Digital Diplomacy 2021 - Brussels
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https://digitps.ch - An introduction to Digital Diplomacy in 2021 and how embassies and diplomatic missions in Brussels use Twitter.
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Digital Diplomacy 2021 - Brussels
- 1. DigiTips Matthias Lüfkens +41 79 514 47 81 info@digitips.c h @DigiTips Digital Diplomacy EU Twitter Training 19.05.2021
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- 28. DigiTips Matthias Lüfkens +41 79 514 47 81 info@digitips.c h @DigiTips Thank You
Editor's Notes
- Digital Diplomacy is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month. Late at night on May 25, 2011 former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt tweeted at his Bahraini counterpart Khalid Alkhalifa: “Trying to get in touch with you on an issue.” He chose not go through the usual diplomatic channels. His tweet was public and the Twittersphere was wondering what the two ministers wanted to discuss. It turned out he wanted to discuss the fate of a Swedish citizen imprisoned in Manama. A day later Khalid Alkhalifa replied on Twitter: “nice to hear from you to catch up on matters.. Your tweet caught the world interest”
- Over the past decade Twitter has become the preferred digital channel for Digital Diplomacy. 98% of all 193 UN governments have a presence on the platform. Only three countries are not present namely Laos, North Korea, and Turkmenistan. The heads of state and government of 161 countries have personal accounts on the platforms (obviously very few are personally managing their accounts)
- 156 Foreign Ministries have active Twitter accounts and 131 Foreign Ministers have personal accounts. We estimate that more than 5000 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions are present on the platform. And 1800 ambassadors have personal accounts.
- In Brussels 85 Missions to the EU are active on Twitter as well as 58 missions to NATO and 65 embassies to the Kingdom of Belgium share their daily activity publicly. Diplomacy has become digital and if you want to participate in the discussion you should be active on the platform. Brussels Twitter Lists https://twitter.com/i/lists/1392815240832815104 https://twitter.com/i/lists/1392816217765949448 https://twitter.com/i/lists/1392817541165293568
- In the beginning Digital Diplomacy has been very amicable. Leaders had cordial Twitter relations, sending each other greetings on their national days or congratulating on their election victory as then President Medvedev did when he sent this message to Barack Obama.
- However, Digital Diplomacy took a somber turn when Russian troops invaded and annexed Crimea.
- You will all remember this tweet from the Canadian Mission to NATO. It was a simple guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost and accidentally entering Ukraine... A day later the Russian Mission to NATO replied with this map of the contemporary geography of Europe.
- The relations between Russian and the Western allies deteriorated even further after the poisoning attempt of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018. On Twitter the Russian Embassy in London openly mocked the British investigation with this picture of detective Hercule Poirot. When the Western Allies decided jointly expel numerous Russian diplomats and the US closed the Russian General Consulate in Seattle the Russian Embassy in the US used Twitter’s poll function to ask its followers which consulate they should close. Almost half of the 57,000 voters decided they should close the US Consulate in St Petersburg.
- While relations with Russia are still not mended, the Chinese diplomats have also become more aggressive on Western social media especially on Twitter. Over the past two years China has been using Twitter in an aggressive way to set the record straight about the origin of COVID-19 and to counter what they perceive as disinfomation about Xinjiang. The latest example is this video about machine cotton harvesting: “It seems we are focing machines to pick cotton in Xinjiang province” The question is: who harvests the remaining 20%? Israel posted a series of tweets with 1600 emojis of rockets just to give us all some perspective. Each one of these rockets is meant to kill. Thet tweet could also be interpreted as Israel being bellicose...
- For the past four years the Brexit negotiations have dominated the Twitter sphere in Brussels. This tweet from the Bulgarian Permanent Representative Dimiter Tzantchev summed up the protracted discussions about the extension of Article 50. The picture of the EU Brexit negotiating team huddling during the European Council became the unofficial picture of the summit symbolizing the complicated discussions. When the Withdrawal Agreement Bill was finally put to parliament in London the Germany EU representatives took it with a sense of humour tweeting the German translation Austrittsvertragratifizierungsgesetz
- The Germans who held the EU Presidency in the second half of 2020 do have humour. On the even of the Brexit deadline they quote tweeted the historic Tweet from the German Foreign Ministry about getting decently drunk in an Irish pub. On February 1, 2020 the @UKRepEU changed its name and Twitter handle to the @UKMisEU.
- A little humour will go a long way to engage followers as this tweet from the Australian Embassy in Brussels shows. The UK delegation to NATO took the International Day of Dogs to tweet the difference in barking in all European languages.
- Several missions also use Twitter’s poll function to engage their audience. The Israeli Embassy in Brussels asked their followers which sauce they preferred with their Belgian fries. The voters clearly preferred mayonnaise. The Swiss Embassy posted a series of polls about Switzerland like this one about your favourite Syiss cheese. It turns out the followers prefer the classic Gruyère to the Appenzeller and the Emmentaler.
- Twitter is also a great way to communicate with your followers especially when traditional helplines are unresponsive. The Indian Embassy often replies to its citizens and takes the discussion off-line.
- Twitter is essentially a public conversation. Consider this tweet from the Belgium mission to NATO asking its followers how does your office view look like. The Israeli Mission to NATO was quick to reply with their picture of the wintery landscape in April. Don’t be afraid to reply to other users!
- Here are other Twitter Tips
- Polish your profile! Fly your colours in your Twitter name Use flag emojis in your Twitter bio especially if your mission is accredited to several countries. Add a key message in your Twitter name which can be 50 characters long or campaign hashtag #PeaceInTheMiddleEast Add relevant hashtags in your Twitter bio and tell your followers what they can expect. You could also add the account of your ambassador in your bio. And add your birthday, ie the day of your national day and balloons will fly through your profile. And finally open Direct Messages to anyone so users can contact you directly. If the 160-character bio is not enough add a pinned Tweet to your profile, giving you another 280 characters. The pinned tweet becomes the extension of your Twitter profile.
- Don’t start your tweet with the @mention. This @reply from the New Zealand Mission to the EU to Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will only be seen by the people who follow both the @NZinEU and @NanaiaMahuta accounts, ie very few users. The same happened to the Slovak Mission to NATO which started the tweet mentioning NATO.
- When posting pictures you can taq up to 10 other Twitter users. That’s what the Hungarian Ambassador did, mentioning Ambassador Tibor Stelbacky and Zsolt Darvas in his Tweet and tagging both in the visual, a screenshot of his Zoom call. However he did forget to tag the moderator, Veronika Jozwiak who was quick to call him out. The ambassador blamed Twitter’s character limit. However he could have tagged her in the original picture. The Hungarian Ambassador to Belgium also add his location to his tweets all sent from the Hungarian Embassy. This is a nice touch
- Twitter in Belgium uses foursquare for its locations. Make sure the location of your diplomatic mission is up-to-date on Foursquare! FYI the NATO headquarters are on Foursquare and you can use that location in your tweets.
- For accessibility and the visually impaired it is important that you add a description to each picture describing what people see in the picture. In this way screen readers will be able to read the tags and blind users will be able to see the picture.
- And finally the number of followers is irrelevant. It’s the quality that counts. Consider the Foreign Ministry of Iceland which has ‘only’ 19,000 followers but ranks asa one of the best connected mutually folloying 120 other foreign ministries and world leaders.
- Open Direct Messages to anyone. No worries you won’t get spammed. Twitter has sorted the spam problem.
- You can even encourage users to send you a private message in each tweet.
- You can even create Diredct Message groups with up to 75 users who follow you. Think of it like a WHatsApp group. We used this to promote our latest Twiplomacvy report to 75 foreign ministries following Twiplomacy. It sounds spammy but numerous foreign ministries acknowledged receipt of the message and thanked us for it. We have used this to contact journalists and other influencers. It works.
- And finally explore new Spaces and Twitter tools! Spaces is Twitter’s answer to the success of Clubhouse. Why not organize a weekly Brussels Diplomatic Space on Twitter?
- Thank you for your attention. If you’ve enjoyed this presentation I invite you to send me a tip through TipJar, Twitter’s latest addition on my profile. It allows you to send money to users. And finally you can download this presentation from Slideshare