This section was last updated on 10th February 2009

34 Comments »

• Stuart Harrison says:

  December 19, 2008 at 3:12 pm

  Really interesting stuff, I set up the LDC Planning Applications Twitter account to provide people who already use Twitter with a quick way of seeing when planning applications have been listed.

  As a Twitter user myself, I find myself checking my account quite regularly (it’s embedded as a widget in my Netvibes page), and as planning applications are something that impact quite heavily on residents’ lives, I thought it would be great to be able to see at a glance when applications have been submitted without having to visit our site.

  It’s definitely more of a ‘news feed’ approach than a full on conversation approach, although this might be something we will look at in the future. Twitter’s definitely taken off big time in the last 12 months or so, and, as it gets more ‘mainstream’, will definitely be a useful tool for councils to converse with residents.
• lizzy says:

  December 19, 2008 at 3:26 pm

  Thanks for your input Stuart. I definitely found your Twitter to be one that intrigued me. Its a different approach which serves a specific purpose. I’m still trying to understand how Twitter can be useful in times of need and found this article that gave a good indicator on how Twitter can be used in public services. http://www.smartmobs.com/2007/08/09/emergency-20-twitter-helps-public-services-speed-ahead-the-government-in-crisis-situations/

  And I feel your Twitter is making the same type of contribution to this. Please keep me updated with your progress. Would be great to include it in my research. Thanks for the 1st comment on my blog! ;D
• Nat Morris says:

  December 19, 2008 at 4:12 pm

  I’d be interested to know how many followers each council had excluding other council/government generic accounts. Out of our (Pembrokeshire) 16 followers, 7 of them are other councils or government bodies and 4 are other council developers. Leaving maybe 5 real followers / possible members of the public.
• lizzy says:

  December 19, 2008 at 4:23 pm

  Hey nat, its funny that you mention that coz that is what I’m doing right now. I wanted to include in this post but it takes a long time to look through all followers. But will update you when I have the results. I’ve done one council that has more than 70 followers and I found that only 28% are possibly genuine members of the public, same percentage as followers who are social media specialist/enthusiats and other councils and web developers. There are also suspended and spam accounts on the list of followers… so its quite difficult to measure twitters performance.
• Stuart Harrison says:

  December 22, 2008 at 4:50 am

  Thanks for that link Lizzy, that’s a really interesting approach, it’s a shame that Twitter have suspended the mobile service in the UK, although hopefully they’ll come to an agreement with network providers soon (another thing that will probably come with Twitter becoming more mainstream)
• List and status of UK Local Council Twitters as of 18th December 2008 « Local Gov Engagement Online Research says:

  December 26, 2008 at 11:31 pm

  [...] link for this article can now be found here – http://www.lgeoresearch.com/twitterlocalgov/ Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Thingwall development siteSweat ‘n Gears on [...]
• Wandsworth Council victim of identity fraud on Twitter? | LGEO Research says:

  January 2, 2009 at 1:10 am

  [...] few weeks ago, I wrote a post that lists the Twitter status of local councils  in the UK. I had been told today that the link for Wandsworth Council http://twitter.com/wwcouncil was in [...]
• James Cousins says:

  January 2, 2009 at 6:41 pm

  What I think might be interesting would be to see if there’s a correlation between councils and councillors twittering. As someone who is experimenting with social media I tried to identify other councillors and councils to see how they were using tools like Twitter. What was interesting is the variety – just like councils, some are just using it to promote blogs, some seem to have a personal Twitter that occasionally mentions their council or council work.

  I wouldn’t suggest my list is anything like exhaustive, but there are some interesting questions that arise. For example Barnet, who seem to have a strong social media strategy only seem to have one twittering councillor – and that’s the Leader’s official feed. On the other extreme, you can find at least six Lambeth councillor Twitter accounts, all from the controlling group, but the council itself doesn’t seem to have an account.

  The reason I think this is interesting is because it creates two different models. One in which the council officers are the ones who are available and accessible through social media, and one in which the councillors – the democratic leadership of the council – are available to answer questions. I’m very much looking forward to getting my first tweet from a resident, but I wonder if I would be happy if, for example, policy questions started to be directed through web-teams rather than the councillors responsible? And if I was a resident, who would I want to take my problem to on Twitter or facebook: the council officers directly responsible, or my councillor?
• admin says:

  January 3, 2009 at 6:17 pm

  Hi James,
  Thank you for your comment. I definitely agree with you. It would be interesting to see if there is a relationship, if any between the two. I think the problem surrounding the issue of using social media in local government is the lack of acknowledgment. I’ve seen more and more local council twitter accounts opening but most of them do not advertise this service on their main website. And the same goes for councillor twitterers. Why aren’t their twitter account publicized on the main website like blogs?

  I believe there is still alot of room for improvement when it comes to social media and local government. And I also believe that alot of improvement is happening in certain councils like St. Helens, Barnet and Stratford DC who have a clear social media strategy. Sometimes, its just a matter of acknowledging their social media presence; it can create a correlation between councils and councillors twittering. In fact a council twitter accounts can create dialogues by forwarding citizen questions onto the respective councillors therefore becoming a catalyst between citizens and their councillors.

  I believe you’ve made such a good point about the two different models and possibly onto something that can be put into practice. Say if Twitter was defined as a channel for a service such as the 1stopshop, local councils and citizens can both definitely gain a lot from twittering.

  I will be doing a thorough investigation into councillor accounts to see if there is any model/social media strategy currently being implemented and report this back to you. Be sure to check up on this website regularly for updates.
• My Future Posts: Any ideas? | LizAzyan Research says:

  January 3, 2009 at 8:45 pm

  [...] Home (540)/wikis-and-blogs-as-instruments-for-citizen-participation/ (185)/twitterlocalgov/ (89) § [...]
• List and status of UK Local Council Twitters as of 18th December 2008 « UK eInformation Group says:

  January 9, 2009 at 10:52 am

  [...] and status of UK Local Council Twitters as of 18th December 2008 This list of UK local council twitterers was compiled by Liz Azyan Research and is on the Local Government Engagement Online Research Blog. [...]
• Dominic Campbell says:

  January 9, 2009 at 10:48 pm

  Hi Liz

  Great stuff thanks for that. Have you also seen:

  http://www.talknet.eu/confluence/display/~paul.carruthers/2008/09/01/Public%20Sector%20Twitterers

  Dom

  Dominic Campbell’s last blog post..links for 2009-01-08
• admin says:

  January 10, 2009 at 9:22 pm

  Thx! Got it. You can see it here http://www.lgeoresearch.com/uk-local-council-twitter-followers-10th-january-2009/
• UK Local Council Twitter Followers 10th January 2009 | LizAzyan Research says:

  January 10, 2009 at 11:01 pm

  [...] Home (1067)/wikis-and-blogs-as-instruments-for-citizen-participation/ (278)/twitterlocalgov/ (132) § [...]
• Communities and Collaboration » Bookmarks for January 28th through February 1st says:

  February 1, 2009 at 2:04 pm

  [...] List and status of UK Local Council Twitters as of 18th December 2008 – A list of UK Local Council Twitters [...]
• links for 2009-02-02 « Policy and Performance says:

  February 2, 2009 at 11:06 pm

  [...] List and status of UK Local Council Twitters as of 18th December 2008 | LizAzyan Research Councils on Twitter. I'm on Twitter, too. @ingridk (tags: socialmedia localgovernment twitter government) [...]
• Sunderland says:

  February 5, 2009 at 10:32 am

  Welcome us to Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/Sunderland_UK
• Local government on Twitter « Policy and Performance says:

  February 5, 2009 at 12:53 pm

  [...] Azyan has done some research about Councils on Twitter and Councillors on [...]
• martin says:

  February 9, 2009 at 8:36 am

  Hiyah Liz, can you add Camden? #camdentalking? cheers, Martin

  martin’s last blog post..House of the Ju Ju Queen
• admin says:

  February 9, 2009 at 5:44 pm

  Hi Martin, its done! Sorry I forgot to add it myself. Thanks for prompting me. Talk soon.
• Updated and Reformatted Table of UK Local Council Twitters on 10th February 09 | LizAzyan Research says:

  February 11, 2009 at 3:09 am

  [...] Home (2456)/twitterlocalgov/ (507)/wikis-and-blogs-as-instruments-for-citizen-participation/ [...]
• Chris Clelland says:

  February 11, 2009 at 10:56 pm

  Aberdeenshire Council have just started twittering …. http://twitter.com/aberdeenshire. Started with updates from our school closures system but intend to hook it into a number of other alerts and “human” updates very soon.
• admin says:

  February 12, 2009 at 4:47 pm

  Hi Chris,
  Thanks for the link. I have now added Aberdeenshire Council to the list. Look forward to see what your “human” updates are going to be.

  Liz
• Simon Wakeman says:

  March 13, 2009 at 7:42 pm

  Hi Liz,
  Hope you’re feeling better and are basking in your futuregov win glory?

  Medway Council’s now actively using twitter:
  http://www.twitter.com/medway_council is the main account with all info

  http://www.twitter.com/castleconcerts is our test of a campaign specific use of twitter – to see how it works if we segment our twitter audience, rather than expecting everyone that signs up to want everything

  cheers
  sw

  Simon Wakeman’s last blog post..Forthcoming conferences – social media and local government communications
• Adrian Capon says:

  March 17, 2009 at 2:30 pm

  Hi Liz

  Yesterday North Lincolnshire Council set up a Twitter news feed @NorthLincsCNews or http://twitter.com/NorthLincsCNews

  We’ve been testing it over the last few weeks linking our web RSS feeds e.g. jobs, news.

  We’ve decided to use Hootsuite to manage a number of accounts – thinking that we would have one for different interests and campaigns.

  Still getting to grips with it – so we’ll see how it takes off.

  Thanks

  Adrian Capon
  Strategic Marketing Manager
  North Lincolnshire Council
• admin says:

  March 19, 2009 at 1:29 pm

  Hi Simon,
  It took a while to get better and take it all in. Am really excited to go to Washington DC now! Cant wait to network like crazy Thanks for the links. How is the Castle Concerts working out so far. I will add it to the list. Hope you’re doing well and the training is going good.

  Cheers,
  Liz
• admin says:

  March 19, 2009 at 5:08 pm

  Hi Adrian,
  Thanks for the link and well done for taking the leap into Twitter! I’m interested to know how you guys progress in time. I will add you guys onto the list. Good call to use Hootsuite to manage your accounts. I like the idea of using Twitter accounts to engage with different interests and campaigns. Having a specific topic to talk about will certainly be more useful for followers or the public. Do you have your own personal Twitter account? If you’re not following me yet, please do @liz_azyan . Look forward to seeing you on Twitter.

  Liz
• Vince Stevenson says:

  May 19, 2009 at 4:13 pm

  It’s a great shame that there are not more local councils joining in with social media. However, I can foresee a day when all public bodies will have a Twitter account. Rgds Vince
• James Coltham says:

  June 9, 2009 at 9:26 am

  I’m a little concerned by the lack of proper naming conventions emerging here. There is potential for confusion amongst citizens as to which accounts are genuine, and the risk of cybersquatting is significant (see my blog post about this at http://www.prettysimple.co.uk/blog/?p=515).

  James Coltham’s last blog post..Cybersquatting 2.0 – protecting your name in Social Media
• admin says:

  June 11, 2009 at 6:41 am

  Hi James,
  Thanks for the link! I’m checking it out

  Liz
• NLoverheid20 (NL) says:

  October 26, 2009 at 2:38 pm

  Twitter Comment
  

  
  Local Government Engagement Online Research » Blog Archive » List and status of UK Local Council Twitters [link to post]

  – Posted using Chat Catcher
• yamasas (yamasas) says:

  December 10, 2009 at 12:26 pm

  Twitter Comment
  

  
  [twitter] Local Government Engagement Online Research ” Blog Archive ” List and … [link to post]

  – Posted using Chat Catcher
• Josie Fraser says:

  May 26, 2010 at 1:41 pm

  Great post! Is there a more recent version/resource/list anywhere? Would really appreciate knowing
• Liz Azyan says:

  May 26, 2010 at 2:03 pm

  Hi Josie,

  Unfortunately due to heavy workload, I’ve stopped manually updating this list. But you can find an open wiki that I created so council can update the list themselves here http://www.lgeoresearch.com/lgeo-research-is-opening-its-social-media-research-data/ and also another list that was created by Brent Council that I feel is more regularly updated http://www.brent.gov.uk/egr.nsf/documents/Social+Media

  Hope this helps!

  Liz

About Liz Azyan – LGEO Research Founder

Liz Azyan started this blog in late 2008 to support her PhD research. The blog has now unexpectedly grown to become a useful resource for the public sector on topics relating to social media, web 2.0, e-learning and other methods for government online engagement. Find out more by clicking About above.

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