In pulling together the guide, we were also keen to point to other sources of support and resources that might help you to make the most of social media, whether you are making your first steps or looking to go the extra mile. As well as the resources outlined below, which you can also find in the guide itself, there are a number of useful sites that you might take a look at when keeping track of how people are using social media.

A particular favourite of ours are the videos from the people at Common Craft, which will give you an introduction to a number of the tools talked about in the guide.

Also if you’re on twitter, you might like to follow the Public Sector Bloggers account which tweets all new blog posts from a wide range of, well, public sector bloggers! Or a little further afield, you might like to sign up to the Govloop site and join in some of the conversations there.

You can also search for the twitter accounts of local politicians over on TweetyHall, through which you will often be able to find links to their blogs as well.

If you have any hints, tips and resources, please let everyone know by adding a comment to the bottom of this page.

Hint and tips from the guide…

Social by social is a practical guide to using new technologies to deliver social impact. There are tools to help you get started, ideas for using social media to lead change in local communities and a very helpful jargon buster. Local by Social is a companion publication produced by the IDeA and NESTA to address the specific issues of social media in local government.

The IDeA’s Communities of Practice for Local Government has over 50,000 registered members dedicated to sharing practice to improve local services. The Social Media and Online collaboration community is specifically dedicated to helping councillors, local government officers and partners use social media to enhance democracy and improve services. The National Member Development Community is focused on councillor development and support.

CivicSurf is a blogging programme for local leaders. There is step by step guidance for getting started in blogging and a range of other resources.

Twitter: A Quick Start Guide for People in and around Government by Dave Briggs from Learning Pool.

The Local Government Information Unit’s Local Government 3.0: How Councils Can Respond to the New Web Agenda is a good exploration of the issues around councils, councillors and social media.

Socitm Insight has produced Social Media – Why ICT management should encourage leadership to embrace it (January 2010) and Twitter Gritters: Council use of digital channels in emergencies. (February 2010)

The IDeA’s Leadership Academy includes an optional module on media handling and social media for councillors. The IDeA’s Connecting with Communities is a local government communications toolkit and includes a host of ideas and suggestions.