Al Smith Social media in local government

Case study on Facebook engagement

I can blog and talk about engaging with people using social media until the cows come home, but sometimes you have to walk the walk too. Here's an example of how I got involved in an anti-council Facebook group and turned around some of the negative sentiment.

The group, titled 'Save the Coop' can be found here (link opens in new window).

Background

The Cooperage on Newcastle's quayside was a popular music venue and bar which also held club nights, I've had a few good nights out there myself in the past.

Local residents had made a number of complaints about noise leakage from the listed building which had been investigated by the council - as they are obliged to do. As a result a noise abatement order had been served.

Details of necessary works, which would have allowed The Cooperage to continue operating as a music venue were discussed with the owners Enterprise Inns who decided instead to close the venue. The council took the view that this had been a commercial decision.

The Facebook group

I could be all clever here and say that my monitoring of the social web alerted me to the existence of this group which had a few hundred members (now at more than 11k) and was critical of the council. In a way that statement is true. One of my Facebook friends invited me to the group because they knew I liked the bar.

Initially I did not join the group, but instead read through the comments. It became clear that there were a few points which needed addressing, which were:

• The council closed The Cooperage down
• The council took it upon themselves to investigate noise at the venue
• Other venues on the quayside make more noise and the council lets them off
• Council officials were open to bribery by breweries and/or property developers
• The council did not care that The Cooperage had closed

I spoke with the Director of Communication and Marketing who agreed that a response to these allegations should be made. I then joined the group.

The council's response

Rather than responding to comments on the group's wall I set up a seperate discussion board. The reason for this was that I did not want to hijack the group or to stifle the open debate which was taking place. I labelled the post clearly as a council response.

I introduced myself. On Facebook there's not really an option to post as an entity on a board and you can't really hide behind an alias. The avatar is a picture of me and it has my name next to it. I'm a communication adviser for the council so am trusted to act as spokesperson on behalf of the organisation, only this way flak would be directed at me and not the organisation.

What I wrote

"Hi there, I work for the Council and wanted to explain our position on this:

• We haven't closed the Cooperage, the owners have decided that they cannot soundproof the venue to an acceptable standard and so will close the venue themselves, which obviously we’re sad about too.
• We have a duty to investigate noise complaints of this nature (regardless of who is making them). After looking into complaints we did indeed serve a noise abatement order – as is our duty in such circumstances.
• Each case is dealt with individually on its merits, so a straight comparison with any other venue you might like to name isn’t entirely fair when the circumstances are inevitably different.
• We take allegations of bribery and corruption very seriously and if anyone has any evidence of this we'd ask them to go to the correct authorities, such as the police. Unfounded claims are a breach of Facebook's Terms and we'd ask if people could remove these themselves.
• If a solution can be found to the noise issues we would hope that the Cooperage will be able to reopen."

Rejection

The first response of members of the group were to reject me. I had expected some negative comment but I did think it would be a friendlier, more open discussion. But fair enough, I got a reaction and I'd addressed the issues which had been raised.

One of the quotes I found most interesting was:

I was just wondering if I am within my rights to say how dismayed I am to see that council money is being used to pay someone to monitor if anything bad is being said about them on Facebook?

I was suprised at this as people had organised themselves and set up a group to save a pub from closure, and they chose to do this on Facebook, but were disappointed when the council heard their voices and replied.

The next stage

Around the same time as discussions were being held to answer specific concerns, and let people vent about other things which were best not to respond to, I received a private message from the owner of the group.

He explained that the intention of the group was positive and apologised for some of the libellous content. He also suggested that we meet to discuss the group and his plans. It was agreed that I meet him, in a pub.

I arranged for Jack Pickard of TPIS to attend as an independent adviser, and a press officer also accompanied me.

The group's owner wanted to form a collective to purchase the bar and to carry out the necessary works to reopen as a music venue. We offered advice on how he could involve the (then) 7000 members of his group in this process and how he could fundraise for this, pointing out MyFootballClub as one example and the UsNow film for further research.

What we agreed

• The owner of the group would inform the members of his intentions
• The group was a positive group and could achieve more by acting positively

Outcomes

Since then the group's statement has been amended to reflect the positive outcomes they hope to achieve and the discussion they had with the council:

Here's an update guys:

I have spoken to the council to gather a bit of clarity as to the political and legal proceedings surrounding the Cooperages closure. Firstly, the council have done, and continue, to do everything in their power to keep the Cooperage from closing. They have had to follow procedure and are advising me on how to proceed best.

Anyone who is interested in helping, I am going to gather a co-operative and seek to fundraise the money needed to soundproof the building. DJ's, promoters, landlords, musicians, designers, anyone, we are going to need all the help we can get. Lets do this as an independent, community effort and turn the Cooperage into a place for, funded by and run by the people.

I am going to get in touch with Enterprise Breweries in the next few days and show them the support the Cooperage has received and see if they are willing to reach an agreement.

BREAKING NEWS: A CO-OPERATIVE IS BEING FORMED AS I WRITE THIS WITH THE INTENTION OF BUYING THE COOPERAGE, CHECK THE DISCUSSION BOARD FOR DETAILS.

Comments in the group have also become friendlier towards the council:

I have to say it's easy to blame the council on this one but their room for movement will be very limited. It sounds like they are being positive about it all.

and (I've amended this quote slightly as it had a typo);

I would also say with regards the council employing someone to look at facebook, I am sure this is not his only remit and they probably see it as a cheap and effective way to keep large groups of people informed and given this group has nearly 1000 members in under 10 days that seems sensible.

and;

This is, by the way, probably one of the most civilised debates i have ever encountered on facebook.

That last quote went on to be critical of the council, but the acknowledgement of the open nature of the discussion was exactly what we were looking for.

Conclusion

This involvement was an experiment, to see practically how it would work engaging with a group in this way. In the end we needed a little offline engagement too, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. We took an organised group who were veering a little off topic and becoming a place to complain about the council and reminded them of their goals and how social media can help them achieve them (the rest is up to them).

I'd call it a win, but then I'm biased!