An online notebook
Those who attended, or would have liked to have done, the Google event last week might be interested in a new group we have set up:
http://groups.google.com/group/googlelocalgov
To talk about how local government can use Google tools. Though this isn’t an official Google space, it will have Google folk as members who will be able to join in where they feel they can help.
To save you a click or two, here’s a handy form…
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| Subscribe to GoogleLocalGov |
| Email: |
| Visit this group |
I was lucky, in a sense, to get this through the post today as a reward for subscribing to a magazine:
“In a sense”, because I already own it.
‘So!’ I thought. ‘Here’s a chance for a competition!’
If you want the book, all you have to do is comment on this post. Put what you like in the body of the comment, all I really need is your name and email address. Mossychops will then pick a winner at random next Friday (21st August).
Good luck!
The second Wednesday guest post! Thanks to Sarah for this great post – if you’d like to contribute, just email me – and being called Sarah isn’t necessarily a requirement!
Online communication isn’t always taken seriously. It’s a nice to have on top of offline work or something organisations have been told to do. It isn’t necessarily considered a channel in its own right. And those that work online aren’t always respected in terms of their skills, their knowledge or the value they can bring.
Convincing others of your worth within an organisation is sometimes a bigger hurdle than convincing them of the value of online communications.
So, how to go about raising your profile and getting social media offerings to the table? I’ve worked up a list of five approaches. This list isn’t exhaustive. I’d like to hear people argue against or add their own take and experience.
1. Passion
Fall in love with online but don’t be blind to limitations and suitability. Talk to anyone who will listen about the possibilities but respect their concerns. Be able to explain why you are passionate about online – have examples of where social media has helped improve life, improved efficiency (internally or for citizens) or has saved money (pick according to your audience). Be savvy and believe in what you’re trying to get others to see the value of. And while being a geek is something to be cherished try to remember than social media is about being social so get out there and talk!
2. Persuasion
You may be the only person that believes that online communication, social media and digital engagement has an important part in your organisation. This can lead to frustration, doubts about your sanity and a relentless need to persuade others to listen to your suggestions. A good way to get people to listen to you is to listen to them – why don’t they value / understand / like online? Once you understand where they are coming from you can work out how best to showcase options to them. They still might not be sold but at the very least they will be more aware of what social media is (and probably think you’re a decent, reasonable sort as well).
3. Persistence
Things move slowly in the public sector, and social media is developing fast. Be the middle ground between the need to develop strategy, policy, protocol and being left behind because by the time you get to the dock that particular online ship has sailed.
Just because the answer is no today doesn’t mean the answer will be no tomorrow. Keep making suggestions, keep listening to the concerns around the use of social media, keep trying out ideas. Just keep on keeping on.
4. Private sector attitude
If you believe you could lose your customers to a competitor you’ll try harder to be the first with innovation and the best with services. We’re all citizens as well as public sector employees so what use of social media would make your personal dealings with the council easier? What would your neighbour, your mum, your friends find more useful. In the private sector you need to get the edge on your competitors and by having this attitude in the public sector you’ll get closer to delivering above and beyond what is expected and be able to prove why what you’re doing is of value to the organisation.
5. Play, practice, prove
Alright, that’s not one but three things. I really mean knowing what you’re talking about. Being passionate and persuasive will come more naturally if you use and know social media. The Internet is a playground so don’t be afraid to try out new platforms and ideas. Get to know other people in the sector and find out what they’re doing, share your ideas and experience with them. Collectively we can be more innovative and efficient than working in silos. And gather your evidence. Know how many people are online and using social media, know the demographics of different platforms, know how far you reach with online communications, know what your citizens think of what you’re doing. Know which tool to use for which job.
So, what do others think? Anyone used a different approach or mix in order to get word out about what they can do for the organisation with social media?
Sarah Lay blogs at www.sarahlay.com, works in online communications for Derbyshire County Council (who don’t necessarily share her views) and is studying for a Masters in eCommunications, concentrating on local government use of social media. She is also the organiser of the first social media cafe for Derby and Derbyshire. If you live or work in the area and are interested in online communications and social media come along to meet others – find out more and join the group.
Some dead interesting stuff popped up when I logged in this morning – all worth giving a read:
Facebook buys FriendFeed
Lots of people seem to be quite upset about this one. Friendfeed is still a pretty niche service, even by the standards of the social web, so this isn’t that seismic a change. The interesting thing about FriendFeed is that it was founded and developed by a really skilled team of ex-Googlers and it is probably those guys’ brains that Facebook are after.
Google makes new search engine available
Google have responded to the threat of a revitalised Microsoft web search (in the form of the ludicrously named Bing) by starting to re-engineer their core search product. You can test it out on the sandbox site – I found it noticeably quicker and the results are different.
IE team ‘defends’ IE6
There have been a whole bunch of memes on the web around the fact that Internet Explorer 6 sucks and that people should replace it. This was reflected in the UKGovWeb scene with Tom Watson’s parliamentary questions asking when government departments would be upgrading from this ancient bit of tech.
Microsoft’s IE team have responded to this chatter on their blog, not necessarily defending IE6 as a product (they would prefer people to upgrade, too) but explaining the reasons why big organisations – and indeed individuals – might be happy sticking with what they know.
I put a tweet out last week pointing people to a new domain, www.localgovweb.com, asking people to complete the form it contained.
I asked for people’s:
If you haven’t already, please do visit the site and complete the form.
You’ll notice I have added some neat Google Friend Connect features to the site after the exciting trip to the UK Googleplex last Friday. This seems an easy way to add interactivity to a site – do have a play.
Here’s what I am planning to do. Firstly, localgovweb.com will be a place where blogging and twittering about local government and the web is pulled into one place. This will be through a blog aggregator, just like Public Sector Blogs, and a similar thing for Twitter.
The third strand will be an aggregation of delicious bookmarks tagged localgovweb – similar to DigitalGovUK or WP Sauce.
Once these are up and running, I’ll start to look at putting a blog in place where the original content can be posted. I’m hoping this can become a proper group blog, with plenty of contributions from people across local government, writing about the issues that are important to them.
So, thanks to everyone who has signed up so far. I’ve already got a couple of the elements of the initial aggregating activity up and running, so please do submit your details and starting tagging relevant stuff in Delicious with localgovweb.
More updates soon.