Social media workshopCambridgeshire Police

Monday 23 February 2015Huntingdon

About this workshop

Three parts• Mapping our communities – practical exercise• How others are using social media for social action• Risks – how to manage without ‘shutting down’?

Workshop aim:

For you to become confident and curious enough about at least one of the topics we cover today for you to follow up through your own independent actions – and to share your learning with your colleagues not just inside the police but with those in partner organisations.

This workshop will NOT cover:

The very basics of social media. However, if you are not confident and want to learn the basics of Facebook & Twitter, have a look at my short videos at http://antonycarpen.co.uk/resources/

About Antony

• Social media and public policy trainer• ‘Community cameraman’ and short film maker• Political commentator• Stood for election in Cambridge City Council 2014 local elections…

• …as my social media persona ‘Puffles the dragon fairy’• …and beat UKIP 89 votes to 0. (They didn’t stand – dragon wins)

• Former civil servant in Department for Communities & Local Government

• Community engagement policy• Sustainable housing & climate change• Local government reform• Planning casework• Freedom of information

Applying social media to your communities – words I’ve heard

“The most important word in the phrase ‘social media’ is the word ‘social’ – it implies a conversation”

“How can you have substantive conversations with your communities if you do not know who is in them?”

“No amount of technology – however good, can compensate for getting the ‘people’ side of things wrong.”

“The state trusts police officers with the power to arrest people. Therefore it should trust its officers to use social media. But remember you go through appropriate training before being granted powers of arrest. The same should go for using social media in your official capacity”

‘Map your communities’ 1/3

Community engagement is a challenge if you don’t know your communities! But where do you start?

Start by describing your community - Make a list!

1. Local secondary school2. Older people’s day centre3. Friends of local library society4. Religious institution5. Nursery – users & families?6. Hospital – patients & families?7. …can you think of a few more?

‘Map your communities’ 2/3

Community engagement is a challenge if you don’t know your communities! But where do you start? [Influence & interest in this case are on the work of police in their communities]

Start by describing your community - Make a list!

1. Local secondary school2. Older people’s day centre3. Friends of local library society4. Religious institution5. Nursery – users & families?6. Hospital – patients & families?7. Local trade association8. Wealthy private institution

Now plot them on a matrix

Influence

Inte

rest

83

4

76 25

1

‘Map your communities’ 3/3

Having mapped your communities, you can explore different approaches based on their needs & talents

Now plot them on a matrix

Influence

Inte

rest

83

4

76 25

1

How do you increase the influence of a local community group that might have the time & passion to scrutinise what you do? (Group 3 – friends of local library).

How do you increase the interest of a potentially influential but disinterested group? (Group 7 – a local trade association).

Community use of social media

Now let’s repeat the second part of this exercise…

Now plot them on a matrix

Level of community action

Acce

ssib

ility

to in

tern

et

83

4

76 25

1

…but this time have our x-axis (horizontal line) with level of community action, and the y-axis (vertical) as accessibility to all things online.

Any thoughts on how the groups have moved? Any thoughts on how this might impact how you use social media in the community?

Connection/Awareness/Engagement through social media

Disengaged Unaware

Aware Engaged Active

Switched off

Infrequent access

Daily but not continual access e.g. work/college

Continual access at home & work

Continual connection on the move (iPhone/ laptop)

“Victor Meldrew”

Very busy professionals to high web users following particular people/ celebrities

Student activists

Paid activists

Local activists who are not online

Regular bloggers who engage with their audiencePeople who

read about issues in mainstream websites

People who follow new media sites but choose not to interact

People who respond infrequently on established media sites

Social media users in politics field

People who respond frequently in interactive sites

Infrequent bloggers/ article writers

“Entertainment media watchers”

Affluent but disinterested

People who read about issues “old” media

People who write (not email) into newspapers regularly

Advocates

Social media for social impactReviewing Cambridgeshire PoliceLessons/ideas from other organisationsMonday 23 February 2015Huntingdon

A review of Cambridgeshire Police

Given the mapping exercise we have just done, what are your thoughts?

Two websites – integrated social media? 1/2

Two websites – integrated social media? 2/2

Cambridgeshire Police already has…

Existing and active social media pages

Facebook -> https://www.facebook.com/CambsCopsTwitter -> https://twitter.com/CambsCopsYoutube -> https://www.youtube.com/user/CambridgeshirePolice/videos

What ‘quick win’ improvements do you think Cambridgeshire Police could make in how it uses social media?

An explanation of how Cambridgeshire Police uses

social media? Let’s have a look at Cambridge City Council

https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/social-media

Learning from a partner organisation

- Cambridge City CouncilLet’s have a look at Cambridge City Council

https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/social-media

• Clear links to their social media pages in header and footer of web pages, therefore consistent throughout the website

• A guidance page listing not only all of their social media accounts, but how they are used

• Managing expectations of their communities

West-Midlands Constabulary – a pioneering approach to

social media?Let’s have at their websites

http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/

http://www.police.uk/west-midlands/

Thoughts?What are the similarities?What are the differences?What issues can be solved locally?What needs to be dealt with nationally?

10 Minute break

Then…Risks!

Megatrends 1 – the death of control

The age of influence

Big organisations and companies had a monopoly on mass communication and got used to controlling the message

Anyone literate with an internet connection can self-publish for freeHard to control, can only influence

The age of control

The old era The new reality

Megatrends 2 – Fewer gatekeepers

Many to many

Manage the gatekeepersOne-way, broadcast model.Managing reputation = managing the media.

Less reliance on media: people get information direct from the source, and from each other.New-style comms must reach beyond media to a complex interactive model.

One to many

The old era The new reality

Megatrends 3 – Fragmentation

A huge cloud of

interaction

People got most information from a handful of news media.Organisations could efficiently manage (or at least monitor).

Conversations are distributed wherever people form opinions: blogs, social networks, YouTube Separate provider for the content, and the platform for the content

A few centralised channels

The old era The new reality

Megatrends 4 – New web landscape

Pull communications

The Web was a channel for pushing out information. Sites were static e-brochures. The Web was utilitarian. People felt neutral about it.

Now, people spend most time on interactive social media.The social web is informal, immersive and emotive.

Web as distribution channel Web as community

Push communications

Old (web) era The new reality

Megatrends 5 – New journalism

Messy and opinionated

The world of press releases, news conferences and interviews was well ordered.Journalists knew the rules of the game and were predictable.Balance, professionalism, accountability

Huge and distributed.Everyone can report.Each sets his/her own rules.No obligation to be balanced.Complicated recourse for inaccuracy.Opinion dominates content.

Ordered and

predictable

The old era The new reality

Does blocking access on work computers reduce or increase risks?

You may have locked down your systems and blocked certain websites.

Can you think of the impact that this might have on:- Risks associated with social media to your

organisation?- Opportunities associated with social media

to your organisation?

The rise of smartphone ownership

Risk that remains: As smartphone ownership rises, so does the prospect of your staff owning one. Therefore staff can bypass technological security measures.

Do you really want to be an employer that asks staff to hand in their smartphones upon entering the workplace?

The rise of smartphone ownership

Opportunity lost:

More learning organisations and trainers are creating and placing digital video content on the internet – for free. By blocking such content you are potentially depriving your staff from seeing useful content, not just the harmful content.

Questions for you to put to HR staff

Social media:

Are the risks related more to the technology or to human behaviour? If the latter, should we focus on line management solutions rather than technological ones that have the side effect of reducing opportunities?

Due to the nature of your responsibilities, you need to think about social media policies and social media strategies.

• A social media policy is a guide for how you and those you work with choose to use social media on a day-to-day basis. This will cover things like tone of language and type of content that is and is not appropriate. If you are employing staff, it is essential that you have one of these in place and that staff know about and abide by it.

• A social media strategy is a document that sets out how you are going to use social media to achieve specific objectives.

A social media policy should include prohibitions on things that could easily bring your organisation into disrepute.A social media strategy should be consistent with a corporate objective – eg something around engaging with young people?

Planning is essential

In small groups, please could you come up with:

- Three things you would want to see in a social media policy, and

- Three things that you would like to see in a corporate social media strategy.

With both the policy and strategy, neither need to be long dense documents. Short, sharp and practical will have a greater impact.

Group exercise

What did you come up with for:

Social media policy?

Social media strategy?

Group exercise - Feedback

Community reports & citizen journalists:

Although there have been significant cuts in mainstream local media, there is a growing movement of self-styled ‘community reporters’ and citizen journalists. I’m one of them. You may know of a few others.

We report from public meetings – including those that police officers speak at. Have you thought about how best to interact with this group of people?

Taming your social media dragons!

Future trends…

Think back to 1995

Remember what life was like then? This was the year I first stumbled across the concept of the Internet. One of my friends was online already – and someone else had already set up a website for Stevenage Borough Football Club! Did we have any idea what the Internet would bring?

Think back to 2005

A few years before the emergence of Facebook & Twitter. Similar question.

Mobile and video:

Looking at current trends – sales of hardware to use of various tools, society is moving towards visualising data, and using mobile video, and away from heavy text-dense documents. Think about the rise of infographics and Youtube as examples.

…and finally

If video is the way forward, how could Cambridgeshire Police go about improving its video content without having to spend huge amounts of money on professional consultancies to make it for you? Think about some of the basics that you currently have in leaflet format.

Here’s my video about the future of Cambridgehttps://vimeo.com/119495521

What would this video look like content-wise if it was created from a policing perspective?

When are the occasions where you would want to bring in a professional media expert? (I.e. someone far more talented than me!)

Thank you