Written: 16.8.12
Today during my internship there was a meeting held to discuss what steps the Western Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC) should take with social media. At the moment the WAEC do not use any social media sites to engage the public. As one of the key challenges the organisation faces is appealing to the younger generation of 18 – 25 year olds it was agreed that social media needs to become a priority.
The WAEC will be setting up Facebook and twitter accounts in preparation for the 2013 State General election held in March. They aim to base their twitter feed on that of the Australian Bureau of Statistics last year. The ABS updated their twitter fellows with quirky trivia about the facts and figures the census had collected.
It was a good example of how something fact based and often regarded as boring can be effective in reaching a wider (and younger) demographic by using humour and trivia.
1 comment:
inspiring post sam.
Sounds like it is definitely time for the WAEC to get on the social media train. yep i just said 'social-media-train'.
i think this is definitely a good way to engage the younger demographics, who really aren't interested in voting in today's society. It's really essential that something is done to communicate effectively with this audience as it their future that this voting is going to affect - especcially in regard to issues like climate change. Realistically, the people making these policies aren't going to be around to see the impact of them where the environment is concerned, so it's important that young people take an interest in these issues and vote for the people who are going to benefit their future. And social media is definitely the way to go if we want to get them on board.
Your placement sounds absolutely thrilling. Hope you are enjoying yourself and learning loads. And putting all your PR knowledge into practice!
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