brand marketing blog

Guest blog by Jason Dawson, Association of Local Government Information Management

We all know that social media has changed the way in which we work, do business and socialise.  But has your local city, district or regional council embraced social media?

With growing expectations on councils to engage, work openly, be more accountable and move faster on issues, social media provides an ideal platform for local government to deliver results and services.

Despite the low cost and clear advantages to Councils, a recently commissioned survey by the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM) on Council websites and online services found the use of social media by Councils is still low. Of the 71 Councils which completed the survey, only 24 Councils use Facebook, 17 are on Twitter and 15 utilise YouTube.  There was an even lower take-up of other social networking tools like LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace and Bebo.

In April 2010, the biennial ‘Kiwis Count’ survey of New Zealanders' satisfaction with their public services was released by the State Services Commission.  The result gave another compelling reason for councils to use social media, with 81% of people surveyed preferring the internet to carry out transactions with public services

But times are changing. There are successful examples of councils around the country that have embraced social media and have added it to their communication and consultation toolbox.

I work for the Northland Regional Council where we have been actively using social media for the last 12 months. We use Twitter for delivering public notices, environmental data, civil defence warnings, job vacancies and event information. We also tweet live during Council meetings. 

Our use of Twitter has given us the greatest success. For example, we used our Twitter account to post confirmation that no tsunami had been generated from an earthquake in Vanuatu on 8 October 2009. This tweet provided a link to the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management’s website which achieved 1298 clicks, 196 shares on Facebook and 186 comments.

We use FaceBook for campaigns such as Northland 2011 (our regional Rugby World Cup countdown), have a company profile on LinkedIn, and use Ning for some of our communities of interest.  And there are many others councils which are embracing social media, rather than ignoring it.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council was one of the first councils to use Twitter (@chbcouncil), and as at 1 June 2010, 13 councils are now tweeting – from Rodney District (@RodneyDCouncil) in the north to Queenstown-Lakes District (@QLDCComs) in the south. You can find out whether your council is using Twitter through the list: http://twitter.com/NRCexpress/nzcouncils

Successful uses of Facebook within local government include Environment Waikato’s ‘Hamilton Halo’ which promotes reporting of native birds within Hamilton City and Tasman District Council’s ‘Waimea Inlet’ project to encourage community action for this important estuary.  Both of these are centred around a community page to generate support for a topic or cause, with ‘official’ council pages used by a few like Wanganui District Council, New Plymouth District Council and Palmerston North City Council.

Libraries were early adopters in councils with the use of blogs, like the Christchurch City Council Libraries blog and the Auckland City Council Library blogs which both provide extensive commentary on a number of interesting and relevant topics.

Rick Cooper, Mayor of Taupo District, is active on Twitter (@RickCooperTaupo) and recently asked his community to vote for a webcam in the Council Chambers for meetings and events. Video streaming or podcasting of council meetings has been available in Canada, United States and the United Kingdom for a few years.

With the local government elections in October 2010, it will be interesting to see if current Mayors and Councillors, as well as potential candidates, will use social media to create conversations with their respective communities. The challenge to all of us is will we join the conversation or choose to ignore it.

Jason Dawson is General Manager - Community Relations Manager at the Northland Regional Council and manages the Council’s social media channels. He is also on the Executive Board for the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM), co-convenes its annual Web Symposium and oversees an annual audit and survey of NZ local government websites.