Social Media Workshop
IED Seminar in Brussels, Belgium
06.03.2020
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have become vital tools for doing business and public affairs. But do stakeholders know how to make the most of these platforms to contribute to the European debate? In order to better reach out to its members and get them involved in the European Debate, the IED organized a training on 6-7 March 2020 in Brussels, addressed to the Social media officers of its Member organisations.
The training helped the IED and its members to better fulfill their mission to contribute to the European debate by promoting policy proposals rooted in the democratic values.
The 2 days training was given by Jon Worth, a social media specialist who has worked with EU institutions to help them improve their social media strategies, writing for the web, and policy advocacy online. He is best known for his blog – one of the longest running blogs about EU affairs.
14 participants took part in the training, coming from political parties and foundations who are members of IED and are based throughout Europe (well established political parties, in France, Germany, Basque Country - and more marginal or new movements in the rest of Europe).
The workshop helped the participants to identify where discussions important to one's organization or to IED, are taking place online, develop a social media campaign strategy and understand the pros and cons of using different platforms to drive one's message home.
The participants learnt how social media can help their organisation meet its goals in the policy-making environment; social media success stories (and failures) to learn from; finding and reaching one's audience online; creating appropriate content on the right channels at the right time; analysing and improving one's online campaign tactics; engaging one's audience and getting them to take action.
The workshop helped the participants to develop a communication strategy, across different teams, cultures and at different levels (European party, national parties, MEPs' assistants)
Participants gave a very positive feedback to the training :
"I very much enjoyed the training with Jon and the exchange with all the other participants."
"I wanted to thank IED for the high quality workshop you offered us and for your welcome. The speaker was fascinating. His analysis of the political uses of social networks allowed me to gain some insight into our own work. To be able to understand the communication choices of other fellow democratic parties is essential to help us evolve in some of our practices but also to find solutions to problems that are often common."
