Tools & Tactics: Audiences Receptivity to New and Social Media

ECF Conference - Academic StreamBy Paul Shotton PhD

Supply and Demand

Decision-maker

Interest group 1 Information

Influence

Supply

Demand

Interest group 2

Information

Nothing?

Supply

Demand

WHAT INFORMATION?

?

Preferences for Type of Info

European Commission

Council of Ministers European Parliament

European Info National Info Expert Info

In what order?

Other Types of Information?

European National Expert

Degree of Public Feeling?

At Other Levels?

European

National Sub-national

Global

WHAT TOOLS?

?

Traditional, New & Social

TraditionalWeb 1.0

NewWeb 2.0

SocialWeb 3.0

?

Pre-web media:• Paper• Face to face• Physical protest• Etc.

Web media:• Read-only• Email• Electronic

documents (PDF)• Etc.

Web media:• User Generated

Content• Social media• Blogging• Wikis• Etc.

1990s 2000s

Web media:• Computer

Generated Content

• Semantic web• Etc.

Pre-web ?

WHAT TOOL FOR WHAT AUDIENCE?

?

What Tool for What Audience?

Supporter

The Public

Decision-makers

Businesses

Not very Relevant

What Tool for What Audience?

Outside or

Voice

Inside or

AccessShou

ld w

e se

greg

ate

Stra

tegi

es

Direct and Indirect Influence

Supporter

The Public

Decision-makers

Businesses

Interest Group

Problem

1. To what extent does the audience targeted by the communication action determines the choice of tools and tactics deployed?

2. What role do the communication tools derived from web 2.0 play within the overall toolbox of communications tools and tactics deployed by interest representatives?

Hypotheses

1. New and social media do not represent a major paradigm shift in interest group strategy, but more an incremental development whereby existing methods are being reinvented with the use of new tools.

2. Interest groups making use of the most appropriate mix of tools and tactics for different audiences will be those that have the greatest influence over the policy-making process.

3. Social media is most relevant as a means of mobilising non-policy-making audiences in order to both legitimise the interest representative’s position and arguments, to mobilise external pressures on policy-makers and generate resources enabling the interest representative to function.

Methodology

• Online Survey www.SurveyMonkey.com

• 65 responses• 17 closed and 5 open

questions– 1-6 profile – 7-10 classification– 11-17 tools– 18-23 elaborations

• Problems: – Small sample– Representivity of sample– Data spread over several

years

Key results – without ranking

N&SM adoption rates are high!

Key results – Primary tool

N&SM importance is more modest.

Disagreement for decision makers

Diverging opinions over N&SM

High importance for public and supporters

Findings

• Interest groups are not uniformly adopting new and social media in their communication strategies.

• New media has become established alongside traditional communication tools.

• Social media use focuses on the public and supporters, while use with decision-makers is more prevalent at national level.

• Onliner vs. Offliner generations are determinant to N&SM effectiveness. Decision-makers largely seen as Offliners.

Findings

• The data outlines an ideal mix and audience allocation of tools according to each audience

• Social media adoption is high • Opinions diverge: N&SM = cost saving or cost

barrier

Hypotheses Confirmed

1. New and social media do not represent a major paradigm shift in interest group strategy, but more an incremental development whereby existing methods are being reinvented with the use of new tools.

2. Interest groups making use of the most appropriate mix of tools and tactics for different audiences will be those that have the greatest influence over the policy-making process.

3. Social media is most relevant as a means of mobilising non-policy-making audiences in order to both legitimise the interest representative’s position and arguments, to mobilise external pressures on policy-makers and generate resources enabling the interest representative to function.

Next steps

• Further analysis of data• Further surveys– Interest groups– Audiences

• Tackle problems of multicultural, multinational and multilingual samples

Thank You!

Questions?