Social Media

Question

Members of the public are prompting our Council to embrace Social Media, our CALC and NALC is a regular on Twitter. Some older members are very reluctant and I am asking if and how other Parish Councils overcame this. Is it acceptable to use an experienced outside body or volunteers? Some think not, as it's illegal due to the lack of control.
Thank you in anticipation.

Answer 1

Sorry you had to wait so long for an answer! It's not an easy question, and I don't know that I can offer much. Perhaps it helps to regard social media as just another kind of publicity channel and compare it with the much more familiar local newspaper. Would you entrust someone else to write press releases on behalf of the council? Probably not. Does it require special skills to write something for the local paper? Not really.

It's easy enough to get involved with Facebook, Twitter, etc. But I wouldn't think it mandatory if nobody feels comfortable with it. Or you could consider minimal use, such as simply a static Facebook page or tweeting the details of council meetings at the same time the agenda is released. The former could be set up by an outsider and approved by the council, then left unchanged.

Comments

An interesting topic that is exerising the minds of many councils I think.

Our previous clerk nearly had a breakdown over comments on a local village media site which became somewhat unpleasant. (Partly the councils fault I have to say!)

The biggest question the council has to ask itself when becoming involved with social media is how  the council (ie the clerk) is going to respond to comments, if these are allowed. Who is going to be the moderator? How much of the clerks time is going to be taken up with responding and policing the media site?

If the media site is to be used as just another way of disseminating information, then this has to be done on a regular basis. (Daily is one suggestion we have been told). These media sites die if they are not fed regularly.

Your ALC may have courses that cover this topic and I think it would be worth attending as a first port of call.

HTH

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There are some interesting scenarios with Facebook parish council uses.
To be open and transparent one could use a page format in design. Everybody in the community can see it.

However there is another scenario and that is where a page is  runs as a Fully closed group. This type of group will soon be known as private on Facebook
So
No one was allowed omittance unless their name replicated documentation ID  rules to this Fully closed group, some would not change names  e.g. due to past relationships and some women were using maiden or family  names. Some due to harassment etc
They were therefore excluded from the closed Facebook parish group citing not following Facebook rules by the parish councillors decision in meeting and Clerk.
The second argument that can aride that  physical notice boards in a parish anyone can see them but the Facebook closed group is not . And seen as some  sort of a reasonable adjustment for the physical parish notice boards
So you see the complications that can arise and that there is a potential some may feel not included,?