Social Media in Fenland

Andy Allsopp, Head of Communications

Michele Ide-Smith, Web Strategy Manager

January 2011

The Communications context

Audience

Money

Localism

A little bit of background…

The rural Fenland district in North Cambridgeshire has a large agricultural industry, which attracts migrant workers from Europe, but suffers from socio-economic deprivation

Challenges in Wisbech

Socio-economic, rural deprivationLarge migrant worker populationDigital exclusion – IT skills and accessHard-to-engage groups (migrant workers,

youth, older people, disabled people, time pressured 25-40’s)

Engagement challenges

Poor attendance at Neighbourhood Panel meetings

Attendees not representative of the wider community

No way to record results of engagement activity and make them visible

How we did it

Strong partnership working

We asked the community what they wanted

1 survey and 8 focus groups with residents, facilitated by outreach workers. 3 rounds of iterative usability testing

And involved stakeholders in designing the solution

Workshop based on the social media game (Wilcox and Kanter)

Participants devised solutions to resident scenarios, using cards to represent social media tools

The solution

Moderated by local community centre volunteers

Google auto-translation feature and translation support provided by volunteers at the Rosmini

The issue map on ShapeYourPlace

What do residents talk about on ShapeYourPlace?

An issue is raised …

…and public sector agencies respond

Some issues get fixed, but sometimes we have to say why we can’t fix something

Blogs and videos about local people, groups and activities

Local residents are getting involved too

I reported the zebra crossing was disappearing. It was repainted. Result!Annie A. resident, Twitter

@shapeyourplace I'm quite impressed i got a responce :))

Fallen_Fen, Twitter

Shape Your Place website starting to take shape - hope it continues to develop @shapeyourplace Rob M., Twitter

Thanks for those responses. I have noticed that the site seems much more secure lately and wish the project good luck for the future. John S resident, on website in response to a anti-social behaviour issue at a playground

Many thanks again for your very clear reply.Owen S. resident, on website in response to an issue he had raised

A lesson we learnt…

Engage stakeholders who are active online!

From this…

A local councillor had concerns about the project

Twitter.  Facebook.  Blogs.  Google Maps.  I’m struggling to see where the £80,000 price tag is justified within the scope of all those free social networking tools.

I’m also a little concerned about how the input from these new forms of communication will be handled…I can only see it leading to eighty thousand pounds worth of public bitterness.

… to this!

… to this!

Cllr Tierney is now an active supporter and blogs on the site

And the editor of the local newspaper has blogged as well

Next steps

Roll out to March, Chatteris and Whittlesey soon!

Community ownership

Residents are getting involved in running ShapeYourPlace

Final points

Accessible, engaging, less authoritarianSpeak with one voice – no blame!Quality engagement takes time and effortInvolve active bloggers and tweetersSocial media enables and supports……but ultimately it’s all about people

Links and resources

ShapeYourPlace in Wisbech:wisbech.shapeyourplace.org

Project blog:fenland.worktogether.org.uk

Case study:www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/4737039/forum/thread.do?id=9043973

Community of Practise project site:www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/2292048/home.do

For more informationMichele Ide-Smith, Web Strategy Manager

Cambridgeshire County Council

Phone: 01223 699710

Twitter: @micheleidesmith

Blog: http://www.ide-smith.co.uk

Email: michele.ide-smith@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Andy Allsopp, Head of Communications

Cambridgeshire County Council

Phone: 01223 699280

Twitter: @andyallsopp

Email: andy.allsopp@cambridgeshire.gov.uk