LGcomms is the professional body for council communicators and their annual ‘Academy’ is taking place in Nottingham this week. The event would hopefully pass the Pickles ‘value’ test with a £99 daily fee allowing 300 delegates to hear 60 speakers from organisations as diverse as the CLG and Global Radio over three days with an agenda covering public services, council communications and opinion research.
Star of the show to date has been the BBC’s Sophie Brendel who unmasked the mysteries of social media by explaining that “being social” means getting the tone, speed and siting of online communication correct. That means engaging in a way that is informal, fast and succinct; things that local government has not always shown an ability to deliver. There are some outstanding examples of councils engaging in social media – Coventry’s 15,000-strong Facebook site for example, but they are few and far between.
