Lessons from rugby, planning a backlash, paid media as part of a PESO campaign, Twitter analytics, a content calendar for 2019, and branded Alexa briefings.

I help out with Alnwick RFC under 13s rugby team at weekends. My son is one of the players. We headed to the coast for a game against Whitley Bay. Today was Silent Sunday, a RFU initiative where coaches stand back and players manage the team themselves. It’s a powerful form of learning and development in which players apply everything they’ve learned in a competitive game. Think about how you could apply it in your professional life as a means of teaching or mentoring.

Planning a backlash: Gillette, Amazon and Greggs

Kate Hartley, co-founder of social media crisis simulator Polpeo is writing a book about the impact of technology on issues and crisis. We caught up by phone this week and debated whether brands such as Gillette, which take a purpose-led stand on an issue, as Gillette has this week on masculinity, recognise that they are likely to polarise public opinion.

They do of course, thanks to audience data and analysis. The backlash is balanced by advocacy and a planned part of the campaign. It’s an approach that’s also been adopted recently by Amazon with its #amazonshitcarshow and the Greggs vegan sausage roll.

How to use paid media as part of an integrated PESO campaign

Paid media is an important element of an integrated paid, earned, shared and owned (PESO) model but it’s the least understood. I’ve written a long form how-to primer this week. Please let me know what you think. My job next week is to write how to guides for each of the main platforms.

The future of books is female: Soho’s new second hand bookstore

Next time you’re in London I’d highly recommend a visit to Second Shelf. It’s a rare book business and a new quarterly print publication focused on increasing the visibility of writing by women and their contributions throughout history. Founder A. N. Devers shared her story with Vanity Fair.

Twitter: conversation not traffic

My PESO blog was retweeted 15 times and liked 50 times within 24 hours. Twitter served the link 5,000 times and yet less than 40 people clicked through to read the post. Twitter is great for conversation but lousy for driving traffic to a third party website. Headlines are often retweeted or liked as a sign of agreement and support, or as a bookmark.

Download: content calendar for 2019

Twitter has published a really useful planning document. Its marketing calendar sets out key anniversaries and dates in the calendar. It’s a useful tool for anyone working on newsjacking or realtime campaigns. The download is hidden behind a gated webpage so you’ll need to share your details.

Alexa branded flash briefings

Gini Dietrich’s Spin Sucks podcast this week explains how to record a flash briefing for the Amazon Alexa. It’s an owned form of media that enables an organisation or brand to share a short piece of audio with its audience via a so-called Skill on Amazon’s voice automation platform. Potential applications include information, travel and weather updates.

I’ve stopped spamming out my blog posts as they’re published. Instead I’m planning to publish a letter once a week. This is my second of the year. Please let me know what you think and if you’ve any suggestions.