the emerging art and science of online engagement

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 Directoralexm@cogapp.com

@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

Thank You. Questions ?

14th June 2011 / cogapp.com / alexm@cogapp.com