Social media for policy change

Social media & internet tools for influencing policy processes

What social media?• Twitter

• Facebook

• Slideshare

• Pinterest

• Youtube

• Blogs

Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS:

• Under Think Tank 'Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS' live 3 brands:

• Think tank PROVIDUS is a research and consultations NGO which works in fields of criminal justice, european policy and energy policy, good governance (anti-corruption, political party financing, active citizenship, eDemocracy, etc.) and education and tolerance

• Public policy website www.politika.lv is a 10 year old website, where you can find research, articles, and interviews about politics in Latvia and worldwide

• Website for direct communication with parlamentarians, europarlamentarians and ministers www.GudrasGalvas.lv

Blogs are important!• PROVIDUS researchers use an opportunity to blog on

portal www.politika.lv + have personal blogs on certain issues, wikipages

• Blogging tells a story about your organization

• Blogging humanizes your organization

• Blogging lets you put an issue on the agenda, if you use social media

• Reblog blogs on other platforms, make sure creative commons is turned on

Personal brand

• We not only have organizations social accounts on Twitter, but also work on reasearchers and activists social media branding on Twitter.

• Your personal account is a part of organization's brand

PROVIDUS in social media

• SlideShare

• Twitter (provide a hashtag for every event!)

• Facebook

politika.lv in social media

• Big stress on Twitter

• Asking questions

• Making a hashtag that we ‘own’

• Providing live streaming on website and via live tweets from various events

• Answering ALL negative comments through tweets or DM

• Communicating with readers more than being a radio

politika.lv on Facebook

• Ask yourself- what your readers wants to read about?

• What he wants to know?

• Photos and videos are better than text

• Ask questions and for advice

• Give them some fun

• Like other pages and make friends by sharing their news

politika.lv on Pinterest

politika.lv on YouTube• Videos from our

events

• Interviews with researchers

• Interviews with politicians

• Make it short, optimal 2 minutes

• Collaboration with GudrasGalvas.lv

How to start using social media?

• You WILL be lonely at first

• Find your friends and ask for support, do not be afraid

• Find politicians, talk to them

• Find other NGOs, talk to them, spread the word about their activities, make new friends

• Find journalists and other opinion leaders, talk to them and interact. Give them questions to ask politicians

Other suggestions:• Make sure you put your mission and logos

EVERYWHERE

• Use Wikipedia to spread the word

• Put all social media accounts in your email signature

• Just being on social media is not enough, BUT..... use namevine.com

Thank you!

• Contact me via email [email protected]

• Contact me on twitter @curiha

• Follow us on twitter @providus

• Follow us on Pinterest www.pinterest.com/politikalv

• Follow us on Slideshare www.slideshare.com/providus