an epic twitter chat – what we learned from #idealcommsteam

We thought it would be interesting to begin hosting a couple of Twitter Chats each month on key challenges facing the community. We kicked off with this great session on the 'ideal comms team' - it sparked a flurry of tweets and over 1.1million potential Twitter impacts.

by Ben Capper

You can always count on the comms2point0 to pitch in with ideas and thoughts when you ask them.

Last Wednesday's #IdealCommsTeam lunchtime Twitter chat was a true example of this.

The expertise, the experiences (good and bad), the challenges and the triumphs came thick and fast during a cracking hour of discussion in response to my comms2point0 post on the Ideal Comms Team last week.

Just as a reminder, there were a few key rules to the questions we asked during the conversation:

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we need to reboot twitter events

Back in the day the 24-hour Twitter event was groundbreaking. But have they moved on? And what do they need to do?

by Dan Slee

I’ve been thinking for a while that 24-hour Twitter events have driven up a bit of a cul-de-sac.

You know the sort of thing. An organisation tweets what it is doing for 24-hours and shines a light on unsung heroes. You learn things you didn’t know and then the timeline moves on.

Back in 2011, I was part of an award-winning team at Walsall Council that ran this first one in local government called #walsall24. We encouraged teams from across the council from 6am to join in. There was a countryside ranger talking about what she was doing, scheduled road repairs and events at libraries.

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tweeting in portuguese

Here's a couple of ideas one London council tried out to get people talking about them... tweeting in Portuguese and then letting one person take over the council account.

by Karen Jeal 

Here at Lambeth Council we recently tried a couple of new ideas to try and get more people in our community talking with us on Twitter. Here’s how they both went.

Our communities in Lambeth are diverse. So what better way to get to the heart of those different communities than to really speak their language and engage with them in a way they will understand.

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how a tweet made a lasting difference to a community

People often ask how social media can help organisations. At Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service it has proved a key way of warning and informing during operational incidents - but the lesser reported success is how it connects the Service with individuals to make a lasting difference to the community. 

by Kate Hall

Now the Service is able to share how a single tweet led to a heart wrenching water safety education campaign - and a national award for a volunteer.

Beckie Ramsay became a volunteer for GMFRS in 2012 - and it all started with this tweet sent in response to live tweeting from @manchesterfire about how it was working to keep the community safe:

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could twitter be a weekly voice for local government?

Could a Twitter account passed between local government people help tell the story of their sector? One switched-on comms person thinks it could.

by Geoff Coleman

In December 2011, Sweden launched what it called 'the world's most democratic Twitter experiment' when the Twitter account @Sweden was born.

If you're not already a follower I can highly recommend that you check it out.

Basically, a new Swede takes over the country's official Twitter account @sweden every week, sharing their daily experiences and opinions and generally celebrating their nation.

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the importance of being dave

We've always liked the cut of the jib of those folks down in Norfolk. And this post and idea sums them up nicely.

by GUEST EDITOR Susie Lockwood

It’s crucial to lead on things sometimes; come up with new ideas, be brave, be innovative, make stuff happen. But leaders don’t get very far without followers, people who can recognise a good idea when they see one and can make it happen much more effectively.

So it follows (sorry, couldn’t resist) that it’s important to follow as well as lead, support as well as take the starring role.

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from cock-up to case study: a cautionary tale of when twitter goes bad

Sometimes with social media things go a bit wrong. Something happens that is unplanned and leaves you with egg on your face. So, you're in a hole. How do you get yourself out of it? Honesty and humour, it seems.

by Mike Underwood

The Mission: promote the grand work of Charnwood Borough Council’s CCTV service.

The Tactic: tweet live from the camera control centre on a busy Saturday night in Loughborough.

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seven more twitter mistakes we all make

Mistakes. We all make them. But many of us shy away from talking about them. One comms pro took a different view and created a massively popular post last year about making mistakes on Twitter. And now she's gone and written the follow-up...

by GUEST EDITOR Helen Reynolds

With the 'first seven mistakes we have to make' post last year I started a club for those of us who have learned the hard way and cocked up on Twitter at some point.

Here are seven more 'mistakes': if you have done more than six of the fourteen you are a VIP member for the 'Twitter pro club'. (Rule 1: talk about Twitter pro club. We're communicators aren't we?!)

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social media, for social good

James Baker, the FSA’s Social Media Manager, explains how social media can help us identify norovirus outbreaks much earlier than labs confirm the cases.  

by James Baker

If you're part of the digital and communication revolution currently happening all around us, you might have already seen how the FSA is embracing social and digital media to help communicate and build relationships with you, with food businesses, with other government departments and with our stakeholders.  

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tweet today #housingday

Today over a 24 hour period we’re urging all those involved in housing from landlords, tenants, suppliers and workers to share their ‘day in the life’ stories using 140 characters on Twitter.

By GUEST EDITOR Adrian Capon

The idea to raise the profile of UK Housing from a tweetathon was ignited by the success of various initiatives #Walsall24, Greater Manchester Police and Local Government #Ourday. I first blogged about this here.

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#HousingDay 13.11.13 Tweetathon

Inspired by other successful Tweetathons, #HousingDay looks to shine a light on the work delivered by housing associations across the UK.

by Adrian Capon

An idea to raise the profile of UK Housing from a tweetathon was sparked by the success of various initiatives #Walsall24, Greater Manchester Police and Local Government's #Ourday. At Commscamp 13, I asked Rae Watson from the Tenants Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) whether this would be something worth doing. From my time at Yorkshire Housing and seeing what we do, I am passionate to show the diversity of the UK housing sector and the work that unites us all.

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how twitter helped an employment campaign

Employment statistics. Aren't they a bit dry? Well, they can be. That's where a mini-digital campaign came in to help draw out some of the more interesting aspects of an Office of National Statistics announcement. 

by Chris Hollifield

The coffee was brewing and we were gathered, primed and ready for our Twitter strike to take place. All that was left was for the Office of National Statistics to release the latest unemployment figures and our #notjustmakingtea campaign could get underway.

The figures finally emerged and we set our well-oiled machine in motion.

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keep calm and share information

The beginning of this story will be the same as many council’s across the land so if you’re sitting comfortably I’ll begin...

by GUEST EDITOR Carolyne Mitchell

Once upon a time there was a council information officer who opened herself a Twitter account. After a few days of lurking she tweeted her first tweet and a whole new world opened up before her eyes.

She was lucky to have a boss who trusted her judgement when she suggested that the council should open a corporate account and so they did, under the radar, as a ‘pilot’, in case anyone asked.

Things went well and after a few months the council account had 300 followers. Then two things happened that would change everything.

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a digital comms libraries case study

Libraries, aren't they filled with people in buns shushing other people? No. Not in Halton in the north west. They're using technology as a way of connecting with their audience and authors.

by Mark Allen

#Haltonreads takes Halton's Libraries in 'One Direction' - forwards!

Halton Borough Council's libraries have been at the forefront of social media for some time, seeing the new methods sitting comfortable alongside the more traditional ones in attracting new readers and interacting with existing ones.

The service was early to use Facebook/Twitter as a way of engaging with its users, especially as more and more people use libraries for their IT facilities as well as to read conventional books.

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how to communicate a g8 summit

There were 8,000 police officers at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland in 2013. The world's leaders gathered and key items were discussed. But what was the role of the 10 Downing Street digital team?

by Gillian Hudson

I was in a meeting the other week when it occurred to me that the beautiful round table we were gathered at was used by leaders at this year’s G8 summit at Lough Erne, Northern Ireland.

In addition to adding a slightly absurd twist to my otherwise fairly run-of-the-mill meeting, it quickly took me back to the fantastic time I had as part of the G8 digital team.

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