twitter chat: doing better facebook

Facebook. When you think you've cracked it the algorithm goes and changes. So we've gathered some pearls of wisdom ahead of a Twitter chat.

by Dan Slee

Every organisation needs to be aware of Facebook but very few do it well. So, we decided to stage a chat on Twitter about tackling it better and we asked a number of people to be on a panel to chip in.

Across the UK, more than 30 million people have Facebook accounts with the platform emerging as the most popular.

But how should an organisation use it? 

We believe that ideas are transferrable and inspiration in one sector can work elsewhere. So, we asked two people who run charity pages, two who use local government and one fire service to be a panel for the Twitter chat. Here are some of their pearls of wisdom to get the ball rolling.

The Twitter chat itself will take place on the hashtag #BetterFB15 at 12.30pm on Monday November 23. Pop by and chip in.

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i love porto

We're always keen to get different perspectives on comms, especially from overseas. So when one-man social media machine, Helder Goncalves offered us a post we jumped at the chance.

by Helder Goncalves

“I Love Porto" is a Facebook page established in February 2012 with the intention of showing the beauty of living in a city as historic but at the same time as contemporary as Porto. The aim was to raise citizens' love for the city we lived in, sharing photographs of some of the most beautiful and iconic locations, such as the amazing Douro River.

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don't sweat the facebook changes

There have been some big changes to Facebook of late prompting many to ask why and if it is worth bothering with unless you have a budget to support it. Here is one take.

by Jon King

Having stepped away from local government comms for a year, I’m back in the saddle again at another authority.

Knowing a little about social media helped. And just as I was extolling the virtues of Facebook as a means of connecting with residents I had to remind myself that the game has changed a little in my absence.

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giving up facebook - new year predications

by James Baker

Well happy new year everyone. It's nice to be back at work after a bit of a recharge and absence from everything social and digital. I did pretty much abstain for the majority of the duration bar a bit of old school YouTube streaming of Christmas classic music vids. (East 17, Macca and Wham still being untouched by Maria's sorry sorry efforts...)

This did mean however that when I did eventually click the Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram apps - I was feeling like I was playing catch up and had missed out on what seemed like loads of really important info and exciting stuff in both my personal and professional worlds.

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a social media shaggy dog tail

When one of Solihull Council’s dog wardens picked up a stray pooch with no collar and no microchip last week, it looked like another potentially costly stay at the local kennels was imminent. However, one photo posted on Facebook and, within an hour, the dog’s owner had been found and tails were wagging all round.

By Dave Musson 

Sometimes, you get afternoons that just make you smile, especially when they involve dogs. This was one of those gems and I’ll think you’ll like it too – even if you’re a cat person.

I picked up a call from a colleague in our environmental crime team, who wanted to tell me that the dog warden had just picked up a lost pooch that didn’t have a collar or microchip.

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how to communicate as a frontline officer

It's true that the best social content can often be from the frontline and from officers who are not senior. But what does that look like? In this case study a town centre officer talks about how with the support of his comms team he is using Twitter and Facebook.

by Jon Burnett

About three years ago I moved over to the town centre management team at Walsall Council to become the regeneration officer for Walsall town centre.

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11 things you should do with your facebook page

Here are some top tips from the person behind one of the best council Facebook pages around

by Claire Bustin

1. Allow people to post on your page – It's good for interaction and gets people talking. It’s also much easier to monitor. Disabling posts on your page means people can only ask you something by commenting on one of your posts - it's easy to miss these comments.

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make sure you bark up the right tree

How you don't need to just bang out a press release but bark up the right tree and at the right time whatever the channel.

by Alan Ferguson

We are a council. We have no competition. We will build a website and they (our residents) will come and visit.

As if it was all that easy. We are all fighting to get our voice heard in a noisy world, where we are bombarded with communication messages morning, noon and night. Web. Email. Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. YouTube. Press. TV. Radio. Where does it end!

You’ve heard the phrase “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got”. How very true.

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facebook pages – the pool party’s over

You think that everyone who likes your page gets your updates? Think again. Only if you pay. Here's a post that you need to read if Facebook is in your organisation.

by Matthew Murray

Facebook. It's free and always will be. Just don’t expect many of your fans to see your posts anymore unless you pay.

That’s the stark realisation that page owners are coming to terms with after recent changes to Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm.

Previously, between 30-40% of fans would see your posts in their news feed. Now that Facebook has rolled out its ‘Promote this post’ feature, the percentage of fans seeing your posts has been slashed to 10-20%.  

Working in digital communications for a local authority on Brisbane’s Bayside, I know how frustrating this is.

In August and September 2012, our Redland City Council Facebook page experienced some impressive organic growth. Yet by early October, the reach of our posts (the number of people seeing them) started to decline markedly. With our reach decreasing, so did our likes, comments and shares. This was at a time when Facebook rolled out their new feature ‘Promote this post’.

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facebook – pointless for councils?

Facebook's darling is fading. Is it time to re-think how we use it as comms people?

by Julie Waddicor

Attention council Communications Teams. Nobody wants to be your friend, especially not your residents. Don’t feel unloved – what we do is vital to our organisations – but we need to work smarter.

Digital and social media has been heralded for years as the way forward for comms, and it is. But the world moves fast, and we need to keep up.

Facebook, the original social media darling, is faltering. Share prices are dropping, expansion is stalling, and it’s becoming clear that, while Facebook is a primary tool for social interaction, it’s not the place people go to for local information.

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glasgow central - ideas central

by Darren Caveney

This year I've been fortunate enough to visit Cardiff, Shropshire, Norfolk and now Glasgow to share our learning and experiences and to soak up some fresh ideas and challenges.

Our comms2point0/Public Sector Forums event in Glasgow was a really enjoyable adventure and I was struck by the enthusiasm and professionalism of a bunch of comms people keep to learn more, create more, deliver more.

One thing is clear from the cross-UK visits I've made and that is this - yes there are demographic and geographic differences to understand but actually the same broad issues and opportunities exist for us all in the public sector across whether in Scotland, Wales or England. And one of the very biggest challenges for us right now is how we remain effective and relevant across multiple new AND traditional platforms.

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facebook in the public sector - a quick round-up

A room full of people came together to hear some fine ideas about Facebook. Part traditional conference and part unconference the Facebook for the Public Sector was a joint venture between Comms2point0 and Public Sector Networks.

Here's a quick round-up of some of the points from the morning session along with some great free resources for you to enjoy. 

by James Coltham

There are loads of ways to remove the barriers to using social media, as well as getting buy in – talk in senior management language, talk to the people who can say “yes”, get someone senior to be your advocate, and start small to build the case.

Opening up Facebook – Monmouthshire did it and the world didn’t end. IT systems didn’t crash, productivity didn’t suffer and no one made an idiot of themselves. Organisations don’t usually make a habit of employing people they don’t trust, so show that trust by empowering them to use these tools.

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a brilliant Facebook event in scotland

After the success of the West Midlands event we thought it would be fun to go to Scotland and update it. Here's the low-down...

By Dan Slee 

Facebook is an amazing communications channel that has transformed the internet.

More than 900 million people globally are signed-up with more than 29 million in the UK.

In bad weather, civic disturbances and crisis Facebook for many is the default emergency setting for people to find out what is going on and to get fast updates.

It almost seems to be a full time job to keep up to speed with the ever-changing possibility of Facebook and the best practice across the public sector is at best patchy.

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keep calm and carry on

by Kevin Hughes

Hertfordshire County Council has had an open social media policy since early 2010 – around about the same time the communications team began tentatively dipping its toes in the then unknown waters of the corporate Twitter and Facebook accounts.

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wolverhampton parks: a case study in social media

by Dawn O'Brien and Dan Slee

It’s one of the fascinating things seeing how social media grows and develops in unexpected places.

Wolverhampton Parks is one of those places and Dawn O’Brien deserves heaps of credit in being one of the true local government heroes.

She has pioneered digital and made things grow at a time when the authority hadn’t really picked up the ball at all.

She works as a business development officer for Wolverhampton City Council for the parks and green spaces service. They look after city parks, district parks, local nature reserves, farm and country parks.

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