View Entry
How did the project start?
Newcastle City Council is looking for new ways of communicating with its customers. As part of a raft of new Web 2.0 tools the Council is considering, Twitter was identified as a place to engage with people and join the conversation.
After having carried out evaluation of Twitter through personal accounts it was decided to set up a channel which contained RSS information from the main site (www.newcastle.gov.uk) on News, Events and Jobs, and mixed this with fresh content and conversation.
It was established at this time that Newcastle would be an early adopter amongst local authorities and could provide best practice to others.
What options did you consider?
A number of social media tools were looked at including Facebook and Bebo. But Twitter was thought to be more ‘conversational’ in nature.
The same information could also be disseminated by text, but at a much larger cost.
We saw this as complimentary to our existing (RSS) feeds and communication channels, not as a replacement.
What help and expertise did you receive?
Through connections with staff throughout local and central government established on Twitter, the Council has received (and shared) tips with others on how to use Twitter as a conversation tool.
Did you face and challenges or learn any lessons?
The main lesson learned was that content is the most important thing when using these tools. The message is important and should not be lost.
Twitter takes a lot of investment in the form of time and this should be considered when planning to use it. This is even more important when using Twitter as a conversation tool as someone does have to listen and respond.
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
Newcastle's Twitter feed has attracted a large number of followers in a short period of time. More than 600 people now subscribe to information from the Council, making it the most popular local authority on Twitter with more than double the number of followers of any other UK council.
A large amount of press attention has been generated by the Council's use of Twitter as well as positive feedback from around the world. Live tweeting the Fenham by-election results made numerous headlines and helped the Council to grow its presence on Twitter. This was the first example of a Council delivering by-election results in real-time on Twitter.
Twitter has also allowed the Council to deliver information to citizens and the media in a timely and cost-effective fashion, meeting some of it's objectives for communication. While tweeting school closures (due to snow in early 2009) the council was able to correct information given out by local news associations.
Press releases on Twitter have also generated news coverage on websites that do not receive releases by email.
Using hashtags for the Fenham by-election, school closures and World Book Day the council has been able to track conversation amongst people who are not ‘following’ the Council (on World Book Day the Council’s hashtag became one of the most used terms on Twitter).
We have also been able to respond through Twitter, answering questions on the new city library development and half-time activities for teenagers – on occasions responding to people who had not directed their questions at the Council and hadn’t expected a response.
Twitter has become one of the top referrers to the Council’s main site, generating more clickthroughs than the BBC and our Facebook page.
What are your plans for the future?
Having proved Twitter's usefulness for announcing real-time results of the Fenham by-election the Council is now considering live-blogging of the European election result later this year.
We are also looking at having guest editors for the Twitter account so that people can put their questions directly to people in the Council.
