LA Blogging

Not Los Angeles, but Local Authority...

I was speaking at the Greater Manchester IT Managers Group forum yesterday (About MOSS and local gov experiences), what struck me as being very significant, was that two out of three of the sessions delivered by authorities gave examples of senior members of their authority using MOSS for blogging.

Now the fact they are using MOSS isn't really the issue at all, whats key is that these leading figures of their locale are putting themselves into the light and engaging with open conversations with the council, ok its internal, but I think its a great step...

What are they talking about, well there's a pattern, they had both committed and signed "internal agreements" to blog once a week minimum and they posted about:

• What meetings they had attended and why
• What they were going to do next week, meetings, out-and-about, focus
• Some occasional personal-time comments
• Council Issues and their views
• Improvement ideas

Both were allowing and encouraging comments and both seemed to be receiving great feedback from their avid readers...

So why is this important...? Its all about Visibility, Corporate Traction, Perception of Worth, Presence and Insight.

Story-Time: I had a boss, in a very senior position, I didn't see him much (as expected in this role), every monthly meeting we would tell him what we were doing, meetings, relationships, projects etc... every month for my first quarter reporting to him I asked him to shed some light on what he was doing...every month he stumbled over this, I gave up on him completely...

I've left now, I had no Visibility, Corporate Traction, Perception of Worth, Presence or Insight to what the division was doing, where it was going, how my boss was driving things forwards, the shape and purpose of the division was lost....
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I wasn't bought in to what we were doing because it wasn't visible to me... At these two councils the employees get an insight into the direction of the council, what matters to it and to their leader, they can easily buy into that direction and ethos... and importantly they can comment, add value, support, shape, disagree and gain a perception of worth, they matter, the council matters, their leader has a vision and purpose... Insight is a beautiful thing!

What is the Brand Power of the head of a council?

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