‘I love newspapers,’ wrote former newspaper editor Harold Evans a while back. ‘But I’m intoxicated by the speed and possibility of the internet.’
As a former journalist I know just where he’s coming from. The social web allows you to tell your story directly and in real time to people.
I’ve been banging on for a while about real time events that use Twitter. They’re a great way to use the web and the inescapable truth is that real time conversations – a kind of linked social – are going to become more common.
We’re not far off from being routine the fly-tipped rubbish reported on Twitter will be responded to on Twitter by the council with an update from a countryside ranger also online and in real time.
It’s been really fascinating to see how different ideas have emerged with real time events.
A few weeks back I was asked to Glasgow by the excellent Public Sector Customer Services Forum to talk about them.
Was the title ‘Real Time Social Media Campaigns Can Make Routine Tasks Sexy’ a bit bold? Maybe.
What was timely as it co-incided with the Scottish local government What We Do event which saw 28 out of 32 councils take part to tweet updates.
Since then,the public sector in Norfolk have done good things with an event and Louise Kidney, a passionate innovative officer for Blackburn with Darwen has kicked about successfully the #1515gov idea. The idea is for local government officers to informally tweet what they are doing at 3.15pm every day to give a small rolling snapshot of what we do. It’s a great idea.
But most importantly, I’m a big believer that anyone can do these sorts of things. Small or big. You don’t have to have a Phd from the University of Great Online ideas first. Have a bright idea. Try it out.
It’s fascinating seeing how these platforms evolve.
I’m looking forward to updating this and speaking on the same subject at the Epic Social Media for Public Sector South West event in Exeter on Thursday December 1. You can find out more here.
Ah yes hello Mr Slee! Nice blog! Really like it.
Just as a little anecdote, Edinburgh City Council’s #whatwedo didn’t do so well, with a more popular #whatwedontdo hash tag set up by disgruntled city tax payers, and one academic tweeting ‘so Edinburgh City Council is tweeting its daily activities to the masses eh? No, I don’t give a shit either’. However I think that’s the minority and I do think that it’s a great idea for what are often considered bureaucratic pen pushing organisations (like the one I work for too ha ha) to engage first hand with their wage payers.
I’ve been learning lots of nice social media excitement of late, and working for a third sector organsiation am finding barriers from outside and (perhaps more worryingly) inside my organisation.
The key thing I’ve found is to sell it to stakeholders not as something new, just as a new tool to enable people to do stuff they’ve always done, better – i.e. chat. Communication is what sets us apart from rats and apes and stuff (well that and a good deodorant).
Anyway, on that note I’ll be off as there’s a rather important footy game on tonight I do believe.
Cheerio.
PS Went to Hartlepool a couple of weekends ago to watch the fitba’. THanks to Facebook found some lovely friendly boozers.
Ian!
It’s really good to hear from you!
Just thinking it was 15 years ago we were sat in Greenbank Rd, Darlington learning how to be proper journalists. One of the questions for my NCTJ interview in 1995 was to ask how the internet would affect newspapers. I’d only heard of the internet at this stage. ‘Not until you can read it on the bus or the toilet,’ was my reply. And you can. And have been able to for several years.
Really interesting to hear of the Edinburgh experience. From what I hear they did a trial run and ended up losing followers which doesn’t stack with experience elsewhere. Maybe the answer would have been to create a special Twitter account, run stacks through that and RT the best of the crop.
You’re quite right. Communication does set us apart. And deoderant ; )
I’ve dropped you an email : )