Who are public affair’s social media trailblazers and what are the concerns of those watching from the shadows: Lobbyists have been slow to embrace social media. Yet there are signs from the lobbying industry that things are beginning to change. David Benady report

As the American economy lay in ruins following the devastating financial collapse of autumn 2008, a group of US house builders launched a social media campaign to lobby for state aid to be rushed to the moribund housing sector.

Using email campaigning, Twitter feeds and search engine marketing, the Fix Housing First coalition showed how social media could be employed to pile pressure on legislators.

The group worked with communications agency Fleishman-Hillard to recruit supporters via Twitter and got 180,000 of them to send emails to members of Congress. Online tools had already played a decisive role in Obama’s presidential victory. Now the full arsenal of social media was being dragooned into the service of the lobbying industry. Support for Fix Housing First snowballed across the US, and within weeks Congress bowed to the pressure and agreed to offer first-time home buyers an $8,000 tax credit. Of course, press and TV coverage were crucial to the campaign’s success. And the argument was powerful – Congress had just announced the $800 billion bail out for Wall Street banks but had ignored the housing market where the financial crisis originated. But the online component transformed the campaign from a cosy chat between lobbyists and Washington lawmakers into a mass participatory movement.

Across the Atlantic, however, social media remains barely a flicker on the radar of British political lobbyists. Given the opportunities to target messages at politicians through blogs, Twitter feeds and social sites such as Facebook, the public affairs industry seems to be firmly rooted in the past.

“Public affairs is a people industry, engaging and advocating stakeholders face-to-face. Most campaigns are based on word of mouth. Public affairs experts are still getting their heads around social media – though once they get the hang of it, things will change,” says Jen Pufky at Insight Public Affairs. There have been a few examples of UK social media campaigns achieving extraordinary goals, from the 2007 online road pricing petition to fans of Rage Against the Machine driving the band to the number one slot in the Christmas pop charts. But while online campaigning may rouse people to immense passion on issues close to their hearts, the public affairs industry has yet to apply this potential to lobbying government.

There is a feeling that public affairs work is not about noisy, populist campaigns that hit newspaper front pages, but requires softer and quieter advocacy. As Tracey Crouch, head of public affairs at financial services group Aviva says: “We don’t tend to use social media on a regular basis. It is a specific means to a specific end. Our research shows that most politicians still prefer to receive information in traditional ways so we prefer to write, call or meet our target audience. When that audience is broader, then social media becomes a more effective tool.”

But some see public affairs chiefs as reluctant to take risks with social media. Conservative political blogger Iain Dale says: “Public affairs people have been incredibly slow on the uptake with social media, particularly the in-house teams, though consultants have been slightly ahead of the game. People still view blogs and Twitter as too risky, which is odd because often for charities and pressure groups with little budget these are actually a free way of speaking to people.” He recently attended a conference for the voluntary sector and discovered that many organisations had little web presence. “Not a single person had a blog,” he says.

Likewise, many private companies view social media with suspicion. “There are people who are fearful of doing any lobbying online. They rely on scare stories in newspapers about the trouble that you can get into,” says Dale.

However, others believe that the public affairs industry will soon be forced to adopt Web 2.0 as a part of its lobbying efforts. Jonny Rosemont, a digital consultant at Weber Shandwick, says: “Digital is in its infancy in public affairs but this year is being regarded as the first internet election in the UK. Because Obama ran a successful campaign two years ago, the impact of things like Facebook and Twitter has been noticed and we are going to see public affairs agencies turning to such tools.” But he believes there has not yet been a “gold standard” online lobbying campaign in the UK and adds: “Our thinking is you shouldn’t see offline and online as two separate entities. We have a methodology called Inline to make sure a story is pushed through all the different channels. Online is part of the pie, but you shouldn’t disregard traditional thinking.” Research by the agency shows that traditional media are still far more important in influencing voters.

In some senses, social media have already changed the game for public affairs consultants. Richard Jukes of lobbyists DJH Associates says: “The real change for us is the use of Twitter and other social sites by political commentators and politicians which means that we are all insiders now. Background gossip – political intelligence – is no longer just gleaned from private conversations, but is widely available to anyone with an interest.” He points to the political ‘Twitterati’ - journalists such as Cathy Newman of Channel 4, Paul Waugh from the Evening Standard and Tweeting bloggers such as Tim Montgomerie (of ConservativeHome) and Left Foot Forward – who provide up-tothe- minute glimpses of politics behind the scenes. “Public affairs consultants have to work harder to stay ahead and to provide their clients with added value. An important part of our work is to interpret the body language of politics. We need to filter what is relevant and informative so that our clients are ahead of the pack and not distracted by trivia.”

The rise of political blogging over the past two years has offered lobbyists an online medium for targeting ads at MPs, cabinet ministers and lobby journalists. Aviva’s Crouch says the company has used social media for advertising party conference events and the launch of a new programme related to its sponsorship of UK Athletics. “We did this as a way of supplementing our regular advertising, targeting a specific audience. We used the most effective media at the time – high-profile political blogs, Iain Dale, Guido Fawkes and Recess Monkey. We haven’t used Twitter or Facebook.”

Iain Dale says lobbyists have started contacting him personally to get him to promote their campaigns in his blogs. “It is very rare I will write about those, because I only write about things I am interested in,” he says.

It is not only UK public affairs consultants that struggle to communicate with politicians through social media. James Stevens, a European Union lobbyist for Fleishman Hillard in Brussels, says public affairs teams lobbying Members of the European Parliament automatically seek out the five most influential MEPs on any issue and meet them personally. But there are ways of shaping their views about issues through using social media such as Wikipedia. Often MEP’s researchers find information from the site. “We have seen in Brussels a recognition by our clients that they need to be managing information about their issues online,” he says.

An example of a public affairs campaign in the UK which has made strong use of social media is from the Community Development Finance Association, the trade body for the providers of funds for community projects. The body hired agency Insight Public Affairs to help boost its standing with key politicians. Part of this involved using a website to build relations with members. “Insight suggested a combination of pressing for meetings with people like Vince Cable, encouraging politicians to put down Early Day Motions and all the things which are bread and butter for lobbying agencies, but in addition to use the web and social networking platforms as well,” says Joe Dumont, head of communications.

The CDFA created a web site using the free Ning platform where members could keep in touch and give their views on the lobbying efforts and suggest issues that politicians needed to understand. This culminated in the body inviting the then Minister for the Third Sector Kevin Brennan to take part in a web chat with members. “There were 20 members logged on and it was nice to give them the opportunity to speak to him directly,” says Dumont. Brennan hadn’t even been aware of the sector before the lobbying, but since these links have been established with Government, the current Third Sector minister Angela Smith is also in touch with the CDFA.

To give social media a real boost in UK lobbying, there needs to be a demonstrable success story to point to, such as the experience of the Fix Housing First coalition in the US. But it could be some time before the internet replaces cosy chats over a cup of tea as the most effective means of influencing politicians. 

Online lobbying that worked
• The We Love NHS campaign on Twitter last August was a seemingly spontaneous riposte to apparent slurs by US Republicans against the UK health service. It became the social network’s number one trending topic worldwide. Twitter crashed at one point because so many people were Tweeting their support for the NHS.
• School students protested on Facebook this year over two A-Level biology exams which they claimed contained questions that did not match the syllabus. The Ofqual qualifications watchdog is investigating their concerns.
• The campaign against road pricing scored a significant victory in 2007 when 1.7 million people signed an online petition on the Downing Street website opposing the policy. Many believe this spelled the end for the plans. Then Prime Minister Tony Blair emailed the signatories to tell them that no decisions had been taken about road pricing and this was the “beginning, not the end” of the debate.
• HSBC was forced to scrap plans to introduce overdraft charges for new graduates in 2007 after the National Union of Students launched a Facebook campaign called Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip Off!!! It attracted 5,000 supporters.