Observing activity on social media should be interesting in the run up to September’s general election.

Although Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and others have been around for a while, including previous general elections, their significance is still emerging as a meaningful form of engagement between organisations, celebrities, politicians and everybody else in the world that comprises Socialmediadom.

Following MP Judith Collins’ testy forays on Twitter earlier this year, the prime minister remarked he supported his minister’s decision to withdraw because Twitter was full of “trolls and bottom-feeders”.

Other comments made by leading politicians suggest that their primary interest in social media channels is to push information and comments out to whomever. This is probably because having a presence on mainstream social media is seen to be modern and “hip” and because it’s a task that can be easily delegated or automated.

Effective engagement, whatever channels are used, comes at a cost. This is particularly true for social media. The cost involves time and intellect. If the necessary investment in both of these communities is neglected, it shows. Lack of investment also creates a fertile environment for “trolls and bottom-feeders” to do what they do best.

All successful relationships and conversations need to be shaped and participants must be treated as equals. Mainstream social media makes hard work of lending itself to that sort of intercourse where many participants seem to believe that louder is better, and abuse and bullying are OK. Discussions quickly divert from their initial focus, meme builders apply their craft, camp followers arrive and circle their wagons. Apart from occasional flashes of inspiration or insight, nothing much happens until the next foray.

While it’s easy for engagement specialists to say “it doesn’t have to be that way”, there appears to be scant interest from people wanting to build better pathways to allow more meaningful connections. That’s short-sighted, because there are some powerful tools, including those for online engagement. These tools are widely available, even to politicians!

And no, those tools don’t include Facebook or Twitter. The “better” tools allow meaningful, moderated discussions and exchanges of ideas and opinions where online exchanges can be captured and analysed. Moderation is an essential component, as it keeps conversations on topics and minimises the effects that “trolls and bottom-feeders” can wreak.

These tools are being used by some New Zealand organisations, but not widely or frequently. On the other hand many organisations are using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and some other channels, but not particularly effectively. Quantity does not always align with quality.

Choices of tools shouldn’t be random or based on a “me too” approach. Decisions should be based on a carefully crafted engagement plan that has a clear picture of what success looks like and a detailed pathway to get there. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,” as Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire cat once famously observed. The same can be said for choices of tools.

Yes, these specialist online engagement tools cost a bit more to operate than the likes of Twitter and also take a bit of time to set up. But like most things in life, one gets what one pays for. To quote legendary American oil well firefighter Red Adair “If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”

In the absence of a clear strategy, it is most likely that politicians’ efforts in Socialmediadom this election will produce more heat than light and, as many online citizens are expecting, bountiful embarrassment and entertainment, an all-you-can-eat buffet for the trolls and bottom-feeders.

A major piece of legislation that shapes the roles and functions of local government councils and agencies in New Zealand is the Local Government Act 2002. A bill to amend this Act is currently passing through Parliament and is expected to be passed into law by the end of the first quarter of 2014.

Included in the proposed amendments are changes to Part 6 of the Act, notably a requirement for councils to have a significance AND engagement policy, rather than just the significance policy that the current Act requires. Changes are also proposed to the Act’s special consultative procedure provisions.

These changes will require a different approach to how councils engage with their communities – changes that should be welcomed by communities who want to be more involved in council decision-making processes and for there to be greater transparency for council decision-making generally.

Councils will also need to think hard about how they assess “significance”, as required by the Act and how they apply that policy. A particular issue is how councils determine whether an issue is of “high” significance or not and will need to focus on impact on communities, rather than just on economic impact which appears to be the prevailing basis for council decisions.

Environmental, social and cultural well-beings must also form part of a significance determination which should not be overshadowed by financial considerations. The Office of the Auditor General has been concerned about councils’ approach to determining significance for some years and how consistently significance policies have been applied.

Engagement is often something councils do because they have to, not because they want to. Changes to the Act regarding engagement require councils to work more closely with their communities. We think this is a good thing, not only for New Zealand’s communities but also for councils themselves. More effective and ongoing engagement will greatly increase a council’s understanding of a community’s issues, needs and priorities. It will also grow a council’s trust and respect and other elements that comprise its “social capital”.

Yes, more engagement will probably increase the level of investment a council has to make to ensure it is done well. But that investment will pay back strongly in other areas, such as a reduction in challenges to council decisions, particularly legal challenges, and a greater ability for council projects to be delivered to time and within budget.

Engagementworks understands what the changes to Part 6 of the Local Government Act mean for councils and local government agencies. To help councils and avoid the inevitable “reinventing of the wheel” that often occurs with change processes, we have built a resource kit to make it easy for councils to meet the new statutory requirements. The kit includes process flowcharts and templates for building a significance and engagement policy through to how to apply that policy on a day-to-day basis.

We’ve also built a training workshop to help guide councils through the changes a revised Act will require for engagement practice.

Our resources have been peer reviewed and are available now, based on the current Bill, assuming it will pass through Parliament unchanged. However should changes occur, then the resource will be updated to incorporate these amendments, at no cost.

The resource kit can be obtained by contacting us at [email protected] or by clicking this link.

It will be available as a printed copy and also on CD. It will also be available on memory stick or in Dropbox™ where it will be maintained on an ongoing basis – the latest version will always be the one available. Subscribers who do not have Dropbox™ will be sent notices of updates as these occur.

In addition to supplying the resource kit, Engagementworks also offers a one-day “how to” workshop to help councils understand and implement the new statutory requirements relating to significance and engagement. The one-day workshop can be adapted to suit specific council requirements.

Pricing:

• The kit on its own is available for purchase for $620 plus GST.
  
• The one-day, in-house “how to” workshop, including the resource kit, is priced at $7,500 plus GST for up to 20 people.
  

Local Government New Zealand’s president Lawrence Yule says that governance training is something no council can say they can’t afford. We agree. That’s why we’ve developed a community engagement governance workshop and other resources. We have one of these day-long workshops scheduled for Wellington on 11 February 2014. We can take this workshop to councils around the country, if they have 10 or more participants and a suitable venue.

Elected councillors and senior council managers are the people who decide whether an engagement proposal should fly or die. If they decide it should fly, then they are going to need regular update reports to let them know what is happening, if the project is running as it should, and if it isn’t, why that is and what corrective actions may be necessary by their practitioner team.

In the community engagement governance space, councillors and senior managers also need to identify projects or initiatives that will need a supporting engagement plan. Their Significance Policy should be helping with those decisions. Legislative changes to the Local Government Act likely to take effect in 2014 will require them to have a Significance AND Engagement Policy. We have prepared a kit that will help councils work through the steps needed to complete one of these and we will be launching that early in 2014.

Engagement plans for specific projects and initiatives should be guided by an overarching engagement strategy. Too few organisations have one of these, relying instead on a communication strategy. We think that communication should be viewed as a component of engagement, not the other way around. It should be identified and planned for early, rather than left until the last minute, as seems to happy way too often.

While community engagement may sound complex, it is or should be straightforward for organisations that are committed to it and who are prepared to invest in good systems, governance training and trained practitioners. We can help with all of that. We’re also happy to discuss your needs on a no commitment basis – the coffee’s on us!

We've got a free Community Engagement Checklist E-book available.

Don and Brett here at Engagementworks are passionate about community engagement and the benefits it can unlock for organisations who are really committed to its practice. We’re a couple of experienced blokes who have done a lot in the engagement space – from face-to-face to online.

While we have a commercial interest in the practice of community engagement, we’re also keen to grow a vibrant community of practitioners around New Zealand. That’s one of the reasons behind our seminar series, the second of which is being held this week in Hamilton.

It’s also a reason behind some free E-books we’ve got planned. We’ve just completed the first of these – a Community Engagement Checklist. This is available as a Word document, so that it can be used as an electronic template and also manipulated however its users want. If you’d like a copy, send us an email with your email address and we’ll send you one. There’s no cost. We just ask that you respect our product and don’t give it away to others, or charge for it! If you think we can make it better, we’d appreciate your feedback.

If you need some advice about how to use the Checklist, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We don’t always charge for advice we provide. Quite often the coffee’s on us!

If you need something more comprehensive for an engagement strategy or project, we can help with that too, whether as advisers, consultants, implementers or trainers.

On our website there’s a range of training courses we’ve developed to cover most needs. If your organisation has specific needs that aren’t covered by these courses or which need bits from several, we’re happy to build something that meets your needs. We can also deliver those at your place, if you’ve got a venue.

So if you need something to help with your community engagement delivery, or not exactly sure what you might need, please give us a call. We’re happy to listen and to advise.

Many organisations, particularly government department and agencies, and local authorities are keen to do more online engagement and are looking for guidance.

This is a big part of Engagementworks’ focus. We’re keen to see a strong and vibrant community of interest grow around engagement in general and online engagement in particular.

Here are links to some online resources that may help engagement practitioners advance their causes within their organisations.

This first document was recently published by New Zealand’s Office of the Auditor General:
http://www.oag.govt.nz/2013/social-media

This resource was created by Queensland’s Government Web Centre:
http://www.qld.gov.au/web/community-engagement/policy-guidelines/guidelines/

Online engagement is a key part of our practitioner series of workshops. We also offer a short course that focuses on this, and can customise that to meet specific needs and audiences.

We’re happy to discuss your needs and ideas. Please send us an email or give us a call!

Chief executives around the world aren’t that active when it comes to using social media. New Zealand appears to be no exception.

This may be because CEOs are busy people who are accustomed to delegating hands-on tasks to others.

But one thing they can’t, or rather shouldn’t delegate, is how they project themselves to others. People are always interested in other people, what they may think, believe, do and say. Bosses are no exception. Effectively demonstrating leadership is about communicating oneself, not just a bunch of key business messages.

The art of powerful leadership communication is about knowing how much of oneself to share with others. Different leaders may share more of themselves than others. How much each will share should involve taking some risks and trusting the people one may be sharing with.

Social media offers a variety of channels for chief executives and senior managers generally to engage with others. In the case of channels like LinkedIn, this can be formal and structured, although even there CV formality is not the best way of capturing attention. Other social channels are a lot more informal. Twitter and similar short message channels also require some skills about keeping comments short and catchy.

Even internal engagement can be done through social media. Yammer is a good example of a tool that can be used within a corporate environment, keeping outsiders away from comments and discussions.

Yes, social media involves a time commitment, not only for posting comments but also for encouraging feedback and engaging with that. Leaders who do this well are respected by those they’re engaging with. Their social capital will grow considerably, as will their levels of respect and trust.

At the moment there is a handful of CEOs who are actively engaging through social media and a very large number who aren’t doing anything at all.

If CEOs are nervous about what to do and how to do it, I am certain that within their organisation, particularly in a communication team, there are some people who would be more than willing to provide ideas, support and encouragement. Some CEOs may even have partners, sons and daughters who can offer advice. The rest is up to each CEO to do as much as they feel comfortable doing.

It helps to start with an idea of the space that social media can open up as well as some of the potential risks, but specific destinations can be hard to reach, particularly if one isn’t marketing products or services.

The “right” way of using social media is about doing what works best for the person doing it. That’s going to involve taking some risks. The best way to learn is to dive in.