Over the past few years, there have been a number of attempts to encourage innovation and improve the efficiency of council operations in England and Wales - Best Value, the Local e-Government Programme, the e-Innovations Programme.
Council communications heads might well have initiative-fatigue! But it is pretty certain that they are developing plans within their departments to grasp many of the emerging digital opportunities for saving money, improving two-way communications with stakeholders and making communications activity more sustainable.
My local council (no names; no pack drill) continues to send out many thousands of paper communications at horrendous environmental and ratepayer cost. While not everyone is online, a significant percentage of council taxpayers have access to email. And nearly everyone has a mobile.
So, while digital exclusion is a key issue, there is still a digitally-enfranchised majority who would be happy to engage with local government online. In fact, digital technologies often go unrecognised as an effective means to alleviate or overcome some of the barriers faced by the socially-excluded.
Even in these cash-strapped times, Juice Digital will give county and borough councils the opportunity of a one-to-one meeting to see where innovation can be made without huge investment.
2 Comments
Sir;
Tempting as it may appear , resorting to new media / communicatiosn techologies and approaches needs to be taken with caution. New media technologies have with them many adavtages but are lacking in many ways as well. They are interactive, instantenous and enagaging as well. However , they a best as complimentary to the time tested technologies which are durable , though bulk as well.
Eric, your comment is a wise one. Marketing, as you know, can be seen as the orchestration of an organisation to create, reinforce and retain customer preference.
This orchestration, in marketing communications terms, requires a baseline of conventional tools, time-tested as you say.
Digital media have their limitations but big brands like Unilever are using them to launch products and I know a small business which has doubled its turnover using Twitter.
Not to have a digital media plan is commercial suicide.