Social media: revolutionising the way EP communicates with you

The European Parliament has always been keen to embrace the opportunities for communicating social media have to offer. Instead of guessing what people might want to know, the Parliament is now able to find out directly what questions and concerns they have. It also puts citizens in the driving seat as they can post their views on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages or question MEPs themselves during Facebook chats. Here is a short guide to how you can interact with us online.

Facebook

The Parliament Facebook page boasts 370,000 fans from all over the world and is by far the most popular page created by any of the European institutions. And that is not all: 70% of the current Members of Parliament have their own Facebook page. In addition to taking part in the different discussions, you are also welcome to join our regular chats with people such as the President, group leaders, committee chairs or visiting dignitaries. There are also separate Facebook pages for the information offices in your country, which allows you to catch up on EP news in your own language.

Twitter

For the latest developments in Parliament, you can turn to our Twitter accounts, which are updated as soon as something happens. The advantages of this EU news service in 22 different languages have already been discovered by 37,000 people. Since its inception there have been 35,000 tweets reporting on anything from live streamed meetings, press conferences, to schedules and there have even been debates tweeted live on location. In addition there are specialist feeds for media professionals.

  

LinkedIn

If the 140 characters tweets offer are not enough for you, then join our LinkedIn group for more in-depth discussions on EU policy making. The Parliament's latest online venture is open to all LinkedIn members.

Flickr

Ever wanted to see what the other end of an EP Facebook chat looks like? Just check out our slide show on Flickr. Here you'll also find 3,400 pictures and infographics, that you are free to use.

YouTube

Here, you can watch anything from EuroparlTV news reports by EuroparlTV to in-house home movies created by some of our EP Facebook fans, who we invited to visit Strasbourg. So far our 520 videos have already received nearly 900,000 views.

The future

We are constantly looking for new ways to interact with you, so expect to find us on new platforms in the coming years. Our next project will be Foursquare.