Local by Social: by Andy Gibson

The expectations are growing on councils (and councillors) to engage, work openly, be more accountable and move quicker on issues - and social media/internet tools represent an extraordinary opportunity to do this.

Councils are beginning to use these tools to achieve real value against their objectives, by engaging citizens, listening more and harnessing local energy to help with public activities.

The problem though for councils, is that not engaging now represents a far greater risk than engaging. Citizens will still use these networks to talk about you, whether you add your voice to the conversation or not. These are bottom-up spaces. Citizens therefore expect their council to engage with them on their terms, via their channels, and to be openly available online >> in fact, it is clear that if councils don’t use these tools, the citizens will do it for them, and bypass the council entirely << creates problems in reputation management.

Driven from top (e.g. localism bill) and bottom then, there is a massively strong political context then for doing this.

These sites (tools) aren’t just about sharing knowledge or facts, they are about self-expression and relationships - information is being socialised.

Opportunities - new ways of working, cost savings, service improvements and greater democratic engagement << being online is also amazing at building trust. Even if people don’t engage directly with material from council meetings, the fact that they know they can is still important - and it only takes 1 or 2 citizens to then take this and make it into something like Saddleworth News.

Internal - Within councils, wikis, discussion forums and micro-messaging tools like Yammer are providing dynamic new ways to share info and retain knowledge. They also provide good practise for workers to get competent and confident with speaking online.

Innovation - Councils need to see innovation as a core activity, because it is their future. Failure is only a waste of time if nothing is learnt.

Like so much with what is happening at the moment - what is the alternative? News and opinions about you is circulating already, at the very least you should be listening to this.

Control - their is none (although you can look to influence). The only way to ‘control’ what people are saying about you on social media is to join in the conversation, not as the voice of authority shutting things down, but as a real person engaging openly and honestly with the criticisms. By positioning yourself in the conversation to begin with, and allowing your staff to build relationships with people there, you can reduce the risk of one piece of bad news dominating the debate.

Community - by invigorating the local community, and bringing the conversation to a shared platform, it makes it easier for everyone to talk to each other, saving the council time working out who is saying what, and how to reach them.

Many community organisations and small campaigns would benefit hugely from support and endorsement from their council, and by nurturing innovative projects councils can support the best to become more successful. Lessons learnt here can then be applied in their own work.

Fairness - treating people fairly does not mean giving everyone the same thing; it means meeting them on their own terms - discovering these terms are where internet tools are immense. And in not trying to provide the same service for everyone - we can alleviate pressure on existing structures (and save money).

Council role - councils can, and should, support activities. The most obvious thing they can do is of course listen to what is going on, and contribute information and comment wherever they can. Another easy way to help is to make public data accessible to those who want it - enable people to create for you << councils then can innovators and also innovation enablers.

Hyperlocal – a web site covering a small community of interest

Hugh Flouch – best examples come when online activity is blending with the real world. Research also suggests that the community/voluntary led participation initiatives tend to have the biggest impact on decision makers.

Giles Gibson – the big asset that has yet to be tapped is local knowledge and expertise. Harness that and service delivery gets far simpler and more effective, local democracy can start to be taken off the life-support machine and we can deliver more for less.  Demographics are important – dictate levels of participation.

Dave Briggs – the opportunity here is for local councils to tap into existing communities to use them as focus groups or sounding boards, for quick, cheap, informal and effective engagement or consultation.

Carrie Bishop – people doing something for themselves that strengthens their sense of community. Directness and honesty online are vital.

Ingrid Koehler – the more we can help people to get used to the tools and understand that we all make mistakes and everybody’s learning… the better it will be. Makes #localgov vulnerable, but out of this comes opportunities.

Dan Slee – see his slides on the value that a council-led Flickr page can have - . Maybe what stops #localgov from engaging en mass is the officers fear of sticking a head above the parapet, coupled with ignorance of the medium.

Carl Whistlecraft – re. the argument that cllrs don’t like social media as they can’t control agenda – can they ever really control it. They always have had to confront issues they would sooner not. Re. change in council approach, make it cllr – use the enthusiastic ones to drive change from bottom-up.

Shirley Ayres – re. why tweet? It is the new information network

@tweetyhall – the place to find cllrs who tweet

http://twitter.com/_attenti_/local-councils - list of councils that do/do not use twitter

http://twitter.com/~!/Directgov/ukcouncils

Tim Davies – one page guides to most social media tools

@robandale

#UKelection2010, mainstream media and the role of the internet - July 2010

- the biggest media story of the 2010 election was the leadership debates - internet seen as something of a sideshow

- +7% turnout for the 18-24 age group - how much did social media contribute to this

- ‘Twitter cemented itself as a core tool of communication amongst political and media elites with 600 candidates and 198 of those elected engaging . However, this is well less than a third in all respects.

- whilst television remained the dominant  medium for many, young people in particular got much of their news via online social recommendations - online was more important than TV.

- People increasingly trust their friends more - could this trust be used to win votes or help restore faith in a political system tainted by the parliamentary expenses scandal?

- it’s all about offering ‘additional value’ rather than just doing the same as everyone else - I just wonder if ‘UGC’ should become user-generated content?

Vote Match - it was the main vehicle by which young people exchanged info and had a fundamental impact on voting decisions - my generation has grown up in such a cynical environment that we have a natural barrier to political rhetoric, so solid data like this is more important as we know there is no spin.

Kate Day said she was surprised at the level of debate (on Debate2010) - why surprised? if you take the time to build a dedicated service people take on more responsibility - have to feel that someone id listening --> Claire Wardle.

It is essential to reach out to audiences on their terms, using tools and services that they use every day --> but who has actually pursued a conversation by approaching them on facebook?

Mark Pack - ‘The Lib Dem approach to online campaigning was to use caricature and humour upfront --> ‘people are more likely to share content with others, especially with friends outside the political bubble.’

- To a degree, what facebook does is restore what used to happen - public meetings. In recent times, there have been very few during the campaign itself, because not many people turned up. Now, facebook allows those things to happen again.

re. social media being used by politicians - It is humanising and authentic and it personalised... as a politician.

Alberto Nardelli - People now have the tools to organise themselves spontaneously and very easily to co-ordinate a response to information which a mainstream publication is putting out.

‘the fact that they could engage with... and the campaign team through new media made them feel that...  was more likely to understand where they were coming from in methods that they felt accustomed to.

but you still can’t beat knocking on doors - it’s all about the face-to-face. - motivate activists and channel messages - social media will get people out and get interest - but not change minds on its own.

the idea of politics as an ongoing networked conversation may take more time to catch on.

social media amplifies what goes on in real life = the reflected impact of social media is the most important.

- a key attraction was the sharpness, consistency and humour.

It is interesting to note that the younger group seems far more willing to go directly to party materials - less cynical than the older group or digital natives so more likely to take the initiative and actively compare policies and make up their minds themselves.

broadcasters prioritises media-hype over facts.

are we more open with voting intentions - we were discussing it openly (bar a few tories who perhaps were embarrassed)

Richard Allan - may not be traditional engagement but it did ‘get  young people thinking about the fact that there was a cabinet’ and in this sense represented the start of a new type of digital political literacy.

Meg Pickard - ‘where we have seen social media really come alive in this campaign has been where it has been able to add extra perspective and community or social discovery and fun in the case of the posters and playfulness.’ - that is which initiatives are all failing-because they just seem too starched, too rigid and too control.

- next time we need to think more about how you translate what happens in the digital world into mobilisation, agenda changing, hustings hijacking, to answer spe3cific questions about specific topics.

Peter Balzalgette - we now have the mass and micro audience.. but not yet learnt how to maximize them and work out how these things go together.

- people now scavenge their information from a  range of sources and make up their own minds.

William Dutton - two-step flow of information. Most people are not directly affected but opinion leaders, people who are active and really care about elections, will be heavy users and they then influence others to take it up.

In the end - it is all about building meaningful, two-way relationships with voters and audiences of the future.

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The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream journalism - Sept 2009.

- news organisations are abandoning attempts to be first for breaking news, focusing instead on being the best at verifying and curetting it.

- same values, new tools --> extra layer of info and diverse opinion -> increasingly engaging through social media via friends.

- social media is becoming as important as search engines and control is heading to the audience.

*audience comments under an article are like vox-pops* -->  unfolding conversation in partnership with audiences.

Jeff Jarvis - news should be a conversation - journalists must now be curators, enablers, organisers and educators --> helping people understand the world where they can -> social workers? note parallels here with politicians.

Clay Shirky - many-to-many conversations

William Dutton - we now have the ‘fifth-estate’

Dan Gilmore -  there is always someone who knows more than you

Shane Richmond - not the quality of the content, but its relevance to the audience.

Meg Pickard - journalists of the future will increasingly use these social networks to find and maintain interesting contacts and sources --> publishing a story is not the end, it’s the start of a conversation --> advertisers are increasingly interested in engagement.

Julian Shambles - invest in quality content that people want to talk about and share.

Jennifer Preston - find sources, track trends, engage in conversation

Robert Peston - establish credentials as a repository fort information - if you an authority people will come back to your work --> do more than the big story, do the nitty-gritty (but do people appreciatwe and respect this?)

Jemima Kiss - be disciplined and open-minded about possibilities

Emily Bell - trust is now in people as much as brands.

Jeremiah K. Owyang - empowered communities will define the next generation of products

Roo Reynolds - Q. how do we get even more people to talk about our stuff? A. make really good stuff and share t while making it linkable and findable.

Adrian Monck - receivers are not as absorbed by media as its producers

*a key challenge for many news organisations is to encourage more journalists to engage with these tools, make contracts, crowdsource - for this you must have the right mind-set.

same values - new tools.