“Experiment. Take risks. Fail. Try again.” European Parliament on social media
July 20, 2010
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For the past few months Waltzing Matilda has followed European Parliament’s social media activities with great interest. As a forerunner in this field their use of social media can serve as inspiration and encouragement for other EU institutions. We have asked Web Communication Unit of Parliament’s DG Communication to tell us more about their use of social media. Steve (Head of Unit), Thibault (Editorial Coordinator) and Raffaella (Facebook Coordinator and Italian Editor) were more than happy to share their experience.
When and why did you start using social media for the European Parliament?
Steve: We were given a mandate ahead of the European Election Campaign, in 2008. The buzz generated by Obama’s campaign convinced many in the world of politics of the potential of social media for institutional communications and we just went with it. It was something we really wanted to do, not least because we were convinced it was a perfect way to reach people who would never visit our flagship website, even during the elections.
Thibault: We drafted several strategies for different platforms, hoping one would be approved. At the end we were given a green light for all of them. We had some difficulties to cope with everything in the beginning but we staffed our editors and they proved to be great.
Raffaella: During the campaign I was in charge of our MySpace page and I joined the Facebook team after the Election Night, in June 2009.
Which social media platforms do you use and what for?
Raffaella: Facebook is our primary platform. We post daily updates about what’s going on in the Parliament. We have more than 76,000 fans and an average of 1,200 interactions per week …
Steve (interrupting): … which puts us first in our European-parliamentary-democratic-government-institution kind of league. Just for the record.
Raffaella: Sure, we know we’re not Obama – or Lady Gaga – with their 10 million fans. But we neither need nor want to be, they are in a different game. We try to be interactive, let our fans comment and react as much as possible. We organise live chats with MEPs which are becoming more and more popular, and MEPs are getting used to coming to our page and leaving a comment or sharing our posts on their page.
Thibault: We are also on Flickr, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter in 22 languages. Flickr works well and is a nice way to touch people through photography. We also use it to present slideshows about the Parliament, backstage of our interviews for the main website, etc.
Steve: All these platforms have been set up to show different aspects of the Parliament to different groups of people. On Twitter, we promote recent updates and live tweet Question Times with Mr Barroso during Parliament’s plenary sessions. We’re also conducting an experiment in one language to further humanise our Twitter account and be more conversational with our followers. Of course, many of us already do that a lot with our personal Twitter feeds.
And we’ve got our blog. Our blog is very important.
Thibault: Actually, it all started with our blog.
Who is involved in your social media activities?
Steve: Five of our 22 editors update and moderate Facebook, including Raffaella who coordinates them. Two editors work on a new design and concept for MySpace. Our photographer manages the Flickr account with the help of one or two colleagues when he’s out reporting. Two editors update YouTube. All the editors tweet in their languages, and a couple of them coordinate and schedule our tweets. They manage social media as well as the main EP page in their language. Thibault and I coordinate the whole thing. We like coordination.
Raffaella: Social media are great but also quite demanding. You need to keep a constant eye on it: to moderate, to answer questions, to ban the spammers, etc.
Thibault: We should underline at this point that social media are not our only or even our primary job. We, the Web team of the Parliament, produce and publish two to three stories a day on the website. We also run editorial projects for the website. All the social-media jazz is just one more activity that adds up to our already busy days.
How do social media relate to your website?
Thibault: We use them to promote the content we produce for the website and vice-versa. All photos on Flickr are linked to a story or an event, and in our stories we link to the slideshow on Flickr. We, of course, announce chats with MEPs on the EP website. When the editorial schedule gives us some space, we sometimes report on the chats in a story on our website. And when we know we’re going to interview, say, a rapporteur for the website, we ask our fans to post questions they’d like us to ask and we use the best ones.
Steve: The digital environment is changing all the time. Our website is good, but by its very nature the sheer amount of content can be overwhelming. And because we’re an institution some of it is, well, quite institutional. With social media we can highlight some of it in a lighter way. There is so much news piling up in your browser nowadays – social media are good to help people focus on what they’re really interested in.
Raffaella: And it works because Facebook and Twitter are now among the 10 referrers bringing most traffic to the EP website. Well, after Europa and the Commission’s website.
What is your biggest social media success?
Steve: We’re really proud of what we have achieved with our Facebook page. It is building something completely new. You can feel that people – and not just people in the Brussels bubble – are really interested in what happens here and want to engage with it. It’s only a start, of course. We are very keen for MEPs to get more involved, not only on their personal social media profiles, but also in a common, institutional space which offers a Europe-wide community to interact with them. Ultimately, that’s our driving principle: to create and manage a space where regular people can talk about European politics with MEPs, their elected politicians. Oh, and yes, we want 100,000 fans for Christmas!
Otherwise, I have a big soft spot for the three “viral” videos we made for the elections. That was so cool, and people always love them when I show them at seminars and conferences (just check our “most viewed” videos on our YouTube channel).
Raffaella: On Facebook, the most surprising thing is the chats. Every time we enter an MEP’s office, we are a bit scared that this time, it won’t work, there won’t be enough questions. And then the first comment is launched and questions pour in like rain! The MEP is puzzled but amused, and we regularly overrun the time because they want to answer as many questions as possible. Fans are happy to receive an answer and MEPs are happy to be in this “cool” position. So, we’re very happy too!
For those interested, you can find photo reportage of their Facebook chats with MEPs here.
Have social media helped you bring the Parliament closer to EU citizens and if yes, how?
Raffaella: Definitely. Our fans sometimes discuss amongst each other on our page in the language of their choice. Mainly in English, and then Italian, I don’t know why. We now know the subjects they like to read about: international politics, human rights, food. They are not people based in Brussels and they don’t have vast knowledge of EU affairs. They are “normal” people, enjoying the possibility to discuss politics with people from other countries.
How has the rest of the Parliament reacted to your social media activities?
Steve: It moved from light scepticism to growing curiosity. We get a lot of positive feedback these days. Sure, there are still many people who don’t really get what we’re doing, but we also find a great many in the house, including a lot of MEPs, who are really enthusiastic and keen to do more. We’re doing what we can to help our communications colleagues understand it all and we encourage them to use social media for specific purposes, but only when they really know what they want to achieve with them.
What have you learned from using social media?
Raffaella: It works, it’s not just for youngsters and it’s fun.
What are your social media plans for the future?
Thibault: We’d like to improve the Facebook page with more features and more involvement from MEPs. We are working on a new design for our MySpace page. And we keep our eyes open for the next platform.
What would you advise other EU institutions who are thinking of using social media?
Steve: Stick to your core values, invest the effort to build reputation and presence, stick to it, blog, link, spread. Trust the public, don’t be afraid and accept that the days of total control over your “message” are over. The important thing is to be present in the conversation. Not to be there at all is the real loss of control.
Raffaella: Be fast, be active, read, correct. Be honest and open about who you are. The tone is important: be informal, don’t take yourself too seriously.
Thibault: Be ready to experiment. Take risks. Fail. Try again.
Steve: And above all, show your face. Be human!
Raffaella: And read our blog. We explain everything there.
Posted by Alenka
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January 3rd, 2012 at 3:41 am
Thanks for the fascinating interview on how the European parliament is using social media, and not just to target the younger demographics . It seems they have been able to leverage the power of the new technologies to their advantage. There’s a valuable lesson here in the value of experimentation.