charity marketing conference - emily munford - digital reputation management

The Role of Digital in Reputation Management

CHARITY MARKETING CONFERENCE

8 OCTOBER

Reputation Management

Emily Munford, Head of Digital

SOCIAL, WEB, EMAIL, SEO, DIGITAL CONTENT

Agenda

• Set the scene

• How we manage our reputation

• When it works well…and when it doesn’t

• Key learnings

Summary 2013 TOTAL MEDIA COVERAGE

Summary 2013 NEGATIVE STORIES CONCENTRATED IN CERTAIN PAPERS

RSPCA digital

• Facebook - 510,000 Likes

• Twitter - 172,000 followers

• Pinterest, Google +, YouTube

• 1.2 million visits pm to website

Reasons why people like us

• Active – we are the “Government” body

helping animals (but we’re not)

• Trustworthy – what we say is correct • Trustworthy – what we say is correct

• “Go to” organisation for animal welfare

• Professional – 190 years of saving animals

Reasons why people dislike us

• Authoritarian – we prosecute

• “Political” campaigning – hunting, badgers

• Disagree with our policies

• Frustration – lock ’em up!

• Customer service issues – we don’t do enough

NB: Insert

more positive

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TEXT STYLES

Digital Review & StrategyFebruary 2012

more positive

RSPCA

person and

animal pic

from

photolibrary

So how do we manage our reputation?

PeopleONLY AS GOOD AS THE PEOPLE YOU’VE GOT

• Press/Digital/Call centre/Frontline staff

• Strength in external partnerships• Strength in external partnerships

• Statements prepared and approved (1 or 2)

• “On the ground” liaison officer, if needed

• Take things off line where possible

Tools and productsSEO, SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING, ANALYTICS

Using SEO

• Language being used – linguistic profiling, keyword research

• Content on our site reflects both the issues and the language

being used – content gap analysis, copy optimisation

• Content is in the line of sight of those who are discussing • Content is in the line of sight of those who are discussing

the issues – blogger outreach, article syndication, social links

• Outcome = search engines see us as being relevant and

authoritative; we rank highly; people find our content when

searching

…we appear above DEFRA

Our badger campaigns page is,

on average, two positions higher

than the DEFRA page on the than the DEFRA page on the

same subject for the search

phrase badger cull on

google.co.uk

Processes

• On call rota and comms

• Social media ambassadors• Social media ambassadors

• Major Incident Group (MIG)

• Crisis fundraising appeals

Social media monitoring

• Create queries that monitor topics that are relevant

to our work

• Use the results to ascertain the opinion of both the

public (Facebook, Twitter etc), press (news sites) and

special interest groups (forums) and use this special interest groups (forums) and use this

intelligence to inform marketing, PR and press activity

• Monitor the perception of the RSPCA brand,

specific topics as well as measure the level of coverage

per campaign

Processes ONGOING CONTENT AUDIT, SECTION BY SECTION

• Major Incident Group

• Social cover email group• Social cover email group

So what happens in practice?

Sometimes it works…SEALS STORM SURGE

• 108 pups in one month – usually 120 in a

year – quick reaction, sell in to TV, put out

request for help, regional releasesrequest for help, regional releases

• 80% released

• Celebrity endorsement

CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TEXT STYLES

Seals

• Sky, BBC, ITV all covered release

• Regular updates on social media

• 4,000 retweets on one update

• Raised £110,000

• “Saved the day”

Strong images are key

Sometimes it doesn’t work so well…

ONE FATEFUL WEEKEND IN DECEMBER…

• Article saying we are ‘sinister and nasty’ –

sensitive as we are seen as Goliath

• Inundated with queries about a disabled dog

• Horses in flood plain/seal stuck in a pool

Negative press

RSPCA has become 'sinister and nasty', warns

head of the Countryside Alliance…to stop

donating to the “once great institution” and

says charity is more interested in animal rights

than promoting welfare

How we responded…

• Statement to press and social; rally the troops

• MIG established; information chain set up

• Regular updates; repetition of message

• Used photo and facts to counter accusations

When we have all the pieces in place…

• End non-stun slaughter

– 56,000 signatures– 56,000 signatures

• Badger cull

– 304,112 signatures

– biggest e-petition

-

Constantly building our reputation

Creative messaging

Reinforcing key messages

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOUR FAMILY

ABANDONED YOU?

HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=8DKRXXCKAOKHTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=8DKRXXCKAOK

In summary

• Right people; right processes; right tools

• Power of content – images, video

• Embrace the shareability of social• Embrace the shareability of social

• Speed and agility but readiness to

disengage

• You can’t win every time

Any questions?

Thank you

EMILY.MUNFORD@RSPCA.ORG.UK

Over to you…

• What one thing would damage

your charity the most?your charity the most?

• How could you manage it most

effectively on digital?