Listening Digitally…How Newcastle City Council has used social media

…and some thoughts for the future

Louise ReevePolicy and Communications Business Partner

Introduction

Digital by Choice

Listening Digitally

#Toonflood

Principle 1

Consultations and YouTube

Principle 2

Principle 3

“Sweary signs”

Principle 4

Not everyone agrees…

ConclusionNewcastle City Council

Facebook: 4,250 likesTwitter: 26,400 followers

Principles: Not so much “official Newcastle City Council” principles, more my own reflections on what has worked for us

Part of our budget proposals are to, where possible, move our customers’ interactions with us online:

Digital by choice

To inform this “channel shift” work, we commissioned the Social and Local research agency

They did some “digital listening”:

Assessing our digital assets and activities

Looked to see where our residents went when they go online.

Map out how many social media users are in the local area

Listening digitally

940,000 people within 40km of the city centre are on

Facebook.

Probably the most famous Newcastle City Council use of social media.

28 June 2012: A supercell thunderstorm passes over Newcastle just before the rush hour

One month’s rainfall in 2 hours

Web and digital team established appropriate hashtag: #toonflood

Quick and effective response

#Toonflood

http://ceg-morpethflood.ncl.ac.uk/toonflood/

#Toonflood was effective because:

We had already established ourselves online

Principle: Prepare in advance

Staff trained in use of social media monitoring: Monitter, addictomatic, trendmap, tweetreach, twitonomy, hootsuite…

Built good working relationships – so able to get partners to agree on one hashtag for all flood-related tweets

Now asking residents to tweet us with news of flooding, so that we can map and respond to events

Consultations and YouTube

Our budget consultations and other major policy initiatives are accompanied by YouTube videos.

Here’s one for recent proposed road changes… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2FI_lVLKuk

What people want to know is “what will the road look like?”

YouTube is used to give them an idea…

…alongside older formats of consultation, such as a display in the city library

…and online discussions on our consultation portal, Let’s talk

For short bursts of information, we use Twitter and Facebook

Principle: What they want, how they want it

www.letstalknewcastle.co.uk

Everyday Principle: Listen & Engage

We respond to our residents’ views on Facebook and Twitter

Example

Everyday, ongoing conversation

Need to be aware of what people value.

In Newcastle, our heritage!

Our Newcastle libraries Flickr account has had 7.6million views since 2009. https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleCityCouncil

The “sweary signs”

Initiative to tackle dog fouling, littering and fly-tipping

(They don’t actually have swearwords in!)

9 comments on our Facebook page…

…60 comments and shares on the Chronicle’s Facebook page

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-city-council-sweary-sign-8413773

Principle: Know who else uses social media!

Digital Listening

Know where people you are interested in like to hang out online

It may not be the channels you own!

How to use this knowledge?

Official name for the campaign: “Keep It Clean Newcastle” Our own webpages:

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/news-story/council-launches-hard-hitting-poster-campaign

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/environment-and-waste/keep-it-clean-newcastle

Chronicle articles: http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/environment-and-waste/keep-it-clean-

newcastle http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-city-

council-sweary-sign-8413773

Facebook page debates: https://www.facebook.com/itvtynetees/posts/920813564605913 https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleChronicle

More about the Keep It Clean Newcastle signs…

Not everyone agrees…

Note: The “£147,480” figure quoted is since 2010/11 (so, around £49,160 a year, out of a revenue budget of £263.8million)

Our response:“Social media is a cost-effective and innovative way to reach people as they go about their daily lives. Our

customer service staff use social media to receive and respond to a

wide range of service requests from our customers every day. Many people in the city now prefer to

contact us in this way.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2528501/Revealed-Councils-spent-3million-updating-social-media-accounts-cutting-public-services.html

Prepare in advance

What they want, how they want it

Listen and engage

Know who else uses social media, and where people like to go

Prepare for negative reactions, but don’t let them put you off

Summary

More information

Shah Amin’s excellent presentations on how we communicate digitally:

Social media in an emergency:

https://prezi.com/1za7vyd2k0eq/social-media-in-an-emergency/

A communicating council:

https://prezi.com/ngpecyeqg7if/a-communicating-council/

Moving to Digital by Default:

https://prezi.com/sraenzng9gyu/moving-to-digital-by-default/

Why social media is important:

https://prezi.com/tuos4nalxdbu/why-is-social-media-important/

Council website(s) – newcastle.gov.uk, newcastleyouthelections.co.uk, godigitalnewcastle.co.uk, Letstalknewcastle.co.uk

Twitter: @NewcastleCC Facebook: facebook.com/

newcastlecitycouncil YouTube: newcastleCCUK Blog: newcastlecitycouncil.wordpress.com Flickr:

flickr.com/photos/newcastlecitycouncil Pinterest: pinterest.com/newcastlecc LinkedIn: linkedin.com/newcastle-city-

council