisitsTarget
ParticipantsActual
Participants
Year 1
Year 2
150,000 200,066 6,000 217,713
600,000 1,349,256 26,000 233,385
ICONS of England
ICONS served its purpose
It exceeded its targets by > 100%
It is now being retired
Case Study: ParaData
ParaData
A living archive for the men and women of Airborne
Forces
Regimental and official archives of the Parachute
Regiment plus personal contributions
Turning the museum inside out
Launched in December 2008
Originally a subscription service costing £15
ParaData
Traffic is up 80% on previous year
Facebook connection now up and running
Connection via Facebook to real world events at
Duxford
ParaData
1,600 registrations in last year
3% of registering users donate on registration
Registration accounts for about 50% of donations
Average donation is £12.79
Additional income from print-on-demand sales
ParaData
Our challenge now is to reach the wider
Airborne Forces community and increase
income
Case Study: Ai Weiwei
Case Study: Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, architect,
political activist and blogger
One of the most prominent figures in Chinese
contemporary art - think ‘Damien Hirst with a political
agenda’
Case Study: Ai Weiwei
The One-to-One installation at Tate Modern which
accompanied the Sunflower Seeds exhibit generated
about 100 videos per day over roughly 200 days - a total
of 22,947 videos
All content was echoed on to the Tate website along with
Ai Weiwei’s replies
Twitter hashtag also established and video postings
echoed to the hashtag #tateaww but...
Case Study: Ai Weiwei
Our challenge now is to get Ai
Weiwei out of jail
Note that Twitter content may evaporate and you
won’t necessarily get any analytics (ditto Facebook)
Five Principles of
Engagement
Five Principles
1. Be engaging
2. Be engaged
3. Be authentic
4. Be agile
5. Be serious
Principle 1: Be engaging
Put users/customers/community at the heart of all your
work
Go where they are and engage with them there
Take the virtual into the real and vice versa
Partner with related organisations to reach their
communities
Good content, usability and hygiene are key
Principle 2: Be Engaged
The next challenge for organisations is to operationalise
digital media
Develop computer literacy throughout the organisation
No-one is (fully) computer literate - we’re all learning
Join, attend, train, evangelise
Most of all... take part
Principle 3: Be Authentic
Don’t pretend to be something you are not
Stand for something and speak from the heart
People respond to your sense of seriousness and purpose
Principle 4: Be Agile
Throw spaghetti at the wall
When it sticks you know you’re on to something - invest
in that
Use the method of ‘Lean Start-Ups’
Do ‘customer development’ as well as ‘product
development’
NB: Good infrastructure is a pre-condition for agility
(staff, management, systems, content assets)
Principle 5: Be Serious
These are hard times and your costs are certain
Make sure that the value you create is also certain
Value is only real if it matters to your decision makers
Establish, create and measure value
Five Principles
1. Be engaging
2. Be engaged
3. Be authentic
4. Be agile
5. Be serious
Establish, create and measure value
