✅ Monday briefing #13: COVID-19 comms, informed retweets, overshadowed sisters, pandemic paralysis, say do gap, troll spotting, pitch bitch, CommsHero Week…

Social media, campaigns, research, corporate purpose, tools, agency insight, crisis and risk planning, and events

Good morning. My name is Stephen Waddington. This is a weekly summary of news from my blog and topics discussed in a community of practice that I run on Facebook. You’d be welcome to join us. My thanks to all the contributors.

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Social media platforms

💬 COVID-19 COMMS: Conversation in Facebook groups is becoming even more polarised. Memes and content from local media and health professionals cut through where branded content fails. Dan Slee analysed 500 Facebook posts. Source: Dan Slee.

🔠 TEXT LIMIT LIFTED: Facebook is ditching the 20% text constraint on ads although there has been no official announcement. The limitation previously in place has been quietly removed from help pages. Spotted by: Stuart Bruce.

📰 LINKEDIN STORIES: The professional social media site is the latest platform to adopt a Stories format in a bid to make the platform friendlier and improve engagement. The new feature enables users to post videos, images or text to their profiles that disappear after 24 hours. Spotted by: Andrew Smith.

⚠️ INFORMED RETWEETS: A new Twitter prompt suggesting that users read news before sharing is rolling out globally. The move aims to limit disinformation shared on the platform. It has led to the number of users opening articles before retweeting increasing by a third. Spotted by: Andrew Smith.

Campaigns

🗽 OVERSHADOWED SISTERS: Netflix is celebrating the release of its Enola Holmes movie by placing statues of women alongside the men who overshadowed them. Women including Enola Holmes, Frances Dickens and Mary Hardy have been placed alongside statues of their more famous brothers. Spotted by: Shayoni Lynn.

Research

🔮 FUTURE OF PR: The role of communications has received greater recognition during the COVID-19 crisis. Dr Jon White and Shayoni Lynn are working on a CIPR project to explore future opportunities for PR related to behaviour insights. Source: Shayoni Lynn and Dr Jon White.

🦠 PANDEMIC PARALYSIS: CMOs are facing budget cuts of up to 25% according to a report by Don’t Cry Wolf (disclosure I’m a NED for DCW). More than a third have prioritised digital marketing to make up COVID-19 revenue shortfall while two-thirds acknowledge a mismatch in consumer expectation. Source: Stephen Waddington.

Corporate purpose

🖖 SAY DO GAP I: Mars has been slammed on social media for rebranding Uncle Ben’s as Ben’s Original. VP Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Andy Pharoah said that the COVID-19 pandemic is separating the companies that say things from those that do. Source: Stephen Waddington.

😑 SAY DO GAP II: Hootsuite has walked away from a deal with the US immigration agency after it polarised opinion within the company. An internal committee had previously agreed to proceed with the deal on the basis that social engagement was a force for good. Spotted by: Máire McGrath.

Tools

👹 TROLL SPOTTING: Can you spot a troll? Clemson University has built a tool to enable you to pit your wits against fake social media accounts that spread false information. Spotted by: Dan Slee.

💻 WORKSPACE AND WORKFLOW: Notion is a workplace and project management tool that combines a team wiki with Kaban boards for workflow and shared documents. It’s an alternative to Asana and Trello. A single user version is free to try. Source: Ellen Forster.

📈 TRENDING TOOL: The Social Media Analysis Toolkit published by the Mozilla Foundation enables you to figure out how and why stories are trending on internet platforms. It helps track stories by scanning 4chan, 8kun, Reddit and Twitter. Spotted by: Dan Griffiths.

Agency

☹️ PITCH BITCH: Hoffman’s Chris Owens has some smart suggestions to level the pitch playing field following an experience that resulted in no one being appointed. Meanwhile PR Network’s Nicky Regazzoni asks how agencies qualify leads. Spotted by: Phil Szomszor.

Crisis and risk planning

🆘 COVID-19 PLANNING: The reality has hit in the UK that COVID-19 will continue to dominate our lives for at least the next 12 months. We need to learn to live with the virus, respect masks and distancing measures, and plan for future waves. Source: Stephen Waddington.

⛑️ RISK COMMUNICATION: How an organisation communicates during a crisis is as important as the information that it shares according a HBR article. People ultimately seek certainty and closure, but in lieu of this, openness and honesty is critical to trust. Spotted by: Sheena Thomson.

Events

😎 COMMSHERO WEEK: 50 speakers will share advice, best practice, and case studies. My optimistic and upbeat session on Thursday at 11am will explore the opportunity that COVID-19 has created for professional communicators. See you there!