Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

A recent American study estimated that 66 per cent of online adults use social media like Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin.

If Facebook was a country, it would be the world's third largest. Twitter generates more than 40 million tweets per day. The attraction of social media is obvious; they allow instant interactive communication and are relatively inexpensive and easy for anyone to publish or access information. So it's no surprise that organisations have turned to social media to engage consumers.
In the United Kingdom, 96 per cent of surveyed local authorities are already using social media, particularly for posting news stories and information. Here in the Bay of Plenty, the regional council used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube very effectively to get the message out about Rena developments. But it's early days yet.

Our Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/boprc) currently has 211 followers and it is mostly used for quick updates. Our Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/boprc) currently has 824 likes and is used to get news and photos out – and also get feedback from users on matters of concern.

There are 164 videos uploaded on YouTube (www.youtube.com/bopregionalcouncil) which have had 105,604 video views. In the future, it is planned to use social media a lot more, especially for public participation like feedback in surveys.

We should focus, however, less on getting more Facebook fans and Twitter followers, and more on figuring out how Facebook and Twitter can improve our customer service. Our use of social media should be focused on supplementing and improving the day-to-day informational and transactional needs of our public.

But we need to retain traditional communication media as well. When it comes down to it, social media helps supplement and improve everything else being done to communicate – it's not some communications panacea.

If you have any views on this or any other issue, please phone 07 579 5150, email [email protected] or visit www.janenees.co.nz