Wednesday 28th September 2011, Thistle Hotel Glasgow
9.30am to 4.30pm

Social Media has a significant part to play in the Public Sector’s drive to make themselves more relevant to the citizens that they deliver services to and also provide channels of communication that are commonplace within their citizens lives.

Local Authorities are:

• using Twitter to alert parents to school closures, citizens of adverse weather conditions and subsequent logistical problems
• Communications & Marketing departments are using FaceBook to promote festivals, community safety programmes and other localised services and activities
• Flickr is being used by tourism departments to promote their region to potential tourists who will provide additional revenue to the area.

The main issues when approaching the use of social media within public sector organisations is the culture change of using technologies associated with recreation time and knowing where to start, what social media platform to use and how, how to deal with negative feedback etc. etc.

Further to the Introduction to Public Sector Social Media and Developing Social Media Policies & Strategies for the Public Sector workshops that we have run in Glasgow in the last 12 months, we are going to be running a very special event on 28th September in Glasgow where delegates will hear from and pick up skills and tips from 6 Local Government Social Media All Stars, each responsible for running exceptional social media campaigns that in some instances have been recognised nationally and globally.

If you are looking at using social media within your organisation, this event is a must attend for you.

Our Local Government Social Media A-Team consists of:

• Chair: Dave Briggs, Director, Kind of Digital, @davebriggs
• Sarah Lay, e-Content Officer, Derbyshire CC, @sarahlay
• Dan Slee, Senior Press & PR Officer, Walsall MBC, @danslee
• Jo Smith, Communications Manager, Argyll & Bute Council, @geordiejo_jo
  
• Corrinne Douglas, Senior Communications Adviser, Stirling Council, @corrinnedouglas
  
• Stuart Harrison, Web Manager, Lichfield District Council, @pezholio
  

The event will look at 6 exemplar case studies in the morning session and then in the afternoon, delegates will get the chance to attend 3 x Masterclasses on specific topics such as:

• How to Facebook Masterclass
• How to Flickr Masterclass
• How to Twitter Masterclass
• How to Blog Masterclass
• How to get Buy-In Masterclass
• Policy/Strategy Masterclass

Delegates will choose their Masterclasses a month prior to the event and will be encouraged to mail in questions and scenarios that they need answering to make their attendence a successful one.

Cost & early bird rates: Delegate places will be available online from Monday 4th July 2011 and there will be an initial early bird rate of £200 + VAT for the 1st 50 delegates after which the delegate rate will be £250 + VAT.

If you would like to “pre-book” 1 or more of the early bird places, please mail nick@publicsectorforums.co.uk with names/roles/organisations/emails of attendees.

Morning Agenda Items

“Social media for public services: the story so far”
Dave Briggs, Director, Kind of Digital Ltd.

The public sector has been innovating with social media for the last few years, and the use of this technology to engage
with communities and citizens is now widely accepted. Introducing the day, various examples of good practice will be
discussed.

• What works well and not so well in public service use of social media
• Approaches to tackling some of the common barriers and issues
• Where social media fits into wider communications and web strategies

Social media experience

Dave Briggs is a prolific and popular advocate for the use of digital engagement techniques across public services.
He has advised organisations across government, from district councils to 10 Downing Street. He now runs
Kind of Digital, supporting public services to be more open and collaborative using online tools. @davebriggs

Derbyshire Votes – reporting local elections 2009
Sarah Lay, eContent Officer, Derbyshire County Council

An overview of the digital delivery of local election information and results reporting including website content
and interactive graphics, using social media (a first for the organisation), evaluating the impact and media coverage.

• Content strategy for evolving information
• Integrating social media, pleasing the org, the people and evaluating the result
• Council’s digital output becoming first point of contact for citizens and media
• Convincing the organisation and candidates of the need for digital election information
• Next steps – digital engagement etc

Social media experience
In 2009 Derbyshire County Council was due to have all 64 elected members face the vote and the eContent team
devised a new section of the website and digital delivery of real-time results using the council’s own website and
social networks. On the day the website received 25,000 unique visitors in a 24 hour period and was featured on
several national news channels. This experiment with the social web pushed the organisation toward its current
ethos of Digital First. @sarahlay

How real time social media campaigns can make routine tasks sexy.
Dan Slee, Senior Press & PR Officer, WalsallMBC
The award-winning Walsall 24 saw a cross section of what a council does posted to Twitter and the wider web. Why?
To build a picture of everything a council does but rarely shouts about. This will be a chance to learn how it was stage
so you can adapt the How real time social media campaigns can make routine tasks sexy. The award-winning Walsall 24
saw a cross section of what a council does posted to Twitter and the wider web. Why? To build a picture of everything a
council does but rarely shouts about. This will be a chance to learn how it was staged so you can adapt the approach
– small or large scale – for your organisation. It will also map other similar events including the international Water
Aid 24 event and other local government events.

• How to use social media and other web tools to build an event.
• Mapping the impact of large scale events.
• How to stage your own online event.
• How others have innovated with the ‘24’ approach.

Social media experience:

Dan Slee has helped shape social media policy and delivery at Walsall Council since 2008 and set up @walsallcouncil
one of the top 15 most followed UK streams and one of the first hundred local government Twitter streams to be set-up
in the world. The Walsall 24 experiment won the gold award in the LGComms Reputation Awards 2011 and attracted an
audience of 116,000. He has advised more than a dozen councils and public sector organisations and co-organised
Hyperlocal Govcamp West Midlands as well as Brewcamp in Birmingham.  @danslee

Feel the social media fear – and do it anyway
Jo Smith, Communications Manager, Argyll and Bute Council

A case study of how a council is improving its relationship with residents using social media.

The presentation will focus on:

• Preparing a business case to show the benefits of embracing social media
• One step at a time – the small things that make a big difference
• Overcoming bad experiences
• Tips to persuade the cautious

Social media experience
Argyll and Bute Councils covers 9% of total land area in Scotland and 27% of the population live on one of 25 islands.
A dispersed population, combined with shrinking budgets, means the council wants to find better ways to interact
with residents but has been uncertain how to make this work. The council is now overcoming some negative experiences
with social media and finding ways to use social media to its advantage. @geordiejo_jo

Engagement, Engagement, Engagement – How to make the most of your social media presence
Corrinne Douglas, Senior Communications Adviser, Stirling Council

Corrinne has been behind the Stirling Council Facebook and Twitter accounts since last year. During this time followers
have went from under 100 to over 6000 across both channels and numbers continue to grow.  She’ll advise on extending
your offline campaigns to online and how to use them to increase interaction and engagement with a range of audiences.

• Integrating your campaign on social media
• WasteWed – an online campaign to promote recycling
• Bag it and Bin it – a viral campaign with offline activity
• Social Care  – how to use a closed facebook group to reduce isolation
• Reaching targeted audiences – Countryside lovers, Skatepark consultation
• Evolving your presence – YouTube, Linked In, Four Square

Social media experience

Corrinne has been leading the social media activity at Stirling Council since 2010 and in that time has delivered a social
media strategy and has grown the follower base to become the 7th most followed local government Facebook page in the
UK. She has advised other public sector organisations in Scotland on using social media and developing their social media
presence and has established an internal team of champions who share her passion for digital engagement @corrinnedouglas