COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, July 11, 2016

QUESTION NO.15

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive if he shares the concerns of this Member at the negative image being created by criticism of the Council through social media and other media; will he outline actions he is taking to create a positive image in respect of the important work of the Council on behalf of our Communities and will he table a statement in the matter.

REPLY:

It is imperative that South Dublin County Council communicates and promotes the activities it undertakes, informing citizens and generating an understanding of what we do, using all appropriate communications channels including social media. It is through communication that our target audiences can better understand and develop a positive perception of our visions, aims, values, services and achievements, with the hope that this will further lead to higher levels of citizen satisfaction and engagement. The ultimate aim of communications is to create an understanding so that all citizens, elected members, services users, staff and other individuals who deal with the council recognise the value of the work that South Dublin County Council does.

Through its communications strategies (Internal and External), South Dublin County Council has already put in place the policies and practices for effective communications. The emphasis of both has been placed on clear, consistent and appropriate communication between the council and its stakeholders, within and outside of the organisation.

South Dublin County Council including Libraries already have a strong presence on a number of social media platforms with a combined total of over 28,000 followers. In order to maintain the current success of South Dublin County Council’s online presence, the  Council is currently developing a Social Media Plan which will identify, plan and execute our social media goals to ensure that South Dublin County Council is not only using social media correctly but benefiting from having an online presence. A key objective of our new social media plan will incorporate ‘social listening’ where we can monitor what our target audience is saying about us online and when appropriate, respond accordingly.

At present we currently monitor and listen to the conversations on our owned social platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo run and operated by South Dublin County Council). It is through this listening that we then engage. Listening can assist us in our promotional and campaign efforts when targeting our audiences on social media.

Listening can also be used to stem the effects of negative social conversations, through effective listening and engagement we endeavour to deal with any negative commentary regarding the council before the conversation or situation can escalate. The immediate and interactional nature of social media is that it is usual to have a mix of positive and negative commentary and our accounts have a relatively balanced mix of both.