2.1 Making connections between communities and outcomes 0 Comments

Social media is all about community. It connects people together, helps them share who they are, encourages conversation and builds trust. It is the most powerful tool available today for building a sense of belonging and collaboration in a virtual, or local, area. Making astute use of free tools and more complex services such as SMS text and bespoke social networking software can give councils a scalable, time-efficient way to connect residents together and build community in their locality. This might seem like nice icing on the cake compared with delivering critical services, but it can be the missing ingredient that makes everything in the community work better. Any councillor who wants to help build a sense of belonging in a neighbourhood, increase resident satisfaction levels, and reduce social problems like vandalism or racism, can do much with social media. It is not a replacement for talking in person with local people, but it can help councillors extend the reach of community conversations.1 Comment

Councillors know that the challenges facing councils and their partners over the coming decade are about much more than delivering standard services for less. It is much more about working across partnerships and with local people to improve outcomes and change people’s lives for the better.  For example, councils are working with parents and children to help them live healthier and more active lives to reduce childhood obesity, which has many positive effects on children’s lives and reduces costs to the health service in the long run.  Local partnerships are supporting teenagers to make better choices about their education, career, how they spend their leisure time and how they conduct their sex lives. These are all areas where peers have more influence than parents, councillors, officers or health workers. Sharing messages through the online networks people are already using and which are populated with their friends and peers can have a tremendous impact on providing individuals with information abut the choices on offer. And it naturally uses peer support help them make the right choices. For example, the City of Los Angeles is partnering with schools and the local public health service to provide social networking support to help kids make better choices about diet and exercise through the We’reFedUp network.0 Comments

Social media can also play a supporting role in making traditional methods work more effectively. An excellent example of this is Southwark Circle, a membership organisation that provides older people with on-demand help with life’s practical tasks, through local, reliable neighbourhood helpers. The primary service is delivered face-to-face, but it is supported by social media and a social network for teaching, learning and sharing. They use YouTube videos to explain the service, Twitter to promote their work, and help their helpers communicate and share knowledge using a blend of digital tools and offline meetups. Though not run by the council, it is supported by it, as it meets the council’s aims to ensure Southwark is a place where people love to live, where everyone achieves their potential, and which promotes healthy and independent living.0 Comments

2.2 The important role of councillors0 Comments

Councillors, as local leaders, will have a key role in these changes to the way people engage and communicate; if they take that opportunity. Enhancing local democracy through greater transparency and providing both a greater voice and a greater responsibility for citizens in setting priorities and delivering public services means that the nature of representative democracy may change. But the need for elected members does not go away and there are tremendous opportunities for local leaders to use social media to engage with a wider range of people in a powerful, focused way.0 Comments

Tricky cross-cutting issues such as community safety and cohesion can’t be solved by a single institution or even a partnership of organisations and they certainly can’t be solved by a remote central government.0 Comments

Only by working together with local people can we hope to crack some of the most intractable issues. Councillors working in their wards, neighbourhoods and parishes are placed at the right level to deliver the changes we need. Social media can help people make the connections to share information and take action on these difficult issues, and councillors can be at the centre of this digital revolution.0 Comments

As councillors and candidates stand for office, people will increasingly look online to see who these people are and what they stand for. Councillors who hold office will find social media to be an important platform for listening to residents, identifying problems and communicating complex positions. There will be an expectation that – just like commerce, education and entertainment – civic roles can be carried out online. Councillors risk being left behind if they don’t take a leadership role in this space.0 Comments

As a councillor, you don’t have to have a Twitter account or a flashy website to participate in this space. But it is well worth taking a look at what’s already out there –  blogs, Facebook groups, local social networks – and seeing what people are saying about your area and your council, and maybe even joining in.0 Comments

2.3 Left behind? Inclusion, exclusion and digital democracy0 Comments

For those with access to the internet, social media provides new opportunities for them to have their voices heard on the issues they’re passionate about. But some people are being left behind; because of lack of internet access, lack of technical skills or poor functional literacy. We cannot afford to wait until everyone catches up, but at the same time public services have an important role to play in promoting digital inclusion. Many councils are already doing great work to promote digital inclusion, and examples are highlighted by the Beacon schemes at Solihull, Stratford-on-Avon, Staffordshire Moorlands and Sunderland.0 Comments

Social media provides an opportunity to include more people in ‘idea generation’ and decision-making. Some citizens are already excluded from contributing to council meetings or consultations for the reasons we generally understand as social exclusion. But others are left out because of professional or parenting responsibilities, or they are intimidated by formal methods. Going to a community meeting in person is a big time investment. But dipping in electronically to share views on a single local issue doesn’t take much effort and many find it a more comfortable way to contribute.0 Comments