Presentation given to Northern Bloggers in Leeds on Friday, 22nd October 2010. For further information, please contact Louise on @loulouk on Twitter.

1. Local Government:
Analogue to Digital
Blackburn with Darwen Borough
Council in the 21st
century

2. Out with the old?
 Accrington Observer being produced in
Manchester
• Burnley Express production moving to
Preston
• Lancashire Telegraph circulation down to
28,000 & falling
• Proposed restrictions on number of issues
of local government ‘newspapers’
permitted

3. Digitally appropriate?
 54% of 18-24’s have social networking
profiles they use regularly
 Facebook estimates reach for
Blackburn/Darwen of approximately 60,000
 Population of Blackburn/Darwen is 137,000
at last census
 45% of borough’s housing considered
‘unsatisfactory’

4. Digital Inclusion
 490,000 public sector jobs to go
 Central government pushing for all
transactions to occur online
 Local government transactions, including
paying Council Tax, wrapped up in this
 Online transaction costs 27p. Telephone
£3.22. Face to face £6.56. Src: Nesta/Socitm
 Free platforms, free tools, open source code

5. Baby steps
 1-2-1 engagement with individual influencers on
Twitter
 Online reading groups run by the library/social
media workshops
 Facebook groups for Council run
services/entertainment (Darwen Festival,
Darwen Leisure Centre)
 Broadcast Twitter streams
 Using ‘events’ days such as National Poetry Day
to make broadcasts interesting
 Internal blogs

6. Fear of the future
 Have we always allowed people to talk
back?
 Fear of what will happen if floodgates
opened
 Value in preparing workflows before that
happens
 What are we expecting people to say?
 We have to talk to people on their
preferred channel

7. Building the paths for the future to
walk
 BWD Winter (maps, GPS, Facebook,
Twitter, Met Office, schools)
 Advertising our groups & streams
 Graffiti Flickr
 YouTube videos
 Town Centre website
 External blogs
 100 Voices
 Social media grids

8. Digital avalanches
(Generation Y)
 Digital immersion a given
 Digital expectation of service or will go
elsewhere
 Democratic services engagement
 Crowd sourcing planning
 Open data/mash ups
 The NHS – opening a can of worms
 Reliable, flexible, transparent, personalised,
stable, integrated framework as a hub

9. Analogue to digital?
 Will take time for residents to catch up
 Preparing for the moment they do
 Experimenting with innovation & creativity to
change the way we deliver our Services in an
age of austerity
 Providing training & incentives to assist in take
up
 Aim: All channels open to 2 way communication
within an organisation designed to use it

10. Analogue to digital?
 Will take time for residents to catch up
 Preparing for the moment they do
 Experimenting with innovation & creativity to
change the way we deliver our Services in an
age of austerity
 Providing training & incentives to assist in take
up
 Aim: All channels open to 2 way communication
within an organisation designed to use it