Most of Birmingham’s 120 councillors are already active to some extent, or a large extent, on internet based social media. At the end of 2015:
- about 1 in 5 councillors had a blog – generally using WordPress
- between two fifths and a half of councillors had a Twitter ID
- most councillors had a Facebook ID – though there was wide variation in terms of how frequently they are updated.
If you aren’t already using online social media, take three steps to join the conversation:
You can use a Facebook profile as your online calling card – by filling in all the contact information and making sure you’ve made it publicly visible (whether someone is logged in or not). ‘Friend’ people you know; post regularly; and ‘like’, and comment on, what other people post. Try to make content you add: useful and/or engaging. Use media -add a picture or video to a text report of a meeting, for example. Use your content to ask questions, even it is only ‘What do you think?’ Use Facebook’s analytics to see who you are engaging with.
If you have a blog of your own, link it to your Facebook profile. Use Facebook as a window to your website (you don’t put everything in the window).
You can also use Facebook to set up pages as well as a profile. Profiles are for people; pages are for things people belong to. Belonging is an emotional bond. So, if you make a Facebook page, make it something people care about and feel warm to – a neighbourhood, for example; probably not a ward forum?
When you set up your Twitter profile, have a photo of yourself you feel happy with – something you can clearly see your face in. You need to choose a user name (use a name people will recognise you by) and think up a short bio that will identify you to people when they look for you. Have a list of names or email addresses handy of people and groups you want to follow. There is no point in having a Twitter ID and not following people. Most people will follow you back if you follow them – so long as they can recognise who you are.
Line up two or three 140 character tweets to start off with. When you follow people, they will look to see what you have tweeted. If it’s nothing, they’re less likely to follow back. Retweet and like anything you think looks good whether you follow the person who has tweeted it or not. If you’re retweeting a news source – think about adding your comment when you retweet.
You can use Twitter to engage in conversation – rather than just retweeting or waiting to be retweeted. Including someone else’s twitter name in a tweet will draw their attention to it. Use media – add a picture or video to a tweet about a local issue for example. Use your content to ask questions, even it is only by sticking a ‘?’ at the end of the tweet. Use Twitter’s analytics to see how many people are engaging with your tweets and what they are doing as a result.
If you have a blog of your own, link it to your Twitter feed to it. Use Twitter as your garden fence – a place people can chat to you (including about what is on your blog). A garden fence can be a chilly place to hang round if you don’t say hello to people as they pass!
To get the most out of Facebook and Twitter or any other social network, you need to use it, preferably every day and respond to connections you make using it. As well as using a browser to login, you can use apps like HootSuite or Tweetcaster. Some are cross- platform which means you can use them to post content to Facebook and Twitter.
Blogging
Using Facebook or Twitter is a bit like having a stall in the market once a week: having a blog is like setting up shop. It’s your name at the top of the page and whilst you can use your blog to show your Twitter and Facebook updates, having a blog is your chance to host – and lead – the conversation.
You could set up a blog from scratch – learn how to code web applications and do it all yourself. That would be like starting your life as a shopkeeper by learning how to lay bricks. For a quicker result, use an existing blogging platform. Wordpress, Tumblr, Medium and Blogger are all examples of platforms you can use to set up a blog for free, quickly, without wasting time and for a good result.
WordPress is the most popular and probably the platform most people would recommend. It has the advantage that, because so many people use it, it’s easy to get advice if you get stuck. It can be worth having a look around at the alternatives, however. If you do, bear in mind: cost and whether your blog will include adverts; security; how much you will be able to customise the site; how smartphone-friendly the platform is (increasingly important); and whether you can see blogs using it that do the things you would like to do?
Next up…
Go back to the start of this section on Social Media
Get on down to the (Social Media) surgery
Relax with a bit of Marvin Gaye on YouTube
Skip on to the next section on Open Data
OR – follow the menu on the right to have a look at other parts of the guide.