Stap isi

17 October 2008

The case for social media #2: Trust

Demos, the think tank for ‘everyday democracy’, has a report online called State of Trust: How to build better relationships between councils and the public. It looks at what they call the “worryingly low levels of public trust” in politics and democratic institutions.

It’s worth paying attention to Demos because their methodology is good. That is, they talk to lots of real people.

Many of their recommendations for improving that level of trust could include social media components.

Service relationships

When you call up [the council] you never know who you are speaking to and you often get the feeling they don’t know what they are doing anyway. Female, 35–44, BC1, Lewisham

The most common service delivery problem among our four councils was their failure to build ongoing relationships with individual members of the public. Most people in our focus groups had experienced very little personal interaction with their local authority. Interactions tended to be about one-off problems, with members of the public rarely speaking to the same person twice. This creates a sense that councils are ‘faceless’. Postal communications are no more effective, with most ignored due to ‘boring design’. The public in our four areas generally remembered only election manifestos and council tax bills. Once again, these findings are consistent with other qualitative studies of public interactions with local government. So public interactions with a council are usually framed in negative terms from the start – you speak to the council only when you have a problem, and when you do contact them you are dealing with a faceless organisation where no one seems to be on your side.
— Demos, State of Trust

Possible social media responses:

• Council contact pages could be significantly augmented by assigning say 1 to 3 officers as ‘first point of contact’ online. These need not necessarily be front counter staff. You want officers who are comfortable with online communication and who are almost always connected. It could be one or more of your librarians. Show the names and avatars of these designated guides on your contact page, and provide a way to contact them directly – via email, Twitter or instant messaging service. Often people just need to get clarification on what questions to ask – and a frontline ‘guide’ could help. Many questions can be answered by providing a link to a form or page on your website.
• These officers should represent on Twitter, IM, etc. Speaking personally and professionally, using their own name (or nickname) but clearly identified as belonging to your organisation.
• Take this web team to public events – have a stall at your local markets or festival. Wireless laptops, maybe refreshments, and people ready for a chat. Use your library, organise a monthly drop-in session.

Identity

Move from an anonymous, faceless corporate website towards one where identity plays an important role. — Matthew Hodgson (paraphrased)

And who should go out front?

The Edelman Trust Barometer 2008 suggests People like me. And employees. They could be one and the same, if you allow your staff some identity.

Decision making

People’s perceptions of decisions, and of their fairness, seem likely to be formed by a wider range of factors, including a sense that their voice and opinion was heard and a sense that the decision was subjected to strong scrutiny. This means that the way a decision is communicated, discussed and scrutinised by backbenchers may be at least as important as the outcome of that decision.
— Demos, State of Trust

Possible social media responses:

• Blogs from Councillors. An accessible archive of their thinking and an opportunity for constituents to share their perspective.
• A blog written by Council staff, outlining process.

For this purpose, blogs must have comments enabled and the author identified – name (first name and initial?) and avatars. Author’s name should be hyperlinked to a page collecting their posts and comments along with a brief bio.

Reputation goes hand in hand with trust.

Demos: Implications and recommendations

• first, that councils need to move from one-off problem-solving interactions with their citizens to ongoing, two-way relationships that allow for trust building
• second, that councils need to pay greater attention to the fairness of their decision-making processes and the way that their decisions are communicated, examining the role of issues such as scrutiny and transparency as well as executive decision-making powers
• third, that councillors should play a key role in closing the gap between the decision-making and personal spheres of trust

It’s clear that online engagement has a significant role to play.

— b3rn   blogging, identity, the persuader, trust   Oct 17, 10:05 PM   #

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