My favourite tools for digital engagement

Steph Gray, Head of Digital Engagementsteph.gray@bis.gsi.gov.uk020 3300 8166

• Listening to public debate

• Identifying issues and influencers

• Gathering ideas

• Understanding problems

• Prioritising areas for action

• Bringing policy coalition together

• Designing solutions

• Refining policy proposals

• Extending communications reach & span

• Rapid, cost-effective delivery channels

• Evaluation and feedback

• Sustaining relationships

How we’re using digital tools at BIS

• Personalised Google homepage - handy ‘dashboard’ for people to have on their browser

• Used by Press Office to monitor mentions of ministers or issues on blogs or online news

• You can add ‘widgets’ for anything from weather forecast to tool enabling you to send Twitter messages from your dashboard

• Google Blog Search and Twitter Search enable you to get a live list of search results and plug them into your iGoogle page using RSS

1. Igoogle & specialist search tools

URL: google.com

URL: blogsearch.google.co.uk & search.twitter.com

• Social bookmarking buttons are common on lots of website now - they let you save and share links to interesting pages you find

• Delicious is one of the common services - works like your Favourites, but on the web rather than on your computer (great if you have separate work and home PCs)

• You describe (‘tag’) pages you find with logical keywords, and you can see what tags other people have used

• You can use a list of Delicious bookmarks and incorporate them into other sites, using RSS

2. Delicious

URL: delicious.com

URL: delicious.com

URL: delicious.com

URL: sandbox.dius.gov.uk/digitalgovuk

• Ning is like a website or a mini-Facebook in a box

• You can set one up for free, make changes to the look and feel, and choose what features you want it to have - member profiles, photo sharing, forums, blogs etc

• Great way to set up a community site for people to share things like photos, slides, links and have discussions about them

• Handy for events: you can set one up to share the slides, notes, pictures and videos from the day, and continue the discussions online

3. Ning

URL: altogethernow.ning.com

• Uservoice is an idea generation and voting service

• You set up a page and invite customers, colleagues or anyone else to submit ideas (maybe service improvements, names for a new project etc) and comment or/vote on other people’s ideas

• Ideas are shown in a list, with the most popular at the top

• Easy way to engage people with a specific question and keep the discussion focussed

• But set the scope at the outset - it’s open to abuse as people try and ‘campaign’ for an outcome or try and fix the voting - fringe ideas with a small but passionate following can often rise to the top

• You can add a feedback tab or widget on your site

4. UserVoice

URL: uservoice.com

• Two versions:

• Wordpress.com: hosted blog service, where you can sign up and manage a free blog on their network

• Wordpress.org: download the same blog software for free and install it on your own servers

• Really flexible tool, can be used to host simple websites as well as blogs (e.g. the BIS corporate website)

• Lots of modules and add-ons to add extra functionality are available free (e.g. star ratings, photo galleries etc)

5. Wordpress

URL: talk.dius.gov.uk/blogs/studentlistening

URL: www.bis.gov.uk

URL: www.hastingshastings.org.uk (personal)

URL: interactive.berr.gov.uk/lowcarbon/

• Slideshare is a hosting service for presentations

• You upload your presentation, and it turns into a widget you can embed on a website or blog

• People can view and comment on the slides in the context of your website, without having to download them first

• You can also track how many people have viewed your presentation

6. Slideshare

URL: slideshare.net/lesteph (personal)

URL: blog.helpfultechnology.com (personal)

• Audioboo is a (short) podcasting service, which mainly works with Apple iPhones

• You use an iPhone app to turn the iPhone into a voice recorder, take a picture of the scene with the camera, and plot your location on a map. This is uploaded to the Audioboo service, and your podcast is published online

• You can embed the podcast on a website, and/or post a link to it via Twitter - something which BIS Minister Lord Drayson has done when out on visits

7. Audioboo (& Twitter)

URL: twitter.com/LordDrayson

URL: audioboo.fm/profile/lorddrayson

• iGoogle (& specialist searches)• Delicious• Ning • Uservoice • Wordpress• Slideshare• Audioboo (and Twitter)

The Magnificent Seven:

http://sandbox.dius.gov.uk

Personal:http://blog.helpfultechnology.comTwitter: @lesteph