Here in Birmingham City Council’s press office we’re constantly striving for ways to improve our performance and to that end we intend to launch a virtual newsroom later this month.
Grand title but in truth we simply want to start using the wide range of new media tools out there to ensure council news reaches the widest possible audience.
We’ve obviously got ideas ourselves but would appreciate your input.
Please tell us what you’d like to see and even send us interesting links to illustrate your point.
We might not be able to deliver everything at once but this is an ongoing process and we want to deliver a service that makes council news more accessible for the people of Birmingham.
Please submit a comment below.
May 15, 2009 at 10:25 am |
First thing I would say is “never use the words click here on a link” – it gives the visitor no idea where the link will go, and so makes people much more unlikely to click on it. You should make it clear whether it is an email link or twitter link or allows you to leave comments.
Next up I’d ask why are you soliciting replies via email: Wouldn’t public comments be a much better way of not just getting feedback, but also displaying the evolving discussion to interested visitors?
Also think about twitter: it is still a relatively niche application, but the attention it is getting in the press is massive: and if you have a word with your IT people you should be able to display a twitter feed directly on your homepage: E-consultancy do it splendidly at http://econsultancy.com/
I would also recommend that this is monitored closely: things happen quickly online and if you are going to engage in the social media space you need to be able to also move quickly.
There are a lot of very creative, very helpful social media / online marketer type people in Brum: I like to think of myself as one. If you can harness their ideas and input, maybe with a meeting or two, you could garner a lot of free help and ideas.
May 15, 2009 at 11:30 am |
James – first of all thanks for being the first person to respond to our appeal.
Fair point on the ‘click here’ link and we’ve made a change.
The idea was not to solely canvas opinion via email. We’ve allowed comments on this blog because we want to open as many channels of communication as possible.
We’ve also got a presence on Twitter (http://twitter.com/bccnewsroom) for the consultation and Twitter will definitely form part of the online newsroom.
I agree there are a lot of extremely creative and helpful people in Birmingham and this is the initial stage of trying to harness the expertise out there so we can deliver a better news service. We’d like to see that develop over the coming weeks and months.
Thanks again for the comment.
Geoff Coleman (Press Office)
May 19, 2009 at 9:37 am |
I really wouldn’t push the “email us” option at all, conversations that happen in the open around a subject where people can bounce ideas and opinions around are much more productive.
Opening as many channels of communication is good in one respect, but it will fragment debate (and direct communication is nothing more than a canvassing of opinion) – debate is more valuable here I think.
May 19, 2009 at 11:51 am |
Jon
You’re not the first person to voice an opinion against the email link and, to be fair; all the responses so far have come as comments.
So fair enough, we’ve removed the email link.
Geoff