Posts tagged ‘Brussels’
A look back at turn of the century Brussels
- Image by Jungle_Boy via Flickr
Thanks to Aart van Iterson, a former colleague now at Cambre Associates, who points out by email that our current survey of the use of the internet by Members of the European Parliament is not the first time we have undertaken to research how digital tools are being used in Brussels.
Back in 2000 the then GPC (even then an Omnicom company, but at that stage still to become part of Fleishman-Hillard) teamed up once again with Simon Leysen of Morris & Chapman to conduct “a first of its kind survey investigating primarily how the Brussels based international community use email and internet in their work.”
The highlights of the 2000 survey included the following:
- The Brussels based international (EU political) community generally prefer first contact to be established via e-mail rather than by letter.
Over 90% of respondents directly receive and process their own e-mails. - For almost half of those surveyed, the Internet has become their main source of information.
- Before dealing with an organisation, over 70% of respondents say they will visit the organisations’ web-site first to obtain background information.
- Close to 50% of survey participants prefer to download large amounts of data as opposed to receiving it in its original format.
Despite being less than ten years old, our findings from 2000 have an air of a different era about them. Almost like finding that more than half of us prefer the car to the horse to get to work.
In looking at the online communication activities of our MEPs, we should therefore not be too harsh. Much has changed in the tools we all use to communicate in a very short time. At the last European elections the likes of YouTube and Twitter did not exist, google was not a verb and Facebook was only accessible to students at Ivy League schools. With this in mind, the use of any of these tools by MEPs, even just a third of them, is truly impressive. What’s more, I am sure that in another nine years our findings from 2009 will seem so beginning of the century.
James
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Do MEPs tweet, blog and Facebook? We find out.
- Image via Wikipedia
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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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.
Public Affairs (News) Goes Digital
Our industry’s (UK based) trade rag PA News – “essential reading for lobbyists” – proudly announces today by email that it has gone digital. Alas, a mouse click later here and we find that all that this venerable publication has done is place its print copy in a e-magazine format online. It would appear that the public affairs industry is still to learn that simply putting content online that would have otherwise been in ink (and charging for it) is not what it is all about.
Now forgive us if you feel we are being harsh (and perhaps we are, as this may be but the first step for PA News), but it feels like a missed opportunity. At a time when there is lively debate about public affairs, elections on the horizon and a game changing moment in the way the world regulates, what the profession could do with more online places for news, expert views and the active sharing of ideas. While PA News sleeps there are perhaps opportunities for newcomers like publicaffairsworld.com to bridge the PA digital divide.
James
We twitter on EBS2009, do you dare to care?
A year ago we posted on the European Business Summit 2008 and their use of video and blogs for their event. Well they are back again for another go – blog here and website here - and so are we.
This time we have decided not to comment on their blog, which seems to have more content that last time around, but instead to take up the challenge offered by New Europe this morning and to twitter from Brussels’ premium annual business/policy event. I know, you are about to all enter into existential angst about whether Twitter is a passing fad or actually useful for something. Debate away. However, it’s late and we want to go home. We know it’s working for some of our clients and that’s enough for now.
So if you are really interested (and herein lies the rub of Twitter) in what we think of events at EBS 2009, you can follow us at twitter.com/eurotwittering late next week, hashtag ebs2009 will be used throughout.
James
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Digital Tools in Public Affairs – presentation and links
- Image by TPCOM via Flickr
Last week I presented at the inaugural European Public Affairs Summit on digital public affairs. What was billed as a workshop quickly became an empassioned plea for more consideration of the use of digital tools in Brussels based public affairs.
Thanks in any case to all those souls who attended, engaged in questions and answers and gave feedback to me or other FHers. All much appreciated. Any questions that have arisen since, please feel free to post in the comments section and we shall do our best to answer.
In the session, I promised that I would upload the presentation on the blog, instead I put it on SlideShare. You can find it at this link:Digital Tools in Public Affairs Presentation
For those not at the event, I apologise that reading the presentation makes little sense without me speaking to it. It is also not the most beautiful presentation ever created. This said, please check out the article I wrote that sums up in prose some of what I said in person. Alternatively, pass by for a coffee if you are in the area.
The links to the sites referred to during the discussions.
US introductory bit:
- Obama website
- Obama transition website
- Fight the Smears website
- Design for Obama – more chances to see visually creative works
- Our own post on the “Yes we can” pop video
- TubeMogul – extremely useful tool for uploading and tracking videos online across platforms
Statistics on internet usage:
- European Commission figures on EU Member States
- Post and link to FH Digital survey on the power of the internet in Europe
- Our post on recent Ofcom survey on communications environment in UK and key European markets and link to the report itself
- Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008
- Survey on social media by Universal McCann
European Union references:
Tools for tracking:
- Technorati and Google Blog search
- Tracking Wikipedia
- Check out Steffen’s post here for other ideas
EU campaigns:
- Our post on grassroots in Brussels
- enviro.aero campaign about aviation and climate change on Twitter
- Pesticides Information – revision of Directive 91/414 – and an interview with the great lady behind it
- Award winning oneseat.eu campaign, our post (1) and post (2)
- Vattenfall campaign post and link
- 50/50 Campaign post and link
- Quadrature du Net post and link
James
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And the winner is…
Image via Wikipedia
It’s awards season here in Brussels. Like the 94 tram on Avenue Louise, you wait forever for a glitzy award ceremony and then two come along at once.
Last night saw the inaugural European Public Affairs Directory awards at the Vaudeville Theatre in central Brussels. Alas, Jonathan Ross was not on hand to compere, instead a comedian who looked like Billy Connolly‘s illegitimate younger brother pitched up. His jokes weren’t bad. Wine was poured. Fun was had by all.
FH sponsored the Political Journalist of the Year Award and we can happily report that two out of the three nominees are big believers in blogs. Mark Mardell of the BBC is an avid blogger about all aspects of the EU, both inside and outside the Brussels Bubble (check out his recent posts from a three day trip to Germany for example), while Jean Quatremer of Liberation has even caught this anglophone’s attention. Our only nominee who currently does not blog, Jamie Smyth of the Irish Times, left the table with a promise to start one and to even look into Twitter after a hounding from the FHers on the table. We look forward to it, dinner conversation proved he has a great many interesting insights to share and is happy to engage in debate.
As an aside, it was also good to see the NGOs in town recognised by their public affairs peers for the formidable lobbyists that they are. Friends of the Earth won the Campaign of the Year for its relentless agrofuels lobby and WWF won the award for NGO of the year.
Oh and before I forget, the winner on our table…drum roll…Mark Mardell of the BBC (ably substituted by Mark James, BBC Bureau Chief, on the night).
Thankfully there’s another award ceremony only weeks away and next time around we may win the Consultancy of the Year (last night’s award went to APCO, congrats). We’re nominated at the inaugural European Agenda Public Affairs Summit awards on 4/5 December, in part thanks to our work in digital public affairs. We’re also hosting a workshop on the subject as part of the two day event. We hope to see you there.
James
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Public Affairs 2.0 – one year on
Health warning – this is a self-indulgent end of school term post.
It’s about time that some of us left the unseasonal sunshine of Brussels for southern climes. As we put the out of office on, set the voicemail up and send long to-do lists to those colleagues unlucky enough to remain here over the August lull/madness period, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on the first year of this blog.
Some stats first of all. Since our soft launch last July we’ve made 95 posts of varying quality and interest. 115 comments have been made – all welcomed. WordPress has registered approaching 12,000 views in total. July was our busiest month yet with 1,567 views until today (see graph above showing nice trend). Quantcast now tells us that 641 different people reading our blog a month and that 159 of them are from Belgium (or at least based here). The number 1 country is of course the US, but then the Europeans together of course add up to more – ah, is it not always the case! If only we were all one (hang on is that the reason we are all here?).
In any case, as global domination was not our goal, we are kind of happy. We are doing what we said we would do over a year ago – sharing our experience of this digital PA world, learning by doing, commenting on stuff – and you know what, we are enjoying it. And boy has a lot changed since then (not just the British PM).
Increasingly, we are implementing digital communications in Brussels for our clients. The enthusiasm of our Brussels team to “Switch On” has not yet dimmed. Indeed, it’s growing. So thanks to all those who have posted from the team in the last year (yep, it’s not just little old me) – Rob, Carey, Ed, Jez, (both undergrad interns this year) Rebecca, Simone, Nick, Mike, Fred and Liliana (and the folks at FH Paris in recent days). More to come. Others promise to join our merry band over the summer.
On that note, some of my own personal highlights from this year.
- A personal note (copied to no-one) from our CEO in St. Louis to one of our number thanking him for an interesting blog post. Now that’s good internal comms.
- The ECPA post. Helen showed us all what this is all about. Sharing our experiences of digital in what we do. It also continues to hold the record for the most views in one day – 130.
- The fact that all those subscribing to our email updates via Feedburner are from competing firms! (ok, with the exception of my missus) Yep, we can see who you are…Thoughtleadership at work perhaps.
On that thought – I slip away from the desk and leave those colleagues to keep the blog ticking over the summer.
Digital association decides to go digital
Our eagled eyed ICT team member Magnus Norman spots that EICTA, “the voice of digital technology in Europe” has decided to join the growing ranks of the Brussels trade association blogging community. Given their sector; about time some may say.
Announced on the EICTA website, Digital Advocacy Europe was launched earlier today. Unlike the pesticides information blog, it appears that the blog’s purpose is has an internal objective of cutting down on the large number of emails Director General Mark MacGann generates. In any case, it may have been wise to get into the groove of making a few posts before heraldling it to the prying eyes of Brussels’ ever vigilant consultants.
Having said this, we like Mark’s tone and the fact that in one day and one post he’s already managed to gather a number of comments from his membership. In itself, not a bad start to any blog – we are still trying to get our own posts/comments strike rate up – please comment readers, please….just say anything…it need not be intelligent (look at our posts…)
We look forward to seeing the Digital Advocacy Europe blog grow. It seems a natural place for an association such as EICTA to drive their message on all issues affecting their industry. As the blog grows, we hope Magnus and team will do the decent thing and update their top 7 blogs from the sector to include it. Perhaps with a few more from the sector, they could make it to ten.
Read all about it: digital public affairs in print
If you’re looking for an overview of our (my) world view in terms of how digital and public affairs fit together, then have a read of this article. Originally available in the “strategy and practice” (!) section of the print version of the online movers and shakers and events website (e.g. it’s a bit like “Hello” magazine for Brussels). The publishers have kindly agreed to allow us to put a pdf version up on this blog.
Thoughts, reflections and rotten vegetables; all are most welcome in the comments section of this post.
