Presentation by Michele Ide-Smith and Paul Ormerod about community engagement with social media at the Customer Insight in Public Services Conference, September 2010.

2. Social Media Engagement
• Michele Ide-Smith, Web Strategy Manager,
Cambridgeshire County Council
• Paul Ormerod, Neighbourhood Policing,
Cambridgeshire Police
21 September 2010

4. What is social media?
Social – people sharing, discussing,
commenting, rating, networking, collaborating
Media – user generated content (text,
photos, video, slides, documents, maps)
“the democratisation of information,
transforming people from content
readers into publishers” Wikipedia

5. What we’ll cover today
1. Background and aims
2. Approach
3. Solution
4. What we learnt

6. Background and aims

7. Challenges in Wisbech
Socio-economic, rural deprivation
Large migrant worker population
Digital exclusion – IT skills and access
Hard to engage groups including migrant
workers, youth, older people, disabled
people, time pressured 25-40’s

8. Engagement challenges
Poor attendance at the Neighbourhood
Panel meetings
Attendees not representative of the wider
community
No way to record results of engagement
activity and make them visible
Current engagement methods present
barriers to engaging

9. Project objective
To enable improved community
engagement through the use of social
media tools to help build stronger and
safer communities and improve
community cohesion
“It’s another tool in our community
engagement toolbox”
Dan Horn, Fenland District Council

10. Approach

11. Do your research
Who are your users?
What are their needs and behaviours?
What social media do they use?
How do they use technology?
What ‘hyperlocal’ websites/groups exist?
What off-the-shelf solutions are there?

12. Strong partnership working

13. Use existing networks

14. Community involvement
Community survey (face-to-face)
Focus groups with hard-to-reach groups
User testing of website
Moderation by Rosmini Centre volunteers
In future…
Skills development and advocacy by
‘community champion’ volunteers

15. Community issues
Community issues Drains and
Play area traffic is Bus station/taxi soak always
Theft
dangerous for kids, problems traffic are full up
would be nice to
have speed bumps How do I contact
Highways? Who is our How can we influence
Councillor? planning decisions?
Traffic – why do the
council dig up the road Vandalism
and alternate routes at Bins Drunks/drugs in Wisbech
the same time? Centre, who to tell?
Speeding
Police? If so how quick a
traffic
response?
Need a crossing on Worried about
Norwich Road, sent individual living in the How can we stop
in a questionnaire no woods speeding through my
further action was
village?
taken Dog mess
Nacro Urban 25-40 Older people

17. Focus groups
Don’t like Like ☺

18. Facebook fan page
Use it for everything
chat, games, forum
Only use
Don’t belong to any Facebook for
fan pages or groups Favourite site
communicating
on the net
with family
Could have an anonymous Everyone heard of
Facebook for complaining it and one regular
except for topics like Don’t log in so can’t
see it being useful user
school crossings which
wouldn’t need to be
anonymous. Well used, but not
for complaints
Nacro Urban 25-40 Older people

19. Stakeholder involvement
Stakeholder workshop
Process mapping
Engagement through project board
Communications

20. (Hat-tip to @davidwilcox
and the Social Media Game)

22. Member involvement
Member briefing
Member survey
Drop-in event – website demo, Q & A

23. Solution

24. Encouraging participation
• Creating blog posts and videos
• Social reporting
• Posting issues and ideas
• Commenting on content
• Rating content
• Reading content

32. Management and governance
Moderation – Rosmini Centre
Content – Partners and volunteers
Governance – Steering group
Volunteer coordination – Fenland
District Council Neighbourhoods Team
Community training – Cambs. County
Council Libraries and Learning services

33. Evaluation
Monthly reports:
Page views, visitors
Posts and comments published / rejected
Agency responses and timescales
Online polls
Satisfaction survey after raising issues
General website satisfaction survey
Annual survey of perceptions

34. What we learnt (so far)

35. Lessons learnt
Involve Councillors early and throughout
Involve all practitioners early on
Use familiar language e.g. ‘Facebook’ not
‘social network site’
Moderators need CRB checks
Unexpected issues will arise after go live
Above all - keep it simple!

36. What worked well
Strong partnership working
Project governance established early on
Target user groups identified early and
involved throughout the project
Use of existing community networks
Workshop helped stakeholders
understand the medium and innovate

37. Questions?

38. Website links
ShapeYourPlace:
http://wisbech.shapeyourplace.org
Project blog:
http://fenland.worktogether.org.uk

39. For more information
Michele Ide-Smith
Web Strategy Manager
Cambridgeshire County Council
Phone: 01223 699710
Twitter: @micheleidesmith
michele.ide-smith@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

40. For more information
Paul Ormerod
Safer Neighbourhoods Manager
Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Phone: 01480 428090
paul.ormerod@cambs.pnn.police.uk