Public Consultation Toolkit - Civil Service College

Public Consultation Toolkit 71 72 Public Consultation Toolkit
Before using blogs, agencies should determine:
• Content – the level of information that they wish to disseminate. Agencies should always
keep in mind that they would be contributing to a ‘public blog’ and as such, should be
sensitive to the readers they may have.
• Privacy and safety – never distribute private information that the public does not need to
know about, e.g. personal schedules, numbers or addresses.
When is it most useful?
Blogs are useful for sounding out ideas and testing the reaction of readers towards a certain
topic, to conduct informal or ‘soft’ consultation with the public. It also provides agencies with an
informal setting to connect with the public and creates an opportunity to ‘humanise’ abstract
issues.
Considerations
Contributors should consider the implications of their words to the general public, and should
always bear in mind that their posts are available on the public domain.
Agencies should also note that the blog discussion takes place on a public domain. Agencies
therefore need to be prepared for negative comments and responses in a public domain which
may potentially influence the views of other readers.
6. Social media
Social media (e.g. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn) is a new form of
technologically-enabled consultation tool, where government
policy information can be instantaneously disseminated to a
multitude of people. It has the additional benefit of being a
‘two-way’ channel of communication where participants can
comment or reply almost immediately.
Social media are useful for agencies to informally consult and
engage with the population. Similar to blogs, public officers
or government agencies can post comments/ideas/issues on
the websites and the general public can respond to them.
The target audience for such social media are younger, more
technologically-savvy individuals. In the advent of mobile
broadband technology, these participants are able to access
information in transit and are no longer confined to a
particular geographical location, time of day, or availability of
information outlets (e.g. news stands, television or radio).
How it works
Social platforms often merge features such as email, instant
messaging, image and video sharing, applications and ‘status
updates’. It allows for the creation of ‘groups’ that participants
can join where they receive relevant information pertaining
to that particular ‘group’. Users are often allowed to log in to
one interface with numerous features, rather than needing to
filter through a myriad of social interaction applications (e.g.
instant messaging programmes, YouTube).
An account is first set up by the agency before the various
tabs/applications can be populated accordingly. The typical
sections available are as follows:
• Summary page (e.g. ‘wall function in Facebook’) – the
summary page displays status updates, and links or videos
with summaries to relevant sites from the agency. It
provides an informal avenue for government agencies to
keep the public informed about current events.
TIPS FOR
EFFECTIVENESS
• Responding to comments
within a short period of
time gives participants a
sense that the government
is managing the channel
and is actively taking an
interest in their feedback.