My favourite tools for
digital engagement
Steph Gray, Head of Digital Engagement
steph.gray@bis.gsi.gov.uk
020 3300 8166

How we’re using digital tools at BIS
• Listening to public debate
• Identifying issues and influencers
• Gathering ideas
• Evaluation and
feedback • Understanding
problems
• Sustaining
relationships • Prioritising areas
for action
• Extending communications • Bringing policy coalition together
reach & span • Designing solutions
• Rapid, cost-effective delivery • Refining policy proposals
channels

1. Igoogle & specialist search tools
• 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

URL: google.com

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

2. Delicious
• 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

URL: delicious.com

URL: delicious.com

URL: delicious.com

URL: sandbox.dius.gov.uk/digitalgovuk

3. Ning
• 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

URL: altogethernow.ning.com

4. UserVoice
• 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

URL: uservoice.com

5. Wordpress
• 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)

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

URL: www.bis.gov.uk

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

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

6. Slideshare
• 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

URL: slideshare.net/lesteph (personal)

URL: blog.helpfultechnology.com (personal)

7. Audioboo (& Twitter)
• 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

URL: twitter.com/LordDrayson
URL: audioboo.fm/profile/lorddrayson

The Magnificent Seven:
• iGoogle (& specialist searches)
• Delicious
• Ning
• Uservoice
• Wordpress
• Slideshare
• Audioboo (and Twitter)

http://sandbox.dius.gov.uk
Personal:
http://blog.helpfultechnology.com
Twitter: @lesteph