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Promotional or social content types

Topical event pages

Topical event pages are used to communicate government activity about high-profile events or in response to a major crisis.

Use for an event or crisis that is all of the following:

  • high profile
  • current or relevant only for a short time (for example Ebola virus: UK government response)
  • of significance to the majority of GOV.UK’s users (such as if the event is receiving extensive coverage by major news media, like the Today programme)
  • the responsibility of central government
  • linked to more than one government department or agency
  • likely to generate a high volume of content (not just one or two news stories)

Do not use for:

  • issues on which the government position can be covered by publications or document collections (for example, changes to the healthcare system)
  • issuing emergency guidance – consider how to reach your intended audience quickly, like social media or press releases
  • events which can be reasonably covered by a lead news story on a departmental homepage (although news stories may develop into topical event pages following additional content generation or increased public interest)
  • influencing behaviour change – this is the role of campaign sites

To create or update this content type, you’ll need a Signon account with access to Whitehall Publisher.

Get approval to create a new topical event page

Your GOV.UK lead or a managing editor needs to ask the Government Digital Service (GDS) for approval before creating the page.

The request will need to show that your event meets all of the above criteria.

Once you have that approval, then you can add a new page.

Add or edit a topical event page

  1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
  2. Select the ‘More’ tab.
  3. Select ‘Topical events’.

If you’re adding a new page, select ‘Create topical event’. Otherwise, search for the name of the group and select ‘Edit’ next to it.

Once you’ve done this, you can add or edit the details of the page.

Add or edit details

Each topical page has a number of fields to fill in.

Name

Use the name of the event and the year (for example ‘D5 London 2014’) and state if it’s a government response to a crisis or event (for example ‘Ebola virus: UK government response’).

Names must be unique and cannot be changed once published. They do not need a full stop. When you save your page this will become its ‘slug’, which users will see as the last section of the page URL.

Summary

Give a summary of the topical event. Write it as a complete sentence with a full stop.

Description

Keep the description short and use it to briefly explain:

  • what the event is
  • how the government is involved
  • what users will find on the page

You can also use it to link to related policies, statements of action or presentations.
Do not repeat the title or summary.

Add a logo if you have one. You do not need to provide alt text.

Duration

Topical event pages are only relevant for a specific period of time, so you can set a start date and an end date.

Social media accounts

Select any services being used for the event and add the URL. You can add a maximum of 7.

Publish the draft

Select ‘Save’ to publish the topical event. The draft will go live immediately.

If you’re creating a new topical event, you can now tag organisations, add an ‘About’ page and feature content.

Tag an organisation

  1. Select the ‘More’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Organisations’.
  3. Find the organisation you want to tag and select ‘View’ next to it.
  4. Select the ‘Edit’ link next to the ‘Details’ heading.
  5. Go to ‘Topical events’ and select the topical event from the drop down menu.
  6. Select ‘Save’.

You can make some of the tagged organisations ‘leads’. This means their name and logo will show up on the topical event page under a ‘Who’s involved’ heading.

  1. Go back to the topical event page.
  2. Select the ‘Organisations’ tab.
  3. Select ‘Make lead’ next to the relevant organisations.

Add or edit an ‘About’ page

Use this page to give more detailed information on what the government is doing about the event.

  1. Select the ‘About page’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Create new about page’.
  3. Add a name for the ‘About’ page. The name of the topical event page will automatically appear as the ‘About’ page title, so do not repeat this.
  4. Add some ‘Read more link text’, following the guidance for writing link text. The link text will appear below the summary on the main topical event page and direct users to the ‘About’ page.
  5. Complete the ‘Summary’ field using a maximum of 140 characters. Write it as a complete sentence with a full stop.
  6. Complete the ‘Body’ section.
  7. Select ‘Save’. The draft will be published immediately.

Tag a piece of content to the topical event page

You can tag content by adding an association to the topical event. You can do it for these content types:

Content tagged to the topical event will automatically appear in the ‘Latest’ feed.

Feature tagged content

You can feature up to 6 pieces of content. Any items you feature must include an image. Read the guidance on formatting images for help with picking an image.

If the content is published through Whitehall Publisher:

  1. Select the ‘Features’ tab.
  2. Select the ‘Documents’ tab.
  3. Search for the document you want to feature using the filters on the left hand side.
  4. Select the ‘Feature’ link next to the document you would like to feature.
  5. Select an image to be shown on your topical event page with this feature. You do not need to provide alt text.

If the content is not published through Whitehall Publisher:

  1. Select the ‘Features’ tab.
  2. Select the ‘Non-GOV.UK government links’ tab.
  3. Select ‘Create new link’.
  4. Complete the title, summary, type and URL fields and select ‘Save’.
  5. Select the ‘Feature’ link next to the external page you would like to feature.
  6. Select an image to be shown on your topical event page with this feature. You do not need to provide alt text.

Change the order of featured content

You can change the order of featured content.

  1. Select the ‘Features’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Reorder documents’ and then drag items up or down in the list.
  3. When you’re done setting the order, select ‘Update order’.

Unfeature content

  1. Select the ‘Features’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Unfeature’ to remove featured content from your topical events page.