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A new white paper, called 'Best by West Midlands', which highlights best practice use of social media across local government in the West Midlands, is being launched today.
We’re a smidge biased but we happen to think that West Midlands’ local authorities are pretty hot when it comes to their use of social media.
So when those nice people at Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands gave us the opportunity to back that statement up with a white paper on best practice we leapt at the chance.
by John Fellows
On the face of it, local authorities are ideally placed to effectively utilise the full potential of social media. They’re not just customer focussed organisations. They take their authority from the public, directly, as we’ve just seen across the UK last week. An effective council should be a listening organisation acting on the needs and wishes of its public, not just broadcasting to them.
by Phil Jewitt
Let’s face it; life in public sector comms is only going to get tougher.
Budgets are reducing, we might have less staff in future and I think it’s fair to say we have a few more lean years to come.
So we have to learn how to work smarter.
And the fine people here at Comms2point0 and friends have provided some great comms resources, advice and guidance on how we can share and adapt to do the best we can.
Last week I came across a brilliant storytelling project called Unsung New Yorkers (from the trenches to the treetops they keep the city running)
The project is a collection of amazing videos shining the light on the day-to-day workload of a range of people - from a lost property attendant to a crew keeping the city sewers clean.
In my opinion the stories are incredibly effective because they don't look like glossy promotional videos, they tell the real tale of real people doing the sort of jobs many of us simply take for granted.
Ring any bells?
by Will Mapplebeck
Remember the start of Jerry Maguire? For the few who haven't seen Cameron Crowe's much quoted 1996 rom-com, it starts with sports agent Jerry, played by Tom Cruise, frantically writing what he calls his mission statement at 1am in a Miami hotel room. He writes all night, pleading for a better more ethical sports business, hands it out and promptly gets the sack.
The memo is called 'The Things We Think But Do Not Say'.
by Kim Neville
LGcommunications has nominated 16 communications specialists from local authorities across the UK to take part in a new leadership programme. The LGC Future Leaders Network, aims to support up and coming officers, connecting them with peers and some of today’s local government luminaries to help them shape their thinking and forge relationships for the future.
What does the next generation of local government chief communications officers look like? I may have had a glimpse into the future yesterday when I joined the first gathering of LGcommunications Future Leaders’ Network in Westminster.
A Tale of Two Teams – how Norfolk County Council made Twitter a genuine customer service channel
In October last year colleagues of mine in our customer service team took over responsibility for replying to enquiries we received through Twitter. I’d like to say it was my idea but actually the desire to do this, and the foresight of how it could be developed, came from customer services.
by Ian Curwen
In the last week, much has been written about #localgov use of social media. Some people say we’re focussing too much of our time or resources on it, whereas others think we’re behind the curve.
In this blog post, I look at how Copeland Borough Council, a small Cumbrian district authority, has used social media to improve our communications and engagement work.
Take 2,500 snow shovels, tubs of rock salt and high visibility vests. Add a band of willing people ready to help their community. Sprinkle generously with snow...
You may have heard about Snow Champions taking to the streets of Sandwell in the bad weather. They’ve certainly been making an impression on Twitter and on the Sandwell Facebook page.
I’ve been lucky enough to attend and participate in a couple of excellent events this past week or so. The first UKGovCamp in London and the second an LGComms seminar on social media in Cardiff.
A key theme running through both events was that of the shifting nature of the communications landscape, and the differing ways in which organisations are reacting and redifining activity. The sands are certainly shifting at speed for some, for others they're moving at a far gentler pace.
by Adrian Short
Adrian Short is a freelance designer, web developer and data analyst. He's also passionate about local government. In this challenging piece from his blog, reproduced here under a creative commons licence, he rolls a hand grenade under council news online and suggests ways it can be better presented.
Too long, too dull and far too pleased with itself. Little more than an exercise in vanity publishing. Irrelevant to the vast majority of people.
The complaints are numerous but at least you come here to read my blog not to find out when it’s bin day.
