digital & social media challenges for local government
DESCRIPTION
Follow me on twitter - http://twitter.com/benrmatthews Find out more about FutureGov - http://wearefuturegov.com/ Digital & Social Media Challenges for Local Government. Presented at the Public Policy Exchange, 12th February 2014.TRANSCRIPT
Digital Challenges in Local Government
Ben Matthews, FutureGov@benrmatthews
Badges!
1. Being Human
2. Engaging with citizens
3. Rise of Mobile
4. Flood of information
5. Keeping up with
5 Digital Challenges
1. Being Human
A Local Gov Exit Interview
Be Warm, Friendly, Human
“A council’s web presence should not purely be a cold, clinical, homogeneous portal for paying council tax, parking fines and the like. It should be vibrant, approachable and engaging collection of spaces where citizens can interact with their local authority in a variety of ways.”
Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council
Communication & Transaction
“Social media has transformed attitudes and expectations in relation to digital engagement and most councils have warmed to the idea of the web being a crucial channel for communication as well as transaction.”
Surrey Council
Surrey Council
Surrey on Twitter
Surrey on Twitter
Seek & Share Best PracticeEvery local authority is different – demographically, geographically and politically. There can be no “one-size fits all” approach.
We’ve definitely got to be better at sharing and seeking best practice, especially as more and more organisations wake up to the huge advantages of being truly digital
Comms2Point0
Guardian Local Leaders
Knowledge Hub
2. Engaging With Citizens
Involve Your UsersCouncils have the wonderful and rare luxury of being in the same place
as the bulk of their website’s target audience. Enlist your citizens to help
you improve your web presence.
Constantly test with real users and make it easy for them to give you their
feedback. Adapt, improve and then test again!
This is especially crucial when designing for users with specific needs,
such as those with disabilities, low literacy or limited experience of using
the web.
Camden Digital Strategy
Digital Camden on Slideshare
Enable Through Constraints
Surfacing Comments
Open Up Your OrganisationLocal government holds some of the most valuable data going – data
which could offer huge benefits to local businesses, citizens and
service delivery.
A lot of councils are talking about Data (Open, Big, Linked etc) but few
truly understand it and even less are really doing it well.
Open Knowledge Foundation has tips on getting started.
4. The Rise of Mobile
Digital Grows as a Source for News
For Many, Mobile Means More News
Size of Social Media Networks
Facebook Overtakes Google for Referral Traffic
Top Facebook Publishers
Shift in Mobile Users - And Advertising Revenue
Facebook Adapting to be More News Focussed
Go MobileIt won’t be long before more of your website visitors are using mobile devices than PCs.
If your web offering isn’t mobile friendly, that’s going to be a huge problem.
Start thinking mobile now!
Responsive Design
Consult Your Analytics
4. Flood of Information
Case Study: Maidstone CouncilMaidstone borough has suffered its worst flooding since 2000, with at least 36 families being evacuated
On duty looking after our social media feeds, 18 hours a day from Christmas Day to warn and inform residents
Facilitated a valuable conversation between council and residents to make people feel less isolated in a difficult situation
Maidstone Council Twitter
Sending Info OutFrequent updates and advice with information from the experts
Highlighted the multi-agency response while covering our warning and informing responsibilities
Worth telling people everything you’re doing. Virtually everything was retweeted, reassuring thousands about our response.
When updates became less frequent, people were worried that they’d missed something. Made a point of informing residents about the latest information, even if those updates offered nothing new.
Also important to remind people what wasn’t affected by flooding.
Twitter Updates
Bringing Information InFed information into the Emergency Centre as it came up, monitoring search terms and hashtags to capture as much information as possible
Identified through social media serious issues in two streets that they’d been unaware of, and were able to get help to both areas
Able to suggest the deployment of Incident Liaison Officers to check issues as they arose, using residents to inform our flood response
Some conversations inevitably needed to be taken offline, so liaised closely with contact centre and set up a special email address so residents could still be assured of a quick response to help them through
Facebook Updates
ResultsThe rate of increase in followers on Facebook jumped ten-fold during the floods
Added as many followers on Twitter in two days as normally would in a month
Received a lot of positive feedback from residents, who shared updates with their own followers
5. Keeping Up
Econsultancy.com
Comms2Point0
Buffer Blog
The Rabbitgram
Happy Inbox
Inbound.org