Content Orchestration & Influence Measurement (January 23, 2011)

Context of C.O.I.M

  1. Content is king.
  2. Conversation is content too.
  3. Open conversation is authentic communication and is therefore trusted whether positive or negative.
  4. Static content — the type often found on organisations' websites is only read by the owner/author and competitors.
  5. Content is more than *marketing sentiments* and supporting images and downloadable stuff.
  6. Listening is only useful when it's converted into actionable insights.
  7. Actionable insights need to feed into business decisions.
  8. Initial contact, engagement and conversation doesn't necessarily have to happen on your website.
  9. Content needs to be placed *where the audiences go*.
  10. Your website should be a subset of your content authoring and analytics activities.

 

Coim

 

Web content management in the traditional sense: I have some websites and I use an XYZ WCM to build them, will necessarily morph. WCM will enable content to be deployed to popular destinations. See sketch above. This is: Content Orchestration & Influence Measurement.

Tips and observations

  1. Increase content creation effort. By how much? An order greater than the effort taken to select a WCM tool and create the look and feel.
  2. Content orchestration takes insight, involve the views of audiences and people that use the Internet on a daily basis.
  3. Current and accurate content is better than highly-polished and out-of-date, reduce the risk threshold.
  4. If the feedback path doesn't exist, build it (see sketch above). There are more gains to be had from a campaign than just *sales leads*.
  5. Overcome obstacles. I recently worked with an organisation that wouldn't use YouTube because IT policy blocked access. Tail-wags-dog!
  6. Be holistic, be open, be urgent, be agile.
  7. Regarding measurement: be imaginative with your data but don't imagine your data.

 

Tweeting authorities (December 19, 2010)

The Influence Metric

Some local authorities have opted to focus on Twitter rather than Facebook, others have managed to develop both. This analysis concentrates Twitter activities exclusively. I've used klout.com to produce this set of numbers. It offers another useful insight into how local authorities use social media to engage with citizens.

Read how to understand the Klout Influence Metric here: klout.com/kscore. Influence is determined by a variety of factors including retweets, @messages, follows, and lists. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.

My previous analysis can be found here:

1. How social is your Local Authority?

2. Local Authorities on Facebook

 

Observations:

Some Twitter @names are indicative of the perceived need for a Twitter channel but may become a limiting factor as the purpose of Local Authority Twitter streams becomes clearer. For example, my hometown, Southampton, has named it's stream "sccevents". It's not memorable and its scope in future will become more about citizen engagement, going beyond an events listing service.

@camdentalking <-- demonstrates the need to be an early adopter. (@camden and @camdencc already taken)

General note:

1. I'm not sure why local authorities choose not to follow-back? It's a kind of arrogance in my view. If you're worried about being overwhelmed by tweets; use lists to categorise your followed folk.
2. Use Twitter to engage, discuss, win-over. The announcements about bins, road closures etc are all good but there's so much more to be achieved. Set-up and stick to #hashtags. Exampe: #bypass, #bins, #abandonedcar, #citizenpraised.

Table key:

T = true reach: is the size of your engaged audience and is based on the followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages.
A = amplification: is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100.
N = network: indicates how influential your engaged audience is, also on a scale of 1 to 100.
S = style: there are 16 Klout communication types, typically local authorities fall into 3 styles: Thought Leader, Specialist, Explorer. Lewisham is a notable exception, it's listed as a Feeder. For further explanations of these styles, see below the table or visit www.klout.com.

 

Local
Authority
 Twitter name

Klout
score
T
AN
S

Glasgow

 GlasgowCC 69 870 50 74 Thought Leader
Edinburgh Edinburgh_CC 68 551 50 73 Thought Leader
Brighton & Hove BrightonHoveCC 62 968 45 67 Thought Leader
East Renfrewshire* EastRenCouncil 61 170 39 66 Thought Leader
Walsall walsallcouncil 58 797 41 62 Thought Leader
Belfast belfastcc 57 698 35 64 Specialist
Sheffield SCCPressOffice 56 626 35 64 Specialist
Southampton sccevents 54 367 33 58 Specialist
Swansea SwanseaCouncil 53 986 31 58 Thought Leader
Devon DevonCC 53 927 31 59 Thought Leader
Kent kent_cc 52 1000 30 58 Specialist
Newcastle upon Tyne NewcastleCC 51 378 28 56 Specialist
Christchurch dorsetforyou 51 654 28 58 Specialist
Kirklees KirkleesCouncil 51 248 29 57 Specialist
Nottingham nottinghamnews 50 605 26 57 Specialist
Derbyshire Derbyshirecc 49 295 23 58 Specialist
Solihull SolihullCouncil 48 50 27 51 Explorer
Lewisham LewishamCouncil 46 848 21 55 Feeder
Leeds leedscc 46 742 22 55 Explorer
Salford SalfordCouncil 45 544 22 54 Explorer
Camden camdentalking 44 205 21 55 Thought Leader
Lincoln lincolncouncil 42 267 20 48 Specialist
Norfolk NorfolkCC 41 738 18 49 Specialist
Lambeth lambeth_council 37 882 16 46 Explorer
Derby DerbyCC 29 209 12 34 Specialist
St Helens sthelenscouncil 22 243 11 34 Specialist

*Apologies to East Renfrewshire for missing you off the list. If your local authority outperforms any of those listed above, please contact me.

Klout Twitter styles (from klout.com)

Thought Leader

You are a thought leader in your industry. Your followers rely on you, not only to share the relevant news, but to give your opinion on the issues. People look to you to help them understand the day's developments. You understand what's important and what your audience values.

Specialist

You may not be a celebrity, but within your area of expertise your opinion is second to none. Your content is likely focused around a specific topic or industry with a focused, highly-engaged audience.

Feeder

Your audience relies on you for a steady flow of information about your industry or topic. Your audience is hooked on your updates and secretly can't live without them.

Explorer

You actively engage in the social web, constantly trying out new ways to interact and network. You're exploring the ecosystem and making it work for you. Your level of activity and engagement shows that you "get it", we predict you'll be moving up.