Tag Archives: social media

SOCIAL MEDIA: Your EIGHT step guide to getting started…

This blog post was inspired by #ukgc10’s local government hug session where one person asked for help in how to get started with social media. Some good pieces of advice came out. Here are some from the session and some that struck me afterwards…


THE 8 STEP APPROACH FOR GETTING STARTED….

You’ve read about social media. You may have thought it was a fad. Now you’ve been waking up at 3am with the gnawing thought that you’ll have to do something.

If you’re at this stage. Congratulations. You’re sharp. You’ve seen which way the wind is blowing. And, yes, it’s only going to blow harder.

So what to do?

Here’s some thoughts on how to go about turning your organisation into something fit for the 21st century.

It’s simply not enough to say that you must do it because Steven Fry does it. Or because it’s cool.

You need to construct a cohesive and persuasive argument backed by figures that will work with people who look on digital with the suspicious eye of a Daily Mail reader.

 

Step 1 – Look at the national picture.

More than 30 million people use social media in the UK, according to the most recent figures. Clicky Media’s figures are a good starting point.

You can compare this to national and local newspaper figures.

Locally, a 20 per cent dip in local papers is predicted by 2012 in weekly papers. In regional daily papers it’s more like 30 per cent.

In short: If you’ve always relied on your local paper to get your message out then think again.

Step 2 – Have a look at the sites.

There are dozens of social media sites.

For the sake of argument, look at six of the most popular sites.

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr all do different things. For blogging, WordPress and Blogspot are key.

Don’t worry if it all looks an unclimbable. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Anyway, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has only just got round to joining Twitter himself. So, relax.

Join one if you like. See how it works. Get to know it.   

In short: Don’t worry about not getting your head around all of them.
Get your head around them one at a time.

Dive in! That water is great….

 

Step 3 – See what some inspired people say.

All you need is out there on the internet. The trick is, like anything, knowing where to look. You’ll find it a creative, inspiring and sharing place if you choose to join.

Check Mashable for basic guides to all this stuff. The guide to social media is a must. Follow the link and click download for Learning Pool Twitter guide.

There are some quality blog posts on the subject. Michelle Ide-Smith recently wrote a post that nails how to construct an argument in favour.

Have a look at these blogs for ideas an inspiration:

Nick Booth, Dave Briggs, Sarah Lay, Carl Haggerty.

If you join Twitter – and I’ve learned so much from it I’d seriously recommend it – I’d also recommend these:

@sarahlay – Derbyshire webbie.
@alncl – Alastair Smith, Newcastle web man.
@davebriggs – Local government social media specialist.
@timesjoanna – Former Birmingham Post reporter turned Times writer. Great for links.
@liz_azyan – Lives and breathes local government and social media.

@gecko84 – Teckie Arsenal fan.
@abeeken – Lincolnshire webbie.

@mmmmmmcake – A stream about cake, believe it or not.

@pezholio – Local gov webbie from Staffordshire who is borderline genius. Also likes real ale.

@talkaboutlocal – a window into the amazing world of hyperlocal blogs that can serve a town or even a housing estate.
@wv11 – a hyperlocal blog based in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton. Shows how a local site can use it.
@philipjohn – a website developer who is a useful font of information.
@mashable – the Twitter version of the social media blog.
@doristhecow – Anchor butter’s well judged use of Twitter. I love it.
@scobleiser – Silicon Valley geek who writes about tech news.
@walsallcouncil – Because their use of social media is really, really, really inspired (disclaimer: I help write it).

 

Step 4 – Create a social media map.

Work out what activity there is in your area. These figures are a clincher so take an afternoon out to build this picture.

Paul Cole and Tim Cooper in Derbyshire did one for their area. They used mindmeister although you could use an exercise book. It’s just as good and you don’t have to re-boot it. It lists all trhe social media activity they could find.

How?

Before you do, I’d find out the circulation figures for newspapers in your area. This is good to compare and contrast. The Walsall edition of the Express & Star, for example has sales of around 22,000.

For Facebook, there are 23 million users as of January 2010. Want to see how many are local to you? Log onto Facebook, then click the button marked ‘advertising’. Fill out an ad. Don’t worry you won’t get charged just yet. It’s then you reach the section that gets really interesting.

Here, you can ask Facebook how many people are registered within a 10 mile radius of a town. This gives some staggering figures. Click the box marked ‘location’ and put in the town you want to aim at.

In Walsall, in January 2010 there are 170,000 people on Facebook within 10 miles of the town. The population of the borough is around 250,000 and the 10 mile radius also spills out into part of Staffordshire, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. But, you get the picture.

There are therefore, around eight times as many Facebook users as buy copies of the Express & Star in the wider Walsall area, you may argue.

For Twitter, it’s harder to work out your area’s figure. Nationally, by November 2009 there are 5.5 million UK users. You’ll have to work out your area’s percentage of the national population, then divide the Twitter users by that percentage.

For YouTube, log on and search for your area or town. You’ll be surprised. Using the keyword ‘Walsall’ gave just less than 5,000 clips.

Same with Flickr. This is a photo sharing website. Count how many images of your patch there are. The Walsall Flickr group of more than 80 members, for example have around 5,000 iamges of their home borough.

WordPress and Blogspot. Search for your areas and they’ll crop up on blogs.

 

Step 5 – Get your arguments ready

There’s a brilliant few resources online with the most common arguments against social media and the counter arguments to deploy.

They work a treat.

Jeff Bullas’ blog on the subject is useful. So is this from SEO Blog. Google the word ‘reasons to use social media

 

Step 6 – JFDI Just flipping do it.

Now, if you are particularly brave you can cut to this one skipping step four entirely.

The argument goes like this. Just flipping do it. By the time anyone important notices it’ll have reached critical mass and harder to close down.

It’s not something I’ve done but other far braver people have and with great success. Will Perrin – @willperrin on Twitter – often talks about how he deliberately avoided asking permission to launch Downing Street’s petition site.

 

Step 7 – Call in an expert.

There’s a good quote about a Prophet never being recognised in his own land.

The translation of this is if you think they won’t listen to you they may listen to someone from outside.

It’s worked on several occasions with local authorities who have called in Nick Booth’s Podnosh company. Dave Briggs and Simon Wakeman from Medway Council have done similar jobs.

However, do be careful of people who call themselves social media experts. Or ninjas. Or any such rot. They’re almost certainly not and there are plenty of snake oil salesmen about right now.

 

Step 8 – Keep winning the internal argument.

Now you are up and running as nobody will be able to counter such stunning arguments it doesn’t end there. No, sir.

The social media head of one of Britain’s main parties once said that up to half his job is taken up with winning the internal argument.

Report back progress and keep a measure of followers and activity.

Banning social media is rather like trying to outlaw the telephone in the 19th century.

It’s a communications channel. We need to embrace it. Smile. It’s the future. And your children’s.

 

Pics: Used under a creative commons licence, Amit Gupta (Facebook), Badjonni (swimmers),  Dan Slee (Newlands Valley), Sean Dreilinger (mobiles) and the Little Tea Cup (Dan Slee).

TWITTER GRITTER: Case study: Gritting and social media.

Tyre tracks in the snow. Pic by lovestruck from Flickr.
Tyre tracks in the snow. Pic by lovestruck from Flickr.

It’s 3am, freezing and snow is about to fall.

Within an hour roads will be covered with a snow blanket children will squeal at and commuters will swear at.

It’s a race against time. And a time when the myth ‘all local government clocks off at 5 o’clock’ is tucked up along with everyone else.

If roads are not gritted there will be rush hour chaos, anger and hell to pay. Just ask the councils who look after Reading and Basingstoke.

Gritting is one of 800 often unseen vital local government jobs.

So as local government isn’t it a good idea to use social media to let people know what we are doing?

Or in other words, it’s not enough to do the job and hope residents pick up on what you are doing. That’s trickledown public relations. It doesn’t work.

What is increasingly important is doing the job and letting people know you are doing a job.

Gritting is a perfect way to marry an important service with social media.

It’s fast, immediate and talks to the resident direct. No need to wait for the evening paper to come out and people – hopefully – turning to halfway down page 16 to read what you are doing.

At Walsall, in the winter period we decided to tweet gritting information. In winter time gritting is becoming – like school closures and the cancellation of markets and events – important to communicate by social media.

At Walsall, in the winter period we decided to tweet gritting information. That was on top of schools closures, household waste and which schools are open.

There is a winter service plan at Walsall. It’s a 49-page document that sets out the 16 gritting routes covering more than 250 miles of road – that’s 50.1 per cent of the network.

A duty engineer checks weather data and assesses the risk of freezing temperatures. It’s down to them to make the call to order the fleet out.

Why? We already had a twitter feed @walsallcouncil with 1,000 followers. As the result of regular press queries we had good relations with the transport officers responsible for it. It was a small step to actually tweeting the info.

How? Engineers were primed to email when they made the decision to order out the gritting teams. Press officers are equipped with Blackberries and are able to pick up the email and use Twitter.

When? FHow? Engineers were primed to email when they made the decision to order out the gritting teams. Press officers are equipped with Blackberries and are able to pick up the email and use Twitter.
When? From December 28 2009 to January 8 2010 we tweeted 71 times. We’d warn we were going out. We’d also link to advice on our website and issue urgent advice. There was a spate of thefts from the 175 grit bins, for example. Two incidents were reported to West Midlands Police. That was tweeted too. We also retweeted relevant @wmpolice advice and @metoffice updates.

Here’s some examples:

Grit update – Careful on the roads tonight. We’re gritting at 10pm after a sharp fall in temperature.

Grit update – We’re out. You’ll not be suprised to know. Take it steady on the roads. We’ll be monitoring the weather through the night.

Thanks @richjohnstone_. Heard back from a gritting team in Pheasey. A trip through the night is highly likely.

How was it received? Very well. There were two negative comments about what we were doing. But overall, there was a heck of a lot more positive feedback. We even had a couple of positive blog comments.

Spotted a @walsallcouncil gritter in the Crescent, Walsall! Good work guys.

@WalsallCouncil How about gritting upper station street? Lots of pedestrians walk up it from the station into town centre. Very slippy today.

We also responded to incidents in almost real time. A burst water main was flagged up as an ice hazard at a busy junction. We called engineers who were able to send out an emergency gritter as part of rounds…

@WalsallCouncil looks like a water main has burst – leighswood ave / middlemore lane WS9 – traffic lights being set up – traffic chaos

We responded…

Thanks @stevieboy378. The Leighswood Ave / Middlemore Lane water leak has been added to the duty gritters’ list.

We got some positive, real time response. Forwarded to the team on the ground it was a boost to the drivers.

@WalsallCouncil thanks . . . best of luck to your guys – its damn cold out there . . . .

We also backed up the Twitter activity with a short film shot on a Flip camera and posted to YouTube.

We supported this with a press release to local media and trade press.

HOW OTHERS HAVE TACKLED IT…

The Walsall Council approach was by no means unique. There have been several other councils looking at gritting and social media.

In Warwickshire, a  gritter was fitted so that it could send out geotagged tweets on it’s route. It’s a great idea in principle. But I do reckon @warwickwinter will need a few tweaks. Or is four or five tweets a minute okay if you lived in the area?

The hugely talented @pezholio took a look at the Warwick approach and drew up a test geotagged map. It’s a fantastic idea that could realy work. You can see a map of where the gritter has been and at what time. It would solve at a stroke the argument from an angry resident that swears blind his road hasn’t been visited.

Kirklees Council has also some good things with @kirkleeswinter 

Essex Council have also been tweeting gritting through their mainstream Twitter account. As this is something that has a 700+ following it makes sense to inform as many people as possible.  Camden Council have also kept up a good output with snow updates through their central Twitter feed.

Also, big up Sutton Council who have provided a map of grit bins. However, with thefts taking place across the country of grit – and the bins themselves – would this escalate problems with crime?

ELEVEN THINGS TO BEAR IN MIND

1. GET PLUGGED INTO YOUR ENGINEERS – arrrange with your engineers to let you know when they’re gritting, find out what the standard questions are and find out what the answers are – or who can tell you them.

2. MONITOR TWITTER – Have someone monitoring who can use the corporate Twitter. Tweet out-of-hours. Explode a few myths.

3. CONVERSATIONAL – Be conversational. On-the-spot tweets are a good way to use Twitter and to turn around important inform

4. YES, YOU WILL GET FLAK – People will accuse you of not gritting. Even when you have. They’ll also want their side street gritted when you don’t do side streets. You’ll need to have a form of words ready. Bear in mind that social media is another form of communication. Those conversations you’ll have over the phone you’ll also have via Twitter. With this stuff you can be part of the conversation that is already taking place.

5. PASS IT ON – Even if you have an answer to the tweet cut, paste and pass it onto the engineers.

6. TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT – Make a log of your activity and pass it on internally. Don’t keep it t yourself. Create a Slideshare for your power point.

7. RESPOND TO @REPLIES – Where you can, try and respond. Even if it’s just to say ‘Thanks for your tweet. We’ll pass it on.’ People don’t expect a detailed answer within seconds. An acknowledgement is only what you do off-line. But if you can act, then respond quick.

8. YOUTUBE. A film of gritters shot on a Flip video camera is cheap and effective.
9. THINK PICTURES – Tweet pics of what you are doing. Add to the community’s Flickr group pool with your shots of council staff in action.
10. EXPLAIN, LISTEN, PROMOTE – It’s clear that everyone in your organisation won’t be an advocate of social media. Even if the person at the top ‘gets it’ you need to be aware that you may have to re-sell to managers. Possibly at times of great stress and pressure. Be patient.

11. THINK GEOTAGGING – Technology exists to geotag vehicles. It’s a small step to produce a googlemap where people can go to se when and where their street has been treated. Talk to engineers and you’ll find that hours are spent insisting to residents that yes, their street has been gritted. Wouldn’t it be simpler to let people log on if the technology already exists?

LINKS

Sarah Lay’s blog on Christmas social media activity. http://bit.ly/5AGZSG

Snow disruption: Shouldn’t we be using the internet more? By @johnpopham http://wp.me/ppLRZ-2I

An argument why #socialmedia in snow is vital for #localgov. Top piece by the excellent @timhobbs http://ow.ly/UdPB

INFORMATION OVERLOAD: And one way to tackle it

 
 
Do me a favour, would you? Stop. Just for a second and relax.I don’t want you to finish this blog more tense than you started.

Three things dawned on me today as a blizzard of amazing links poured through my Twitter stream.

One. My brain was capsizing. And I was starting to get tense.

Two. There are only 24 hours in a day and you only have one pair of hands. You can’t know it all.

Three. The answer became clear. Do one thing at a time. Bit like my Grandad did growing things on an allotment.

The scale and velocity of social media is exciting, inspiring and frightening.

“One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload,” said Marshall McLuhan.

“There’s always more than you can cope with.”

He died in 1980. And all he had to deal with were three TV channels that finished at midnight and Pong. Lucky man.

I quitelike this one, too. “Getting information from the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.” Mitchell Kapor said that.

Information overload? Here’s me. I’m following 500 people on Twitter. I try to keep up. I do. Really.

Oh, and Right now I’d like to know more of geotagging, Foursquare, smartphones, Flip, Google maps, podcasting and Facebook.

I know it can’t all be done.

This is exactly why people who call themselves ‘social media experts’ are not. Because you simply can’t be.

So what? Here’s my answer. Be good at something rather than a dabbler in everything.

It’s okay not know everything. Why? Because you can’t. And besides, nobody likes a know-all.

Do one project at a time. One month at a time. Make it a good one. Understand it. Then maybe move on.

I forget where I heard that, but it’s a brilliant, brilliant piece of advice.

Philip John is good at WordPress because he has spent time on it.

Bristol Editor is good at blogging about journalism for the same reason.

And Liz Azyan with LGEO Research and Dave Briggs knows local government because she has knows her onions.

Sarah Lay got good at Google maps because she spent a bit of time on it. And listened to how Stuart Harrison did it.

Specialise. Relax. Have a little corner allotment plot of the digital universe and take time to grow something good there.

As my Grandad once said, do potatoes first. Watch them grow. Get good at them. THEN try something a bit trickier. Like carrots. Then try artichokes. Before you know it you’ve got a thriving corner of produce. You can try to be Sainsbury’s. You’ll fail. It’ll be more fun being an allotment market gardener with this stuff.

One step at a time.

Okay? Feel a bit better now?

Main pic credit: Will Lion

BROADCASTING CHANGE – Seven skills the BBC can teach social media

Pic credit:
Official_BBC_Logo
Originally uploaded by nguyenht_hk
 
 
 
 “Citizen journalists,” the sneer goes, “Whatever next? Citizen surgeons?”
 

It’s a glib, throwaway, catch-all comment designed to dismiss social media sites which spread news without the aid of shorthand, a spiralbound notepad and an NUJ card.

The argument goes that like a surgeon’s scalpel only someone trained can handle news properly.

But with the quiet opening up of the BBC College of Journalism website another brick in the ever shaky argument comes toppling down.

The website http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/ has been run internally for the corporation for three years. It is a treasure trove of skills refined from more than 60 years of award winning peerless journalism.

BBC economics correspondant Robert Peston recently warned that: “the traditional distinctions between television journalists, radio journalists and print journalists are quite close to being obsolete.”

To survive a 21st century journalist must blog, podcast, film, edit and interview and write.

In the era of multi-skilling the press officer will also do well to take a look at the array of skills the site offers coaching in. There is plenty there for them.

But where the BBC training site’s hidden strength really lies is in the trasure trove of skills it offers to the hyperlocal blogger.

Recently, there has been a fierce debate in the UK digital community about defamation and media law. The Talk About Local project to encourage hyperlocals has started to debate it. Bloggers such as The Lichfield Blog’s Philip John have come up with some hyperlocal friendly resources.

But what the BBC site offers is a more extensive, professional insight into what will and won’t get you into trouble.

I’m tempted to call the opening up of the BBC training site as their greatest contribution to digital since the BBC Acorn computer pushed home computing out of the science fiction pages into the spare room in 1981.

This website starts to put quality journalism within the grasp of anyone  who can operate both a WordPress site and the BBC’s training pages.

For a qualified journalist looking to embrace change this is a welcome resource.

To the press officer it is a reference point. But also another signal that the 21st century landscape is changing.

To a blogger it should be bookmarked and memorised.

SEVEN TOP TIPS FROM THE BBC THAT COULD PROVE USEFUL IN SOCIAL MEDIA….

1. A guide to defamation These tips will be especially useful to bloggers. But also with the ever changing media landscape handy for press officers and journalists a long time out of NCTJ college.

2. Contempt of court You don’t have to be in the dock to get on the wrong side of a court of law. The rights and restrictions that govern news – and yes, blogs – are complex and can be devastating if you get it wrong.

3. Using submitted content A great insight into how the BBC uses it. For hyperlocals where photography may rely heavily on submitted pics this could be of use.

4. Original journalism There are news rooms across the country drained of experience and talent that could benefit from this. High standards are never a bad thing.

5. Bloggers and the law A contribution from Birmingham City University leacturer Paul Bradshaw – @paulbradshaw on Twitter. Nice to know the BBC are listening to someone like Paul who has a foot in the blogosphere as well as journalism.

6. Making short news films With YouTube in the driving seat high production values are not needed. But a few tips that could transfer into making something watchable can’t be a bad idea.

7. Filming interviews A few minutes with a Flip video and you’ll know it’s a tricky business balancing the questioning with the filming.

A FACE TO A NAME: Why organisations should be personal in social media


Pic credit:

Light-Hearted

Originally uploaded by fiznatty

There is one truly brilliant thing about Harrogate copper @hotelalpha9 on Twitter.

It’s not the fact PC Ed Rogerson has a truly cool Hawaii Five O sounding name online.

It’s not even because the police are using social media. Although, that is great.

What’s really brilliant, is that he has succeeded in putting a human touch on what is by definition a large organisation.

In North Yorkshire there are 1,500 police officers serving 750,000 people. @hotelalpha9 is able to connect with his beat particular brilliantly.

Here is an example: “Residents of Camwell Terrace – there’s a meeting for you at 10am tomorrow at St Andrews Church. Let’s make your street the best it can be.”

“@annicrosby Hi, I’m following you as I saw you location is ‘Harrogate’. I follow anybody from Harrogate as I want to communicate better.”

“Just dealt with some criminal damage. Paint thrown over a car.”

It’s stuff specific to a small area. It’s in effect hyperlocal blogging for an organisation.

The debate about whether or not police should use digital is a short one (answer: yes).

On that topic there is an inspiring and groundbreaking blog by Chief Inspector Mark Payne of West Midlands Police – on Twitter as @CIPayneWMPolice – that deserves a special mention: Police and social media: Why are we waiting?

But what it really opens up is how best to use this stuff to connect.

By all means have a central presence with a corporate logo on.

However, in Twitter 2.0 shouldn’t we start putting the individual to the fore?

If we call a council, government – or a big company for that matter – you are often met with a name when you ring or write. Why not do that with social media too?

Recently, when Walsall Council contacted a protest group on Facebook an officer set up a dedicated work profile to make contact. It wasn’t a logo. It was a real person that made that connection. On behalf of the council.

So, isn’t there a case the closer we get to an organisation hyperlocal blogging we start allowing the individual to be the organisation’s face? They are in real life over the phone and at other contact points. Why not in social media too?

This may well create new headaches. Would staff be prepared for the potential for brickbats, for example?

How about if they leave?

Then there is the usual ‘what if they say bad things to us?’

But let’s not forget that these dilemmas also apply offline too.

A possible three tier organisational model for Twitter and other social media platforms:

1. THE CORPORATE VOICE WITH NAMED INDIVIDUAL. Eg @anycouncil. Biog: news from Any Council updated by Darren info@any.gov.uk. Content: general tweets.

2. THE SERVICE AREA. Eg @anycouncil_libraries Biog: updated by Kim. Kim@any.gov.uk. Content: niche tweets from a specific service area. More specific info for fans of that subject. Eg author visits, reminders to take out a holiday book.

3. THE HYPERLOCAL INDIVIDUAL Eg @artscentreguy Biog: Bob from Any Arts Centre. Content: More personal updates from an individual first and foremost who just happens y’know to work for a council. Eg. Twitpics of rehearsals, behind the scenes shots and listings info.

LINOTYPE: WordPress v Hot metal. A (sort of) case study

Pic credit:
Linotype machines Originally uploaded by edinburghcityofprint

 

As an evocative recollection of a lost world, the opening lines of Marcel Pagnol’s memoir is hard to beat.

“I was born in the Aubagne in the last days of the goat herders,” he wrote of rural France in the 1890s.

“I was old as my mother and two years older than my brother. That always remained the same.” It is a beautiful book. You can feel the sunshine and the sense of a landscape changing and disappearing from view.

As someone who started in newspapers I’m getting that sense of seeing the old world disappearing.

Newspaper circulation in Britain has fallen by 19.1 per cent since 2001, according to website paidcontent:UK.

Truth is, I feel as if I am seeing the world disappear quicker than most. Why? I started on a hot metal newspaper.

“Of course,” I sheepishly tell people. “I began my career carrying pages of type from a linotype machine to a flatbed press.”

Fopr the record, it is worth stressing that I’m 37. Not 97.

‘Enigma’

In computer terms that’s pre-Bletchley Park. In fact, that’s several generations pre-Enigma. It represents 1880s technology and I have war stories my grandfather would have had.

For 12 months in 1993, I worked on The Uttoxeter Advertiser, a small weekly in rural Staffordshire which claimed a circulation of 5,000 but was actually selling far fewer copies than that.

It was written and printed in a two storey brick workshop in a courtyard off the Market Square.

Yellowing paper covered the skylight. A century of grime and proofs had built up. Its nickname in the town was ‘The Stunner’.

Why? Because people from the Moorlands town have a very dry sense of humour. It stunned no-one.

As a paper it made no sense either. Deadline was Friday. It then sat about for two days. The front page was printed on Monday and it was folded by hand. Never mind the Internet. It was beaten hands down by word of mouth on the High Street.

‘Violence’

Uttoxeter was a strange place. Film maker Shane Meadows grew up there. His small town tales of revenge and violence are all drawn from his early life there.

There was a vicar who owned two pubs and would serve behind the bar wearing his dog collar.

He ran a rehearsal room for bands. Bartley Gorman, the self-proclaimed King of the Gypsies, was a resident.

He took part in bare knuckle prize fights and would stage pony and trap races down the A50 bringing traffic to a halt. Police would just shrug at visitors stuck in the jams. “That’s Bartley for you,” they would say.

My job on the Advertiser was to carry pages of lead type known as ‘formes’. They weighed eight stone (50kg) each.

They needed cleaning, once used, before being melted back down. That was my job too – using a brush with only seven bristles. I also took pictures. And I wrote stories.

It was a noisy job. And dirty. The clank of the linotype machines against a backdrop of whirring Press. You would have to shout to get yourself heard. Each picture needed developing. In black and white. By hand. Then burning to create a printable plate.

‘Broken’

Then it needed washing. Then mounting onto blocks of wood raised to the level of the surrounding type.

That took two hours 15 minutes tops. It can take Twitpic 10 seconds and a mobile phone less than a minute.

The reporters had one typewriter between them. Then one day, it broke so they had to write out stories in longhand and pass them to Len, the typesetter. Len was a veteran. You had to hope Len was in a good mood or he would refuse to convert your story into printable slugs of type, one for each line.

It was a fascinating place and I developed a love of newspapers, telling a story and journalism there.

Despite everything. Of course, this crazy backwards world couldn’t last. You knew it as you lived it.

The ‘Stunner’ was put up for sale and this hand to mouth, Dickensian existence came to a halt.

The Burton Mail bought the newspaper and made all but two of the staff redundant.

The machines were switched off and the ink stiffened overalls hung up for the last time.

I left knowing there was a better way of doing things.

So why am I telling you this on a social media blog?

Because the past has gone. It wasn’t romantic and I don’t miss it.

There will still be newspapers. Just in a very different landscape.

I’m telling you this because I want you to know that WordPress can create and distribute more in 20 minutes than it took a team of 12 to do in a week.

Digital cleans up and puts a Press into our desktops and mobile phones.

So go out and use it.

And please – don’t complain next time you see a Fail Whale….

SOCIAL PICTURES: Case study: A Flickr meet at Walsall Council House

Pic credit:
Plenty stained glass in Walsall Council House
Originally uploaded by Lee Jordan
 

There’s nothing better than seeing social media come alive and create something vivid, exciting and worthwhile.

Take good connections between creative people, an open mind and suddenly all sorts of possibility opens up.

Just such a thing took place at our first Walsall Flickr group meet at Walsall Council House.

If you haven’t come across Flickr take a look. It’s a photo hosting website founded in 2004.

You can search and view pictures and look at dedicated groups ranged around the most arcane places or subjects.

The Lake District group has 3,000 members. One dedicated to clouds alone has 8,000 members.

Five years after it was founded Flickr now has more than four billion images.

People often self organise along geographic lines. For example, the excellent Walsall Flickr group has 70 members with a pool of 5,000 images.

Summertime

These can be everything from corn fields in summertime and famous landmarks to sunrise over the allotment. There’s even one contributor who specialises in shots of old buses taken in Walsall over the past 30 years.

As a council, on Twitter we’d been tweeting links from @walsallcouncil to individual shots in the group’s pool for months. Reaction had been good.

Geographic Flickr groups often stage meets at events or landmarks where members will take pictures.

Frustrated by a national trend for police officers to use counter-terrorism to stop photography in the streets Flickr meets are becoming increasingly important.

At Walsall, we have a beautiful Council House that dates to 1905. Its polished wood and plaques make it the ACME of Georgian civic pride.

There is a carved wooden memorial to the Boer War with 100 names and an alabaster First World War plaque with a carved British Tommy.

Stern

There are stern pictures of bewhiskered Mayors gone by hanging from the walls and ornate stone carvings. All things that can make fantastic pictures.

All too often, Council Houses up and down the land can appear remote, closed and intimidating. Let’s not forget they are there to serve and they belong to the people they serve.

The thinking behind the Council House Flickr meet was twofold. First, use social media to connect with people. Second, open up the building to let residents taking pictures of their council and their heritage.

An email, a phonecall and a meeting with organiser and talented amateur photographer and social media enthusiast Lee Jordan showed the group were keen to come to the Council House.

Tentative plans were made for other landmarks. A car park and a Bell Tower – both with panoramic views were singled out as examples.

Permissions for the shoot were sought from the Council hierarchy and a consent form for participants drafted.

Who retained copyright proved one issue. Nerves were calmed when it was discovered we did not want to claim it. Museums with a store of paintings and collections often want to keep this, I understand, and that’s something to work with.

Those who took part had the option of allowing us to use pics for marketing in return for a picture credit.

A slot on a Saturday morning was set and promoted to the Walsall group via their Flickr messageboard.

There was a vibrant thread of 50 messages on the group’s forum and six photographers came along.

Slade

We spent around two hours taking shots in the deserted building. War memorials, Mayoral photographs, the board of honour, the cavernous Town Hall where Slade once played were covered.

The sanctum of the Council Chamber itself was also shot by the group.

Was it a success? Absolutely. More than 100 shots were posted to the Flickr group pool building from the event. There was a suprisingly good standard to the quality. They are not happy snappers. They are seriously good amateurs whose work can compete with some of the best professionals.

We are now looking to build a page on the council website where those who took part’s nominated pics can be hosted. Links will be added back to individual’s Flickr pages to showcase their other work. Everyone is a winner.

So, why did it succeed?

1. Like all good social media projects it connected with people.

2. By taking part in social media the council could start a conversation.

3. Residents could photograph part of their heritage.

4. It opened up a civic building giving special access to Flickr group members.

5. Talented individual’s work could be showcased and taken to a wider audience.

6. Shots taken could be tweeted on the council’s Twitter feed.

7. Selected shots – with permission – could be added to the council’s image library.

8. The council could start a dialogue with residents.

HOW COUNCILS CAN USE FLICKR

1. First join Flickr as an individual. Get to know how it works by playing around with it. Same as any social media platform.

2. Join Flickr as an authority. Start posting pics — but check that the copyright holder is fine with that. Even if you have an array of pictures from freelancers he or she will still retain copyright. Always ask first (see copyright and photography link below).

3. Search Flickr groups for one in your area. (eg Black Country or Walsall).

4. Contact the group admin. See what locations you may have the group may want to set-up a meet at.

5. See what you can do with the pictures that have been taken. An exhibition? A spread of pics on your website? Be creative. Be social. 

LINKS

Flickr.com 

Flickr on wikipedia

The Walsall Flickr group pool (needs Flickr membership to view)

Pictures from the Walsall Council House Flickr meet (needs Flickr membership to view)

Useful things to know about photography and copyright

A take on the Flickr event at Walsall Council House by photographer and digitally connected chap Lee Jordan

SAVE BENNO: Case study: How a sport team used social media to take on the establishment

Months before Stephen Fry turned Twitter’s guns on injustice a happy band of cricketers got there first.

Instead of Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir the target was the heirarchy of a Midlands village cricket club.

Angry at the ousting of Fillongley 2nd XI cricket captain Richard Bennet the Save Benno campaign was launched.

Inspired by Barack Obama, Soccer AM and Top Gear the Save Benno online campaign was started across a blog, You Tube with more than 300 views and Twitter with 440 followers.

PRESSURE

It raised a smile, support and pressure on the powers that be.

Every time the club’s committee tried to outflank the campaign with the club’s rule book it was across social media. They appeared wholly out manoevred by the protesting players.

The campaign was designed by frustrated player David Howells and his team mates.  In the end they were beaten by the club’s committee. But was it all fruitless? Not entirely. A point was made.

It was also an imaginative marker for how a campaign using social media could be waged.

What could be the first cricket match arranged over Twitter was also played as a result. Looking for a fixture Save Benno used Twitter to broadcast an appeal.

‘NO BRAINER’

As press officer for Stone SP Cricket Club and a Twitter user the fixture was a no brainer.

The game was excellent, except for my comedy run out with just 1 run on the board.

Aside from this, it was an excellent match decided by a boundary hit on the final ball.

Footage shot on Flip was taken for a Sky Sports-style highlights package. After much beer was drunk in the Pavillion that idea got kind of scaled down.

Instead an A Team-style You Tube calling card was made for more fixtures.

SO, WHAT DID IT PROVE?

1. Social media are excellent campaigning tools.

2. Sports teams looking for fixtures can use Twitter.

3. Sports teams should use Twitter to broadcast score updates.

4. Flip video highlights packages for You Tube are a brilliant idea.

5. Brilliant ideas are dreamed up over a beer.

6. Cricket is a superb sport played by superb people. It’s just the administrators that let it down.

7. If you are not part of the conversation (in this case the committee were not) you look leaden footed, slow and unresponsive.

LINKS

The Save Benno blog http://savebenno.blogspot.com/

Save Benno on Twitter http://twitter.com/savebenno

Save Benno on You Tube http://bit.ly/savebenno

BE LEGAL: Six things a hyperlocal blogger really should know about the law

Originally uploaded by Soggy Semolina 

There is an amazing vibrancy, vibrancy and passion about hyperlocal blogs.

With the bottom falling out of newspapers self-motivated people are filling the news gap themselves.

No town, housing estate or tower block is too small or disconnected to support these grassroots newsgatherers.

But to a qualified journalist turned press officer like myself the potential for danger in the ice field of libel law is terrifying.

Chatting to the excellent Philip John of the Lichfield Blog at a recent Black Country Social Media Cafe it’s clear this hasn’t escaped attention.

The idea of registering a company for a blog is an excellent way of getting yourself some protection.

Why? Because British libel laws are amongst the most draconian in the world.

At some point I’m convinced someone will lose their house in the not too distant future over an internet blog post. It’s potentially that serious.

This isn’t a shot across the bows for local bloggers from an old hack who doesn’t ‘get’ social media. Far from it.

In the words of former Sunday Times editor Harold Evans “I love newspapers. But I’m intoxicated by the speed and possibility of the internet.”

This is more a call to action for the blogging community to be as legally aware as they are SEO-savvy.

Of course, not everyone should have to take a law exam before they are allowed onto WordPress. That defeats the object of Web 2.0.

What I am arguing for is as the blogging community slowly self-organises legal advice, or a place where a blogger could find it, is an overdue must.

It’s excellent that Talk About Local have further enhanced their reputation by spotting this need and they now have a place to go.

They have also drafted a nine point manifesto themselves to help. Maybe a tenth should be “Be legal.”?

This would be self-preservation. It could also help construct foundations for a bridge of trust between bloggers and local councils and other organisations.

With the advent of no win no fee legal firms sniffing around blog comments it’s also increasingly important.

SIX things every hyperlocal needs to know about media law:

1. Libel law covers the web – legal action is rare but you need to know what you blog about could become actionable in every jurisdiction on the planet. Technically.

2. It is big money – Living Marxism magazine folded in 2000 after two television reporters and ITN won £375,000 after being accused of sensationalising images of an emaciated Muslim in a Serb run detention camp in Bosnia.

3. It’s useful to know what libel is – there are defences against libel. Here is a link with British Libel laws explained 

4. Don’t touch court reports – The rules around court reporting in the UK are so strict, so complex and carry unlimited penalties that all but the foolish would look at it. Take freelance reporters’ copy direct if you like. Don’t lift it from newspapers. And don’t try it at home. Contempt of court is about as much fun as serious illness.

5. Have a copy of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists by your side. It’s the media industry standard. It can save lives. It could save yours.

6. Use the Talk About Local site designed as a signpost for finding legal advice.

LINKS

Philip John: Getting serious about #hyperlocal blogs. Great piece about media law http://bit.ly/VCf1D

Social By Social legal issues for hyperlocals debate http://bit.ly/2EnY9M

My earlier blog about what hyperlocals mean for Local Government http://bit.ly/nkPrD

Great presentation on media law for bloggers and journalists by Paul Bradshaw http://bit.ly/22NeNs

POCKET CALCULATOR ANALYTICS: Measure and share your organisation’s Twitter impact (until someone smart designs an app.)

Just how do you measure how effective Twitter is?

One day wfame will all click a button and some kind of advanced free analytic will do it all.

There is of course twitter.grader.com.

 But a score out of 100 isn’t really going to cut the mustard with the chief executive.
What are we doing? One way is to  keep a log of the traditional opportunities to view figure.  In other words the number of times a tweet has been put in front of people.

Until something better comes along we’re keeping tally ourselves with little more than a word document and a pocket calculator.

I’M AN OPERATOR OF A POCKET CALCULATOR

 
We do it monthly. First, we keep a tab on the number of followers on the first day of the month.
1. At the START of the month log the current number of followers
2. At the END of the month log the new total of followers
3. Work out the average number of followers that month.
4. Work out the number of times you’ve tweeted that month.
5. Then its MONTHLY AVERAGE FOLLOWER score multiplied by MONTHLY TWEETS. You are left with opportunities to view.

OPPORTUNITIES TO VIEW: THE MATHS

 
This is the formula we use. It’s a formula that is designed to show the impact of our Twitter use. It’s not neccesarily the one for everyone but it’ll do until a smart app designer comes up with something that gets traction industry wide. It works like this: If there are 100 followers at the start of the month and 200 at the end the average follower score is 150. Yes?
Let’s pretent the tweets we sent that month was 50.
If that was the case our opportunities to view score would be 150 x 50 = 7,500.
In other words, there were 7,500 opportunities to read your organisations tweets.

As a swift number crunch, work out how many months you’ve been tweeting, your followers today, divide your followers today by the number of months and you can come up with a rough figure without having to put in months of investment. 

A CASE STUDY: @WALSALLCOUNCIL ON TWITTER

From April to November ’09 our tweets could have been read more than 700,000 times. This sounds a compelling score – and is – but is by no means unique.

April 09 — 59 tweets x 77 average monthly followers = 4,543

May 09 — 172 x 175 = 30,100

June 09 — 251 x 166 = 46,646

July 09 — 450 x 288 = 129,600

August 09 — 540 x 215 = 116,100

September 09 — 642 x 244 = 157,136

October 09 — 758 x 293 = 222,094

Opps to view total April to November ’09: 706,319

 

WHAT ABOUT MEASURE LINK CLICKS?

 
If you are really keen you can use a link shortening website like bit.ly.

From that you can also get data for the number of clicks. However, this is only collected link by link so you can’t bring them all together. It’s also time consuming going through each click. Mashable reckons an average is about 3 per cent click through.
 
           
SO, GO AND TELL PEOPLE

 
Now you’ve got your stats what are you going to do with them?
You could leave them on your hard drive but isn’t it better to spread the word?
Stick it on the intranet. Tell all your friends.
With thousands of organisations on Twitter I’m amazed a free killer app hasn’t been designed already to properly measure.
Until then, I’d be genuinely interested to know what others do…

Three basic things organisations should be doing when they use social media:

1. Measure. Whatever the way you want to measure – followers, friends, opps to view or views – keep a log. Yes, it’ll take time. Yes, you will come up with some compelling figures that paint a picture of what you are doing.

2. Broadcast. Tell people in your organisation what the statistics are. Don’t keep them to yourself.

3. Circulate case studies. Turned around an inaccurate Chinese whisper using Twitter?  Take a screen shot of each tweet. Put together a mini Power Point and circulate. Let non-adoptors know what you can achieve.

4. Put your social media stats with your Press monitoring stats. Don’t keep them in the box bedroom. Let them breathe. It’s also a good way of getting the message over to people that the weekly paper that has had the monopoly for 100 years is not the only game in town.

LINKS

E-Consultancy debate on measuring social media success http://bit.ly/Qohd3