Someone told the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham that YouTube is a good way to engage with people. Nobody told them not to use it as a way of distributing spin.
This video just invites criticism because of the way it is so obviously spin with the fake newspapers. To add insult to injury the first few people to comment on the story seem overly fawning and have been accused of being plants (or astro-turfers) from the council.
YouTube is a place for user generated content. The video is council generated content and therefore liable to attract criticism as it has from disgruntled workers and residents. LBHF would have been better off gathering the views of real people and posting them on YouTube. It would have been better received.
(hat-tip: Politics, PR & Marketing)
Wow, that's seriously cringe-worthy!
Posted by: Harry Metcalfe | February 13, 2008 at 04:51 PM
Ah Gawd luv 'em. you can almost hear the consultant who said 'ya need to be on YouTube' cashing his cheque! I particularly like the fact that now it says: "We're sorry, this video is no longer available". I'd go further than you and say that LBHF should have encouraged its residents to say what they wanted where they wanted and just include a new tag. LBHF could then have brought all their stories together and... ignored them!
Posted by: Paul Caplan | February 13, 2008 at 11:05 PM
It's almost worse that they have taken it down. I'm not convinced that any consultant is cashing cheques. The team at LBHF in past conversations have seemed genuine and under tight budgets. I think it is simply a case of local authority "broadcast" thinking being applied to social media and it not working.
Social media requires a new mindset. Another small example of how it goes wrong: http://www.idealgovernment.com/index.php/blog/do_i_know_fraser_henderson/
Posted by: Shane McCracken | February 14, 2008 at 12:09 AM