Using social media to influence policy in Whitehall & Westminster

How social media can lead to policy engagement and public impact for historians

History and PolicyKings College London14 May 2014

Summary

What I’ll cover:

- Introduction- A short story – Puffles’ adventures in Whitehall

and Westminster- Systems and structures – a snapshot- Building your profile – things to consider

About me

Antony Carpen

- Freelance public policy and social media awareness trainer- Former policy adviser at the Department for Communities

and Local Government- Public policy blogger and commentator- Contributor to The Guardian’s Public Leaders’ Network- External contributor to the Civil Service’s guidance on social

media, and to Cabinet Office on its ‘Good Law’ programme- Custodian of Puffles the dragon fairy

Puffles the dragon fairy

- Emerged on Twitter in late 2010, while I was still in the civil service

- No social media guidance for professional - personal accounts, only corporate

- 1,800 followers by the time I left Whitehall in mid-2011

- 6,200 followers as of May 2014- Linked blog – 200 ‘hits’ per day- Standing as a candidate for Coleridge

Ward in Cambridge City Council elections

Puffles in Whitehall & Westminster: A story

- Early days surrounded by a friendly group of civil servants who were passionate about, and talented with social media for public services

- ‘Following’ people that tweeted interesting content but who were not necessarily in the mainstream media

The following grows

- Engaging in conversation with interesting people, re-posting/retweeting interesting content

- A growing and increasingly diverse following, from students doing GCSEs to seasoned experts

Looking after your community

- Posting a series of ‘house rules’ to help manage conversations

- Regularly referring to house rules to protect growing reputation

- Tipping off employer about Puffles’ activities – no nasty surprises

- Helping others out when they find themselves stuck and/or in a difficult situation

Expanding to another platform – a blog

- Different social media tools for different audiences

- Alternative way of expressing yourself and your ideas

- Two social media tools being greater than the sum of their parts

Mainstream media picks up on Puffles

- More mainstream publications are sourcing their stories from social media

- Profile raised further – far beyond a Whitehall/Westminster audience

- Profile grows further – blurring the lines between traditional and online media

Being invited to events

- There’s now an expectation from organisers that I will bring Puffles with me when I am invited to events – especially if the invitation is via social media

- Puffles as a ‘filter’

…but still no social media guidance for civil servants…

- During my final months in the civil service, I continued to call for new guidance to be issued – but with no success

- So Puffles asked a familiar friend (my local MP Julian Huppert, who is on Twitter) to table a Parliamentary Question on when Cabinet Office were going to publish new guidance

- Dr Huppert asked me to draft the question – which I did

Cabinet Office asks for Puffles’ help

- This is Puffles inside The Government Digital Service’s HQ – part of Cabinet Office.

- After the announcement they were preparing new guidance, I wrote a blogpost stating what I thought needed to be covered

- This started a discussion involving civil servants and those outside in the comments section of my blog. Unheard of until then

We help as an external adviser…

- …and Puffles becomes the first dragon fairy to be mentioned on Cabinet Office’s website

- But it is essential that you maintain your independence. When policy makers do good things, give them credit. When they don’t, feel free to criticise them

But Puffles isn’t always cuddly…sometimes the dragon bites. Hard.

- The Public Administration Select Committee (of which 3 of its MPs from 3 different parties follow Puffles) asked for advice on its inquiry on public engagement in policy-making

- They invited the public to submit questions via Twitter for them to put to Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude

- Puffles became the first dragon fairy to be mentioned in a parliamentary debate

- The minister struggled with Puffles’ questions on risk assessments

- The minister got criticised in the final report

However, if you know how to treat Twitter dragons well, they can be tamed

- Not that Welsh paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson needed advice on how to tame Puffles!

- (Yes, this is Puffles inside the Palace of Westminster at the invitation of the noble Baroness!)

…and it’s always nice to have a dragon on your side

- Whether you are the First Parliamentary Counsel and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office…

…and it’s always nice to have a dragon on your side

…or a Member of Parliament charged with scrutinising the executive. Be nice, share useful things, reach beyond your academic silos and you can go a long way.

Quick thoughts?

19

Who holds the knowledge? - 1

In the old way of working – especially in the pre-internet age, people who had access to wide amounts of knowledge and information were few and far between outside of central government. (The issue is accessibility, not educational ability). Government departments and large organisations were the only ones who could afford to maintain large systems to enable easy access to that knowledge and information.

This gave us a world that looked something like the diagram above.

Department of StatePolicy team

Trade Union

Minister Research institute

Media organisation

University

Professional body Large campaign group

Pre-internet society

Media outlet

20

Who holds the knowledge? - 2

This system illustrates that unless individuals were part of large organisations, feeding into the policy-making processes was very difficult for the individual person. The rise of the internet and advanced communications tools meant that more existing knowledge could be published more easily (static), and the access to that knowledge led to further advances over a much shorter time period (dynamic) than without these tools

The internet substantially increased access to that knowledge that was previously only available to large organisations – especially as they made it more available.

Department of StatePolicy team

Trade Union

MinisterResearch institute

Media organisation

University

Professional body Large campaign group

Society takes up new communications tools

Media outlet

21

Who holds the knowledge? - 3

The developments of social media has meant that each individual with access to the internet also had the opportunity to use social media for much more efficient discussions and deliberations than was possible through email and old newsgroup

…and through those networks, knowledge moves from being the preserve of Government and large organisations…

Society takes up new communications tools

This meant that each online individual had the potential to move from being a “passive” internet user to an “active” internet user – i.e. one who engages in discussion and debate through social media, rather than just a passive “reader”.

Therefore, online user evolves from…

into…

…an active networked user

22

Who holds the knowledge? - 4

Knowledge and information is now no longer the monopoly of Government and large organisations. Knowledge and information is “out there” – with people using commenting, adding, developing and innovating with it.

This creates significant challenges for Central Government (as well as large organisations)

Department of StateInstead of “knowledge” being here…

…it is now out there

23

Traditional policy making

The “discrete” method of consultation in the policy process is one where responses are invited against a fixed document – e.g. a green paper or a white paper. This method entrenches 2-way conversation – The Government trying to have a conversation with “everyone else”.

This is adversarial - it does not allow either side to respond flexibly to constructive responses that are put forward. It limits discussions between disagreeing parties to only those Whitehall decides are “key stakeholders.

Department of State

“Everyone Else

Policy team

“Key Stakeholders”

Consultation publication

Consultation responses

24

Rather than having a situation where citizens are only able to make one submission, open policy making encourages continuous improvement. It also means that citizens can have conversations with others contributing towards the policy process, rather than the old 2-way process.

Department of State

Placing you and your organisation at the heart of ‘the hive’

As academics, this creates three huge challenges for you…

25

Challenges for academics

The challenges are:

1) Any contributions you make to public policy WILL be open to scrutiny, challenge (and even ridicule) – even if you choose not to engage in the debate online.

2) Policy makers and ministers now expect academics to be multi-disciplinary – you can no longer afford to remain unaware of developments in other areas of academia

3) In this era of all things digital, there is a growing expectation that you will make your work more accessible to citizens. This is particularly the case if you are in receipt of taxpayer-funded grants.

26

If you are going to use social media…

Top 3 tips

1. Plan before jumping in. Ask advice from those that you know are proficient users of social media in the context that you want to use it in. (For example if you don’t do marketing, don’t go first to a social media marketer)

2. Listen before posting content. Don’t expect using a new platform to come naturally. Get a feel for the ‘culture’ of how users that interest you are using it. Facebook has a different culture to Twitter to LinkedIn.

3. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Take reasonable precautions and try to set the tone for how you want to be treated on social media. Don’t expect to get things right first time every time. When you apologise, say it like you really mean it.