Viper Marketing & Communications Group

Local Authority Could Do Better…A Lot Better

Author: Neil Wilkins

Neil learnt his marketing with the likes of Orange, NatWest, BP Castrol and Ordnance Survey and now helps individuals and businesses to communicate more effectively. He trains and mentors marketers on professional Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications through to post-graduate level.

Picture the scene. Snow fall and closed schools. Many, many closed schools. Visit, as many of us would, www.n-somerset.gov.uk for an update on which schools are open and which are closed to be met with a page containing no information at all but advice to listen to a local radio station to get this information. Directly underneath this single paragraph is a statement that claims over half of the Council's entire budget is spent in providing education services!!

Now, without even starting to get political it is evident that the Community itself has been sharing information about snow conditions and the effects this is having right across the UK far more effectively and in almost realtime. Online social networking site http://twitter.com/ allows users to post geographic information about themselves. Pictures, comments and replies are all possible and there are literally millions of users of this service (amongst other similar services) around the world.

The snow falls and through a Twitter regular you can log into http://www.benmarsh.co.uk/snow/ where users have had the opportunity to post up to date snow reports, images and comments.

So as a Local Authority, perhaps it's time to develop a responsive and helpful online strategy for the Community using tools that are readily available and already being used by the people they are trying to serve. Could do better online... a lot better.

- Posted on Wednesday 04 Feb 2009 at 03:06 by Neil Wilkins

Tags: communications (23), community (6), marketing (63), north somerset council (2), online (5), political (1), snow (1), strategy (27), viper (63), weather conditions (1)