Episode 61 - 7 Steps to Social Media Success in Digital Diplomacy

Diplomacy has been around for centuries and is most associated with politicians and policymakers. Some people have a talent for diplomacy and then there are companies that sell it as a service. 

But diplomacy has taken on a new life form in the Digital Age with the ability of diplomats to amplify and scale messaging at the speed of light. 

Coming up in today’s show:

• > What is digital diplomacy in practice?
• > 7 Steps to Social Media Success in Digital Diplomacy 
• > I speak to Miha and Ingrid from the European Digital Diplomacy Exchange and we discuss the power of digital diplomacy to protect democracy, build public trust and empower politicians and policy makers 

Column | What is Digital Diplomacy?

Digital diplomacy, also referred to as Digiplomacy and eDiplomacy, has been defined as the use of the Internet and new information communication technologies to help achieve diplomatic objectives. However, other definitions have also been proposed.

Building Digital Campaigns

How To Attract Attention, Engage Target Audiences and Build Public Trust 

Joanne Sweeney, CEO, Public Sector Marketing Institute and Author, Public Sector Marketing Pro 

The role of a communications manager today is daunting. Navigating the digital landscape with competence and confidence is not easy. But success in digital diplomacy is not merely an aspiration, it can be your reality, that is, if you take action. 

The framework provided by Joanne Sweeney in this chapter provides communications professionals working in government and public sector with a proven and flexible method to apply to your agency, campaigns and audiences. 

Digital transformation for public sector marketing pros is about combining traditional skills with new technology to reflect online citizen behaviour.

Joanne says the real currency of digital diplomacy lies the ability of the communications professional to change citizen behaviour – moving from apathy to interest, inaction to action and cynicism to support. This must be done with sincerity and with a citizen-first mindset.

So how can you achieve this in practice?

Step into the shoes of your citizens and be prepared to fully embrace the fourth industrial revolution. The Digital Age is travelling faster than any other revolution that went before us. So much so that legislation, skills, work practices and organisational policy cannot keep up. 

It is the age that our voices got louder (social media), our demands got more intense (smartphone) and our curiosity deepened (search). The S3 Age (search, social and smartphone) has transformed human interactions, ideologies and ultimately influences how we behave.

Consulting | 7 Steps to Social Media Success in Digital Diplomacy

A winning formula for government agencies 

Joanne Sweeney, CEO, Public Sector Marketing Institute and Author, Public Sector Marketing Pro 

Digital communications transformation in Government and public sector is shaking up traditional work practices, challenging leadership’s personal bias and re-framing the fundamental premise of ‘in the public interest’. Add in a global pandemic and you have no choice but to rethink digital diplomacy in a world where there are more people using social media than are not. 

The public interest, previously dictated by civil and public servants, politicians and policy makers, is increasingly in the hands of the people – those that Governments are there to serve – because of social media.

The real battle online is attention

But what does success actually look like online? In my view, there are seven core goals of digital diplomacy:

1. Build public trust 
2. Generate citizen engagement
3. Motivate the public to take a specific action based on factual information 
4. Communicate real-time public interest messages
5. Manage online reputation 
6. Disrupt the spread of misinformation 
7. Build a community of advocates

Interview | Ingrid Omahna andMiha Ilc

INGRID OMAHNA is a head of Strategic Communication programme at the Centre for European Perspective (CEP), Slovenia. The study of International Relations brought her to CEP in 2008. Since she has always been inspired by digital technologies and graphic/web design, she later gained her professional skills in private sector marketing and returned to CEP back in 2015. She is managing the European Digital Diplomacy Exchange project with the U.S. Department of State since its start back in 2017 as well as working on several other projects.

Bio: Miha Ilc is a project manager of European Digital Diplomacy project at Centre for European Perspective (CEP). He holds a BA of European Studies at the University in Ljubljana. Previously, he was active in the European Students’ Forum (AEGEE-Ljubljana) where he served as a president for a one-year mandate and was active on the European level as a policy officer on Europtimism. Along the work at CEP, he is pursuing MA degree on the topic of Digital Diplomacy.

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Thank You for Listening!

Thank you for tuning into episode #57 to find out Digital Government In Practice.  If you are a regular listener, please rate and review our show.

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