1. A summary of our approach to socialmedia at Monmouthshire CountyCouncil.

2. As an organisation we dont consider engagement as being measurable solely in quantitative terms. The quality of our online content and our conversation corporately and as individual members ofstaff determines how influential the organisation is. How well we listen to what is being said on social media determines how much our work is shapedby our residents and partner organisations. Our focus is to work together with residents to create a better Monmouthshire and so traditionalpush marketing only has a small part to play in the way we evaluate our online effectiveness. It is important to remember that the measures are not the aims. For example, we wish to increaseparticipation in community life, not increase numbers of followers on Twitter. We wish to have meaningful conversations that deepen trust between residents, businesses andcouncil staff, not increase the monthly number of comments on out blog. Of course driving up interaction can help us achieve our objectives but we must be careful not tolose sight of our aims. The figures below do not encapsulate qualitative data such as what ourmembers of staff and residents have learned, people and projects we have encouraged andsupported or networks which have built as a result of our online engagegement. One last point to consider is that how people engage with us and how often, is also dependent onhow much content we share and how much we interact with our communities. 3. My first experience with social media came back in 2008 when I used MySpace to promote the restoration of a local hall.Locals loved it and were so happy to get involved, fundraise and share memories.I realised that my favourite thing about it was the caretaker at the time Tony! He had so many ghost stories so we filmed him and added it to the MySpace page.He was a hit and it taught me that we have to find the things that interest people about what we do in order to make it relevant and interesting. 4. This was the month that we took away all the IT restrictions that stopped staff from using social media. And the world didnt end! You can read more detail on my bloghttp://acedigitalcomms.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/unrestricted-staff-access-to-social-media-access-a-roundup/ 5. People have jobs to do and we trust them to do it. So many people have mobile devices now that if they want to access social media sites then theyll find a way to do it anyway. 6. If staff arent performing, this is nothing to do with social media its a management issue! We are judged on what we do, not by how long we sit at a desk looking like we are busy. 7. Social media gives our staff access to some of the greatest thinkers, experts and leaders across the world.We want staff to learn and share and be great at their jobs.We also want staff to know whats happening and what people are talking about in Monmouthshire. If we cant read a blog post, Twitter discussions or Facebook comments written about thecounty then we are not as informed as we should be. 8. Its connecting people and this has a wonderful effect on staff and resident morale.An example of this is during a recent snow incident you can read about it on my blog http://acedigitalcomms.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/twitter-and-facebook-to-the-rescue-during-heavy-snow/ 9. Its connecting people and this has a wonderful effect on staff and resident morale.An example of this is during a recent snow incident you can read about it on my blog http://acedigitalcomms.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/twitter-and-facebook-to-the-rescue-during-heavy-snow/ 10. The brief, timely nature of social media is helping us get better as losing a corporate, formal and word tone. WWe want ot be approachable and give people clear information in interesting and useful ways.Our style guide is slowly being adopted http://digitalmon.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/monmouthshire-county-council-staff-writing-guide-draft-welcome-to-compose/ 11. Heaven = no more jargon! 12. We could have spent time and loads of money trying to develop a website where we post documents and announcements that would be useful to foster carers. But in this case, Yammer workedbetter. And now foster carers feel less isolated.http://monmouthshirecc.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/rewind-story-fostering-communication-using-yammer/ 13. A bit of experimentation is OK. We could have spent a long time trying to perfect filming a budget consultation but we got on with it knowing that some times its best to see what works forresidents and let people guide us as we go.http://digitalmon.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/youtubing-a-budget-consultation-and-how-a-great-blogger-helped-us-get-better/