Betony KellyHead of Digital Outreach@betonykelly
“Hello people of the internet. This is the government speaking”
“But I know this area well - I’ve worked in it for years”
Business is GREAT campaign
(started November 2013):
The GREAT Britain campaign is a partnership
between private enterprise and Government to
highlight support for businesses aspiring to
succeed and to encourage entrepreneurial
spirit.
● Analysed the most popular business
content on the gov.uk site
● Conducted focus groups with businesses
at various life stages
● Hired an experienced editor of a business
website and gave him editorial control
over the content
● Experimenting with different content and
distribution methods
“But we’ve written a press release?”
Draft Consumer Bill of Rights (June 2013):
● Measures to enhance consumer rights
and make them easier to understand
● streamline overlapping and complicated
areas from eight pieces of legislation into
one consumer Bill
● get some money back after one failed
repair of faulty goods (or one faulty
replacement) incl. digital services
● demand that substandard services are
redone or failing that get a price reduction
A new, integrated approach:
● Included online media & bloggers to
media briefing and private event
● Identified where the messages weren’t
landing
“But it’s embargoed until Boxing Day?”
● Reached more than 6.4 million people
with space weather information just
through Twitter. This was worldwide,
including Australia, the US, Canada, Hong
Kong, India and Pakistan
● Respected scientists and influential
commentators shared and created
content - Dr Lucie Green, Roger Highfield,
Jo Brodie, John Burn-Murdoch and Alice
Bell
● Solar flare video, 15 original blog posts,
BBC blog content used at least 23 times
● When the BBC’s popular stargazing
project began on Jan 7 the team
contacted them and the BBC account
shared the BIS messages again
What we’ve learnt from our work
● Learn the emotional drivers for sharing content and contributing
● Don’t dismiss niche audiences● Invest in your spokespeople & relationships● Personal intros through personal channels● If you’ve nothing to add, just be useful● Join in with other people’s discussions - Top
Gear (400x increase in traffic to automotive strategy docs)
Five things you can do today
Choose one of your Dept priorities:● where and how are people talking online?● review media distribution lists - is it all print
and broadcast?● what content works for this group - what do
they share/where do they go?● identify a policy or comms ambassador and
help them get online● join an online forum, listen, participate, test