I think it’s better that councils get started with new tools (eg social networks, twitter) than not doing it at all – but equally once they have a presence established that shouldn’t be seen as the end game – it’s just the start and what they do in the first place will need to evolve rapidly as the tool develops and the organisation learns about it.

I agree there’s a challenge about how councils adopt tools like Twitter – for example needing to set up processes to handle in-bound customer services requests that residents post/DM via Twitter.

But the key is to get stuck in and give it a try, manage things carefully and then see what happens – if it works and residents use it, then start to work through some of the operational issues – rather than use them as a reason not to.

Thanks for the link up there, I’m sure your blog gets much more traffic than mine! I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts, I did kinda touch on them in my post too.

Broadcasting info is only one way of using Twitter and it definitely should not be the only way. Tweeple are very suspicious of accounts that only broadcast and will give them short shrift.

It also smacks of a ‘quick fix’, getting on there because you feel you have to, or should (very similar to starting up a council Facebook page without any idea of where you’re going with it, something I’m guilty of doing).

A lot of councils started off with the broadcast approach, but have now moved on and are listening. If you’re from a council and you haven’t got a Twitter account, I recommend listening from the word go.

Using Twitter as a broadcast channel only gets messages out into the public domain and promotes the existence of the council in an online environment, it raises awareness. But it doesn’t necessary lead to interactions.

The next step is for the council to fully engage in a two-way conversation as you suggest.

But that, I suspect, will be a stumbling block for organisations that aren’t fully geared up to embracing the web as a primary communications channel.

I’d say that Twitter has come mainstream in just the last month or so. Everyone’s talking about it – if it can be featured on The ONE Show and get Gyles Brandreth hooked, then the sky’s the limit.

So now IS the time for councils to get on board and exploit its full potential – its in everyone’s interest.