The NHS is the UK's biggest employer. The South Central Region which stretches from Milton Keynes and Banbury in the north to the Isle of White in the south has almost 90,000 staff and a budget of over £5 billion. That is a lot of staff to communicate with.

The 'customer' base is over 4 million. How did they serve their customers in 2007? From the 24 NHS trust organisations in the region they provided the following customer services:

• Over one million A&E attendances
• More than 47,000 babies born
• Over 250,000 emergency 999 calls answered (86,000 were deemed life threatening.)

The NHS is changing. Organisationally and culturally. They are becoming more open. Engaging in dialogue with their 'customers' - patients. But change takes time. In the case of the NHS communicating with patients and prospective patients as well as almost 90,000 employees working 365/24 hours takes time and effort and so they have to use every communication tool available.

Tonight the Focus team are again video recording a 'town hall' style debate on a proposed change to health policy. Gone are the days when a decision was was made by unknown people and the public were simply told after the event if at all. The public debate has pro-change and anti-change supporters on the same panel and the publics response and feedback will be taken into account. NHS staff who could not attend personally as welll as members of the public will be able to watch the video recording of the event. Whilst not streamed live it will be online within a day or two so maximising the outreach communication programmes.

Like many of you outside of the USA you have probably never heard of this product but it could become a Harvard Business Case study in the near future and not because the brand is owned by J&J.

It is a story of an marketing campaign running for a while before getting picked up negatively online and then within a short time (48 hours or so) having suffered a 'firestorm' of negativity being pulled by the brands owners. For an excellent summary of the situation see AdAge Digitals coverage. For a UK PR professionals perspective see Neville Hobson's blog post. Also check out the AP newswire summary of the situation.

As an ex-Corporate Communications Director for a Fortune 500 global corporation I can only shudder at how I think we could have coped in a similar situation. In my days (10 years ago -  I know - a lifetime in digital terms!) we would have had time - maybe weeks - to react. That would have been enough time to make a careful decision, get our resources lined up and our story straight and have cleared it with internal and external legal experts and have the accountants look at the financial implications. That is a lot of 'stakeholders'. The bigger the company the larger the group to be communicated with.

Leaving aside specific issues on what happened and why in this case what it shows is that when it comes to online reputation the old 'guidebook' has to rewritten. Where I would have had days to get a response ready a few years ago there is maybe now only hours. This means some form of pre-prepared response or 'fast track' process needs to be in place. It also means companies (and their PR and marketing advisors) have to be using tools like Radian6 to be constantly monitoring online communities, Forums and blogs to see if unexpected or negative comments are developing and analyse why. This may just be enough time to react as long as long as the preparation and planning has been done before.

Full marks to Motrin for being so fast as they have pulled the advert and apologised... on their company web site.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is one of our podcasting and web video clients. Over the last couple of months we have produced a number of programmes for them.

We did a quick lifejacket education programme on a DVD for use at the Southampton Boat Show in September. We then created an online podcast version of it so they could use that for further outreach communication. We then edited a BBC programme to create a short education film on the work of the MCA in the Dover Straits (policing the shipping lanes) and on practicing rescue missions in the Scottish Highlands.

We have also just produced part 1 of a 2 part programme on the MCA's work on monitoring and inspecting dangerous goods entering Dover.

One of the challenges anyone faces in trying to engage with networked communities is finding what exists, who the participants are and who is the most influential people? 

Tools and techniques that can help in that task are most welcome. We recently interviewed Matthew Brazil, CEO and Founder of 6Consulting, a London based agency specialising in Social Media Monitoring and an authorised sales agent for Radian6 in the UK.

Radian6 has been gaining a reputation in North America and now the UK as one of those 'must consider' companies when it comes to tools to measure and track social media networks and their participants. 

Nice to hear that a UK company wins a global award. Step forward Wiggly Wigglers and their MD - Heather Gorringe. 

Dell awarded Wiggly Wigglers their Global Dell Small Business Excellence Award. The reason Wiggly Wigglers won....in Dell's own words....

Wiggly Wigglers, a rural England-based natural gardening company, was awarded by Dell and its global partners for its innovation and leadership in social media. Using tools like Facebook, podcasting and blogging, Wiggly Wigglers:

Want to know where your future customers will be and how to target them most cost effectively? Check out this research by Nielsen Online. (Source: e-marketer)

Without doubt over the next few years we will have new terms emerging talking about 'loose and tight networks' and 'spheres of influence'. What do I mean by that? Online friendship is not as tight as 'face-to-face' friendship but on the other hand for many things it is good enough. Some advice on a place to visit, a hotel to stay in or a restuarant to eat in? Why not use your social network or special communities of reviewers to give you objective (subjective?) data and feedback? For this type of purchase decision the 'wisdom of the crowds' can be a good source of data. Want to make a special purchase like a car or the choose a location for the best holiday in the world and you many want 'tight network' or 'face-to-face' input.

Todays generation of teenagers are totally plugged into the multiple layers of social networking. Just like when we went to school when there were groups of people who interacted across multiple classes as well as sports and after school activities so it is with online communities. The only difference is the scope and the use of technology to keep in touch. I have lost touch with many people I went to school and college with but todays youth will have contact books many levels deep as they can and do keep in touch with people through their ever expanding network of contacts. Now what will their sources of influence be?

For marketing and PR people it is important we understand just how these online networks and communities are developing and the impact they will have on future purchasing behaviour. The only way to really understand is to participate. Whenever I hear that a company is banning the use of social networks or say they are a waste of time I wonder just how well they understand the future consumer!

Its been a couple of weeks since my last post. Rather manic at the studio with projects for the NHS, a local ambulance trust, the Fire Service College, the Health Protection Agency and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. A mix of audio and video work.

So what has happened with the webinar that we did for EUFIC on November 5th?

We had just over 300 people listening in live on the day but it is what has happened since that is proved amazing. Since then the total number of listeners has reached just a handful short of 6000! You can check it out here. As you can imagine this has driven the cost per listener even lower that 70p. Taking into account the cost of the second event (the earlier one was on 24th Septerber) and that we did two webinars on 5th - one for the media and one for other people - the cost per user is now below 60p.

To be honest what was achieved could not have been done in any other way for anything close to the budget. Trying to mail out and get 6000 responses would have meant a 120k mailer (using 5% response rates). Using a cost of £1 per mailer the project cost would have been about £20 a response. A seminar programme would have been logistically impossible as we have had visitors from over 30 countries but assuming we could do a multi-country seminar programme of say 20 locations with 300 people at each we would have been talking about £50 per person to cover room hire, presentation equipment hire and refreshments etc. We would still have needed to get all the speakers travelling and I would guess even now two weeks after the event we would at best be only half way into the grand tour! (Having spent a while on the road doing these sort of tours I know how hard they can be on the people and that you need a break of a day between each event so a 20 location tour would take about 1.5 months to complete - a massive investment of management time and resource). For the EUFIC webinar we had the presenters in their office and linked to the studio in Southampton so it was really easy to reach an audience globally without the travel costs and time associated. Half a day of their time is all it took not including preparation time.

What we have found that has been really interesting is the social networking done by listeners. When one person attends a physical conference a few people back at the office may get a debrief and to look at the delegate papers but the 'pass-on' effect is usually low. What seems to be happening with the webinar is that those who listened in have e-mailed workmates with the link and then told us that is what they have done or asked us directly if it is OK to do so! (Err...yes!) Some of those that missed the live session also mailed us asking for a link to the recording. Obviously if it was a real seminar anyone who missed the date would have missed it completely. Not so with a webinar. Months after the event it is still 'live' for each and every new listener. Looking at some of our podcast and webvideeo for other clients many are still going strong thanks to Word of Mouth/Mouse marketing months and in some cases years after the event.   

It is just over a week to go until the next EUFIC webinar on their pan-European research project into consumer behaviour and use of nutritional information on food labels.

So what has been the results so far? They have had almost 300 people register to listen on the 5th November.

The results of the September webinar have been amazing. As mentioned in an earlier post the 'listen again' using the recording of the live event has been listened to over 2600 times in just over a month. Considering we only had a specially invited audience of about 50 the post-broadcast version has been taken up fast, far and wide.

We are hoping with more people registering an interest the numbers listening after the event will be even higher.

Looking at budgets it means that cost per listener is now just over 70p. On some earlier podcast the cost has fallen to under the cost of a second class postage stamp. A great ROI.

Pictures of the camera and video mixing desk set up are on Flickr.

We had two crewed cameras and one locked off. The lock-off was a wide angle on the panel and off to the side. One of the operated ones focussed on the audience - using close ups as necessary - and the other did panel and audience close-ups. That way we were able to capture all the action with a mini crew of three. The third person was on the mixing desk switching between camera feeds and mixing and editing as they went along. The mixed feed was being recorded onto tape for later post-production editing and special effects. This meant that by early afternoon the next day the finished production could have been with the client.

Equally if they had wanted to they could have takedn the feed straight out onto the internet as a live webinar.

Corporations could use similar set-ups to capture team meetings and events where all employees would find it hard to attend.

The NHS are usinbg it as part of their public outreach and engagement programme. Not everyone could attend but now those that did not can see what happened and listen to both sides of the debate.

An interesting post on how a new company, Handbag Planet , used Twitter to promote their product and more inportantly engage with customers to help them as part of the launch promotion.

What I liked was the level of interaction and care that the online customer services person took and the fact that Twitter was being actively monitored to pick up on the customers initial frustration. This was done publicly and of course the satisfied customer would have told all their friends. As it was - the promotion rewarded 'friend recruitment' - in this case a negative situation was rescued, two sales were made and probably many extra visits (from customers friends) resulted. 

All I need to do is ensure my daughter does not discover the new site. At the last count she had over 30 bags. Can someone tell me why so many are needed?

As part of our ongoing video and communication services to the South Central NHS Trust Communication Group we have been asked to film the  Water Fluoridation Public Consultation programme that is happening in the Southampton area.

We initially produced an information video explaining the situation and possible action that could be taken. This was added to the NHS web site.

We have now been asked to film one of the public meetings in Southampton which is happening Monday 20th October. For details of the debate see the article from Dentistry.co.uk

On the 20th we will have a multi-camera crew with a vision mixer taking the feeds from the public meeting. A video editor/producer will mix the feeds in real time and so in effect reduce (or remove) the need for post-production editing. We do have the option to stream the whole event live to the internet but we are not doing it in this case. What we will do is produce the video from the event and help South Central to put it online for people to see who could not make the event. That way they can maximise the value of the event by increasing their outreach.

As we have seen from previous experience you can expect up to 20x the number who attended the event itself to watch the online version. This really starts to change the ROI calculations. For a public body like the NHS it is important that they maximise enagagement with the public to ensure that the consultation is as wide as possible.

It's Parents Week in the UK next week (October 20th - 26th) so it seems most apt to be launching a new internet TV channel - TV4Parents.

We are deep in planning the final details of the launch with the client. This is very much a community site with parents driving the content and acting as interviewers to the gurus and subject matter experts. The target is parents and carers of children aged up to 12.

The board of directors and advisors are ex-BBC childrens programming, educational specialists, medical professionals and people from the world of digital marketing and community building. The vision of supporting parents to help their children reach their full potential drives the editorial policy as does the interaction with parents for input on topics to cover.

Radio interviews are lined up from Monday 20th and there is a launch celebration on 23rd in London (e-mail me at adrian@tomorrowschild.co.uk if you want an invite)

The channel will launch with over 20 videos already available and be releasing them at the rate of 1 per week. Over time a large online video library will be available for parents to access for free. Each video will have supporting documents - hints, tips and advice - in a resources section. Parents will join the i-Parents Club to get free access to the documents.

In early focus group feedback parents were very clear that pre-roll and pop-up or in programme advertising was regarded as intrusive. Parents were happy to accept post-roll advisory and information type ads and programme or channel sponsorship so this is the model that will be used.

It has been great working with the TV4P team over the last few months as we completed the focus groups and field research and started planning and recording the programmes especially those directly involving kids.

(Disclosure: I am 'on secondment' from Focus while working as MD of TV4P for its development and launch phase. Focus are doing the web site build out and hosting of the video server)

We have now done 2 webinars for our client - the European Food Information Council (www.eufic.org).

A few months ago they asked us to help them with their communication outreach programmes. We have previously recorded a 2 day seminar for them and podcast that (almost 200 people attended the conference. Over 2k have listened to it since).

We have also podcast a number of round-table conferences and events for them. Over the last two years these podcasts have been listened to or watched by close on 50k people. That is big ROI in terms of numbers of people reached. Looking at all the project costs over that time the cost per listener is about £1 and of course is falling everytime a new person listens in. Now compare that to the costs of direct mail, newsletters or brochures or even a physical seminar!

What did we do?

We built them a customised webinar system so they could present to the world from their offices in Belgium (or anywhere with an VoIP or internet connection). They have a web based master control panel that they use to control the slides and talk into a microphone. Their 'desktop' and their audio line feed is fed into our studios in Southampton in real time and via us (we are recording it for later podcast) to a streaming server so anyone can listen and watch the slides at the same time via a web site. After it is over the recording is uploaded to a web site so that anyone who could not virtually attend live can listen whenever they want.

So what was the result of the last webinar?

We had a restricted invitation list and 48 people listened live. They were able to ask questions via an IM/e-mail button on the web site. The presenters read the questions to air and then answered them. We recorded the presentation and linked it to the PowerPoint slides. We also recorded the Q&A session. This was all then put on a microsite which we hosted but was linked through from the EUFIC site. (Check out the EUFIC link to listen to the webinar). The client notified a few e-mail lists but mainly it was left to 'word-of-mouth' marketing to promote the webinars availability.

The result? In just under three weeks a total of 889 people have listened in. That is an 18X multiple on the live audience.

Looking at the results of the Food In Action conference we did for EUFIC almost a year ago this result is very similar. For Food In Action we had just over 150 people physically attend the event. Over 2250 people have listeded to the podcast recordings of the 2 day event since. That is a 15x multiple.

Looking at all the webinar budgets the cost per 'listener' is just under £2.50. Everytime a new person listens this cost goes down! Compare that to the cost of organising a physical seminar or even doing direct mail or newsletters. Webinars are very cost effcetive.

So what does the client think?

They have just booked their next conference for November 5th!

They have also asked we look at creatively reducing the cost per person attending by another 20%. They do not want reduced budgets but more people listening!

One of our clients - the Maritime and Coastguard Agency - decided on Monday that they wanted a podcast on the vital importance of lifejackets at saving lives at sea before the start of the Southampton Boat Show this Friday.

We quickly agreed the core objectives of the video with the client and created an ideal shot list script with outline voice-over. We then looked at what archive footage we had that we could use. Having found the gaps we realised we needed some close filming scenes of drowning and lifejacketed people in the water. We had to source a pool, lifejackets and a volunteer who would be happy to drown for us! 

Yesterday we did a quick location check and sorted out the video logistics and health & safety issues. We got client approval for the script and started to edit the archive footage ready for the new footage.

We shot the footage this morning (Wednesday) and added the standard MCA podcast 'header' and 'footer'. We then recorded the voice-over, added the credits and uploaded them onto the MCA podcast page. We have about 30k RSS subscribers a month so we should get a good number viewing the video in short order.

A US based newspaper group, the Chicago Sun-Times News Group, has used Pluck to build readers forums, blogs and communuties.

As with any organisation an active customer base is essential to maintain loyalty and allow 'up-selling'. In these challenging times for newspapers with declining circulation and advertising revenue having a community will help reduce this decline. The big question is - 'can it halt it'? Judging by the lack of newspapers being bought by the younger generation I doubt it. Todays 16 - 30 year old takes most news content online.

An interesting post on how US local newspapers are adding video capabilities. What is useful is to see how they have scaled back their initial thoughts on costs based upon the output needing only to be 'web quality'.

There are some really interesting ideas for corporates. When I was at Tektronix we had a number of business units in Europe. Each managed by its own VP and self sufficient. The challenge for senior management was there was little or no understanding across the divisions on what the others were doing. This meant any opportunity for cross-selling products was lost. I was in Corporate Communications and so funded a batch of video and still cameras and loaned them out to the divisions to film events and activities. We then took the tapes and made a monthly video news story. This was almost 15 years ago so the video had to be duplicated and sent by tape to each office to use in staff meetings but it did help.

Today with internet connections the opportunity for companies to work with video to help improve internal and external communications is much more powerful and cost effective.

Sun is to start its own live internet radio/podcasting seriers based upon social media and called 'Socially Speaking' The show joins other Sun 'open forum' inititives that have the objective of building and supporting communities.