When people talk about social media, they often make reference to some well-known tools or products. Although there are many more than we can list here, we’ll highlight a few of the general approaches and the most widely used products which are characterised by their ease of use and are free or low cost.0 Comments

We’ve attempted to categorise these tools, but their features often mean they can cross-over into different categories and their flexibility means they can be used in many different ways. There are even tools that improve your other tools, such as Friendfeed (which pulls together content from a variety of social media tools and brings them to one place) and Ping.fm (which posts content to a variety of social media tools in one go).0 Comments

3.1 Written communication0 Comments

Blogs0 Comments

Blogs are easily updated web journals, usually published by an individual or a small group. They are almost always commentable, meaning readers can share their opinions about what the author has written. Blogs have been used by councillors to share their views on public policy, share information about council services or issues of local interest, and canvas opinion. Even very ‘business-oriented’ local government blogs have a personal feel with bloggers sharing some detail of their daily lives, for example sharing how changes in local services have affected them, how much they enjoyed taking their kids to the village fete, or sharing pictures of tasty local produce.0 Comments

There are many free blogging tools such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com which make it easy to set up a blog in a few minutes. However, gaining readership can take longer.0 Comments

Some examples of councillors who blog:0 Comments

• Sean Brady, Independent, Formby Parish Council
• Daisy Benson, Liberal Democrat, Reading contributes to a group blog with other councillors who represent her ward
• Peter Black, Liberal Democrat, Swansea and Welsh Assembly Member
• Mike Causey, Conservative, Waverley Borough Council
• James Cousins, Conservative, London Borough of Wandsworth
• Anthony Mckeown, Labour, High Peak Borough Council
• Bob Piper, Labour, Sandwell
• Mary Reid, Liberal Democrat, London Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames

Blogging has been around longer than most of the tools described here, but it is still one of the most powerful.  Many councillors use a blog as the bedrock of their social media strategy.0 Comments

Twitter0 Comments

Twitter was the social media phenomenon of 2009 and is still growing. It’s a way of sharing short snippets of information, links to interesting resources, telling people what you are doing or asking for help. Users are limited to 140 characters (letters, numbers, spaces and punctuation), so it’s ideal for sending and receiving text information on the go. It can be used as a one-way publishing tool, pushing out short bursts of information, and many councils use it this way through corporate accounts. However, it’s more powerful as a conversational tool, with councillors and local people sharing information and getting feedback.1 Comment

Many councillors are already using Twitter. You can see a growing list at www.tweetyhall.com, a website that features councillors’ use of social media to support local engagement.0 Comments

On Twitter, people are all identified in the same way, by an @ sign and their username. For example, someone could be registered as @jonsmith, or @governmentmike.  You can find their Twitter address by using their full user name without the @ sign. Mine is www.twitter.com/ingridk.0 Comments

3.2 Social networking0 Comments

All of the tools we describe in this guide have an element of social networking, but there are a number of very popular sites dedicated to building social networks. Social networking means using online tools to build communities of individuals who are interested in sharing information and support. Networks like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace can be used to facilitate connections between people who already know each other, usually in a social context. But it can also be used by organisations and businesses to share information about products, services or events with a range of interested individuals. Other social networking tools like LinkedIn are built around professional identities, where the focus is specifically on an individual’s career, and often their job search or developing business leads.0 Comments

Some social networks are built around particular issues. For example, MumsNet was set up for parenting, while Harringay Online focuses on a neighbourhood in the London Borough of Haringey. These sites often facilitate connections between people who don’t know each other from ‘real life’, but who may share a common interest. The IDeA’s Community of Practice platform is a social network for people who work in or represent local public services and who want to share ideas about improving services.0 Comments

Using social networks as a councillor requires a different approach to using it as an ordinary citizen. Many councillors use Facebook in a personal capacity in the same way as anyone else would – to share personal news, information and holiday snaps with people they already know. Other councillors use their Facebook accounts more openly, ‘friending’ (that is, by allowing them to view their accounts, sharing information with) people they don’t know personally. Facebook now allows politicians to create ‘pages’ which is a way of keeping personal use and professional use separate. A ‘page’ is similar to a regular Facebook account in style, but it is open for anyone registered on Facebook to see. On a page you can provide a political profile and can share information with supporters without disclosing personal networks or worrying that the wrong people will see the ‘funny’ pictures of you as a child that your friends are showing each other.0 Comments

Anyone on Facebook can start a group. Councillor Allan Andrews from Coventry started the Facebook group ‘I Love Earlsdon’ which has been used to discuss local issues and as a focus for very local campaigns. Other councillors and candidates have used Facebook to help organise their supporters during elections and there have been a number of successful issues based campaigns with popular Facebook groups. Some were started by councillors themselves, but others have been shown support as councillors join them and contribute.0 Comments

3.3 Listening0 Comments

Perhaps the most valuable use of social media is using it to listen (and perhaps engage) with conversations that are already happening. Your area, your council and maybe even you yourself are being talked about online, but do you know when and how that’s happening?0 Comments

Most interactive websites have something called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. This is a way that websites can automatically ‘push out’ new material as soon as it’s published. This means you don’t have to actually go a website to find out if there is new information on there; instead, the websites tell you with RSS. Free tools called feed readers (Google Reader and Bloglines are examples) can help you collect and subscribe to feeds in a single accessible place. Most mainstream media outlets have RSS feeds. Blogs and social networking sites almost always have them, too. You can even generate an RSS feed from an internet search. Your council may have RSS feeds for its website (and if it doesn’t, it should).0 Comments

Google also allows you to set up something called an ‘alert’. Instead of you having to type a specific word or phrase into Google each day to check if anything new has been written about it, the website sends you an email detailing all the new instances of that word online. Alerts can provide daily or instant news about local issues straight to your email inbox. You can set up alerts for the name of your council, your ward, hot local issues or even your own name.0 Comments

Tools like Addictomatic, Pageflakes and features within a Google account can help you bring all your feeds together into one place. These can be private so only one or a few people can see them, or you can make these pages public.  Here’s a Pageflakes example for Kirklees Council.0 Comments

‘Listening’ to the social web will give you a more detailed picture of what people are concerned about. As a councillor, you will have to make a decision about how you act on that information.0 Comments

3.4 Collaborative working0 Comments

Wikipedia is the most famous example of people coming together to create a document or information resource. It is built with a tool called a wiki, which means anyone on the internet can go onto the site and add to or edit the content. Formby Parish Council has developed and consulted on its community plan using a wiki. This guidance itself was developed on a wiki.0 Comments

But you don’t have to set up a wiki to help people bring their ideas together online. Instead, you can also use social media to ‘crowdsource’ policy ideas and initiatives. Crowdsourcing is the internet equivalent of ‘workshopping’ an idea with the public. The White House under US President Barack Obama has used a collaborative tool called Mixed Ink to allow citizens direct access to the policy making process. Closer to home, the Mayor of London’s office has launched a climate change consultation which calls for individuals to submit their own ideas and rate others people’s.0 Comments

3.5 Videos and pictures0 Comments

Services like YouTube and Vimeo allow anyone to upload and share videos with the world. Image sharing services like Flickr, Picasa or SmugMug allow people to share photos. Many councils and councillors are using these services to share video diaries or images of their local areas.0 Comments

Local people too are using these services to share content about the area you serve. There will almost certainly be a group on Flickr sharing positive and negative images of your area. Someone may be complaining about your council services on YouTube.0 Comments

Stratford-on-Avon council has been a leader in using Flickr photos to promote its area. Another example is councillor Daisy Benson of the Redlands area of Reading who with her councillor colleague Glen Goodall has been using Flickr group called ‘Tagging isn’t art, it’s criminal damage’ to highlight examples of graffiti in her area.  She encourages residents to upload and share their photos as well with the aim of getting it removed.0 Comments