Social Media Engagement

• Michele Ide-Smith, Web Strategy Manager, Cambridgeshire County Council

• Paul Ormerod, Neighbourhood Policing, Cambridgeshire Police21 September 2010

�Social – people sharing, discussing, commenting, rating, networking, collaborating

�Media

What is social media?

“the democratisation of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers” Wikipedia

�Media – user generated content (text, photos, video, slides, documents, maps)

What we’ll cover today

1. Background and aims2. Approach3. Solution4. What we learnt

Background and aims

Challenges in Wisbech

�Socio-economic, rural deprivation�Large migrant worker population�Digital exclusion – IT skills and access�Digital exclusion – IT skills and access�Hard to engage groups including migrant

workers, youth, older people, disabled people, time pressured 25-40’s

Engagement challenges

�Poor attendance at the Neighbourhood Panel meetings

�Attendees not representative of the wider �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

Project objective

�To enable improved community engagement through the use of social media tools to help build stronger and 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

Approach

Do your research

�Who are your users?� What are their needs and behaviours?� What social media do they use?� What social media do they use?� How do they use technology?

�What ‘hyperlocal’ websites/groups exist?�What off-the-shelf solutions are there?

Strong partnership working

Use existing networks

Community involvement

�Community survey (face-to-face)�Focus groups with hard-to-reach groups�User testing of website�User testing of website�Moderation by Rosmini Centre volunteersIn future…�Skills development and advocacy by

‘community champion’ volunteers

Community issues

Theft Play area traffic is dangerous for kids,

would be nice to have speed bumps

Bus station/taxi problems traffic

Drains and soak always are full up

How do I contact Highways? Who is our

Councillor?How can we influence planning decisions?

Traffic – why do the

Community issues

Need a crossing on Norwich Road, sent

in a questionnaire no further action was

taken

Speeding traffic

Drunks/drugs in Wisbech Centre, who to tell?

Police? If so how quick a response?

VandalismBins

Dog mess

Worried about individual living in the

woodsHow can we stop

speeding through my village?

Traffic – why do the council dig up the road and alternate routes at

the same time?

Nacro Urban 25-40 Older people

Focus groups

� Don’t like Like ☺

Only use Facebook for

communicating

Don’t belong to any fan pages or groups

Use it for everything chat, games, forum

Favourite site

Facebook fan page

Everyone heard of it and one regular

user

communicating with family

Don’t log in so can’t see it being useful

fan pages or groups

Could have an anonymous Facebook for complaining

except for topics like school crossings which

wouldn’t need to be anonymous. Well used, but not

for complaints

Favourite site on the net

Nacro Urban 25-40 Older people

Stakeholder involvement

�Stakeholder workshop�Process mapping�Engagement through project board�Engagement through project board�Communications

(Hat-tip to @davidwilcox

and the Social Media Game)

Member involvement

�Member briefing�Member survey�Drop-in event – website demo, Q & A�Drop-in event – website demo, Q & A

Solution

Encouraging participation

• Creating blog posts and videos• Social reporting

• Posting issues and ideas• Commenting on content

• Rating content• Reading content

Management and governance

�Moderation – Rosmini Centre�Content – Partners and volunteers�Governance – Steering group�Governance – Steering group�Volunteer coordination – Fenland

District Council Neighbourhoods Team�Community training – Cambs. County

Council Libraries and Learning services

Evaluation

�Monthly reports:� Page views, visitors� Posts and comments published / rejected� Posts and comments published / rejected� Agency responses and timescales

�Online polls�Satisfaction survey after raising issues�General website satisfaction survey �Annual survey of perceptions

What we learnt (so far)

Lessons learnt

�Involve Councillors early and throughout�Involve all practitioners early on�Use familiar language e.g. ‘Facebook’ not �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!

What worked well

�Strong partnership working�Project governance established early on�Target user groups identified early and �Target user groups identified early and

involved throughout the project�Use of existing community networks�Workshop helped stakeholders

understand the medium and innovate

Questions?

Website links

�ShapeYourPlace:�http://wisbech.shapeyourplace.org

�Project blog:�http://fenland.worktogether.org.uk

For more information

�Michele Ide-Smith�Web Strategy Manager�Cambridgeshire County Council�Cambridgeshire County Council�Phone: 01223 699710�Twitter: @micheleidesmithmichele.ide-smith@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

For more information

�Paul Ormerod�Safer Neighbourhoods Manager�Cambridgeshire Constabulary�Cambridgeshire Constabulary�Phone: 01480 428090paul.ormerod@cambs.pnn.police.uk