Mid Suffolk welcomes careful social media

Alright, so I'm a local political activist, and I want to know what's going on in my area. Keeping up to date with local affairs can mean waiting for the local 'dead tree' media to publish a story and then commenting on it. And whilst that's good as far as it goes, one likes to be ahead of the news, rather than one step behind.

So I decided to explore the Mid Suffolk District Council website, to see how 'social media friendly' it is. The website itself is pretty basic, although all of the things you would expect to find are there. There appears to be no Twitter feed, unlike Suffolk County Council (who admittedly don't appear to have posted there since 18 January). I haven't had any problem finding out the information I need though, so it does its job.

The press releases appear to be a bit out of date, however, so I decided that it might be nice to connect with the publicity department of Mid Suffolk District Council. In fairness, I suspect that it isn't very big, as Mid Suffolk is not a large authority, and the same name seemed to appear on most of the press releases. So I rang Vicky Smy, the Senior Communications Officer, and asked whether or not the council had a policy on social media.

She was very friendly, telling me that they were still considering one, and would be doing so along with her colleagues at Babergh District Council (the two authorities are integrating a lot of their back office functions) in the near future. So I asked if it was possible to receive press releases, and was delighted to get a positive response (none of this, "I'll need to talk to someone more senior" nonsense).

And so I should in future receive their press releases, and be better able to carry out my functions as a Parish councillor. Vicky did warn me that I wouldn't be inundated, which I find strangely reassuring.

So, Vicky Smy, this blogger salutes you for being reasonable, helpful and friendly. As a bureaucrat myself, I know that such an approach isn't always standard, so a big thank you cfrom one of the denizens of our quiet corner of England...