Last week there was another #web2eu (and on twitter) event, formerly known as openbeer 2.0 (if I remember correctly!). If you have not heard of it: it’s a nice little series of events focusing on social media and the European Union in Brussels. It is informal and it is a great place to meet people that are interested in both worlds. This week there was an interesting panel debate featuring @eurogoblin, @antusheng and @steffenmoller. Personally I found that the panel presentations took too long – maybe it would be better to just have one ‘keynote’ with a debate and with more time allocated for informal discussions.
Generally I had the feeling that everything had been said before and that the EU-social media debate did not really move forward in the last years. Nothing new, always the same topics… It seems like a little bubble that keeps talking to itself. However, there were several interesting bits and pieces that are worth mentioning here (if you followed my twitter stream some of the points might seem familiar though). Unfortunately I did not write down who said what so I am sorry if some quotes are not attributed to the right person – or I could just claim the meeting took place under Chatham House rules…;-)
I think everyone agreed that social media/Web 2.0 can neither save the EU nor any EU policies (which was the rhetorical question at the beginning of the debate). It might however be a useful tool to bring citizens together in new and innovative forms. Nice examples like schools exchanges, interpreter recruitment and civil society projects were mentioned (one “island of excellence” if you want). Citizen-to-citizen contacts across borders and across language barriers could work very well – obviously one could ask the question whether the EU is actually needed for that.
The problem of EU institutions is the focus on control and what I would call “hierarchical communication structures”. Social media needs to be seen as a conversation but EU institutions don’t seem to be engaging (except some “islands of excellence”). The European Commission actually likes social media – but mainly for dissemination, not for conversation. There is a lack of innovative communication in the institutions or as one participant commented “The EU Commission has a facebook page because the White House has one…”. At the same time it is worth mentioning that certain individuals in the EU institutions and several units are “islands of excellence” – and doing a great job!
However, there seems to be a fear to engage with criticism directly. The debate often highlighted the issue of trust – be it trust in officials or trust in social media. Especially trusting officials seems to be a major issue. A culture of hierarchical communication seems to exist that prevents innovative and creative PR on behalf of the institutions carried out by “normal” officials and not necessarily by the official spokespersons. There were some interesting remarks that actually contradicted a lot of scientific research on ‘group think’ and ‘common identity of EU officials’. It is often assumed that people working for EU institutions share a set of European principles and that there is a certain “EU identity” among officials which would lead to mutual trust when it comes to ‘defending’ or ‘promoting’ EU policies. Apparently in practice hierarchies are more important, it is a top down process – also in communications. There seems to be a fear of making a mistake which then can seriously harm you career. This does not sound like an environment I would like to work in!
Recruitment and career development are in fact important issues, but often forgotten in these sort of debates. There was broad agreement that something is wrong in the recruitment procedures and career development processes within the EU institutions. A tweet by @MariaDantz summarized the issue: “In the EU commission the bright people are not recruited to the right positions. Problem in EC is also structural imo”
The problem is complex but at the same time quite obvious. The EU institutions have a generalist perspective on career development which is also reflected in the recruitment strategy. Every official moves from DG to DG every couple of years which involves changing jobs. The idea is that rotating between jobs regularly is a good thing to do. Although I think this can be a good policy, it can results in the strange situation that an EU official with a degree in chemistry who first analysed regional statistics in DG Regio gets a new job in DG environment to work on climate change issues. After that he or she gets a job in communications and media relations – but without a degree and without experience in communication whatsoever. That is happening on a large scale, which is part of the problem. Now, the production of a lot of PR products and strategies is outsourced to PR companies. But the problem remains: if you have no idea about target groups and how PR works, you ask your PR companies for the wrong products which they need to deliver. So it is not always the fault of the PR companies to produce weird games, uninspired leaflets or useless websites – it is often structural and can be traced back to officials that are not necessarily up for a job in communications.
More generally, working in communication/media (alongside HR!) is seen as a profession everyone is able to do. The old idea that both areas are not rocket science seems to be widespread which explains a lot of communication failures.
And there was one question (asked by an EU official) that really needs to be addressed here.
Question: How should EU institutions engage with bloggers?
1. Read blogs. Yes. that is a basic point but reading blogs can give EU officials a good feeling about what is being discussed outside Brussels.
2. Leave comments. Bloggers love to debate and discuss issues. They usually appreciate if an EU official corrects certain details or simply engages in a debate. Blogging is also about learning!
3. Provide more creative commons content (photos, videos etc.) as you want your content to be used on the internet and in blogs. And since we are at it: please use open source software and video streams and formats that can be used by every citizen!
4. It would be great to get some sort of blogger press accreditation. And don’t worry, most bloggers would not show up on a regular basis (daytime job commitments!) and a minority is actually based in Brussels. But it would be a innovative symbol of openness towards citizens and citizen journalism!
5. EU officials should blog. Maybe under a pseudonym. Maybe not regularly. Maybe try twitter instead? Blogging is not for everyone, you need to enjoy it – but you need to give it a try to find out. And it would help the blogosphere if more people from inside the institutions would blog and provide an internal perspective on things.
6. Meet the bloggers. At conferences, in Brussels, in member states. Do invite them from time to time to events. They are surprisingly social human beings and nice to talk to!
7. Just use common sense. Bloggers are normal people that have one strange hobby: writing about EU politics in their free time…