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inquiries, which arguably would not be that much
different from what the councils already do in the
case of telephone and e-mail contacts. The
development of such pathways can support
individual staff and the organisation as a whole in
avoiding crises and responding in a timely manner to
issues as the arise (Owyang, 2011). And last but not
least, the strategy should include an evaluation plan,
to both evaluate the performance of the council use
of social media and allow self-learning about the
ways it can be used.
However, as a social media strategy is something
that would probably only come into effect in the
mid-to-long term, we leave another suggestion for
councils, which could be implemented in a very
short time: just ask followers on Twitter about what
they would like to see the council tweeting about
and start from there.
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