Where are the people who understand what "online communication" or "digital tools" mean in Brussels? It seems that EU institutions and the majority of lobby organisations are stuck with Web 1.0, or let's be generous, Web 1.1.
Is the situation really that bad? After all, EU institutions do use Facebook and Eutube, Commissioners have blogs and the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) even uses Twitter from time to time and most public and private lobby bodies are present on the internet. A Brussels consultancy has released a Blogger Influence Index. The EU and its stakeholders do seem up to the challenges of modern communication!
Well, they are not. The average video view count on Eutube is 2000, which is what a bored teenager in rural India can easily achieve with a moderately funny recording. Commissioners' blogs have an average view count of 500, which is far less than the number of people working in those Commissioners' very own directorates (where are the"interested citizens"?). The number of EPSO followers on Twitter is 38 (!), that is, less than the followers of a local journalist in Warsaw. Moreover, the above blogger study is heavily criticized for its methodology and poor quality, not to mention that blogs themselves are only a tiny part of a professional online presence that should rather be looked at.
What about embassies, industry associations like that of sugar manufacturers or the pharmaceutical industry? Same diagnosis: though applying 21st century tools, their messages, content, layout, approach and mindset is way too 20th century. One-way, top-down, no-interaction, do-not-challenge-my-authority, no-targeting-by-visitor-groups type of pages. Sad.
There are, of course, promising exceptions such as Greenpeace or even EPSO's very own Facebook page - far from perfect but a good start nevertheless. What are the key principles then? What should these companies, organisations, entities do to be successful with their online audience (who are, in fact, very real "offline" people)?
Very briefly: give value to the visitors (offer "infotainment" videos, easy-to-read downloadable E-books), start a conversation (Facebook dialogues, e-mail newsletters with valuable content), provide them useful data, charts, info (we all love charts, dont we?), interactive gadgets, widgets and applications (my personal favourite: the gobbledygook meter - time to create its EU version!), and talk "with" them instead of "to" them so they give their trust and attention, and maybe, just maybe, web surfers will not click away forever after getting lost and frustrated. There are hundreds of techniques to apply and principles to keep in mind - which will hopefully be the topic of an in-depth study or maybe even a book we plan for sometime next year.
Until then, let's hope that EU affairs specialists start opening their eyes to the paradigm shift in communications. Remember: nobody is interested in dinosaurs any more.
[UPDATE: while #EPSO does have a very limited Twitter presence, the tag #EU_Careers has 2384 followers]
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By ArboGuru | 17 Jul 2010
@Hristina: exactly - that main (if not the only!) goal of online communications for public affairs purposes is to connect those with a shared interest so you can start a dialogue with them and they can start a dialogue among them. This is what we are trying to do at Arboreus (connecting people wishing to get an EU affairs job and/or learn about how the European Union work), and it's the same idea of your course in Israel. The tools can of course greatly vary, but the concept is the same.
@Raluca: sorry to hear the bad experience, we share your feelings. One way to break out of this is to be your own manager: in the Internet age, you can leverage many of your talents by showing online what you are capable of, or even provide services to non-Belgian people via e.g. www.elance.com or www.buddyschool.com - live in Belgium but work for the world!
By Raluca Ilie | 17 Jul 2010
Well, I think that the problem with all that is that Europe is not quite what it is supposed to be. I come from Romania and I offered my professional services to Belgium, but Belgium didn't want to hear about it, because I still need a work permit. So maybe you can try asking questions like this when Europe will effectively be what they say it is.
By Hristina Palasheva | 17 Jul 2010
All that is true but it dipends on your goal. I can share the experience of Israel's MASHAV organisation. I was there on a course in 1994 and I'm still receiving a revue twice a year which deals with all what MASHAV does in differents areas - education, medecine, agriculture and others and it is very interesting every time for me to hear about all those that I've never met but which have experienced study in Israel just like me. Now with internet it will be much easer to keep in touch. You have only to make the organisation