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Ordinary mortals are more than welcome

: The new AER superhero is not required to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound – Image by Garu_ via Flickr

Whilst checking that our own advert for a new intern* was on the EuroBrussels website I noted that the Assembly of European Regions is currently advertising for applications to become their new Subsidiarity Superhero.

[Full disclosure - I was an intern with the AER in Strasbourg about 10 years ago. At that time Subsidiarity Man had not yet arrived on planet earth.]

The task of this particular superhero is to gain recognition for the word “subsidiarity“. It’s not quite saving Gotham City from the Joker or catching Lois as she falls off yet another skyscraper but all the same it’s a pretty tall order. “Ok, it’s a word I admit it. Now please take me back down to earth Subsidiarity Man!”

The new superhero would not appear to need to come with the ability to fly – see the current Subsidiarity Man’s attempt to fly off Mostar’s famous bridge. The AER are however keen that aspiring applicants have a range of other abilities, most of which are related to being a proven internet savvy campaigner. Applications consisting of a home-made YouTube video are encouraged.

We can laugh but I think it’s great that an association of regions like the AER is (1) harnessing the internet (2) doing in a fun way that attracts attention.

Over here at FH we sometimes get carried away with our own abilities but more often than not accept that we are but mere mortals.

James

*You’ll note that our internship in our Chemicals, Energy and Transport team is a renumerated one. We’re also currently looking for Account Executives for our Financial Services and ICT practices.

June 17, 2009 at 10:02 am fhbrussels Leave a comment

65% of MEPs consult Wikipedia at least twice a week. So what?

In our recent survey of the online habits of Members of the European Parliament there were a number of statistics that stood out. None more than the fact that 65% of MEPs consult Wikipedia at least twice a week for legislative work. Reactions from readers to this particular stat varied from “LOL” through to “scary”.Yet the more grounded amongst you simply asked “so what?”

This post seeks to provide some initial answers to this question from the narrow viewpoint of someone conducting public affairs in Brussels. Below I have set out three conclusions focused on the “so what” from our survey results for those seeking to inform MEPs (i.e. public affairs practitioners/lobbyists).

So what for digital public affairs in Brussels?

Digital tools are a must for conducting effective Brussels public affairs

Since the start of this blog nearly 2 years ago we have worked on the assumption that our elected European Parliamentarians are using the internet to inform their thinking much in the same way that all of us do. When we don’t know something, or want to find background information, we google it, we go to wikipedia. Our survey supports this assumption. We now have data. 93% of MEPs use search engines on a daily basis in their legislative work and you already know how often they turn to wikipedia. When MEPs are turning to the internet so often to find information, it is pretty obvious that public affairs practitioners should consider digital tools as part of any effective public affairs strategy.

Digital tools in public affairs in Brussels may become more important in the future

In terms of their relative importance in informing policy decisions it is clear that traditional forms of interaction (personal contact, written contact, media, events) with MEPs still rate highly. This is not surprising. Such interactions tend to come in the form of personal contact with identifiable actors and would, I venture, be more likely to be about specific dossiers/legislative proposals. Their importance for influencing decisions may be more readily perceived than the impact of information found on websites.

However, our survey suggests that MEPs will increasingly use social media in their own communications towards voters. As they do so they will begin to realise that the internet offers an opportunity to personally connect with interested voters/constituents, rather than simply broadcast at them. Increased familiarity and a recognition that the personal nature of the contact may make online interaction on policy issues more important in years to come. Such an outlook is supported, albeit anecdotally, by the fact that MEPs who blog are more likely to think that blogs are important in informing their decision-making.

Digital tools should be an integrated part of implementing your overall public affairs strategy

The two points above do not in anyway seek to downplay the fact that our survey continues to suggest that traditional forms of contact with MEPs are very important in informing the way MEPs think about policy issues. Indeed our survey shows that personal contact (i.e. a meeting, a phone call) is still the number one way to get your message across, closely followed by media and then written communication and events. Our survey supports the view that we all still need to have public affairs strategies rather than digital strategies. These public affairs strategies should be supported and implemented by a combination of tools, including digital ones. Some would call this integration. I am more inclined to call it Public Affairs; communications aimed at informing the course of policy. We simply need to ensure that our Public Affairs toolbox has expanded to contain a full set of tools.

While this may not come as a shock to some, our survey does at least provide some data to back up our thinking. Later this week we’ll reflect on three things our survey has to say about the use of traditional tools in public affairs.

James

Do MEPs tweet, blog and Facebook? We find out. (pagoesdigital.wordpress.com)
A look back at turn of the century Brussels (pagoesdigital.wordpress.com)
Understanding the digital lives of MEPs (pagoesdigital.wordpress.com)
The European Union Twitter Elections (textually.org)

May 25, 2009 at 11:35 am fhbrussels 4 comments

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

May 18, 2009 at 1:03 pm fhbrussels 2 comments

What did Pottering really say?

Pottering’s calm voice may be able to hide his emotions, but we found a nifty digital tool to unmask his true sentiments.

Wordle creates “beautiful word clouds” (their words, not ours) based on a text or website that one inputs. It identifies the most often-used words and makes them larger to show their repetition.

What did Pottering talk to the European Parliament about?

Parliamentarian's favourite conversation topic.

Public Affairs 2.0 should also face up to it’s own obsession. We clearly like the European Parliament as much as Mr Pottering, but the words ‘European’, ‘digital’, ‘public affairs’ are about the same size as Fleishman-Hillard.

FH talks about MEPs, European, Parliament and FH

European Parliament, digital and public affairs will get another tick in the word count next week when we publish a report on the use of digital tools by MEPs.

May 7, 2009 at 7:21 pm mstantongeddes 1 comment

EP survey fever hits us (and may be you)

For those who have missed it, we’re conducting a survey of MEPs and their digital behaviour. We shall be launching the results on a dedicated micro-site in mid-May. Lots of interesting data (we are currently swimming in pivot tables) from the responses we’ve collated in recent weeks for both MEPs and their staff and the PA community in Brussels and elsewhere.

In case you are feeling that you just can’t wait another couple of weeks and you need a EU survey fix today check out EU Profiler

The survey seeks to tell you where you fit on the political group spectrum -for this former MEP staffer it underlined some of the voting tensions I have experienced in all the elections I have voted in. For my colleagues, there was something of shock that I was still where I started out on the political spectrum.

James

April 29, 2009 at 2:12 pm fhbrussels Leave a comment

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

April 7, 2009 at 6:18 pm fhbrussels 1 comment

Public affairs in a global world – a new internet resource

: Image via Wikipedia

Over recent years, our work here at FH Brussels has become increasingly international in nature. The internet has of course contributed to this. In this globally connected age, the issues and policies that our clients care about often transcend both national and regional borders.

Internally, this has meant that our Global Public Affairs Practice has seen annual get togethers in the last three years in our global public affairs hubs of Beijing, Washington and Brussels to discuss how global public affairs plays out at a local level. Happily, we now have a solid global network in public affairs supported by strong local capabilities in key cities across Europe, North America and Asia.

As such, it is great to see an new initiative with a truly global public affairs perspective in the shape of publicaffairsworld.com The website, created by Ben Atfield of London based public affairs recruitment specialists Ellwood and Atfield, brings together news and views from the global public affairs community. Its editorial board has members of the public affairs community from three regions of the world, including Andrew Johnson of Euro RSCG and Tom Spencer of the European Centre for Public Affairs from Brussels.

We’re looking to seeing this platform develop as the public affairs sector (both inhouse and agency) increasingly professionalises across the globe. One small suggestion for the platform’s own development; RSS feeds of the three news columns would be useful for all of us using our own aggregation tools.

James

April 3, 2009 at 4:48 pm fhbrussels 1 comment

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

December 8, 2008 at 3:01 pm fhbrussels Leave a comment

We have a winner: digital communications sweeps Brussels awards ceremony

Last night saw the inaugural European Agenda Public Affairs Summit Gala Award ceremony, the second award ceremony of the season. Held in the (prestigious?) Renaissance Hotel’s Ball Room complete with US style oscar night voice overs (could they not find a European?) and Eurovision-esque compere, at least three of the awards recognised the role of the digital communications in Brussels.

Worthy winner of the Commissioner of the Year, Miglena Kuneva, talked about the importance of digital communications in reaching out to citizens. As did Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering, winner of the politician of the year. The journalist of the year went to Cafe Babel – an online news platform established as the result of a year in Strasbourg as Erasmus students. Worth checking out here. And campaign of the year went to the oneseat.eu campaign, which we have written about in the past.

Finally, little old Fleishman-Hillard won Agency of the Year against some other worthy nominees (e.g. sister Omnicom company GPlus, Interel Cabinet Stewart, Blueprint). This blog and our work in the field of digital public affairs were cited by the 20 man jury as reasons for the win. It actually surprised that we weren’t told in advance. No really, we weren’t.

We also ran a workshop on digital public affairs as part of the event – slides and links to follow in a separate post for the twenty or so souls who stuck it out until the end of the day and participated.

Next stop, the European Excellence Awards in Budapest, where colleague Nick Andrews and the ATAG team are up for an award for their enviro.aero online campaign. Some stiff competition, but fingers crossed.

James

December 4, 2008 at 1:06 pm fhbrussels Leave a comment

Reading blogs in Congress

Check out the FH Global Public Affairs blog to read about the importance of having a voice online if one wants to influence the policy process in the US Congress. The blog is full of useful information, such as the fact that “53% of congressional staffers are active blog readers.”

Though focused on the US congress, the lessons apply equally to the EU.