An Unexpected Solution: How Local Government Can Cut Expenditure By Improving E�ciency

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Contents

Introduction

Reacting to the Community

Emergency Resolution

Spotting an Emergency

After an Emergency

Community Announcements

Council : Community Relationship

Raising Campaign Awareness

Promoting

Campaigning

Business Organisation

Manage Team and Customers

Work�ows

Teams Management

CRM

Archives

Recap

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Reacting to the Community

UK councils are constantly facing cuts from the government, with future funding models predicting cuts of over 60 % by the end of the decade. A local government analysis found that this year 60% of councils will perform some sort of service reduction to help meet the budget gap (LGA). But what if councils needn’t negatively change the way they provide their services? What if councils could increase the e�ciency of services, to not only increase local satisfaction, but also save money? Last year the Local Government Association released documentation claiming that if governments could not increase e�ciency, they would need to cut some services altogether.

Switching government procedures from paper to online has proved to save millions in expenses over the years. Look at She�eld council, for example- it moved its housing bene�ts system online and saved £1,000,000 in the �rst year (LGA). The aim of this whitepaper is to provide a way in which local government can cut costs by using a Social Media Management Tool. Methods to cut costs will be explained in 3 main categories; reacting to the community, raising awareness, and business organisation.

Emergencies need to be handled properly. If an emergency is not dealt with in time, it may escalate; causing avoidable loss of not only money, but also lives. It may seem simple, but being able to predict major events, or spot them as they happen, will provide a huge amount of control over the situation. Your community will spread news of an event in a very fast manner and so listening to what they are talking about is crucial. The easiest way to access your community is online. You are provided with a window into the lives of most the people in the community. Hereby you can monitor posting and conversations, which will allow you to spot incidents a lot quicker than otherwise.

With Sendible, you can set up monitors and �ne-tune them to your geographical location. You can input the exact area you wish to monitor and be alerted if a chosen keyword is talked about. You can quickly search for terms like “�re” in the location “Barnet” and immediately see if there is any talk online around this keyword. People will spread news of a major event quicker than even emergency services can respond. This means you will have a chance to rectify the situation in the quickest time possible, by just monitoring online activity.

Introduction

Emergency Resolution Spotting an Emergency

Catching an emergency before it escalates will not only save potential lost lives but also the money and resources that would otherwise be lost in the aftermath.

After an Emergency

In the event you need to get an emergency announcement out to the community fast, use Sendible to do this quickly and easily. Sendible’s SMS list feature will allow you to send an emergency message e.g. an amber alert or extreme weather warning, to mobile phones of those in your community. You can also send the alert to all of your online community in a geographical location, as well as via email. You can set up your team so that only one member has the authority to send out such messages; giving you more control.

Community Announcements

The quickest and most e�cient way to access your community is online. Most members of your community will have a Facebook or Twitter account, and therefore councils must also make themselves available on both. Create AT LEAST a Facebook page and Twitter account so that members of your community can ‘opt in’ to announcements from you.

With Sendible you can schedule up to a year’s worth of messages, to be sent out to your community at a pre-set time and date. Use this feature to send out non-emergency and predicted announcements such as bank holiday news, weather predictions, even recycling reminders. You can send messages into a queue, so they reliably go out at the correct time- informing the correct people of useful information

Using Sendible to schedule will drastically decrease the amount of time posting to your accounts. If your council is already online, you will �nd you could even cut your social media marketing team to a few, or even one member. Posting in this way, you could even have someone taking on this role in a part time capacity.

Council : Community Relationship Keeping a good relationship with your community is vital. Making sure you have the people of your community behind you can prove to be bene�cial to not only you as a business but also the people. Having an online presence will ensure you are seen in a positive light, and will allow you to rectify issues quickly.

Sendible gives the marketing manager a heads-up on pressing complaints, granting him/her an early opportunity to address the concerns. Get alerted when you are sent a message which has a negative tone, meaning you can respond to and rectify the issue immediately. Issues can easily escalate higher up the chain if not controlled early on. In the worst case scenario, complaints can leak into a media coverage which can prove detrimental to maintaining good faith. The wrong attention can drive businesses and people out and deter potential newcomers. In this end it would mean a decreased cash �ow in your community.

PromotingPromote local businesses and events for the area to boost tourism and revenue. Use Sendible to broadcast to a large amount of residents with ease. Publicise important days such as business openings, public council meetings and local events. The proper communication will bring the council closer to its community and stay reliable. You could even advertise businesses for a small fee, and schedule posts on Sendible to be sent out at a regular agreed date and time, in order to increase pro�ts.

Raising Campaign Awareness

RemindersYour residents need reminding of even normal tasks. Every doctor’s appointment missed by a citizen costs the NHS £100. Think of innovative ways you could use Sendible to prevent things like this happening. Publicise announcements across your social channels at repeated times, or even send out text alerts to patients for reminders, quickly and easily.

When new employees join it’s always challenging to cover everything. The introductions cannot cover years of experience in the �eld, for this reason it’s important for experts to be able to review any written content before it gets sent out. Sendible has many di�erent management capabilities; it allows you to review content and manage your team from one place, saving time and maintaining focus. Posts can be sent for approval to certain team members, permissions can be set against di�erent employees and tasks can be allocated to users.

Be an Entrepreneur

One way to use Sendible to make money is to re-sell it to businesses. Sendible provides a White Label Solution where you can change the branding to your own. Sell the social media marketing tool to businesses in your area, where they can log into their own dashboard to use Sendible’s features for themselves.

CampaigningKeep your campaigns well organised by arranging several posts around one theme. Use smart queues in Sendible to segment posts that will cater to the needs of di�erent audiences. Use Sendible to measure the performance of posts during and after the campaign, it helps the team hit KPIs successfully. Good planning ensures all activities stay well within an allocated budget. Poor campaign planning is a waste of cash, time and resources. Negative campaign results can lead to a major setback, in terms of money and local feeling towards the council.

Business Organisation Manage Team and Customers

Workflows

Using Sendible in this way will decrease the amount of meetings needed to discuss online activity and means the team is always aware of the next move; keeping everyone in a steady work�ow. If content is left unchecked, you run the risk of inaccurate information made public which can disappoint and damage reputation. Teams in any organisation need to be managed properly, if not then tasks may end in failure which will result in loss of cost, resources and reputation.

Sendible allows you to manage important relationships, as though you were with the interested party in person. It gives you the visibility required to initiate a conversation and the means to follow up. Use Sendible to �nd important contacts online. The automated features help initiate several conversations at once. The seamless interface organises leads and replies, giving the manager all the control they needs to nurture the relationship. Forgoing innovative means to operate on social media can miss you opportunities in a fast moving environment. It can hurt funding and future success.

Team Management

CRM

Generate team performance reports to understand where the team can improve. It gives members more awareness and guides them on areas they need to improve. Use the reports to nurture the marketing strategy by tweaking the weaknesses and making sure the team stays audience focused. Not tracking the team leads to poor management which ultimately impacts all other activity.

o Spot emergencies as, or even before they happen - helping you resolve them quickero Save money and resources by resolving situations quicker - send out amber alerts, weather precautions via your social channels, email or SMS o Save time by scheduling messages, such as holiday notices, tra�c announcements or weather warningso Increase resident satisfaction by regularly engaging online with your community regularlyo Spot and rectify issues immediately, such as local complaintso Increase cash �ow into the area by promoting local eventso Improve pro�ts by charging businesses to advertiseo Prevent loss of money from missed appointments, by setting up reminders for residentso Make money from selling Sendible on as a White Label, to businesses in the areao Increase control over your online activity, reduce the risk of unchecked posting from junior employeeso Produce reports on success of campaignso Keep a comprehensive CRM systemo Keep messages for up to 12 months after archived

RecapUse Sendible to...

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ArchivesRecords are important for keeping track of previous information disseminated that can in�uence current and future posts. Sendible allows you to retain proof of data for a period of 12 months. It gives the manager a golden chance to refer back when necessary. This is especially important for auditing and regulation purposes. The platform secures the process of strict organisation and revision. It is risky to carry out online engagement without a social media management tool to record everything that goes out. Archives help nurture the management’s vision and propels it forward if used properly. Losing data can lead to inaccuracy and confused communication which can lead to distrust and anger among the audience.