---
title: "Local government on Twitter"
url: https://www.simonwakeman.com/blog/2009/03/06/local-government-on-twitter/
description: "Consultant and fractional COO for scale-up businesses. I help founders, leaders and investors in scaling businesses create sustainably high performing organisations."
published: 2009-03-06T21:39:23+00:00
modified: 2026-04-11T16:25:05+00:00
author: Simon Wakeman
---
# Local government on Twitter

## Local government on Twitter

Having spent a few hours over the past week setting up [Medway Council](https://www.simonwakeman.com/)‘s [Twitter presence](http://www.twitter.com/medway_council) and associated systems, I was planning to write a post about how we did it.  
But scanning through my RSS feeds this evening, I spotted this post from Stuart Harrison:  
[A beginners guide to Twitter in local government](http://www.pezholio.co.uk/2009/03/a-beginners-guide-to-twitter-in-local-government/)  
Stuart’s post is an absolutely superb and comprehensive summary of how a council can easily get started with the nuts and bolts of a Twitter presence – based on his experience at [Lichfield District Council](http://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/).  
At Medway we’re using [Twitterfeed](http://www.twitterfeed.com) (RSS to Twitter), [Twittermail](http://www.twittermail.com) (email to Twitter) and [Twilert](http://www.twilert.com)/[Tweetbeep](http://www.tweetbeep.com) (keyword alerts for Twitter) to make things work.  
The only comments I’d add to Stuart’s piece are about how councils can use Twitter – once they’ve got it up and running as a communications channel.  
Councils could fall into the trap of setting up Twitter as a broadcast channel – using it to send out mass messages to people that choose to follow the council.  
But I think that’s missing the real value of Twitter.  
To get the most of Twitter councils need to use the tool to engage in conversations – listening and interacting with residents and other stakeholders in a way that more traditional tools don’t allow to happen.