My favourite tools for digital engagement
Steph Gray, Head of Digital [email protected] 3300 8166
• Listening to public debate
• Identifying issues and influencers
• Gathering ideas
• Understanding problems
• Prioritising areas for action
• Bringing policy coalition together
• Designing solutions
• Refining policy proposals
• Extending communications reach & span
• Rapid, cost-effective delivery channels
• Evaluation and feedback
• Sustaining relationships
How we’re using digital tools at BIS
• Personalised Google homepage - handy ‘dashboard’ for people to have on their browser
• Used by Press Office to monitor mentions of ministers or issues on blogs or online news
• You can add ‘widgets’ for anything from weather forecast to tool enabling you to send Twitter messages from your dashboard
• Google Blog Search and Twitter Search enable you to get a live list of search results and plug them into your iGoogle page using RSS
1. Igoogle & specialist search tools
URL: google.com
URL: blogsearch.google.co.uk & search.twitter.com
• Social bookmarking buttons are common on lots of website now - they let you save and share links to interesting pages you find
• Delicious is one of the common services - works like your Favourites, but on the web rather than on your computer (great if you have separate work and home PCs)
• You describe (‘tag’) pages you find with logical keywords, and you can see what tags other people have used
• You can use a list of Delicious bookmarks and incorporate them into other sites, using RSS
2. Delicious
URL: delicious.com
URL: delicious.com
URL: delicious.com
URL: sandbox.dius.gov.uk/digitalgovuk
• Ning is like a website or a mini-Facebook in a box
• You can set one up for free, make changes to the look and feel, and choose what features you want it to have - member profiles, photo sharing, forums, blogs etc
• Great way to set up a community site for people to share things like photos, slides, links and have discussions about them
• Handy for events: you can set one up to share the slides, notes, pictures and videos from the day, and continue the discussions online
3. Ning
URL: altogethernow.ning.com
• Uservoice is an idea generation and voting service
• You set up a page and invite customers, colleagues or anyone else to submit ideas (maybe service improvements, names for a new project etc) and comment or/vote on other people’s ideas
• Ideas are shown in a list, with the most popular at the top
• Easy way to engage people with a specific question and keep the discussion focussed
• But set the scope at the outset - it’s open to abuse as people try and ‘campaign’ for an outcome or try and fix the voting - fringe ideas with a small but passionate following can often rise to the top
• You can add a feedback tab or widget on your site
4. UserVoice
URL: uservoice.com
• Two versions:
• Wordpress.com: hosted blog service, where you can sign up and manage a free blog on their network
• Wordpress.org: download the same blog software for free and install it on your own servers
• Really flexible tool, can be used to host simple websites as well as blogs (e.g. the BIS corporate website)
• Lots of modules and add-ons to add extra functionality are available free (e.g. star ratings, photo galleries etc)
5. Wordpress
URL: talk.dius.gov.uk/blogs/studentlistening
URL: www.bis.gov.uk
URL: interactive.berr.gov.uk/lowcarbon/
• Slideshare is a hosting service for presentations
• You upload your presentation, and it turns into a widget you can embed on a website or blog
• People can view and comment on the slides in the context of your website, without having to download them first
• You can also track how many people have viewed your presentation
6. Slideshare
URL: slideshare.net/lesteph (personal)
URL: blog.helpfultechnology.com (personal)
• Audioboo is a (short) podcasting service, which mainly works with Apple iPhones
• You use an iPhone app to turn the iPhone into a voice recorder, take a picture of the scene with the camera, and plot your location on a map. This is uploaded to the Audioboo service, and your podcast is published online
• You can embed the podcast on a website, and/or post a link to it via Twitter - something which BIS Minister Lord Drayson has done when out on visits
7. Audioboo (& Twitter)
URL: twitter.com/LordDrayson
URL: audioboo.fm/profile/lorddrayson
• iGoogle (& specialist searches)• Delicious• Ning • Uservoice • Wordpress• Slideshare• Audioboo (and Twitter)
The Magnificent Seven:
http://sandbox.dius.gov.uk
Personal:http://blog.helpfultechnology.comTwitter: @lesteph
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