nfptweetup

The cake and badges have arrived and we’re just one sleep away from celebrating NFPtweetup’s third birthday – I can’t wait!

See you there,

Teri

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Next up in our series of session previews is Joseph Freeman, Digital Community Executive at Diabetes UK, as he returns to tell us more about the ‘hideous piece of work’ Active Fat…

At last November’s NFPtweetup I (along with Laila, then of BHF fame but also on the bill at this tweetup) talked about the collaborative project between the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK called Active Fat. We shared our experiences of these three charities working together to combine their powers for the greater good. And it worked.

It worked so well that we thought we’d do it again for a second year – but bigger and better. More social media. Better calls to action. More coverage. But with the same, nasty Active Fat character (“active fat”, for those not in the know, is the fat the gathers around your waist that can lead to cancer, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes – all pretty frightening and a very good reason for us to all work together to raise awareness).

Armed with a fancy new website, new video and a Twitter account take-over, we talked to our combined followers across social media (and even in “traditional” press!) about how to fight off active fat. And it was fun, even with the more serious undertones of improving the health of the nation.

So how did we do? What challenges did we face? Will we get someone to dress up as the Active Fat character to talk at NFPtweetup*?

We look forward to telling you all about it…

Joe Freeman – @Diabetes UK (with Roberto Kussabi, @theBHF, and Aaron Eccles, @CR_UK)

*No one will be dressed as the Active Fat character. Sorry. Although for a pint (or donation, I guess) one of us will do his voice.

Is anyone else willing to chip in to experience this? I might do a whip round with a collection tin to see if we can make this happen!

Teri

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So, NFPtweetup turns three this Thursday but we’re already celebrating with session previews from all our speakers. First up is Rob Dyson, PR & Online Engagement Manager at Whizz-Kidz…

During party conference season, we’re always looking for new ways for our young people to engage with MPs and decision makers at Whizz-Kidz. This year we decided to do something a little different, and turned two of our young ambassadors into ‘interviewers’ using Audioboo, at the Labour and Conservative Conferences.

Audioboo is a web and smartphone based application that allows you to record five minutes of audio, attach a photograph and location data, and upload instantaneously to the web to share with the world.

Our Public Affairs Manager set up lunchtime meetings with as many MPs as possible – we also knew we’d be able to doorstep a few. After talking about the work we do, our two intrepid reporters - Jamie Green and Max Sampson, both 17 and wheelchair users – disarmed them by asking a few quick fire and fun questions using Audioboo.

All the interviewees, which included MPs and MSPs, as well as big-hitting journalists like Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Marr, and Sky’s Adam Boulton, took the audioboos in good humour. Some were very candid, and many tweeted their followers that they had met us; helping to raise awareness of our work.

I hoped for some nice content we could share on our website and social media – but when I pitched the set of 20 ‘boos to Clare Horton at Society Guardian, one interview with Ken Livingstone captured her imagination. We also picked up interest in the Diary column of Scottish current affairs magazine, Holyrood.

The social media-based project promoted Whizz-Kidz’s ethos; it was carried out by young disabled people themselves, and the light-hearted questions (including, ‘what’s on your iPod?’ Have you been to Benidorm?’ ‘Do you ever Google yourself?’) played with Whizz-Kidz’s particular brand of fun, friendship – and sometimes mischief. Our approach made the politicians and news journalists appear more ‘human’ than they ordinarily come across (mostly).

I’m particularly proud to be able to say that last week Whizz-Kidz won the Party Conference Innovation award at the Public Affairs News Awards; in front of a starry audience of MPs and sector professionals in public affairs, government relations, policy and communications.

It’s important to us that a young person and user of our services was creating this content, and contributing to its success. Beneficiary becomes producer and curator; this is an empowering combination. The media coverage we secured off the back of the ‘boos – and the recognition of an award – were the cherry on the cake.

Want to know more? I’ll be presenting on this (now award-winning) piece of work, and talking about how to engage your charity’s users as ‘producers’ at the next NFPtweetup on 24 November 2011.

In the meantime, you can listen to all of our winning ‘boo interviews on Whizz-Kidz’s audioboo channel: http://audioboo.fm/Whizz-Kidz.

We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday. If you weren’t able to get a ticket this time round, however, the event will be live streamed on the NFPtweetup Facebook page and follow the hashtag #NFPtweetup on Twitter for tweets throughout the evening.

See you soon,

Teri

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