Monthly Archives:March 2015

Twitter fail whale

Twitter fail of #BattleForNumber10

Mar 27, 2015 Posted by :   Stewart No Comments
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Regardless of whether you felt Ed or David won #BattleForNumber10, social media lost. Well, maybe not social media but Twitter etiquette did.

Both the big parties hammered out corporate graphics with key messages. So far, so standard. But they insisted on almost constantly demanding retweets.

Aside from the uninspiring imagery and the paucity of vision in the messaging, what’s the problem, you may ask?

First of all, it looks gauche. Asking for RTs should be held in reserve and used very, very sparingly. Constantly seeking retweets gives a sense of desperation. It’s almost, indeed, like these two political parties don’t understand how to connect with real people.

The other reason for not asking for retweets is that it is functionally useless. Anyone who has enough Twitter followers to make their retweeting worthwhile already knows how Twitter works. They already know that if they want to share something with their friends then they can retweet it. They also have a much better idea of what is of interest to their followers than anyone else. Let them be the judge cos ye cannae make them retweet you no matter how much you ask.

As well as desperation, it carries a tang of that familiar Westminster entitlement, especially the Tory effort. “We’re not really interested in communicating with you, just act as a broadcaster for us.”

But the cardinal sin that has been committed here is that these two organisations are not focused on the audience. These parties are focused on their own communications desires and not on providing what is relevant and interesting to people they are talking to. In short, they are thinking about themselves, not about the voters. (Plus ça change n that, ken?)

Who are these graphics for? Surely they should be aimed at undecided voters. What you want from undecided voters is not that they retweet your material, but that they, you know, vote for you. The “please retweet” message is wasted space.

The secret is to make content that’s relevant, compelling and of interest to the people you want to reach. Seed it into conversations that your supporters are having with people in target voter groups and let the organic power of content do the rest.

This requires a bit more effort, a lot more imagination and a real understanding of the interests and cares of the people you are trying to reach. That’s what I love about social media. It forces our political masters to connect directly with us.

And speaking of connection, did you spot the way the two big parties answered replies to their tweets?

Me neither. That’s because they didn’t. They’re broadcasting, not talking. And social media is about talking.

A much better way to do it was demonstrated by Plaid Cymru on the parallel discussion. (Declaration of interest, they’re a client of mine but I did not produce this image.)

It’s short, sharp with an inspiring message. It’s a clear, striking image – and a not a picture of a politician. The crucial thing is to note that Plaid Cyrmu quickly answered the first reply

Social media is about conversation, not begging for retweets.

Stewart Bremner's book of indyref graphics

Foreword to Stewart Bremner’s book of Yes graphics

Mar 20, 2015 Posted by :   Stewart No Comments
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Stewart Bremner, Yes Scotland Digital’s graphic designer and artist, played a crucial role in our campaign for an independent Scotland. He has now produced a beautiful book, packed with some of the images he created. Stewart created a lot of material in his spare time – both before and after he joined my team. His output was prolific, showing his dedication and professionalism.

With a selection of graphics from each month, it’s a very moving chronicle of the arguments we made but also serves as a guide to the discussions we need to be having. You can buy Stewart’s book here.

Stewart very kindly asked me to write a foreword, which I reproduce here to give you a flavour of what he has produced.

Foreword

Stewart Bremner’s art came to define the look of Yes Scotland’s very successful digital campaign.

While we lost the vote, the Yes campaign increased support for an independent Scotland by between 15 and 20 percentage points. In 2011, some 900,000 people voted SNP – roughly analogous to support for independence. In 2014, 1.6 million people voted Yes. We did this together in the face of the might of the Westminster establishment, an almost universally hostile print media and a series of increasingly desperate No campaign tactics, from being told that we couldn’t use our own currency to the vague, hyperbolic mumble that was “the Vow”.

We overcame these obstacles together on the doorstep – and through social media, which is the electronic equivalent of chapping doors and chatting to neighbours.

The wonderful thing about the Yes movement was that it was vibrant, organic and powered by fantastic content: pictures, video, writing and graphics. We did everything we could to support the efforts of emerging media platforms. Wherever there was great content being produced, we would jump on it and share it with our increasingly large social media audiences.

While such grassroots, “organic”material is very powerful, organic also needs seeding, watering and exposing to sunlight. Part of my job as Head of Digital at Yes Scotland was to make sure that we recognised and encouraged people producing the kind of content that we wanted to see, the kind of content that would persuade undecided voters to make the decision that Scotland’s future is better in Scotland fans.

That was how Stewart’s work first came to my attention. There were many people making great use of imagery in the wider Yes movement – and some people doing fantastic work, but Stewart’s work stood out for me. It captured the passion – and the compassion – of the core spirit of the Yes movement.

Yes, we had slick “corporate” images at our disposal – and these played their part but to campaign on social media, you need to grab people’s attention very, very quickly. You need to be inventive. You need to be imaginative. You need to to to playful or striking.

One look does not fit all. Campaigning on social media means pushing multiple messages to multiple audiences on multiple platforms in multiple ways to drive multiple conversations. Stewart’s art was perfect for this – and it reached literally millions of people. His imagination would roam across the messages of the day, latch onto a promising idea and turn it into something visually striking that we could then deploy to reach a target audience. And we spent a lot of time analysing all our work to make sure that it was reaching beyond those who had already followed us on social media, that it reached people who weren’t yet engaged with us and that it spoke to them.

My philosophy as a manager is not to hire people who will do what I want. I hire people who will amaze me and exceed my expectations. Stewart certainly fitted those criteria – and at Yes Digital I was blessed in the creative, reliable, committed people I worked with.

This book is a moving chronicle of the evolution of the Yes movement’s conversation with the people of Scotland. That is conversation is not yet finished, despite us losing the vote on 18. September, 2014.

I believe that we will ask ourselves again, perhaps in the none-too-distant future, if we want to take control of our own resources, our own country and our own destiny. When we have that conversation, we will need art like Stewart’s. We will need people like Stewart Bremner, whon can engage and enthuse and entertain and convert.

We will need to win next time and to do that we need to start working today, so this is not a history book. This is a book packed with the images that can inform discussions today. We need to start working today for the next independence referendum. We need to continue educating and entertaining and converting. And Stewart’s art is perfect for that. I look forward to seeing what he produces next time round.

– Stewart Kirkpatrick was Head of Digital at Yes Scotland from August 2012 to September 2014. A former Editor of scotsman.com and the Caledonian Mercury, he is a digital content strategist and social media consultant.

As I mentioned, you can buy the book here.

The NewsShaft team hard(ish) at work(ish)

Saying ‘bampots’ on the Today programme and nearly swearing on News Shaft

Mar 5, 2015 Posted by :   Stewart No Comments
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In the past few weeks, my mellifluous tones have been inflicted on two very different kinds of web audio.

The first was BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Pace disruptive media but this MSM behemoth is still a big deal and, while I really enjoyed it, I was absolutely terrified. So overwhelmed was I that I didn’t even ask about a fee. I did, however, manage to use the word “bampots” on air and can now retire happy (apart from the fact I can’t afford to and will have to work ’til long past I’m dead).

Today provide their clips as short, embeddable segments on individual web pages. See atomisation, see clever? For example, here’s me (“bampots” at 01:41):

Today, as opposed to Today, I was the guest on News Shaft, a politics and news podcast from the ever-inventive team behind Dateline Scotland and Scottish News. This time I did mention a fee and they said that they’d let me on for for nothing but if I wanted to make a donation, I should go to NewsShaft.com.)

Their approach and set-up is very professional. In terms of the post-indyref media space, they have established themselves as being innovative and committed to high production values. And, if my maths are right, they are second only to Wings in terms of crowdfunding heft.

We will do the indyref dance again. And when we do, those of us who want to put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands need professional media outlets to provide scrutiny and a different perspective from the Westminster Establishment’s well-funded mouthpieces.

Wings will be around for a long time to come. So, I suspect, will the NewsShaft team (in whatever guise). Who else?

Anyway, here’s the podcast. Despite extensive briefing on not swearing, I nearly blurted out “bloody” at 24:38. Oh and Springtime For Hitler is at 2:10.

Cutting from the Times newspaper

‘Leading digital media consultant’: it’s in the papers, it must be true

Mar 4, 2015 Posted by :   Stewart No Comments
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No less a paper than the Times today described me as “one of Scotland’s leading digital media consultants” which is nice…

Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown

Scotland’s social media insurgency

Mar 3, 2015 Posted by :   Stewart 4 Comments
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It’s been a gaffetastic period for unionist politics on social media. However, this is neither trivial nor ephemeral. Something very big is happening.

On social media, it appears, Scotland is already pretty close to being independent.

Labour has had a rough time: Kezi Dugdale told us all their leaflets were printed in England and reminded us that they failed to save Ravenscraig.

An unfortunate official advised us all to vote Tory to keep out the SNP.

Previously, a candidate tweeted a picture of herself standing outside a health centre, commenting on short staffing. The health centre was, of course, closed and had been replaced by a brand new one next door. (Later explanations about taking the picture there to get the sign in kinda missed the point.)

(I take no pleasure in this, by the way. I want to see all progressive parties campaigning effectively on social media – even if I disagree with them about the constitutional arrangements of these islands and even if many progressive friends would dispute that Labour is progressive. I digress…)

But now we have the cherry on the cake – and it’s from the Tories/Lib Dems not Labour. Some marketing genius in the bowels of Whitehall has decided to plaster assorted public works with the slogan “funded by UK government”. No doubt this was supposed to persuade voters not to back “separatist” parties in the general election.

Instead an entirely predictable memeplosion has blasted across Twitter (and Facebook in a different way) north of the Border. You can’t move for images of assorted Westminster-inspired disasters with the label “funded by UK government” slapped on them. This has been very covered by Wings Over Scotland and CommonSpace so I will only present a couple of my favourites.

First we have Maggie and Mr Timetable himself – and image I suspect SNP supporters will be making sure we all see a lot of in the coming months:

And we also have a shot of Ravenscraig:

The interesting thing about all this is that it’s all one way. Labour are mightily outgunned on social media in Scotland. The Tories, despite their enormous Facebook budget, remain irrelevant. Every misstep (or even just every step) they make is spotted, amplified and made hay with almost immediately.

I always tell my clients that, when it comes to political campaigning, the days of off-the-cuff, hit-and-hope tweets are long gone. (Find out more about my services here.)

As a former member of the Yes Scotland senior management team, this rings some bells with me. It’s what used to happen to us on a daily basis in the mainstream press. Everything we did was subjected to intense scrutiny and thrown back at us. We were held accountable for the cock-ups of people on the margins of or outwith the campaign.

As Head of Digital, my job was to focus on the media environment where things were a bit fairer: social media. We educated, informed and enthused our supporters. We sought out, seeded, promoted and encouraged other websites, groups and users.

While Yes Scotland may have been wound up. All those people, groups and websites have not gone away. They remain enthusiastic and committed. The Yes Digital legacy is that social media landscape in Scotland is heavily pro-independence.

Another consequence of the indyref campaign is that a lot of these people who are active online have despaired of traditional media. As customers, it took them for granted. As citizens, they feel it’s skewed the political landscape of their country. Now, they have formed their own digital landscape.

It’s an environment that needs to be treated with more respect than throwing together a trite slogan like “funded by UK government”. Scotland is different.

Proof of this can be found in the extraordinary crowdfunding campaign of Wings Over Scotland. (It’s a little-known fact that whenever you create a blog or website, you are contractually bound to refer to that site with the prefix “controversial”. Regardless of your views of the site’s tone, it is a must-read for anyone interested in Scottish politics.)

Speaking as someone who has started an online publication and knows how difficult funding is, what Stuart Campbell has achieved is utterly astounding. In the space of 24 hours, he raised more than £75,000. (At time of writing the total is £88,000.) A publication which can raise that kind of money in that kind of time is a serious player.

By my reckoning, Stu Campbell has a larger freelance budget than most news and features editors in Scotland.

Not only have a very large number of people of Scotland created their own new media landscape – they’re putting their hands in their pockets to keep it thriving.

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