Hi, I'm involved with the social media strand in Citizen Power Peterborough and want to explain some of my ideas. I'd be grateful for any feedback on them.
Firstly, a few principles:
Locally, we want to use social media as part of the Citizen Power project to:
- Ensure transparency for this project
- Create local networks at neighbourhood level
- Getting people more fully involved in their neighbourhoods
- Provide a service to other Citizen Power strands
The bigger picture is that if we can make this work, we can help with movement of people who are trying to put the "social" into social media. See www.socialbysocial.com socialreporter.com etc.
We need also to accept from the start that Peterborough isn't actively looking for a socially-driven community website - at least not at the moment.
In fact community websites here tend to have fairly low participation. Though there have been some great efforts, like Positively Peterborough, they've foundered because of a lack of uptake. Freecycle Peterborough is great but it has relatively low activity given the size of the city. [Freegle Peterborough does have a healthy and active membership.] And though there are a couple of local neighbourhood sites, they're generally evidence that those particular neighbourhoods are functioning pretty well.
The fact is, when people use search terms online including the word "Peterborough", they're generally looking for something specific; an event or some expertise.
Most of the online transactions that you can witness about Peterborough are pretty much along those lines.
Ideally, we want to see people doing more of the orange bits on the chart above - telling more stories about their lives, exchanging information about taking part in their city, and using social media as a way of deliberating about the future they want. But we're not going to get there by building cool websites.
That's going to emerge as part of a longer process - and only if we manage to attract the attention of the best social media communicators Peterborough may have to offer.
So first we need to co-build a decent social media community here.
Some of this is about getting stuck in ourselves. Social media depends on people turning opinion and information into virtual goods - pieces of information that can be passed around the network. This film at the Showcase cinema is great. The Cresset Theatre is closing down. There's a guerilla gardening meetup on May 1st. The museum's running a short story competition. And so on.
We're working on ways to increase the flow of those simple virtual goods around Peterborough. The Connect Locally and What's On? tabs at the top of this page are a very modest start, as is our @citpower Twitter stream.
But, actually, one of the great things about Peterborough is it's full of potential information to be passed around. Though the online "commons" is still small, there are dozens and dozens of siloed websites in that Connect Locally list - sports clubs, social clubs, car clubs, gardening clubs - all of which have an online presence, and we've only just started adding them. There are inevitably even more we haven't yet heard of.
So some of this is also about showing those people how they can join the conversation. Leaning on the expertise of our RSA Fellowship, we're planning social media surgeries in Peterborough. We want to invite the key players in these organisations, clubs and societies to take part in those surgeries so they can learn the ropes and increase the flow of information. When we've found some funding for a local network manager, we're going to start reaching out to these organisations to start building a decent shared calendar, and creating decent bundles of info about what's going on in Peterborough - from sports events to cinema listings.
And into that information stream, we'll also be pouring news of all the events and activities allied to things like Citizen Power Peterborough, Peterborough CVS, PECT, Peterborough Community Radio, Peterborough Advice Integration Project, the user-centred drugs project, etc etc etc.
It's important to note this isn't a single website solution. Although this Ning will hopefully play a part, it's as much about what goes on on Twitter, Facebook and on people's phones. It's about increasing the value of the traffic going around Peterborough.
And only when and if we reach a critical mass can we can start to do the really exciting stuff, like piloting Pledgebank networks, building an accessible social participation map, experimenting with forms of mapping in which residents define their own communities, work on co-creating online democracy projects and so on...
Anyway, your thoughts please on this small start...
Tags: media, peterborough, social, twitter
Views: 85
Replies to This Discussion
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Hi Will
Great summary and I like the softly-softly approach. Good work too in mapping what already exists.
Perhaps one thing that could be done to start with would to see what sort of feeds are produced by those sites that already exist, and to build a 'dashboard' type site which gathers all the stuff in one place, and then lets users head off to the individual sites when they want to find out more.
Might be worth looking for Peterborough related (or based) blogs, twitter accounts and facebook pages and groups as there is bound to me a lot of activity there. -
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Ah, just seen you mention bloggers and twitter in your activity report!
Might be worth adding a social media page to the 'connect locally' page with these details on? -
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Brilliant... thanks Dave. Blimey it's good to have you here.
Yes, I'm mapping the twitter stuff now and hoping to get the blogs on board over the next couple of days. Good call to have a blogs and websites page on the connect locally tab.
And yes... fine idea for the dashboard site. What would you chose to run that? -
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Permalink Reply by Dan Thornton on -
Hi,
Really interesting approach and plans, and certainly of interest. I think my main concern is that even social media workshops etc are exclusive by nature - people need computers, access to the internet etc to take part.
I'd like to see something which rather than focusing on social media, simply strives for social across all mediums - ranging from physical meetings in the local library, using local messageboards, and also integrating SMS as an effective form of communication which is pretty much accessible by most people.
I wrote recently about an idea for local news services to be based within local services such as schools and libraries which have a natural access to much of the community news - and for them to then produce something in the cheapest possible print format, online, and available as audio or SMS to allow them to reach all of the people in the area by the most appropriate means. I'm a social media junkie, use the web for my career and my leisure time, and would really benefit from the social media aspect, but I know several degree-level people who wouldn't touch a computer once they leave the office.
The other aspect would be to not only look at Peterborough based groups, but also larger online groups which contain a Peterborough subset - e.g. Mumsnet, which has been incredibly useful for my family and has led to a variety of contact with other Peterborough mothers and parents.
Just out of interest, how much funding is available to the social media project? The reason I ask is that Ning etc are increasingly moving to a paid model, which may become problematic, whereas a hyperlocal service which also generates some revenue by allowing advertising, for example, may be more sustainable in the long term, and might also be able to fund more resource? -
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Brilliant Dan, thanks.
Yes I'm absolutely with you on mumsnet etc. I think it's really important not to start building new networks where they already exist. Good suggestion.
I'm also very with you that social media is not an end in itself at all. It's kind of pointless unless it's relating to other types of encounter... hopefully those sort of meetings will show up in the other parts of the project, especially the Civic Commons stuff which we've not published, which is about face-to-face meetings.
I think that we have to recognise that with very limited resources, social media is a relatively light tool with good reach and we have to jump on it as much as we can in this project, but yes... definitely not the be and end all.
Valuable input... thanks again. -
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'Course I should have also quoted davepress.net in my list of people creating significant
interventionsstuff in this area. -
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Yeah, Dan's dead right, both on the communities of interest - and not just location - thing and that social media can't be used in isolation. Of course, this social media activity is just one of five streams of the project, which will hopefully means offline and other ways of connecting is covered too. We just need to make sure it's all blended together!
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Permalink Reply by Kate Hall on -
Hello
Really interested to see what you are saying about social media. I actually did a web design course with the OU and based my project on a community website for Peterborough - basically a What's On, and did try to set up something with a sparky editor I met, but got distracted by paid work and a lack of interest which I pitched the idea at the Arts Council and PCC... But there you were all the time thinking what I was thinking.
I don't really have any expertise to add because I am a "face-to-face" "homesteader£ kind of communicator, and my thoughts are probably first e-generation but it's good to know that people who know how to make these things work are tackling it. It really couldn't be more important - there is stuff going on in Peterborough but it's a well-kept secret generally and social networking sites have to to be the way to go...
Kate -
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Roddis on
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Probably not palatable but then does it really matter.
I have read parts of the site and taken a brief look at the recommended links above. I can find no evidence to suggest that a sales proposition has been thought of, never mind defined. What ever we do in our daily lives; the rich the poor, the academics the not so academic, the young the old; we are all buying into something. Sometimes it's a new car, sometimes it's an idea to freely use. Whatever it is if we don't buy into it we wont have one. As with any sales proposition it will have features and each feature will have an advantage - or why build it in. Those features can be few or many but each will have at least one advantage.
It's very rare for every advantage to be of benefit to everyone. People will buy into the sales proposition when they see that it provides enough benefits to them otherwise they have no reason to buy in, so move on.
Any sales proposition will go through a number of prototypes and features added and removed when there is a perceived benefit, or not, to customers. However, ultimately, there will be a sales proposition and a list of it's features which can then be demonstrated by showing the advantage of each.
Any commercial sales proposition can clearly demonstrate what it's features are, the good salesman may be able to tease out what will be of benefit to a potential customer and seduce them by demonstrating those features but ultimately, only the buyer knows what benefit they will gain.
For Citizen Power Peterborough what is the sales proposition, what are it's features, what are the advantages of each feature, what demographic is likely to see benefit in some of those advantages?
Being blunt if you don't have them you quite simply don't have a product beyond a self congratulatory bulletin board for the chattering classes. If you do have them then they should be quite clearly at the centre of any debate. -
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Roddis on
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And it only takes a few more minutes wondering around the site to illustrate.
Somewhere in the middle of all this is Peterborough.
One of the features of Peterborough is what goes on there. There's a link at the top. Excellent. Even better the events are listed under headings as google calenders. (I accept that such calenders may be sparsely populated at present).
A feature of google calenders is the ease with which they can be incorporated into your own google calender(s). The ability to do so is a great advantage over fiddling about with 'printed' calenders. The benefit to those who wish to experience an event in Peterborough are great. Once you have the url then those calenders are always available, always with the latest updates, through your own google calender.
Except there's one small problem. No-ones thought it through.
It sits there, a feature with no advantage since we are not told it's url in our welcoming email. Is this of benefit to anyone, no! Chatter on all you like, recommend others to read the regurgitated utterings of peer after peer, if you don't get the basic things right for your customers you will have no customers. -
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Permalink Reply by Kate Hall on
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Kevin
At last someone post something on this site - but as you say (I think) everything has been very inward looking on this site so far.
What do you reckon that the powers that be pay for someone to add some quality content on this site (my vote is a What's On Guide but maybe other people have other content that they want.)
Without some specific, quality information why else would people go to this site (and then also add some intelligent comment, i.e. not the rantings similar to the ET website)
Hard deliverables are what people need to engage with this - i.e What am I actually going to get out of this? How? What does that actually look like? Please don't say consulations, consultants, etc etc
But let's have some tangible things which we can like or reject.
That's my mini-rant. What can I say, it's been a long day and Friday night TV is rubbish.
Kate -
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Roddis on
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Kate
It's partly inward looking and partly how the 'daily crust' is earned, though perhaps the latter causes the former. Put basically if you earn your crust by getting buy-in then you make sure you know who your customers are and ensure that at least some actually buy - given the principles I outlined in my first post.
I find your second para. very interesting, though that is partly because I know nothing about you so please excuse any assumptions I appear to make.
Firstly the matter of payment, a refreshing idea on a site such as this, usually the suggestion - in most cases from those who are paid to be here - is for volunteers. A suggestion which can hardly be seen as a benefit to potential customers so 'sales' already lost, so that part of your suggestion is a start. But why someone? Why not a number, all paid something for their effort - now buy-in has a benefit to a number of people. It would be interesting to ask the question about the budget for this project to see the possibilities of that. However in my experience this leads to other questions which those 'in charge' would rather not answer.
Secondly 'quality content', quality to whom. A What's on Guide' seems like a reasonable idea, examining what it's content should be is a project in it's own right but let's take it as an example for what this site appears to be about - Citizen Power.
What's On to you may be totally different to What's On to me. Your What's On may be Cultural, which for the sake of argument I'll take as Orchestral concerts, Ballet, Opera, etc, for me perhaps What's On is the local 'political' arena, for the family next door to you it's 'kids stuff', for the guy next door to me its Culture as in local bands, beer festivals, etc. I could with some thought go on but assume you get where I'm coming from. If the guide is 'quality' then it will cover my What's On no matter what my interests. Such a guide requires a lot of input but done properly those who give input, and feel that they get a benefit are now engaged with the site, "build it and they will come".
Someone has to manage such a project but as you say there has to be a tangible product at the end. A product which has a sales proposition, which has a host of features which have advantages, a selection of which are of benefit to many. As ever some phrases get over used and become in themselves almost a swear word, consultant being one of them these days, however someone is required who would not spend time compiling quotes from numerous others, go on fact finding trips far and wide (all expenses paid off course) and in the end compiling a 'report' which costs a bundle to put together and then goes off on their lecture tour round the conference circuit saying what a great job they are doing - What job? They've done nothing! As you put it lets have something tangible at the end.
What is required is a clearly defined outcome and KPIs - which would help formulate what has to be done and how it is to be done but not as a measure of success that can only be measured by the outcome.
Whilst I share your views about the ET website; 'Get Stanground Talking', is in some ways similar; perhaps it is to be expected. Much of the ranting on both sites appears to be driven out of frustration that whilst they have opinions those at whom they direct them never reply so the attitude deteriorates, though in reality a local Newspaper website is not the place for a dialogue between council and resident. However a website (facebook group) set up by the council one would expect to be a place where councillors and officers did engage in a dialogue with the residents. Officers do, through a go-between! For most who ask themselves "What benefit is it to me" sadly they realise none, so move on leaving it to a handful, some of whom try to be constructive despite lack of council support, some of whom would appear to feel cheated that there is no council involvement and when they see no benefit become destructive.
Strange therefore Marco, who gives his backing to this venture and is a ward councillor, never posts on the Stanground site. The question is how committed is he.
There's so much more but I think for the time being I've said enough.
Kevin -
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