Presentation for Devon Councillors about using Social Media

1. Social Media
Considerations for Councillors
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2. Social media - Outline for this morning
Objective - allow you to feel confident using a variety of social media
★ Give an overview of social media
★ Provide a guide to Twitter
★ Provide a guide to Facebook
★ Look at other social media
★ Social media for councillors
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4. Social media - what options are available
★ blogs - Blogger, Word press
★ micro blogging - Twitter, Tumblr
★ photo & video sites - Flickr, Instagram,YouTube,Vimeo
★ social networking sites - Facebook, Google plus, Pinterest
★ professional networking sites - Linkedin
★ geolocation - Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook places
★ user ratings - Amazon, Trip Advisor
★ wikis - wikipedia but also many more
★ other - forums, chatrooms, comments pages, hosted blogs, websites
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5. Social media - what are we talking about
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6. Social media - why does it matter?
★ social media has changed the way we receive information and the speed at which
we expect to receive it
★ new social networks are constantly looking to break through .... while existing
channels continue to develop and become more complex
★ people now look to websites, blogs and videos to find the information that helps
them make their decisions
★ we now feedback to our networks on experiences and news – and this feeds the
news
★ there is a growing expectation of presence online
★ it’s a conversation
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7. Social media - what’s in it for councillors?
A new channel for your communication:
★ Cost effective way to communicate messages – free, only expense is time invested
★ Ability to reach (quickly) a broad and diverse range of people
★ Ability to reach new groups you haven’t previously been able to communicate with
(ie young people)
★ Opportunities for two-way conversation
★ Opportunities to seek views, consult etc
★ Opportunity for better engagement:
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8. Social media - facts and figures UK
★ Twitter - 10 million users (May 2012), 80% access via mobile phone, users are
active with over 60% posting tweets and/or photos, core audience is 25-44
accounting for 60% but men aged 35-55 are a major influence
★ Facebook - 30 million users, (Feb 2012) 12.5 million under 29 but 11.7 million aged
over 30 and fastest growing group is the 40+, more women than men
★ Tumblr - major growth in 2011, mainly under 30s slightly more men than women
★ LinkedIn - around 10% of adults, tend to be higher earning professionals, largest
group 25-34 year olds with 23%, twice as many men as women
★ Flickr - photographers, at least 4 million users, most are active loading content
★ Youtube - Over 30 million regular users but only 1% of users load videos
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9. Social media research
umpf recently conducted research
with “Your Say Pays, where they asked
nearly 2,400 UK adults which social
media platforms they used and how
often.” With a UK adult population of
48.6 million, they found that :
★ More than half UK pensioners now
on Facebook
★ 37.4 million UK adults use
Facebook regularly
★ 32.1 million UK adults use YouTube
regularly
★ 15.5 million UK adults on Twitter
★ 7.9 million UK adults on LinkedIn
★ 6.7 million UK adults on Flickr
★ The South West has the highest
numbers of users of Twitter and
Facebook
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10. Social media research
This report by Social Bakers
provides a breakdown of Facebook
★ By age: 18-24s - 24%, 25-34s - 26%,
35-44 - 18% , others - 34%
★ Top ten brands dominated by food
and fashion
★ BBC hold four of the top ten media
slots
★ Car manufacturer’s take four of the
top slots for engagement
★ Food maufacturers and retailers are
high in the response top 10
★ It’s worth looking at what the
commercial sector do and
considerin if any of the ideas can be
applied to your councillor role
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11. Twitter - what is is best for
★ driving people to other content
★ informing people in emergencies
★ real-time information
★ sharing news
★ networking
★ conversations
★ sharing a one-off moment
Less good for trying to convey complex ideas, sharing photos, hobbies etc choose
another medium
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12. Twitter - how it works
★ Must have an account to be able to view comments
★ Account names can be anything, so it can be hard to find people
★ Tweet - 140 characters (including link) + photo
★ RT - retweet others’ comments, DM - direct message to other user, @ Mention
others
★ Use # hashtags to enable easy search
★ Search for people or tweets
★ Twitter is popular with cllrs - a survey in West Midlands June 2012 found 16%
tweeted
★ Easy access from mobiles
★ LGC did a quick guide to twitter
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13. Home - timeline and tweeting
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14. @Connect - interactions
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15. @Connect - mentions
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16. #Discover
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17. Me - the heart of your Twitter
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18. Edit your profile - profile
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19. Edit your profile - background design
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20. Direct Messages (DMs)
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21. Direct Messages (DMs)
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22. Searches - tweets
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23. Searches - people
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24. Twitter exercise
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25. Twitter - best practice
★ Make sure Twitter is the right channel for what you are trying to do
★ You don’t have to follow back - choose who is relevant to you
★ Listen and observe before engaging…start by answering questions using @
★ Be authentic and believable to build credibility
★ Vary your content and calls to action
★ Create original content don’t just retweet (RT)
★ Use #hashtags to help people find your content
★ Share things you find useful and via retweets (RT)
★ Use Twitter to drive people to other content - websites, blogs
★ Use Direct Messages (DM) to have a private conversation
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26. Twitter - building a community
★ Create a user friendly ID (@yourname)
★ Fill out your profile in full
★ Search for people to follow
★ Use Twitter language – DM, RT, @, TW+ any other word and use hashtags #
★ Get to know who ‘@’ replies to you
★ Read the biographies of the people who follow you and look at their tweets
★ Follow other councillors and look at what they are doing
★ Keep to 120 characters - easier for re-tweets
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27. Twitter - building a community
★ Generally 9am – 5pm good
★ Aim for mid-morning, lunchtime, mid-afternoon
★ Best time to ‘trend’ – when people who don’t follow you will see your tweets –
11am Friday
★ Promote others and share information ie #FFs
★ Twetiquette - thank your followers, don’t send multiple tweets
★ Link to your blog or website and publish details
★ Add your Twitter ID to your email signatures and any other literature
★ Use other ‘traditional channels to promote your Twitter presence
★ Think how your Twitter links to other social media
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29. Facebook - what is is best for
★ Building relationships with people and/or communities
★ Sharing longer and more complex thinking
★ Adding video content
★ Sharing sets of photos
★ Campaigning
★ Reaching a different audience
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30. Facebook - how it works
★ Need an account to be able to view some information dependent on
privacy settings
★ Finding accounts can be difficult unless you know exactly what they are
called e.g. exeter city council or exetercitycouncil
★ Choose whether to use a personal account, pages or group
★ Personal accounts are usually used for connecting and sharing with your
friends and family. Not recommended for ward work.
★ Pages allow organsations/brands to communicate with people who “like”
them. Created by official representatives. Good for official online visibility
★ Groups provide a space for small groups of people to communicate about
shared interests. Groups can be created by anyone. They can be open
allowing anyone to see the contents or closed for private discussions.
Good for building communities.
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31. Creating a page
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33. Posting to the timeline
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34. Posting to the timeline
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35. Admin panel
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36. Using notes
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37. Writing notes
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38. Twitter feeding into timeline
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39. Adding applications
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40. Facebook exercise
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41. Facebook - Page or Group: the differences
Pages
★ Privacy - Page information and posts are public
★ Audience - Anyone can like a Page to connect and get News Feed updates. No
limits to numbers
★ Communication -Page admins share posts under the Page’s name. Page posts
appear in the News Feed of people who “like” the page.You can create custom
tabs and access Page insights (once over 30 “likes”)
Groups
★ Privacy - More privacy settings are available. In closed groups psost are only visible
to group members
★ Audience - Group members must be approved. Most effective groups are between
like-minded people
★ Communication - Members receive all notifications. groups members can take
part in chats, upload photos, collaborate on docs and invite people to events
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42. Councillors using a page
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43. Councillors using an open group
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44. Councillors using a closed group
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45. Councillor using a personal account
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46. Facebook - best practice
★ Think little and often is better than bursts of activity
★ Consider time of day: posts receive most exposure in the morning, lunchtime, after
work, late evening and weekends
★ Informal tone of voice
★ Vary posts: words, photos, videos, notes and links. It’s not a broadcast channel.
★ Be helpful, informative and interesting
★ Ask questions and enlist help
★ Respond to others posts and questions
★ Delete spam
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47. Facebook - building a community
★ Plan how you will use your pages
★ Create original content as well as sharing other’s content - take photos, create
video, write blogs
★ Invite people you know to “like” your page or join your group
★ Promote your page on Twitter
★ Publicise your Facebook address on your email signature
★ Put your Facebook address on traditional media such as flyers, posters
★ Get links put to it from party websites, council websites or your own website
★ Think how you link your Facebook to other social media
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48. Linkedin - how it works
★ You can find people using Google but need an account to see some details
★ Differing security levels
★ Must be linked to someone to see all their information and comments
★ Comments, groups, CV
★ Councils can have a presence as well as individuals
★ Potential for recruitment
★ A few councillors who are also professionals are noting their cllr role
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49. Professional presence
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50. Youtube
★ 500 million users worldwide (unique visitors per month)
★ Generates estimated 92 billion page views each month
★ The average YouTube user visits the site 14 times per month
★ YouTube’s demographic is broad: 18-54 years old
★ YouTube says that on average there are more than 400 tweets per minute
containing a YouTube link
★ YouTube feeds into other social networks
★ Opportunities for creating ‘share worthy’ content
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51. Video on Youtube
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52. Photos on Flickr
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53. Potential with Pinterest?
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54. Join the < 30s on Tumblr
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55. Blogs - winner of Total Politics blog of the year
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56. 10 reasons for councillors to use social media
1. It boosts the number of people you 5. Campaigns can go “viral” with social
can reach when talking about the media
good work you’ve done in your area
6. Bring your community together to
2. You can have a two-way combat extremism
conversation so you get immediate
feedback on key issues in your ward 7. Conversations are already happening
without you
3. Connect with a different type of
resident who perhaps doesn’t 8. It’s simple and cheap to do
normally contact you
9. Good way to engage younger people
4. Follow or create conversations with
different groups of people 10. People connect with you on a
personal level
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57. Issues for councillors
★ Bringing the role of councillor into ★ Breach of copyright
disrepute through:
★ Bias and pre-determination
★ Inappropriate tone/language/
use of humour ★ Impact on Council reputation
★ Inappropriate materials ★ 24/7 response required
★ Inappropriate friends/links ★ Separation of party political and
representative roles
★ Disrespect to other cllrs e.g.
tweeting at meetings or audio/video ★ Use of council equipment/services
recording
★ Libel
★ Breach of confidentiality
★ Electoral periods
★ Breach of data protection
★ Members’ code of conduct
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58. Examples
★ A Cardiff councillor in 2010 caused ★ Bexley councillor April 2012 referred
a storm after retweeting that a local a complaint to police after a man
far right group was meeting at a local abused him on Twitter
pub
★ Merton councillor April 2012 caught
★ Wycombe councillor in 2011 on YouTube video pulling down
suspended after gay marriage tweet posters for a community event
★ Prestatyn councillor in court over ★ Bournemouth councillor May 2012
YouTube “Hitler” video suspends herself after causing
offence with Twitter about English
★ Cornwall CC 2012 row over Defence League
inappropriate tweeting by cllrs and
then a ban of tweeting in council
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59. What can be done to support councillors
★ Have protocols and policies - social media policy, code of practice on publicity,
broadcasting at council meetings
★ Provide training and support for councillors - writing style, tone, uses, sharing
sessions
★ Create a handbook for councillors
★ Consider how councillors access social media - smart phones and tablets
★ Make sure councillors are aware of all council social media accounts
★ Keep councillors up to date with news which they might want to share
★ Involve councillors in learning sessions and discussions on using social media
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60. Golden rules to avoid problems
★ Use your common sense ★ Beware irony - few writers can
communicate irony in short online
★ Avoid gaffes and maintain good messages
‘netiquette’
★ Don’t be creepy - terms like
★ Make your commenting policy clear “following” and “friend” in social
media imply a relationship which
★ Allow disagreement - deleting isn’t there.
comments from those who disagree
with you tends to backfire they just ★ Own up when you make a mistake -
go and say it in another space where everyone misfires better to own up
you can’t respond by providing an amendment or
update if you get something wrong
★ Think before you publish - even if
you delete it immediately it will have ★ Avoid arguing with vexatious
probably already have been read, commentators - don’t get bogged
indexed and shared
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61. Useful links
Local by Social is a useful report done Tweetyhall run by LGA aims to connect
by the IDeA and NESTA in 2010 public and politicians. It has a twitter
@tweetyhall
IDeA also produced Connected
Councillors in 2011 Like Minds are a local company based
in Exeter which organise events and
conferences around social media
SOCITM have lots of useful reports on
social media
Cheshire East have produced a really
good handbook for councillors
The LGA Knowledge hub has plenty of
people talking about social media and
linking to what other authorities are
doing
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62. About Seashell Communications
★ Strategic Communications consultancy
★ Run by Mandy Pearse, MBA, MCIPR and MCIM
★ Offering communications, marketing, PR, engagement and training
★ Over 20 years experience in local government working with both urban and rural
councils
★ Experienced in working with members and senior management
★ Experienced in crisis communications
★ Working with a range of associates to provide professional advice, support and
training
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63. Further information contact
Mandy Pearse, Director, Seashell Communications
T: 0845 330 8473
M: 07577 326517
E: mandy@seashellcommunications.com
www.seashellcommunications.com
Twitter: @i_seashell
Facebook: www.facebook.com/seashellcommunications
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