How to engage with your citizens
Last couple of weeks, I have been visiting a lot of local events about innovation, ICT and communication in the public sector.
One of the things that struck me the most, while talking to public servants, was that most of them are not allowed to use social media during working hours, or they are totally unaware of it. Some of them are aware of the opportunities and try to embed these 'new' media in their communication strategy, but fail to convince their superiors or are tangled in some political debate (protection of privacy is a good one)
Most of the cities in Belgium are still in a stage of thinking about informing their citizens through their website and automating their back-office. And of course, you need a mid-office to put those pieces together. In many cases, this is a unidirectional story, from government body to public. In many cases not helping people with the average questions like "what day should I put the bin out" or "what are the opening hours of the library". Integration of mobile applications or social media is still something for 'youngsters' and too far-fetched.
One striking example is my hometown Bruges. Bruges has a facebook and twitter page, with all kinds of announcements about events and news about the city, but...it's not theirs. They recently managed to take over the facebook page but the Bruges twitter is still an unofficial one http://twitter.com/#!/brugge The good thing is that they are aware of it and they want to do something with it.
So, there is hope. Some more progressive civil servants are curious about it and are, themselves, very much active on social media. Initiatives like http://www.openoverheid.nu/ helps them with promoting social media in the public sector.
According to me, public organisations that block social media in their organisation are missing a hell of opportunities. I would like to share some ideas on how you could embed social media in a public service, for the better:
complaints: offer a helpdesk through twitter. Your citizens can ask questions directly through that platform, they can learn from other people's questions. They can do it on the spot, no waiting lines, no frustrations. Comcast is a good example: they have more than 20 million customers, and provide helpdesk services through twitter @comcastcares, this should be no problem to manage it up to the largest city in Belgium with approx. 1 million inhabitants.
Interventions: people could spot some public areas that have been vandalized or broken. With a smartphone, one could indicate the precise spot through gowalla, foursquare, facebook...take a picture of it, and post it to the city.
Poll: involve your citizens in projects you would like to initiate e.g. new sports facilities, a new bridge, a playground etc...one remarkable initiative is 'lelijkste plekjes' where people could take pictures of their favorite 'ugly' place in town and, which needs attention. This resulted in more than 120 suggestions of places that could be sanitized.
HR: announce open vacancies and find the right people in your area through LinkedIn & Twitter
Traffic: Avoid frustration from your citizens by announcing roadworks through twitter. Share pictures of the progress and inform them about the expected end date.
Tourism: you could promote your city through youtube or vimeo. Use tripadvisor as a channel to share vacation ideas in your city...follow fans of your city and engage with them. Ask questions through twitter on how you could improve things...
these are just a handful of 'obvious' ideas that came up to me, but I am sure there are many, many other applications we could imagine. Feel free to add some more.
@leenknecht