Last week we hosted a seminar in Bucharest on social media for colleagues from Embassies across the region and London. The aim was to learn, discuss and share experience about the new opportunities and challenges that social media like Facebook and Twitter, blogging and YouTube, present for our work. This is a new and unfamiliar world for diplomacy. We’re all still experimenting – finding out what works, what doesn’t, making mistakes, and making an impact.
I only opened a Twitter account last month, but I like the fact that it allows me to find and offer comment quickly, succinctly and – most importantly – to connect with people I might not otherwise meet. During the seminar, I invited my followers on Twitter to tell me why they think an ambassador should tweet. I’ve received lots of good answers. Here’s a selection of the best – Top Ten reasons to Tweet.
- @ukinromania @HMAMartinHarris you can get information and opinions faster through Twitter, I hardly read any newspapers anymore
- To be more accessible and to be able to make many aware of matters that need be known. To communicate, in a nutshell.
- Makes them approachable and shows a strong connection with today’s connected world. Usually very interesting content too!
- To prove how free the country they reside in is and to foster an active engagement with individuals.
- No wooden language! Embrace the change and work to shape it.
- In order to explain complex situations in 140 characters.
- If you want to understand a society you need to get in touch with it. Without social media you’re not tangible nowadays.
- Ambassadors should tweet at least to create the illusion they are closer to the ppl they represent. #11 Thou shall tweet
- I tweet. So, I exist. Digital diplomacy is about opening & accesibility. Tweeting is offering this to diplomats.
And the tenth? My colleague in Beirut @HMATomFletcher says it all in his speech on ‘The Naked Diplomat’ at Chatham House last month. Take a look. And see you on Twitter!
I believe it is excellent to engage diplomacy in social media platforms, thus making it more available to a wider audience. In the light of working rights for Ro and Bg workers in the UK there is a greatly negative image about Ro and Bg people. I would like to see more positive links, more solidarity, more effective display of what we truly have in common!
As a RO student in a UK university, I do my best to change this negative perception. I retweet positive news, I let as many people as possible know news really worth sharing!