Twitter – Whats so special about this Web 2.0 tool?
January 1, 2009
After reading a recent post over at LGEO Research about the use of Web 2.0 tools in local government, it mentions that several councils are now starting to use Twitter.
I have looked at several of the twitter feeds from these local authorities, and I am yet to be convinced about the true value of this tool both for Government at Private companies. Many were just displaying Press Releases, which I doubt many citizens etc will want to subscribe to.
Are these local authorities just using Twitter just because of the hype surrounding it, or can it bring benefits to citizens and local government?
Working at a local authority I feel that the following questions still need to be answered, and I would be interested in hearing readers thoughts.
1.)What benefits do you feel using Twitter can bring a local authority?
2.) How would you explain to senior management at a local authority what Twitter is, as the majority of employees and most local authorities would not have heard of Twitter?
3.)Why would citizens sign up for a council twitter feed, do they really want to know that a new council press releases is available on their twitter account.
4.) Why not use a RSS feed over a twitter account, as they both do similar things?
5.) Any other benefits of using Twitter for a local authority?
6.) Can twitter feeds be personalised to the user, so they only receive information (i.e. latest payroll vacancies) from the local authority that they are interested in, instead of receiving all content.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. .
2 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
Jaynehilditch | January 1, 2009 at 8:11 pm
1. Using Twitter opens up another channel of communication for a LA. Bear in mind *real* communication is 2-way – so a LA gets an opportunity to listen to the populace, as well as talk… At the risk of sounding like a nokia strapline – it’s good to connect people.
2. I’d send them this link. No point in re-inventing the wheel when the dear folks at commoncraft have already made a pretty fine one. http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter I’d also do a google search on twitter+business. I’d also point them in the direction of someone relevant doing it already. Check out http://www.twitter.com/leaderlistens.
3. You just never know what folks are going to be interested in. Check out Chris Andersen’s book “The Long Tail”. But actually, I think lots of folks are interested in connecting with their local communities – sometimes with community groups, sometimes with the LA itself. I believe that this citizen engagement is *fundamentally* a good thing, and should be nutured rathered than scorned.
4. RSS v Twitter website – or for that matter, any other twitter client. Horses for courses, whatever floats your boat. Folks have different approaches and different tools meet different needs. Thanfully the universe is made up diverse people !
5. Other benefits – loads. but I’m not going to do all your homework for you
But maybe start by thinking of twitter as the worlds largest focus group…
6. Personalised ? Depends. On various things. If a LA created different subject specific twitter accounts, a user could simply subscribe to the account they were interested in. Or if the user was smarter, they could use a twitter client to sort out the signal/noise ratio and filter just the subject lines they want.
2.
ianvaughan | January 2, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Hi Jayne
Thanks for the comments. I am not against Twitter I just need to see the actual benefits of using it, as I believe (and there may be research already into this) but majority of the UK population (outside of active bloggers/pr and I.T. professionals) would have not have heard of Twitter and if they have they would have no idea of why they should use it.
Are Twitter posts just a waste of time? Do you really need to know that somebody you are following is currently having a glass of wine? Even after watching the excellent video on Twitter in Plain English I am still skeptical on the real world business benefits of this tool, is it just a fad within the buzz surrounding web 2.0 just like some of the fads that were around at the time before the dot com crash?
I can see your point in using Twitter to connect with citizens, but how many citizens will actually connect with their local authority using this tool. Out of all the Twitter accounts used by local authorites I have seen and some have been active for some months now – there are very few followers.
Why is this – is it because the service is not marketed correctly by the LA’s or is it because citizens are just not interested in using this tool to connect with local government.
I work for a local authority and the only services I believe that citizens would be interested in receiving via their Twitter account are
1.) Planning Apps
2.) Job Vacancies
3.) Relevant Upcoming Events
The only other benefits are IMO, is that Twiitter is a cost effective way of connecting with citizens in the local authority.