Torbay Council Tweets its good news
TORBAY Council is encouraging local residents to find out more about the services it provides as it gears up for a 'tweetathon' on Thursday.
The event is part of National Social Media Week and will see officers from various departments across the council posting regular updates on Twitter throughout the day using the national hashtag #OurDay as well as #Torbay.
Those taking part will be able to follow staff from the Library Service, Customer Services team, Natural Environment team, Torbay Development Agency, Parkfield and the Dog Wardens as they go about their daily work.
Local councillors, including Alison Hernandez, Darren Cowell, David Thomas and Matthew James will also be stepping up their Twitter activity throughout the day and into the evening as they attend a Full Council meeting from 5.30pm.
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Executive Lead for Involved and Healthy Communities, Cllr Alison Hernandez, said: "I am a huge fan of social media and use Twitter regularly to keep residents informed of council business.
"For me it is yet another way in which we can communicate with residents and I hope that this event encourages more people to delve into the wonderful world of social media."
Deputy Mayor Cllr Dave Thomas, said: "With more and more people now accessing information through the internet and their mobile phone we cannot afford to ignore the powers of social media in communicating with our residents.
"We already have Twitter accounts for various services and many of our councillors actively use social media for keeping residents informed. This event gives us the opportunity to focus on the benefits of tweeting and I hope it will encourage new followers along the way."
People wishing to follow the Twitter accounts can either access them directly using the links below or doing a search using the hashtags #Torbay or #OurDay to view the conversations.
Torbay Council (a day in the life of our Customer Service Advisors) http://twitter.com/Torbay_Council
Parkfield Torbay http://twitter.com/ParkfieldTorbay
Torbay Dog Wardens http://twitter.com/torbaydogwarden
Torbay Libraries http://twitter.com/TorbayLibraries
Torbay’s Natural Environment Services http://twitter.com/NESTorbay
Torbay Development Agency http://twitter.com/TorbayTDA
People who do not have access to Twitter will be able to view all of the Twitter updates from the different services in one place at www.torbay.gov.uk/smw.
Comments
by realityzone
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 9:46PM
“"Tweeting" is for people with very short attention spans, its reduces everything to "sound bites" pure trivia. What these Councillors need to explain is that, as they switch to tweeting as a quick and easy way to convince themselves that that they are informing their electorate, what are they also doing to inform all those people that have something better to do with their lives than playing with social media? And, more importantly, the large number of older residents in Torbay who do not have access to social media in any form?
I am one of the many who are unable to attend meetings but I would rather be informed with a full report about it afterwards than sit around waiting for " itsi bitsi "little sound bites, especially if it results in those who we elect to take part in the meeting being distracted from it whilst they play about with their phones tweeting.
Their excuses for doing this are quite sad, as J.B .Shaw said "reasons are often excuses people dream up for what they intend to do anyway"”
by DarrenCowell
Tuesday, September 25 2012, 3:31PM
“Tweeting is a straight forward thing to do - and takes less time than writing posts such as this.
It is also a great way to get the message out there to the many who are unable to attend meetings.
As far as streaming meetings is concerned, myself and Cllr Hernandez have been asking for this since we were elected last year. There is the matter of cost, but who knows, now we will be moving council meetings out of Oldway we could move further in to the digital age!”
by spindleshanks
Monday, September 24 2012, 6:57PM
“When we all start to wonder why our bins haven't been emptied, the pavements are covered in dog poo and important decisions are being missed in council meetings, perhaps the local citizens can then start asking Torbay Council exactly how much time it does allow its staff to spend tweeting the outside world about what they are not doing whilst they are busy tweeting.
In the meantime, if accountabilty to the local electorate is so important, why aren't council meetings streamed live on the council's website?”