We aimed to create an innovative, interactive social media poll competition, which would encourage young people to engage in a fun online activity. Our objective was to increase our followers and reach more young people, providing access to information on EU opportunities and programmes such as ESC and DiscoverEU.

We ran the poll competition for the first time during both the European Youth Week (EYW) and the Time to Move campaign. The competition was designed to encourage young people to follow, share, and answer the polls. By answering the polls, young people could share their opinions, feel heard, and see how their answers impacted the overall poll results, demonstrating democracy in action. We included links in each poll so followers could use them to browse information relevant to the question being asked, e.g.,

Question: If 18, are you registered to vote? Yes/No
Link: [How to register to vote (check the register)]

Question: Would you study in another EU country if you didn’t have to pay tuition fees? Yes/No
Link: [Study in another EU country]

We created poll questions related to the themes of EYW, “Voice your Vision” (Democracy in Action), and TTM, “Discover ways to explore Europe”. We hoped this new, creative way of raising awareness of European opportunities would empower young people to become active citizens and vote in the upcoming European elections.

We aimed to reach disadvantaged and hard-to-reach young people who may not otherwise have accessed information on European opportunities. We used Eurodesk EYW and Time To Move logos, hashtags, and created colourful social media graphics for each poll. We designed and printed poll competition posters which were displayed in the Youth Information windows, the centre, and distributed throughout our youth service. Announcements and photos of prize winners were posted and shared on social media.