Posts Tagged ‘democracy’

Topics for a Social Media Unconference

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Tomorrow morning, I’m heading up to Stirling for a Local Gov Social Media Unconference, kindly arranged by the Improvement Service, under the banner of the Customer First programme (enabling councils to deliver better, faster and more efficient services to a wider section of the population).

The day will bring together people from local authorities across Scotland who are using social media (or at least thinking about it) to offer better customer choice and engagement, improve access to services, and reduce costs.

Being an unconference, delegates are expected to bring their own suggestions for topics to shape the agenda on the day. People then vote with their feet and gravitate towards the discussions that interest them most. The emphasis is on collaboration – everyone will have the chance to contribute and share.

A starter for ten

I’m sure everyone will be bursting with ideas, but I thought I’d get some of my own thoughts down here, as a bit of a starter for ten.

Read more about the topics I plan to discuss

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in main | 1 Comment »

Social Media awards for revamped youth parliament campaign

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Last year we won a number of accolades for our use of social media to promote the 2009 Scottish Youth Parliament elections. I blogged at the time that we would be ramping up our efforts for the 2011 elections campaign, and I’m delighted to say we’ve won further recognition for that work.

Elections banner saying "Make Your Vote Count!"

The campaign has scooped the award for “best use of social media by a public sector organisation”, as well as being shortlisted for “best use of social media by a non profit/charity organisation”, at the Some Comms Awards 2011 in Manchester last week. It also bagged the “Grand Prix” award, singling it out as the “best of the best” of all the entries.

Read more about the campaign and what we did

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in main | 2 Comments »

Final accolade for Youth Parliament elections campaign

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Our highly successful social media campaign to promote the Scottish Youth Parliament elections in 2009 has won a final accolade – this time, at our internal achievement awards ceremony, where we were highly commended for our contribution to “opportunities for all”.

Having already scooped national awards, including in the “Hard to Reach Communcations” category at the CIPR Local Public Services Awards and the “Government to Citizen” category at the Good Communications Awards, I’m proud to see the campaign get local recognition.

Award ceremony

Me and my colleagues receiving the award

Find out more about the campaign, which saw us use Facebook, Bebo and YouTube to increase nominations and voter turn-out in the 2009 Youth Parliament elections.

Onwards and upwards

The next elections will take place in March 2011, and we’re already cranking up our campaign to again include Facebook and a dedicated YouTube channel.

If you’re using social media to target “hard to reach” audiences, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch or leave a comment below…

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in main | No Comments »

Youth Parliament Elections campaign – a social media case study

Monday, July 12th, 2010
Make Your Vote Count! Scottish Youth Parliament Elections

Campaign graphic

Later this week I’ll be attending a national awards ceremony, at which one of our campaigns has been nominated for an award. ** UPDATE – we won! **

Edinburgh’s 2009 Scottish Youth Parliament election campaign has already won a Bronze award in the Marketing Society’s Star Awards – the only local authority campaign to win in any category. It was also a finalist in the CIPR national awards, in the category of best campaign under £10k, and won the CIPR Local Public Services Award for Hard to Reach Communications, where the judges commented on how the “strong and effective use of social media and online marketing together with celebrity endorsement succeeded in creating a vibrant and healthy parliament and increased vote.”

It has now been shortlisted for the “Government to Citizen Communications” category of the Good Communication Awards, and I’ll be representing my organisation at the ceremony on Thursday.

The tremendous reception that the campaign has received is thanks to the enthusiasm, innovation and hard work not only of my colleagues, but also of the young people involved in the elections, and I’m proud to represent such a campaign as just one of the many people who worked to make it happen.

The following gives a flavour of the efforts, and hopefully offers some inspiration to others, especially those involved in e-participation and youth engagement.

More about the campaign and our use of social media

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in main | No Comments »