Presentation by Betony Kelly BIS to the Scottish Communicators Network's event on Digital Outreach on 12 November 2014

1. Betony Kelly
Head of Digital Outreach
@betonykelly
“Hello people of the
internet. This is the
government
speaking”

2. Challenging the idea of media
engagement and influencers

3. New tools, new audiences, more
impact
http://releasd.com/ece0

4. (old) staff, new skills

5. Digitally native content and
approaches

6. “But I know this area well - I’ve
worked in it for years”
Business is GREAT campaign
(started November 2013):
The GREAT Britain campaign is a partnership
between private enterprise and Government to
highlight support for businesses aspiring to
succeed and to encourage entrepreneurial spirit.
● Analysed the most popular business
content on the gov.uk site
● Conducted focus groups with businesses
at various life stages
● Hired an experienced editor of a business
website and gave him editorial control
over the content
● Experimenting with different content and
distribution methods

7. “But our Dept isn’t leading?”

8. “But we’ve written a press release?”
Draft Consumer Bill of Rights (June 2013):
● Measures to enhance consumer rights
and make them easier to understand
● streamline overlapping and complicated
areas from eight pieces of legislation into
one consumer Bill
● get some money back after one failed
repair of faulty goods (or one faulty
replacement) incl. digital services
● demand that substandard services are
redone or failing that get a price reduction
A new, integrated approach:
● Included online media & bloggers to media
briefing and private event
● Identified where the messages weren’t

9. “But we’ve spoken to the industry
bodies?”

10. “But it’s embargoed until Boxing
Day?”
● Reached more than 6.4 million people with
space weather information just through
Twitter. This was worldwide, including
Australia, the US, Canada, Hong Kong,
India and Pakistan
● Respected scientists and influential
commentators shared and created content
- Dr Lucie Green, Roger Highfield, Jo
Brodie, John Burn-Murdoch and Alice Bell
● Solar flare video, 15 original blog posts,
BBC blog content used at least 23 times
● When the BBC’s popular stargazing
project began on Jan 7 the team
contacted them and the BBC account
shared the BIS messages again

11. What we’ve learnt from our work
● Learn the emotional drivers for sharing
content and contributing
● Don’t dismiss niche audiences
● Invest in your spokespeople & relationships
● Personal intros through personal channels
● If you’ve nothing to add, just be useful
● Join in with other people’s discussions - Top
Gear (400x increase in traffic to automotive
strategy docs)

12. Five things you can do today
Choose one of your Dept priorities:
● where and how are people talking online?
● review media distribution lists - is it all print
and broadcast?
● what content works for this group - what do
they share/where do they go?
● identify a policy or comms ambassador and
help them get online
● join an online forum, listen, participate, test

13. Betony Kelly
Head of Digital Outreach
@betonykelly
Thank you