Mollie's recap of a seminar hosted by the wonderful CharityComms.
On a gloomy day in January, Fay and I went to London. The sky was grey, the trains were packed, and we were both in the middle of an extremely busy week. But we powered through and met in Paddington before making our way over to London Bridge with our big coats and umbrellas! Here, we were pleasantly greeted by the CharityComms team and some familiar faces before heading into our first panel.
Safeguarding Wellbeing Online
Featuring: Rebecca Fitzgerald (Strawberry Social), Kirsty Marrins (Freelancer), Louise Dawtry (Mind), Thomas Penn (Prostate Cancer) and Athar Abidi (Cancer Research UK)
Moderated by Kirsty Marrins, the panel shared guidance and personal experiences on how they manage and improve the wellbeing of their teams and themselves. From protecting your peace, to pushing back on workloads, or saying “no” to online abuse, each gave insightful advice.
Thomas Penn (Prostate Cancer UK) shared some great insights into how his team navigates the toxic environments that can occur online. He discussed the consequences charities can face when they have to consider hiding comments or blocking members of the online community, namely that people may not be able to access the information they need via social media. But in reality, Thomas countered, they will still have access to your charity. If the public wants to get in touch they can call, email, or attend an event. The most important thing is to make sure your social spaces are safe, for your followers and your staff too.
Kirsty Marrins (Freelancer) made an exceptional point that sometimes people are too quick to focus on the negative things they experience at work, and asked us to reflect on how often we celebrate the wins or the positive moments in our day to day work. She reminded us how important it is to celebrate and share the good moments with our teams,building morale and helping teams feel more confident, even when they are navigating negative spaces online.
Rebecca Fitzgerald (Strawberry Social) observed that social teams can’t leave it to the platforms to monitor and restrict abusive comments, as it’s apparent this isn’t a priority for them. But when comms teams set safety parameters and ensure social spaces are safe, their supporters and online community will trust and value them more. She also stressed that when it comes to online community safety, organisations, freelancers and agencies need to have a clear plan beforehand on what they will and won’t tolerate. This can take the form of a triage system or a flowchart to refer to when a negative comment arises. It’s all about the prep, then you won’t be caught off guard when these things happen.
Athar Abidi (Cancer Research UK) shared that social media teams sometimes have to deal with high levels of comments or messages that can be abusive, detail sad stories or include calls for help. In these circumstances, it’s not always likely that you can use a template answer to respond, so teams have to spend a lot of time crafting a reply. This can be difficult or potentially activating for people and can affect mental wellbeing. Athar said it’s important for teams to make senior management and wider teams aware of the negative comments coming in and give social media teams the support and time they need to step away.
Louise Dawtry (Mind) echoed Athar’s advice to always make managers aware of any negativity or online abuse teams are experiencing. Regular check-ins are important and give people the opportunity to ask for help and tools to move forward. Louise also shared that it's important for teams who are working with freelancers or agencies to also regularly check in with them in terms of online negativity, and to flag any upcoming campaigns that could lead to a spike in comments, to ensure everyone on the team feels able to work on that topic.
Getting the best from managing upwards
James Barker - Pancreatic Cancer UK
In this session, James explored what’s truly within your control, how to navigate what isn’t, and practical ways to manage upwards with confidence. During his presentation, he shared how managing upwards isn’t about hierarchy but about clarity, communication, and building a relationship that helps everyone to thrive. Sometimes, due to a lack of experience, people can feel they don’t have influence to help with decision making. To combat this, James shared some great advice to help us feel empowered.
When approaching team leaders:
Use evidence they trust
Developing your resilience in tough times
Ruth Richards
Ruth’s talk began with a strong reminder: resilience isn’t a personality trait, it’s a skill we can practice and develop. As a leadership coach, Ruth shared some self-coaching tools to help overcome imposter syndrome, tackle uncertainty, and overwhelm.
First she talked us through the Wheel of Resilience, a structure with five sectors that we all need to be fully resilient:
Perspective
The wheel made us consider how important relationships and life outside of work are, and that they ultimately will help us be better at our jobs.
I opened the blog by describing a pretty gloomy arrival in London. But after chatting with like-minded peers between sessions and during the networking hour, my mood completely lifted! It’s so important to connect with people who understand what it’s like working online and can share their own experiences.
Thank you to CharityComms for putting on a wonderful event - dare I say we want more? 👀🙏