Posts Tagged blogging
Do MEPs tweet, blog and Facebook? We find out.
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Today we launch the results of our European Parliament Digital Trends Survey – www.epdigitaltrends.eu It examines how Members of the European Parliament are using the internet to communicate with their voters as well as how the same MEPs use the internet to inform their daily legislative work. As such, we hope that the results are interesting both for MEPs and for Brussels public affairs practitioners.
In summary MEPs are using the internet to communicate to voters but are not yet for the most part using all the tools available. No doubt MEPs have come a long way since the last elections, but there is still a road to travel.
For public affairs practitioners we believe that our results support the view we espoused when we started this blog 2 years ago. Like all of us MEPs are going online for information to inform their decisions. To be effective, our public affairs strategies need to integrate digital communications into their toolbox of tactics. Digital can not replace traditional tools such as contact programmes and media relations it complements them, rendering our activities more effective.
On the microsite www.epdigitaltrends.eu you will find the following:
- Our main results with supporting statistics
- An e-brochure
- A full report
- A library of downloads, including graphs and the raw data for you to make your own analysis and graphs
- Commentary from MEPs
- An opportunity for you to post your own thoughts
- The charities we supported in conducting the research
- The methodology we used – sample size etc.
In the coming days we shall be taking time to reflect on what the different parts of our results mean for public affairs practitioners in Brussels on this blog.
Thanks to all MEPs who participated and to the hardworking FH team who made it all possible (everyone in the office played some role but in particular I’d like to thank Mike, Reg, Veronique, Liliana, Julie, Carey, Aurelie, Tim, Michele, Jay, Clara and Rosie)
We look forward to your reactions to the results on the microsite and to having a debate on this blog about what our survey says about digital public affairs.
James
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2 comments May 18, 2009
Welcome, The Lobby
We welcome another public affairs agency into the blogging world; Grayling EU has launched ‘The Lobby‘.
While possibly mistaken for the title of John Grisham’s next book (if only Brussels were so exciting), we eagerly await The Lobby’s contributions to the Brussels Blog-Bubble.
Add comment May 11, 2009
Which MEPs are Twittering? I know a few…
Following on from our digital audit of MEPS last year, we now want to know which MEPs have caught the Twitter bug…
These are just a few we’ve found so far:
- Graham Watson
- Matthias Groote
- Katrin Saks
- Benoit Hamon
- Eoin Ryan
- Neena Gill
- Arlene McCarthy
- Peter Skinner
- Jim Nicholson
- Mary Honeyball
- Andrew Duff
- Daniel Caspary
- Jules Maaten
- Jeanine Hennis
- Sophie in ‘t Veld
- Daniel Cohn-Bendit
- Åsa Westlund
- Anna Hedh
- Kathalijne Buitenweg
- Helga Truepel
- Colm Burke
- Joost Lagendijk
- Gunnar Hökmark
- Dagmar Roth-Behrendt
- Alexander Alvaro
- Jorgo Chatzimarkakis
- Richard Corbett
- Ed McMillan-Scott
- Rodi Kratsa
- Vincent Peillon
- Urszula Gacek
- Jean luc Bennahmias
- Catherine Trautmann
- Bernadette Vergnaud
If you have come across any, please let us know. We shall update this list as we get new names.
Rosie
P.S. As we mentioned in a previous post, the utility of Twitter is still not clear to us. We do find Daily Show host John Stewart’s opinion about Twitter quite humorous: “They’re struggling because they confused new with good.”
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11 comments March 19, 2009
Blog the news that’s fit to print
Our colleagues to the north Fleishman-Hillard Edinburgh hosted a lecture last week about the US Presidential elections and Obama vs. McCain. You can read about the event on FH’s Public Affairs Cloakroom blog and even see a short video of the remarks from Fleishman Hillard’s Bill Black; former UK Ambassador to the US Sir Christopher Meyer, currently a member of FH’s International Advisory Board; and the Right Honourable George Reid, former MP, MSP and Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament.
One question caught my attention. A long-term Edinburgh resident and US citizen asked the panel what sources a person could read to inform themselves about the candidates without relying on the daily churn of media reports. Bill immediately recommended blogs, noting that many bloggers eschew the claimed objectivity of newspapers, but offer much more depth and often a historical knowledge. His list of blogs to read is:
- Talking Points Memo (liberal)
- Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish (Bill’s favourite, he says)
- Red State (conservative viewpoint)
- Instapundit
You can listen to Bill here as well.
Add comment October 7, 2008
ECPA and the value of blogging in Brussels
Our lunch event on trade associations and the use of the internet the other week turned out to be interesting for all sorts of reasons. While our own experience on this blog and that of Pat Cleary, our US colleague, was clearly a draw, the real value was the exchange of experience between participants all fighting to persuade internal audiences of the (pretty obvious) merits of online communications in a Brussels public affairs context. Hopefully some more trade association blogs will spring up as a result.
Chief amongst those sharing their experience was perhaps Brussels’ foremost trade association blogger, Helen Dunnett. Helen is the eCommunications Manager (cool title) for the European Crop Protection Association. She writes the association’s blog, which is available on wordpress platform as well as on the blogactiv platform. Happily on the back of our discussions, Helen agreed to answer a few (ok, lots) questions about her experience to share with you all on this blog. Unsurprisingly, she has a lot of interesting insights so we’ve posted her response in full to all our questions.
Why did ECPA decide to start a blog?
The blogging site, pesticideinformation.eu, was launched in March 2008 as part of our new online communications strategy. We created this information portal, which is separate from ECPA’s public website, to bring together the different perspectives on pesticide legislation and use, be it press coverage, the latest reports or events or discussions in other blogs, into one place online. I’m the only one writing or recording blog entries right now and my blogs are intentionally unbiased because I’m not an expert on the subject, but I’m on the hunt for regular guest bloggers with reasoned and informed viewpoints to contribute to the debate. So any pesticide lovers or haters reading this, please feel free to contact me!
Another objective with pesticideinformation.eu is to bring the pesticide industry out from behind those factory walls and feel the ‘breeze’ of public opinion. It’s a way of showing them the conversation taking place online, direct from critics, the misinformed, opinion leaders or previously unknown allies, so it’s also an internal communication exercise. My industry is quietly proud of it products and their contribution to Europe’s sustainable food supply. I’d be overjoyed if they starting blogging too to explain in everyday language why they are happy to work for the industry, because they have an important and honest story to tell. That goal will take a bit more time and I am currently concentrating on recruiting non-industry content providers.
Not only is there a blog on topical issues, we also have incoming news feeds with unmonitored positive, neutral and negative pesticide news and comment. We have a Delicious plug-in so I can tag good quality news articles and blogs with simple key words as they get published. This is to help visitors read up on subjects connected to pesticides and make an informed opinion for themselves, rather than be unnecessary worried by yet another ‘pesticide porn’ story… you know the kind, cancerous pesticides found in wine, NGOs just forget to add that even after drinking 200 litres of wine in one go, it’s completely safe….. from pesticides residues anyway! (more…)
3 comments May 18, 2008
Newton-Dunn proves trips to the EP in Strasbourg aren’t all bad
Sometimes we have to come down to Strasbourg for the European Parliament. And this month its unfortunately our turn on the FH roster. Thankfully there are some things that make it all worthwhile, other than revisiting pubs we passed far too much time in during our ERASMUS year. In between sitting through debates on the alleged evils of bio, sorry Claude, agro-fuels, we managed to have an interesting chinwag with one of the latest MEPs to enter the blogosphere for a chat about e-campaiging and the forthcoming elections; Bill Newton-Dunn of the UK’s Liberal Democrats.
There are lots of things to like about Bill. For one, he seems to be as addicted to his CrackBerry as we are. He also has started to post about the things that catch his attention and does so from a personal perspective. Today he was enthused by a bunch of doctors who wanted to inform him over lunch about organ harvesting in China (Bill, we await the promised post) and exudes a boyish enthusiasm for “issues” that restores one’s sometimes diminished faith in MEPs.
More importantly for this blog, Bill believes that the internet is the future for political campaigining at a European level. Hence the beginnings of his blog. Ok, so he admits that his biggest challenge is the ability to ignore his assistant’s demands to deal with urgent Committee issues and write the post that is buzzing around his head. But he does allow comments, unlike some on the PES side, and would clearly be stoked should anyone, including industry, want to engage in a debate with him online. (We can attest to his willingness in this regard, as the only reason we met him was because of a random email exchange about his blog). He also admits that he has a lot to learn about using the internet to reach out to voters, while recognising that the medium is perfect for cashstrapped and issue heavy European elections.
In any case, Bill’s clearly on the right path. A new website is being developed by a US based developer that he met through colleagues on the Hill. He promises that it’s going to take the best aspects from some of the presidential nominees sites in this primary season, while admitting that somewhat unfortunately for a LibDem he likes Republican Mike Huckabee’s site best. It’s great to find an MEP who has seen what’s happening on politics on the internet and is willing to give it a go. Even better that he wants to encourage others to follow him online.
P.S. Is it us or does the Strasbourg Hilton resemble a motorway service station?
2 comments April 23, 2008
Blogs R Us
This great compilation of all blogs in anyway related to the EU got us thinking about our own (admittedly a little more self promotional) list of blogs. We thought we’d share it with you all. You never know, you may find something of interest outside your usual reading list amongst the posts written by some of FHers in Europe and globally.
To start with there is a blog by Micky B(erendt) on EU politics and policy on our corporate EU site. Until recently a key member of our Brussels team, Michael has a wealth of institutional and PA experience and now uses it to reflect from afar. Those of us who have benefited from his wisdom over the years are glad that the blog keeps him in our world. We’ve also already mentioned Pat Cleary in D.C. and the bizcentral.org experiment, so we shall move on.
We don’t just do public affairs of course. There’s some real experts out there on everything from consumer and healthcare to tech and corporate PR. Many of our global practices have caught the digital wave buoyed by our CEO’s enthusiasm for it. Our energy practice, led by our cowboy boot wearing colleagues in Dallas and Houston, have an energy communicators blog. And boy, do Dick and the Johns know about oil and gas. Colleagues here in Brussels, such as Rob Anger and Teresa Calvano, contribute to a global blog on sustainability communications. The Digital team in London have a group blog on the use of digital in marketing communications and the Next Great Thing looks at mobile marketing in Asia! (Cool!). Finally, one shouldn’t forget Mark Senak’s Eye on FDA, focused on regulatory affairs in the pharma sector, which sets the standard for all of us.
Then there are blogs focused on communication to specific societal groups like the Boomers blog, the Hispanic communicators blog and the FH OutFront blog, which focuses on the Lesbian and Gay community. Eddy Evans, former London colleague and now an Englishman in DC, lends a hand here.
Finally, there are a host of FH people who write personal blogs. Jeff Weintraub, a god-like member of the DC team writes on DC politics and much more. Digital European leader Ben Mason in London writes his own on all things digital of interest and more. Harald Simons in Amsterdam reflects on all kinds of stuff related to being an international communications consultant. And finally, we should mention David Lowry. While he hasn’t posted much recently, he goes to show that the resolutions of the European Parliament are read and reflected upon as far away as St. Louis!
If you don’t fancy putting this little lot into your RSS reader, then try this page on our corporate site, which handily aggregates the best posts from the raft of FH bloggers including those listed above.
Add comment March 27, 2008
Mirror, mirror on the wall…
It seems serial blogger Richard Corbett is locked in online battle with the evil forces of the anti-European movement over his reluctance to allow comments on his own blog. The dirty scoundrels have gone and created a mirror blog that is exactly the same as Richard’s blog with the sole exception that the spoof allows one to add comments. And yes, those comments have been rolling in from anti-Europeans in the UK in great numbers – 26 comments and counting on Richard’s post about the spoof site mirrored on the spoof site (complicated, but think about it).
Despite their tactics, we have a certain sympathy for the spoofers. We commented before that Richard’s blog, despite good content, does lack certain elements expected of a blog. In that case, we saw that Richard rectified a lack of links to other blogs in the days following our post. So we hope this time around that Richard does the thing that comes hardest and admits that he was wrong not to allow comments. By opening his real blog up for moderated comments, he can destroy the appeal of the mirror spoof site, gain some control over the comments posted, enter into a dialogue with his voters and even win praise from the blogosphere for doing so.
1 comment March 25, 2008
How do you get a million readers for a trade association blog? Ask the Beltway Blogfather…
We’ve returned to the Old Continent this morning after an eventful couple of weeks elsewhere in the world (hence lack of posts); the last few days of which have been spent in Washington D.C. at our annual Global Public Affairs Practice meeting. The gathering, held this year in the second most famous hotel in the US capital, saw a great panel debate on the US presidential elections from some well-known D.C. insiders as well as a good slice of digital in the form of a panel of e-campaign strategists from both sides of the aisle in the current elections.
Some of the insights on offer in the digital panel can be caught on the blog of panellist David All, TechRepublican. It was interesting to note that the panelists sometimes find inspiration in the activities of European politicians online, such as Sarkozy, and face the same challenges in integrating digital into US politics as we find in intergrating digital into public affairs in Brussels. It seems that even in the US, convincing folk that digital can complement, enhance and sometimes be more effective than traditional offline activities can still be a challenge.
Chairing the blogger panel was FH DC’s Pat Cleary, SVP for digital public affairs or the “Beltway Blogfather” as he is apparently known. Meeting Pat you can’t help but be bowled over. He has experience and enthusiasm in equal bucket loads. Pat is the man behind bizcentral.org, a blogging platform launched recently in D.C to some acclaim (Politico, ABC) for trade associations to express their views online.
Currently eleven associations are signed up (for free) with the only rule that the associations must post at least once a week. Pat is honest enough to admit that for some of those blogging the whole experience is like taking the first tentative step on the digital ladder. The trick, he feels, is to not get lost in wikis, blogs and social media but to concentrate on how these tools can drive the organisation’s message towards an organisation’s key audiences in an effective and efficient manner.
In any case, should you be taking those tentative steps, who else would you want at the bottom holding the ladder steady but Pat? He’s the man who in a previous life created a public policy blog for the (US) National Association of Manufacturers that hit a million readers after two years…it continues to this day (just without Pat).
Thankfully at the end of our meetings the FH Brussels team didn’t walk away from the Mayflower Hotel with nothing more than a room number plaque with the digits 871. We’ve convinced Pat to come over to Brussels in early May to share some of his experiences. Two events are in the pipeline; one aimed at Brussels based trade associations who may wish to learn from Pat’s experiences with the NAM and a second where Pat will appear on a panel with Brussels based decision-makers to reflect upon recently completed FH/Harris Interactive research into the way European citizens are using the internet to inform their political decisions. More information about the two (free to attend) events will follow here and on our FH Brussels corporate website in next couple of weeks.
1 comment March 21, 2008
Use of blogs by Brussels trade associations triples!
An interesting survey from the folks at Euractiv on the use of the internet by European trade associations was released late last week. While we weren’t present at the launch event, we are happy to note that FH was represented at least in spirit by Sylvain Lhote (who spent 8 years with us before moving to plastics company Borealis).
As with all these things, the survey’s sponsors have sought as far as possible to draw the conclusions they are looking for from the results. One example is the ‘fact’ that the proactive use of blogs by European trade association has tripled in the last 12 months (from 3 to 9 percent!). Speaking to a member of Euractiv’s blogactiv team recently, it seems that this reflects the issues that they have been in getting trade associations to go past the stage of initial interest to actually signing up to write regular and interesting blog content on their platform. As we know all too well, blogging can take a significant time investment. If this investment was stated up front it could put the frighteners on many of those who pay the bills (thankfully in our case FH CEO Dave Senay has a healthy enthusiasm for all things digital).
There of course could be other factors at play in the lack of proactive use of blogging by Brussels based associations. A natural inclination to rounds of necessary consultation and the lowest common denominator does not bode well for fast paced reactions in blog format. Nor does an tendency to focus on ‘the issues’ for the association and its members in an already hectic workload. For an association’s blog to build reputation is a long term process and one where the organisation will have to share expertise on a subject of interest to the policymaker (e.g. how best to communicate on chemicals to consumers) rather than the position of the association on a particular dossier (e.g. why labelling our chemical in the current legislation won’t move consumers). One blog post that’s a (hopefully shorter) rewrite of your position paper just won’t do.
In any case, despite the disclaimer about the research not being scientific, it also underlines a few other interesting ‘facts’. One on one meetings are seen to be the best way to get your message across; not surprising given the fact that this is a government relations town and there is a limited number of policymakers likely to be interested in any one issue. This is closely followed by a good website. Media work comes somewhat further down the list, perhaps reflecting the fragmented nature of the Brussels press corps.
On the institution’s communications, associations do not frequent the Council’s website as often as the Parliament or Commission’s; not surprising as a little bit like the Council as an institution, it is designed to confuse and obsfucate…Underlying a longstanding view that if one wanted to tackle transparency in the EU, one would start with the Council’s website.
2 comments March 4, 2008
