Inside content strategy – the tweet

Let me start by apologising to the Nando’s social media team who found their brand at the top of the trending list one evening out of nowhere. They later told me they panicked when they heard. It turned out ok, but I’m sorry for freaking you out.

I’m still open to receiving a black card. Just saying.

The culprit was a 10-word tweet. The only tweet I’ve ever sent that got discussed on national news, blown up on the big screen and everything.

Here’s what happened.

Launching a new political party

When The Independent Group launched as a new political entity in 2019 it was big news. Corbyn was trying to drag Labour to the left while the more extreme right wing Tory factions had been at large since the Brexit referendum. It was the perfect time to announce a new centre presence – with a contrasting approach to the toxicity of the incumbent parties.

The group was revealed when 7 Labour and then 3 Tory MPs resigned from their parties en masse. The press conferences were choreographed for maximum impact and it dominated the news cycle for weeks.

Each MP had their own digital team. But the group as a whole needed an identity. I was invited in as interim Head of Digital to oversee the launch. I was told I probably wouldn’t even need to do anything hands-on. Just being there as a calming presence would be enough.

As if ??

In the thick of it

The Independent Group launched straight into the media spotlight. A great deal of effort and negotiation had gone into coordinating the resignations, which represented a huge risk to the careers of those involved.?

Less preparation had gone into the digital campaign. An agency had created strong visuals for the big bang launch, including a brand, website and some social content. But our ongoing digital engagement was starting from scratch.?

It was a Catch-22.?There were no resources (budget, team, office, strategy) until the movement gathered support; but without resources how would the movement gather support??

As an example, the website crashed repeatedly under the sheer number of visits. There was some evidence of malicious behaviour but the main reason was that our hosting was underfunded. We spun this as a positive –?overwhelming interest from the public – which it was. At the same time, the site being down stymied donations.

The second challenge to a coherent media strategy was the sheer size of the task. It was a privilege to be at the helm of such an influential project but I can only liken it to being thrown into a tornado. Without any team (until we managed to recruit some volunteers) I was trying to cover media strategy, social media, the website, brand governance, supporter engagement, editing key documents, on my own.?

With moving goalposts.

Out of a different Airbnb each day.

Despite this, public support was resounding and the news coverage was fantastic. But on day 2 we hit a serious bump in the road. The strategy of the group – from policies to organisation –?was emergent. First resign. Then listen to the public. Then form policies in response.

This emergent approach meant there was little consensus about what we published. While I had a brief from the founding MP to run the social channels, another team wanted a stricter sign-off process – a level of pre-planning which would have killed reactive engagement and increased the friction in publishing at all.

Gary Lineker's rude joke

A good example of this tension is that when the group’s numbers reached 11, someone tweeted about what their sporting formation might be. Gary Lineker replied with a funny comment, alluding to MP Mike Gapes' surname.

I was sitting on a photograph of the group, assembled almost like a sport team, with Mike actually at the back! Imagine replying to Gary Lineker, with his millions of followers, with that picture and a funny caption. But the idea, along with many others, was choked in the tussle over sign-off.

Tweeting anything became virtually impossible.?

That’s why I’m so proud of the Nando’s post.

Cheeky Nando’s

After the first formal convening of the group of 11, the MPs went to Nando’s.

It was a brilliant photo op to show the group as relatable, down to earth, markedly different to the Westminster elitism everyone was so sick of.

Generating original content was essential for keeping the media narrative boiling. We worked hard to take photos, document events, clip media appearances, and capture the comments of group members whether in the chamber or on Twitter.?

When I saw the pictures from Amy O'Callaghan , the appeal was obvious. Smiley, human, lo-fi – the antidote to staged-managed PR shots you normally see of politicians. There was something about the collective as well; of individually important characters being happy as a group, doing the same activity, sharing the limelight, not caring about the optics.?

Some of the photos were taken before the food arrived. Although the pre-dinner shots preserved some privacy, the ones with the food were more intriguing. Who’s eating what? What’s the spice level? Who looks like they’ve never seen a plate of wing roulette before in their lives??

I had to get it out.

The fight for sign-off began. By this point I’d convinced people to have more leniency towards publishing replies, so I scanned the Twitter conversation and suggested a light response to Channel 4’s Gogglebox. They had tweeted something to Gavin Shuker and Mike Gapes about dinner. I urged that we should capitalise on this, and eventually got agreement to post the Nando’s selfie.

The reaction was brilliant.

People loved it. They analysed who had ordered what, where they were all sitting, the expressions on their faces. And mostly in jest – it was like setting up a huge joke for people to deliver their own punchlines.?

It struck a chord with people, that these MPs would go for a cheeky Nando’s. It was shared by celebrities and commentators. Before long, the restaurant chain was trending.

At that point in the evening, I realised I hadn’t eaten anything myself. There was really only one place I could go. I slipped into Nando’s on my own and enjoyed some peri peri while surfing the tide of hilarious responses on my phone.

But the best was yet to come. When I returned to my apartment and switched on Sky News, there, on a big screen, with the host and an expert in front discussing it, was the tweet.

What a buzz.

Off to a great start

Obviously the tweet was news because the group was top of the news cycle. And they were top because what they were doing was politically significant. But I enjoyed being able to stoke that fire in my role.?

In fact, I’m proud of the whole digital effort we made to launch The Independent Group. With no planning, limited resources and many obstacles, our 3-week campaign reached 1.3 billion people and took well over half a million pounds in donations. We picked up more Twitter followers than Momentum in 3 days.?

Marketing professionals who were watching the campaign unfold were impressed. Aaron Goldman of 4C Insights wrote:

The success The Independent Group is enjoying in the digital sphere is a reflection of the sound, social-first awareness campaign the nascent party has been running to date.?

Sure, we were flying by the seat of our pants, but the digital thread in the story was holding its own. The Nando’s tweet was an exemplar of our approach – continually creating content to stay at the crest of the news wave, the power of authenticity in an arena lacking trust, and the importance of being reactive and responsive.

It also showed that even in times of despair and cynicism –?or maybe because of the levels of despair and cynicism –?people still flock to hope.

And that gives me hope in return.

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