David Bowles, head of public affairs and Emily Munford, digital media manager, RSPCA

1. CharityComms
Keeping your reputation spotless

2. PROTECTING YOUR REPUTATION DURING
HARD-HITTING CAMPAIGNS
David Bowles
Emily Munford

3. Agenda
• Our reputation
• How we manage it
• When it works…and when it doesn’t
• Key learnings

4. Questions
• What do you think of the RSPCA
• Do you think people dislike us?

5. Reasons why people like us
• Active – we are the “Government” body
helping animals
• Trustworthy – what we say is correct
• Professional – 190 years of saving animals
• Pragmatic – providing solutions such as
Freedom Food

6. Reasons why people dislike us
• Authoritarian – we prosecute
• “Political” campaigning – hunting, badgers
• Bureaucratic – slow to respond to calls
• Frustration – why can’t you remove that
animal and lock that person up?

7. Summary 2013
TOTAL MEDIA COVERAGE

8. Summary 2013
TOTAL MEDIA COVERAGE

9. Summary 2013
TOTAL MEDIA COVERAGE

10. Summary 2013
NEGATIVE STORIES CONCENTRATED IN CERTAIN PAPERS

11. Summary 2013
NEGATIVE STORIES CONCENTRATED IN CERTAIN PAPERS

12. CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TEXT STYLES
Digital Review & Strategy
February 2012
NB: Insert
more positive
RSPCA
person and
animal pic
from
photolibrary
So how do we manage our reputation?

13. People
ONLY AS GOOD AS THE PEOPLE YOU’VE GOT
• Press/Digital/Call centre/Frontline staff
• Strength in external partnerships
• Statements prepared and approved (1 or 2)
• Director involvement, if needed
• ‘On the ground’ liaison officer, if needed

14. Tools and products
SEO, SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING, REPORTING

15. 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
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

16. …we appear above DEFRA
Our badger campaigns page is,
on average, two positions higher
than the DEFRA page on the
same subject for the search
phrase badger cull on
google.co.uk

17. 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
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

18. Processes
• On call rota and comms
• Social VIPS
• Major Incident Group (MIG)
• Crisis fundraising appeals

19. Processes
ONGOING CONTENT AUDIT, SECTION BY SECTION
• Major Incident Group
• Social cover email group
So what happens in practice?

20. 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 releases
• Great photos and story – 80% released
• Stay ahead of the complaints

21. Seals
• Get photos, say what yolu are doing
• Sky, BBC, ITV all covered release
• Celebrity endorsement
• 4,000 retweets on one update
• Raised £110,000

22. 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
• Alarm about horses in flood plain
• Seal stuck in a pool

23. Escalation of sensitive cases
• 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
• Engaged with horse complainer offline

24. When we have all the pieces in place…
• End non-stun slaughter
– 56,000 signatures
• Badger cull
– 304,112 signatures
– biggest e-petition
-
Huge increase in reach and engagement

25. In summary
• Importance of education/awareness raising
• What we can and cannot do; what we will
do; show we care
• Need evidence and partners at the ready
• Speed and agility but readiness to
disengage
• You can’t win every time!

26. Any questions?

27. EMILY.MUNFORD@RSPCA.ORG.UK
DAVID.BOWLES@RSPCA.ORG.UK
Thank you