The Twitter

7 August 2023

Digital charities, AI and the end of tweet of the month

This month’s roundup is a week late because I had a tight deadline. I was happily focusing on finishing my latest client project – rewriting a website for plain English.

I always enjoy this kind of work. And I was delighted when the client told me they needed “a professional pedant”.

To me, that is not about enforcing grammar rules: it’s about attention to detail and making sure your content is not just consistently written but consistently presented.

It means noticing, for example, that a particular design feature displays as a particular weight of heading, which means that the next subheading needs to be a level down. (Users might not notice, but getting the hierarchy of headings right is important for search engines and screen readers.) It also means knowing whether the style guide for your website includes Oxford commas or whether (like Oxford University) it tells you to avoid them. Many people might find this sort of thing boring. I love it.

Things I learnt this month: digital charities, journalism and AI

July saw the launch of two reports about how charities use digital media and digital tools.

First came the Charity Digital Skills report, Zoe Amar’s annual UK survey of digital skills, attitudes and support needs across the sector. When asked about their digital priorities, 79% of respondents said they wanted to improve their website, online presence or social media. If that’s you, you know where I am!

Then there was the annual M+R Benchmarks Study on how charities use digital media. It compares year-on-year statistics as well as giving a comparison between US and UK organisations.

One finding is that email messaging is a growth area, and this means that “lead generation” (growing your mailing lists) has become more of a focus. I was interested to hear that there is a debate in the sector about petitions versus “hand raisers”. You’ll have seen the latter on Facebook adverts – something that appears at first to be a petition but is actually just giving the public a statement to agree with. Personally, I find these misleading and unethical, but I assume that’s what the debate is about.

My third webinar this month was a Women in Journalism event about AI, with a panel of four specialists: Emma Byrne, Charlie Beckett, Nic Newman and Marcus Ryder.

It’s very clear that – in both business and societal terms – generative AI falls into the category of “disruptive”. In business terms, there are definitely both opportunities and threats.

I was interested to hear how much work is happening in this field and the resources that are available to journalists.

Charlie Beckett highlighted the LSE initiative JournalismAI (I’ve just signed up for their newsletter), and Marcus Ryder told us about the Six Principles for Responsible Journalistic use of Generative AI and Diversity and Inclusion produced by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. As the panel said, it’s not going to go away so journalists must use it responsibly.

Tweet of the month

The Twitter bird logo, with the words "Save the bird" above it.Well, where do you start? And we are supposed to call them “posts” now, which is pretty boring.

Twitter users with long memories will know why I chose the “Fail whale” for this month’s featured image.

It seems longer, but it was only on 23rd July that Elon Musk announced the name change to X with the words “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”

It wasn’t long before brands started trend-jacking. The LibDems were among the first with “Not ALL the birds.”

#RIPTwitter started trending. On Twitter. Which I would normally say felt a bit meta, except the word Meta now means Musk’s social media rival. Which, of course, launched the Twitter rival Threads this month.

People immediately noticed that Threads had a few accessibility issues. The lack of alt text for images is pretty basic. There was also the issue that there wasn’t a desktop version, and forcing users to use their phones isn’t great for people with poor eyesight or “fat fingers” (i.e. most people over a certain age). But they are making tweaks to the platform all the time, so it should improve.

There’s obviously been a lot of commentary and what this all means, and it will take time for the new social media landscape to settle down. Meanwhile, I’m trying out Threads and Bluesky, so we’ll see how it goes.

In the mean time, enjoy this tweet from the Web Design Museum on the evolution of the Twitter logo.

Blowing my own trumpet

Earlier in the month, I had some really nice feedback from my previous client project. I’m used to the messages about what a difference I’ve made to someone’s website (although I always appreciate them), but it was the bit afterwards that really made me happy. The message ended: “I feel I’ve learned a lot.” That gave me a nice glow because the best contracts are when you’re working with the client collaboratively, not just as a supplier. And the best outcome is when they end up feeling more confident about keeping things going after I’ve gone.

In other news

Coldplay have released a sustainability report for the first 12 months of their latest world tour. The independently verified report shows they have so far produced 47% fewer CO2 emissions than their last stadium tour.

People often ask about my Music Declares Emergency T-shirt and when I tell them it’s about the music business taking action on climate, the next question is often “how?” Well, this is how.

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