Driving innovation Driving innovation through social mediathrough social media

How do we fix a problem like…How do we fix a problem like…

making the best use of our knowledge to unlock innovation

reaching out & connecting communities

enabling customers to solve their problems together

adapting to new tools and great expectations

Who’s using it? Who’s using it?

o Organisations are increasingly using social media for their core business and seeing a return on their investment

o They haven’t avoided the risks of social media, but have begun to tackle the challenges

o Local authorities recognise the opportunities but there is no strategic approach to using social media

Who’s using it?Who’s using it?

o Majority of people have access to the internet & contribute content

o However, the digital divide still exists

o Different groups using social media to connect, contribute, create and collaborateo Digital inactiveso Information gatherers o Everyday communicatorso Creative producers o Data mashers

Are you using it?Are you using it?

What are the benefits?What are the benefits?

understand

your customers

involve your communities

uncover your innovators

When & where we want toWhen & where we want to

o What can we learn from the needs & attitudes of our citizens and how they influence each other?

Making feedback that starts with the user and focuses on outcomes

o Introduce engagement tools when customers “check out” of transactional services

o Pinpoint problems in your area on a virtual map and find services

o Develop feedback between users and professionals in real-time, location-based and adapted to internet behaviours of customer group

o Enable citizens to turn feedback into structured proposals on policies for specific groups, areas of expertise, products & large scale projects

o How can our customers better understand their local needs to help shape their future?

Turning customer involvement back into customer insight

o Use virtual reality to assist in planning, consultation, construction and marketing with audience response capture

o Enable citizens and businesses to share insights and experiences on local facilities, needs, tourism or towns

Linking up stakeholders to better connect with citizens

o Provide general and specialist advice whenever you need in hard-to-reach areas using video access points

o Join up stakeholders to plan neighbourhood disaster management and provide emergency communications tools

o Use deliberative polling to gauge public opinion help people reach consensus

Do it yourselfDo it yourself

o Personalise your councilo Let people upload and share tours of local townso Employee generated video programming to help roll out

initiatives, reinforce corporate values, or share best practices.

o Allow job candidates to experience potential employers through online profiles, video and audio clips that tell each company's story and show why it's a great place to work.

o Let users take pictures of everything they eat, and send them to their own dieticians

From virtual reality…From virtual reality…

o Use virtual whiteboarding that visitors can sketch and scribble on

o Automated 24/7 conversationo Broadcast cabinet meetings on virtual worlds

…to mobile reality

o Mobile lens: Mapping and sharing of social knowledge around small geographical areas, focused through the perspective of “place shaping” lens

o Connects citizens with mobile workers ono content delivery relevant to location o customer contact between council and citizens o reporting/feedback relevant to location

Empower our local innovators…Empower our local innovators…

o How do we encourage local people to help find innovative solutions to improve our services and communities?

o “When enough people can collect, re-use and distribute public sector information, people organise around it in new ways, creating new enterprises and new communities.”

Opportunities for userso Access and share advice and guidance and “being a pro-am”o Develop skills in enterprise, innovation and community

building

Opportunities for local government

o Share, store & rate ideas and innovations to generate income

o BBC Backstage encourages innovation, and helps to develop

‘niche applications’ that it itself might not develop.

Power of Information, Cabinet Office, 2007

Turning individual ideas and skills into community solutions

o Identify and develop innovative solutions to common challenges o Work together to improve wellbeing through activity sharing,

resource sharing, time trading and matchmaking users and providers, collaborative fundraising, collaborative translation

Influencing behaviours to encourage participation

o Lead citizens directly to online transactional serviceso Influence behaviours on democratic participation through

viral marketing o Enable citizens to build coalitions of support on specific issueso Develop collaborative media within a neighbourhood,

housing facility or for young people

Who will use it and how?Who will use it and how?

o Social network analysis and long tail feedback

o “If you liked this, you may like that”

o “Other people who used/did this, also used these services”

What about internally?What about internally?

Opportunities for youo Validate existing knowledge and co-produce new knowledgeo Develop and archive your reflective learning and peer reviewo Discover and network with colleagues with common needs and

skillso Share your collective wisdom to identify and develop innovative

solutions on key themes

Opportunities for local serviceso Facilitate knowledge continuity and flow across organisationo Capture learning and practice on demand & real time

Examples from pilotso Sharing best practice & lessons learned from workshops,

mapping out research & practice on specific theme, updating emergency contacts listing, creating “how to” toolkit, Comparison of metrics, invitation for job shadowing, call for volunteers, co-design of assessment tools & major event, Project for a local government glossary

After…After…

o “Professionals could benefit by having a space to put down ideas before they got lost, write down things that have inspired them – say a speaker at a conference, make suggestions and get ideas”*

o “People who find it hard to share skills face-to-face could see their ideas and knowledge being passed on and feel they are part of a community”*

o “We will enable users to work with other users and their workers…to develop advice, mentoring and collaborative production, enabling them to make comments in a way where they’re not being shouted down and they can contribute. In other words, getting users to contribute in a professional setting.”

* quotes from participants of the Kent Communities of Practice pilots

What are the risksWhat are the risks

o“I don’t know how to collaborate in this way”o“The bottom line is that this is a new concept to the majority of people”o“I don’t go online to collaborate”o“Some people aren’t likely to change unless there is a problem.”o“The more content we produce, the harder it becomes to use clearly”

What are the challenges?What are the challenges?

define needs

choose tools

create solutionsdevelop networks

share learning

Build trust Invite stakeholders, customers and residents to create critical mass

Allow time Allow different levels of participation

Build interest Facilitate, empower and value activity

Select the tools Streamline the balance between online and offline activities

Define the relevance of the tools

Involve people in the design of the services and understanding how they work

Choose the technology Access specialist software and technical expertise to operate free software

Know your audience Customise to needs and skills of individuals or group and agreed outcomes

Keep the environment flexible

Knowledge must be built on in real-time and customised to meet outcomes and develop skills

Communicate clearly Attention must be given to how online activities are displayed

Would this benefit you?Would this benefit you?

o Project or flexible working teams: particularly if you are thinking or already working flexibly

o Training cohorts: trainees, apprentices, participants in diplomas & courses

o Customer/user groups: user groups, citizen panels & customer communities

o Partnerships: multi agency project teams, local strategic partnerships & local trusts

o Thematic groups: focused on corporate outcomes that impact across the organisation, i.e. corporate units and staff boards

o “More people than ever before can be involved in innovation. Thanks to the falling costs of technology, cheaper communications, rising educational attainments and longer life spans, more people have more time and capacity to be creative, if only in small ways, than ever before. Ideas do not just flow down the pipeline from the back room boys to consumers. Increasingly ideas are flowing the other way: consumers are increasingly a source of creativity…We need to encourage a wider culture of ‘citizen innovation’ in which many more people see themselves, if only in small ways, as potential contributors to innovation.” (NESTA)

NESTA forms part of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS)

““You did it, we shared it, you solved You did it, we shared it, you solved it”it”