Engaging Decision Makers using Social Media

25th June 2013

Today’s session• Overview of lobbying• What is social media?• Why has it become so important?• What has been its effect upon decision making?• How you can use social media to influence decision

makers?

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What is Campaigning?

Put simply:

Campaigning is the process of using planned actions on specific issues with the aim of changing policies or behaviours of groups or

institutions and raising public support

What is Lobbying?

Put simply:

Lobbying is the practise of individuals and

organisations trying to influence the opinion of

political decision-makers and institutions of

government

What motivates people to Lobby?

Threat ‘v’ Opportunity

Policy threat / new regulations

Protect an Organisation

.

Build Support for your cause

Access to Knowledge

Competitive Advantage

Raise Profile

Trusted Partner

Government InstitutionsLocal

Government

UK

Parliament

EU

Parliament

Decision

Makers

Executive Leader

Cabinet

PM

Ministers

Council of

Ministers

Execute

Government

Plans

Officials Chief Exec

Council

Officers

Permanent

Secretary

Civil

Servants

Commission

Challenge &

Block

Primary

ChamberCouncillors MPs MEPs

Revise Primary

Chamber

Revising

ChamberLords

Head of Govt Monarch

Some common mistakes

• Unrealistic aspirations

• Lack of planning or focus

• Lack of factual information about an issue or incorrect information

• Not thinking about opposition’s arguments

• Blanket approach

• Lack of forethought about timing of approaches

• Lack of follow up with the target

• Thinking that social media can do it all

Knowing you’ve been successful? • Your target is informed and understands about you, your

organisation and your stance on a particular issue

• Someone else becomes convinced of your case and will support the same view

• Your target takes action on your behalf e.g. re-tweeting, Facebook

• Other stakeholders adopt your lobbying stance and garner wider support e.g. viral campaigns

• You overcome previous opposition

• Your key lobbying messages are repeated in official briefings and documents and your issue attracts #followers

• You attract followers

• You achieve the aims and objectives within your lobbying plan

• Change happens!

Preparing to Lobby – How it’s done!

• Detail the issue

• Research

• Record sources of information

• Build a convincing case

• Overcome any existing counter argument

• Be clear about your ‘ask’

• Identify the Issue

• Determine the Cause

• What are the likely Impacts

• What is you Solution?

Issue Analysis

• Map key contacts & decision makers

• Cross -influencing Local Govt, sector specific or stakeholders

• Local political intelligence & local governmenttimetables

Research

• Develop a focused action plan

• Develop targetedbriefings

Lobbying Plan

What is Social Media?

“An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audios.”

Wikipedia definition

Or:

“Social media is a ‘global village’ connecting everyone and anyone and

giving them power to promulgate social movements and engender democracy”

Marshall McLuhan1960’s Communication Theorist

What is Social Media?

Social Networks Google+ MySpace Linkedln Facebook

Media products community

Flickr Slideshare You Tube Pinterest

Blog services Blogger Twitter Wordpress

Information creation community

Wikipedia Wikispaces

What does social media involve?• Listening and Learning• Creating connections and building relationships• Engaging with people and their networks• Making your organisation or brand ‘personal’• Providing a platform on which to interact• Managing your brand and reputation online• Providing an instant platform to share news and

information

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Social Media – why it’s important?

• Reach greater numbers of people

• Free! (saves money but not always time)

• It allows for multi-tasking

• It allows for greater choice – so many channels

• It can go into greater depth and give background information – people can read around a subject and what others think

• It’s quick AND instant e.g. 24/7 news updates, Twitter

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Social Media – why it’s important?

• Customization – you decide what you read about

• It allows for discussion amongst peers

• It facilitates many different viewpoints

• It allows for ‘challenge’, ‘feedback’ and ‘talk-back

• Social media undoubtedly engages a younger audience

• Can work outside of your group’s ‘reach‘

• You can get direct access to influential people, media figures and politicians

• For politicians, it gives them first-had information on constituents’ thoughts and priorities

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Social Media – Implication of changes to traditional communication methods

• Agents are often anonymous: use of nicknames & aliases prevalent e.g. Twitter

• No single source of news or data; impossible to participate in every conversation

• Omnipresence: private & public life of society’s influential figures merged & become public space; no hiding places. (BUT - does create pressure on them)

• Speed: news and information spread more quickly than ever; impossible to process all new information

Social Media – Implication of changes to traditional communication methods

• Relationship of users: lack of clear hierarchy; e.g. Wikipedia, no single editor but 1000’s of contributors

• Objectivity to subjectivity: e.g. across social platforms rumours are often rife e.g. Barack Obama

• Type of information: now a combination of text, pictures, audio, video & animation

• Traditional methods of regulation: govts may attempt to restrict social media content e.g. China but traditional censorship regs cannot keep up with ever changing web pages & content

Social Media – the effect on politics

• Social media: fact of life for civil society, citizens & activists

• Changed the way people communicate • Previously communication was ‘command &

control’• New technology has changed the ‘conversation’• More opportunity to engage in public speech &

debate • Allows greater access to political information &

decision makers

Social Media – the effect on politics

• Supports collective action & communal campaigning activity

• Social media amplifies and fast forwards campaigns

• No geographical or political boundaries

• Social networks are now part of political lobbying that no one can ‘control’

• Media & political ‘spin doctors’ have all joined twitter in cyberspace e.g. 2010 General Election debates, Alastair Campbell

• They represent a cheap option for politicians to engage en masse with their electorate

• They make politicians look ‘trendy’ ☺

“Personal computers and the speed of optic cable in the transfer of information have marked a modern revolution and almost removed the limitations of time

and space”

Thomas L FriedmanNY Times & Pulitzer Prize winner

@tomfriedman

The power of Twitter

• Founded in 2006 by Biz Stone, Evan Williams (creators of blogger.com) and Jack Dorsey

• There are over 465 million accounts (29.6m are UK)• 175 million tweets a day• 1 million accounts are added to Twitter every day (twitter

increased by 43% when Oprah Winfrey joined in 2009• Top 3 countries on Twitter are USA at 107 million, Brazil 33

million and Japan at nearly 30 million• Busiest event in Twitter’s history is now “Castle in the Sky”

TV screening 25,088 tweets per second (previous record was the last minutes of the 2012 Superbowl with 10,245 tweets per second).

• Projected income for 2012 = $260m

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What politicians might use it for?

• Exchanging short bursts of news and information about forthcoming policies or speeches etc.

• Reach younger audiences – sometimes before they can vote!• Promote any events that they are attending• Find out about constituency issues e.g. looking at conversations

or what’s trending • Reaching journalists with a story• To set out their views on an issue, or for redress on an issue• To give themselves a human side• Marketing and promoting themselves on a large scale – for free!

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The power of Facebook

• Born during Feb 2004• Monthly active users now total nearly 850 million• 58% of UK population have an account• 250 million photos are uploaded every day• 20% of all page views on the web are on Facebook• 425 million mobile users• 100 billion connections• Zygna’s games revenue is currently 12% of Facebook’s

total income• 2.7 billion “likes” per day• 57% of users are female• Ave. visitor time = 20 mins• 2011 Income = $1bn

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What politicians might use it for?

• To find out about local campaigns • To search about local organisations • To post information about their own campaigns• To promote events/appearance• To post photographs of themselves with constituents • To gauge opinion on issues • To set out their views on an issue, or for redress on an issue• To give themselves a human side• Marketing and promoting themselves on a large scale – for free!

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The power of LinkedIn• Established in 2003• As of February 2012, it had 175+ million members (6m are UK)• 2 new members join every second• USA leads membership at more than 57 million, Europe has more than

34 million members• 60% of its members live outside the USA, 25% in Europe• In 2011 there were 4.2 billion professionally oriented searches on the

LinkedIn platform – Facebook for business!• LinkedIn now has over 2,116 employees (at the beginning of 2010 it had

only 500)• The fastest growing demographics are students and recent college

graduates• LinkedIn is the 36th most visited website in the world• It is based on who you know, not what you know - it works like the real-

life process of word-of-mouth introductions between trusted contacts • The company is worth c.$2 billion and in 2011 earned c. $150 million in

advertising alonewww.xivvi.co.uk

Who uses it?

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The power of You Tube

• Established February 2005• 3rd most visited website in the world according to

Alexa• 2 billion views per day• It handles 10% of the internet’s traffic• 78% of its traffic outside of the US• Average YouTube user spends 900 seconds per day• 44% of YouTube’s users are aged between 12 and 34• Over 829,000 videos are uploaded every day• Average video duration is 2 minutes 46 seconds

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Recent examples of social media campaigns:

• Pasties tax• #Giveitbackgeorge• National Forests sale• Spartacus report • #spit4mum• Some not so successful, #SaveLennox

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Top tips on Social Media Campaigning

• Learn from others using social media effectively & recognise best practise

• Plan a strategy & map out a basic set of objectives• Choose which social media method/technology will best

achieve your aims• Consider what resources you have available• Determine how much time you have to spend• Map out how you will maintain or create content• How will you evaluate success of social media activity

as part of lobbying and campaigning

Top tips on using social media to engage decision makers

• Find out if politicians have their own websites, Twitter accounts (most local politicians will still rely on e-mails)

• Start to follow them and engage them on issues• Highlight constituency concerns – strength in numbers• Utilise e-petitions • Ask them questions • Alert them to events/campaigns • Retweet them – they’ll love you• Stay positive!

Some good general principles

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• Share good content - whether it is from your users or other organisations, if it’s good and relevant – share it

• Chat, don’t broadcast – Ask questions and share responses, share what users / supporters are doing for you. Aim for a tone that is friendly and light-hearted.

• Be relevant – making connections - link your cause and events to things that are in the public consciousness e.g. news, holidays, TV programmes, sport

Some good general principles

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• Keep it simple – Don’t talk about too many things at once and be specific about what you want people to do – particularly with politicians

• Plan a supporter journey – Think about how to convert casual visitors into more engaged users

• Tell stories – Encourage your users with stories of how others have progressed

• Feedback and thank – Keep users updates, make a big deal of successes and always thank them for their involvement

Some good general principles

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• Repeat yourself – If there is a key message you want to get across don’t just say it once. Say it again, but say it differently.

• Have a moderation policy – Generally try to moderate as little as possible but have a clear process for dealing with inappropriate content when it does appear. We recommend deleting spam and totally off-topic responses, answering difficult questions and ignoring crazy people

• Keep learning – Try new things. Look at other charity pages, check your stats. Prompt, inspire and amuse.

Any Questions?

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For further information or to get in contact:

Pamela Hargreaves

pamela.hargreaves@xivvi.uk

07976375977

Sarah Ainslie

Sarah.ainslie@pical.org

07553362193