How should local administrations actively listen?
Under the suggestive title “Hackear la relación con la ciudadanía” (Hacking the Relationship with Citizens), the Consorci Universitat Internacional Menéndez Pelayo Barcelona (CUIMPB) invited Zinkdo to participate in a round table for the course Repensar la planificación estratégica local (Rethinking Local Strategic Planning), organised by the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona and the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan.
Held on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the launch of the 1st Barcelona Strategic Economic and Social Plan, the course Repensar la planificación estratégica local examined the influence on local strategic planning of phenomena such as the emergence of information technologies and new forms of citizen participation.
At the round table "Hacking the Relationship with Citizens", moderated by the director of Alorza.net Alberto Ortiz de Zárate, we explained an active listening methodology for the social media of local administrations. Arnau Monterde, from the Barcelona platform Decidim, Rubén Martínez, from La Hidra-Cooperativa, and Sergi Frías, from the CoBoi Social Innovation Lab, explained how they promote citizen participation from the entities they manage.
Alberto Ortiz kicked off the day with a presentation on open government, criticising the lack of a pre-planning phase by public administration. "By understanding who we are addressing, we will be clearer about how to broaden participation, so that when we open channels of communication, the first thing that happens isn't an influx of insults," he said.
Active listening in social media is precisely the action that needs to be taken and should precede joining social channels. As we explained at the beginning of the presentation, "local administrations must actively listen in order to be able to fulfil their role in social channels: to work as catalysts of the interaction between citizens and public powers that social media offers".
Benchmarking local government social media
"Are local administrations taking advantage of the potential of social media to become channels of interaction with citizens? To answer this question, we presented the conclusions of the benchmarking of twenty cities that Zinkdo prepared for the Advisory Committee on Digital Communication of the Barcelona City Council.
The cities analysed, from Helsinki to Tokyo to New York, passing through Huesca, Bilbao and Barcelona itself, opt for "we" as the majority voice and show consistency of identity (names and profile images) in their social channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the most used platforms among the administrations analysed, "as is the case among citizens". In terms of content, the cultural agenda dominates both Facebook and Twitter, while on Instagram "cities, like us, make themselves beautiful, because the majority of content is urban landscapes".
Community management for local administrations
As an example on how to implement a social media strategy for a local administration, we talked about the pilot programme in which Zinkdo participated to professionalise the management of the social media of the Districts of Barcelona. The main objective of the programme was to foster community with citizens, in line with the role we think local administrations should play in social media to interact with citizens.
To achieve this, we relied above all on content related to the cultural agenda and anything that appealed to a sense of belonging to the borough. We had to combine these messages with other necessary information on an administration's social media (traffic issues, official procedures, social services, facilities...), but we were always aware that interaction would come from content that sought to generate community. Month after month, in addition to the sustained increase in followers and interactions, we found that the content aimed at creating community was the most successful of the channels managed.
Active listening on behalf of local administrations
After explaining the social media response protocol agreed upon with the Districts that we as community managers had to follow, we explained that local government social media strategies such as the one we had just presented are designed through active listening: "When you listen to your audience and plan a strategy accordingly, you are more likely to achieve a successful social media presence".
By monitoring, i.e. tracking on social media what is being said about us and how it concerns us, we will be able to determine which communities we can engage with, and what messages we need to send to show them that we are listening to them. This would be the proactive component of active listening, but there is also a reactive component. Monitoring allows us to react quickly to comments regarding ourselves: "At Zinkdo we recommend not waiting for the crisis: Monitor, Assess and Participate, because Prevention is Better", we affirm.
Having explained the Zinkdo method to carry out an active listening project, we invite you to download the book La gestión de la reputación online de las ciudades (City Online Reputation Management), written by the Zinkdo team. This book explains the methodology of active listening by presenting the results of monitoring carried out by six different cities with the aim of detecting common problems in each city, and providing recommendations to solve them.
In this presentation you can consult the Zinkdo methodology of active listening in social media, as well as a compilation of good practices that take into account the role of public service for local administrations:
After developing projects for various city councils and official entities, at Zinkdo we know the peculiarities of active listening and community management of social media for public administrations. If you think our experience may be valuable to your project, contact us.
© Photo: PEMB-Paula Salvatella