Ministers are sent to the network – Newspaper Kommersant No. 31 (7476) dated 20.02.2023

ANO “Dialogue”, specializing in building communication between the authorities and society on the Internet, prepared a report “Analysis of foreign practices of positioning ministries in social networks.” It contains recommendations to Russian ministries on what experience of foreign colleagues, including those from “unfriendly” countries, they should adopt. For example, experts advise more often to use the stories of living people in stories about the successes and programs of departments, and in some places do not even shun the practice of reality shows. In addition, Dialogue believes that the ministers themselves should be more personally involved in creating content for their organizations.

As noted in the report, foreign ministries actively involve citizens in their information campaigns, who are the target audience of the content they promote. Thus, the study mentions the British campaign to promote the T-Level qualification program (an analogue of Russian vocational education in technical specialties) and the coverage of the French youth job search project Youth Commitment, which actively used videos with direct participants in these initiatives. For example, one of the videos shows the “thoughts and experiences” of a French student, as well as support from her curator. In this regard, Dialog recommends considering the possibility of similar coverage of Russian educational initiatives – for example, the federal project “University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform”, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science. It is aimed at young businessmen, but the social networks of the project rarely tell the stories of these people and rather concentrate on their developments. Therefore, experts suggest shifting the focus “on the impressions, expectations and prospects of young entrepreneurs.”

This approach is also suitable for initiatives in other areas, such as agriculture. Thus, as part of the British campaign to develop farming, a series of videos “Farmer’s Diaries” was prepared and a podcast called Future Farming was produced. A similar tactic was chosen by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture has Agrotourism and Agrostartup grant programs that could be promoted using similar practices, experts point out.

They also advise Russian departments to think about content gamification, for example, by creating video games or special characters for their resources to help the user navigate. Sberkot of Sberbank and Lion-Keeper of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage are cited as positive examples of this kind. In addition, Dialog recommends using sign language translation and subtitles more often, “meaning maps”, as well as considering the possibility of highlighting the activities of the ministry in the form of a reality show. According to the authors, such a format would be useful for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which can show the training of police officers.

Finally, one of the key recommendations, which is mentioned several times in the report, is the integration of “minister figures” into the content of ministries. As the researchers note, in most cases, foreign officials not only maintain their personal accounts, but are also actively present in the content produced by their departments. For example, the ex-Minister for Children and Family Affairs of Great Britain Will Quince, the Minister of Economy and Digital Transformation of Spain Nadia Calvinho, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of South Korea Won Hee Ren, the Minister of National Education of France Pap Ndiai did so. And the best example of such involvement in the Dialogue is German Finance Minister Christian Lindner. He maintains several sections of his own on a special video hosting, in which he explains the decisions made by his department, gives his own assessment of the results of important negotiations, and answers topical issues of concern to the population. “It is proposed to introduce formats of “informal presentation” of ministers for the audience of social networks,” the authors summarize this selection.

Yulia Tyan, head of the monitoring and media analytics department at Dialog, explains that the development of departmental accounts is a response to a public request. At the same time, increasing the openness of government bodies and the development of civil society are interrelated processes, she emphasizes: “If citizens do not complain abstractly on their pages, but address government officials through their accounts, this will encourage the latter to inform the audience about their activities and about specific problems they solve.” However, it cannot be said that in Russia the situation with the accounts of officials is so deplorable, Ms. Tian makes a reservation, citing Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin as a positive example. She also believes that moving away from the inefficient practice of official releases in favor of a personal dialogue with the audience will make it possible to “publish” the high results of the work of a number of departments that previously went unnoticed.

Yulia Poletaeva, Deputy Director General of Dialogue, in turn, notes that ministers and their departments are also motivated to become more open by the ratings of her organization, through which the activities of federal executive bodies in this area are ranked every six months.

Associate Professor of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Alexander Nemtsev points out that, as a rule, specially hired people are involved in the social networks of the heads of federal departments, hence the low degree of personal participation of the ministers themselves in the creation of Internet content. In addition, for the most part, officials are “modest people,” and they associate access to social networks with the risk of negativity, the expert notes. And if you ask them to make such videos, then many will get just “laudatory odes” with specially trained people, Mr. Nemtsev admits. However, in some cases, the active participation of ministers may look organic, but a differentiated approach is needed here, the expert adds: “I see perfectly how the Minister of Education, the Minister of Science and Education, the head of Rosmolodezh could do this. But, for example, I do not see the head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov in this role. I’m not sure that this is so necessary for his department.

Andrey Vinokurov