For a long time I’ve had a problem with social media.
Actually I should rephrase that …
For a long time I’ve had a problem with people who claim social media is all that matters.
Part of it is because too many companies have approached it as free media.
Part of it is because too many agencies have approached it like it’s a magazine.
Part of it is because ultimately, everything can be social, not just things on certain platforms.
And that’s why, for all the hype it gets, the amount of social media campaigns that have actually been truly social [as in, gained traction and awareness beyond their core audience eco-system] is relatively small.
Please note I’ve said ‘campaigns’, not one-off tweets … which, apart from the fact the idea of a ‘campaign’ on social is kind of an oxymoron … makes it even smaller.
And then if you add ‘successful’ to that group of criteria, it gets even smaller … with arguably only Ice Bucket Challenge and #MeToo being worthy of acclaim, which, let’s not forget, were both causes dedicated to righting human wrongs.
Which is why I have fallen in love with this social media campaign from Doncaster County Council for naming their 2 new grit-spreading trucks.
Please read it.
Read all of it.
I know it’s super-long but I guarantee you will love it.
Every single line and suggestion.
For me, it’s single-handedly the best social media campaign of 2017.
No, seriously … because a conversation from Doncaster County Council about their Road Gritters achieved over seven million impressions in 48 hours.
Seven. Bloody. Million.
I love this campaign for so, so many reasons.
I love that they treated their audience with a brain.
“We would like your name suggestions for two of our new gritting vehicles, please. Keep em clean and be original – we’d prefer not to spend the next few days trawling through responses of Gritty McGritface and Gary Gritter. 🙄”
I love that the people running it were empowered to respond to negative comments with wit and focus rather than – as is the norm – to back down and beg for forgiveness when someone challenges them.
“For those who say the council shouldn’t be wasting their money on this, we say getting the community interested and engaged in how their town runs is a good thing”
I love there mischief and humor with lines including …
“When you look at your grandchildren, what side of history do you want to tell them you were on? #DoncasterGrittingWorldCup”
But most of all, I love that one of the winning names was …
Gritsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Anti-Slip Machiney
… proving there is justice in the World.
Yet again, we see a campaign from an organisation that doesn’t have ‘social media experts’ dictating their approach being more successful than the output of an entire industry who claim to be the most informed people in their field.
Why?
Well, as much as I have met some truly brilliant social media strategists in my time, the fact is the vast majority fail because they forget the importance of understanding one key element in creating a social media campaign.
People.
Look, it’s not just the social media industry that is making this mistake, everyone in communication is … preferring to rely on data than some good, old-fashioned, get-in-the-weeds exploration and discovery.
This is not some anti-data rant, it’s just in our quest to drive speed and efficiencies, we are walking away from understanding the texture that makes any data worthwhile … the stuff that helps you develop ideas that feels it comes from the culture rather than an observer of it.
The Doncaster County Council campaign should serve as a reminder everyone about how to make great comms.
In these days where it seems the emphasis is on the platform, the reality is we’re all still trying to connect with humans so spending time to really understand how they think and do stuff is still the key to making ideas that makes a difference.
Not purely in terms of optimizating effectiveness, but in terms of how people feel, think and act.
You know, the stuff that makes sustainable differences to companies rather than this short-termism we have all fallen victims to because to quote John Le Carre, a desk is a dangerous place to view the World..