Learning Points
Lessons for those interested in becoming social media surgery organisers
The key issue is getting people to turn up and this depends on getting access to the relevant people who would appreciate help, through the networks of which they are members. If an approach is not working, the surgery needs to ask how it can connect to more trusted local individuals or community groups.
Surgeries need to be flexible and dynamic to fit in with the needs of the networks whose members turn up for help. The surgery will only work where participants are comfortable and where they believe they will get something from it.
This isn’t training, it’s about creating a space where people can share and learn. For this project, working in local areas of Birmingham, it was crucial to think about what participants wanted to achieve and how they actually used the internet. Once this was understood, then a tool that makes sense to the participant can be selected, in line with their skill level. Although the participants tend to have very little time to spare, once they find something useful they focus on it and make sure that they get it working for them.
Social media surgeries can be a scalable and repeatable model, as witnessed by the 60 or more that have now sprung up around the UK - but they need to respond to the needs of specific networks, making use of their social capital. Podnosh has since done work with the Take Part Pathfinder and Every Voice Counts, acting as a catalyst to encourage volunteer led surgeries to spring up. This has resulted in seven new surgeries emerging in the West Midlands region.
Lessons for local authorities and public agencies
Allow public officials to use social media with the same openness as citizens – it is soon noticed if this is not the case and, if noticed, it produces an unfavourable image of the public sector.
Where the main purpose of working in partnership with a private firm or social enterprise is to access its innovative practices, the monitoring systems which are used must not be so over-burdensome as to undermine this innovative capacity.
To encourage joint working with private firms and social enterprises, appropriate overhead cost recovery must be built into contracts and grants.
Small-scale investment in brokers who can encourage people to establish their own surgeries could pay dividends in terms of new ways to talk to the public.
Surgeries thrive where there is social capital - network building is a core part of how that happens.