digital councils - new advice and tips for local government

We've worked with the Local Government Association to produce guidance on how to use social media more effectively. There's advice for organisations, elected members and staff. It's transferrable stuff and it's brilliant...

by Laurence Meehan

For many social media is now an everyday part of their lives; something as natural as a phone call or a face-to-face conversation. Twitter, Facebook and the many other digital tools available are now employed to conduct a plethora of tasks: from complaining to utility companies to sharing ideas; from ordering shopping to building networks.

Click to read more ...

help us help the lga shape social media in local government

We're hugely excited to be helping to draw-up new guidelines to help Councillors use social media better. We'd love it if you can help us too.

by Dan Slee

We think social media has the power to transform how organisations listen to and communicate with people.

We think that local government has the power to improve people's lives for the good.

We think social media can build a bridge between the elected members and the people they serve.

That's why we are hugely pleased to be asked to work with the Local Government Association (LGA) improve the guidance it gives not just to councils but to councillors as well.

Firstly, we'll be drawing-up a short off-the-shelf social media policy.

Secondly, we'll help update the seminal 2010 publication Connected Councillor. This document which has stood the test of time but now needs updating.

We'd like your help to shape the guidance that will help thousands of.elected members use digital channels to serve those who live and work in their area.

We'll be working with partners on this but to give us your views on social media use and how we can support, we'd love it if you can complete our survey here:

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LGAsocial

The LGA is the national voice of local government. It works with councils to support, promote and improve local government.

Dan Slee is co-founder of comms2point0.

Picture credit.

it's time to fightback... I'm not scared

A discussion took place on Twitter shaped by predictions of worse to come for local government. But should we be downcast? Or fight back? Here the director of comms at the LGA urges for the fightback.

by David Holdstock

Local government is doing some remarkable things. If any major business continued to deliver services against a budget reduction of 40 per cent it would be rightly lauded as heroic. 

Well, that’s exactly what local government has done. 

At the same time, our reputation remains high and we are trusted by our residents to do the right thing. However, the scale of the financial challenges often means that we, in local government, are never able to pause for a moment to reflect on the scale of our achievements.

Click to read more ...