The document outlines various digital engagement tools favored by Steph Gray at BIS, including iGoogle for monitoring online discussions, Delicious for social bookmarking, Ning for community building, UserVoice for idea generation, WordPress for blogging, SlideShare for sharing presentations, and Audioboo for podcasting. Each tool is described with its main features and applications in a digital engagement context. The list emphasizes the importance of using diverse digital channels to enhance communication and gather public input.

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. URL: google.com

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

6. 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

7. URL: delicious.com

8. URL: delicious.com

9. URL: delicious.com

10. URL: sandbox.dius.gov.uk/digitalgovuk

11. 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

12. URL: altogethernow.ning.com

13. 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

14. URL: uservoice.com

15. 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)

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

17. URL: www.bis.gov.uk

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

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

21. 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

22. URL: slideshare.net/lesteph (personal)

23. URL: blog.helpfultechnology.com (personal)

24. 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

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

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

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