Introducing Polpeo: social media simulator

Kate Hartley and I launched Polpeo in October 2013, but we’ve been running social media simulations under the Emoderation brand for a couple of years now. The two of us – plus our angry public team, and our amazing support staff – have run simulations around the world for agencies and brands of various sizes and sectors.

As we began to develop the service, we both realised that it needed to stand apart from the social media management work that Emoderation does, and Kate’s public relations work. Of course, we both bring our years of experience to Polpeo, but it deserved to stand apart.

So, what does Polpeo mean?

We wanted to pick a name that had meaning to both of us. Kate and I both have roots in Cornwall, and we took our inspiration from the beautiful Polpeor Cove down at Lizard Point, where Marconi did some of his first transatlantic radio broadcast tests.

What does Polpeo do?

We create tailored crisis scenarios from the ground up, often in partnership with the participating brand (and/or its agency). Our copywriters then craft realistic social media reactions to the scenario.

The Polpeo social media simulator can model any public social media experience or situation. Participants are put to the test as Polpeo’s social media crisis team (aka the angry public) respond to their attempts to quell the mounting crisis.

The simulator allows teams to test their social media crisis strategy in a closed, safe environment. It can get pretty intense. (Kate once discovered a participant still updating the simulator in secret from the ladies’ loos during a coffee break!)

It’s the closest you can get to managing a real situation unfolding on social media, without having to go through it for real. We run simulations for groups of between five and 100 people and we score participants’ responses (and yes, it gets competitive).

Polpeo provides detailed feedback after every simulation to help brands identify areas where participants may need more training. We’ve run simulations for companies from a variety of sectors, including FMCG, financial services, automotive and the public sector. We’ve run repeated simulations for some global brand, to test different scenarios, train global teams or different departments within the organisation.

We’re really excited about Polpeo’s launch. Do get in touch if you’d like to know more.