let's be social

Join us at the Bullring shopping centre, Birmingham city centre, on Saturday the 10th of October, 3-6ish, for Bullring Playtest where we try and put some of our crazy-talk into practice. We don’t have any refined games here, this is for trying stuff out and seeing what we end up with. Meet us at 3pm by the bull, or just inside the entrance behind it if it’s raining.

See more at http://barg.org.uk/make/announcing_the_bullring_playtest/

Found this on the BBC website

It’s a short 4 minute video about social media usage by MPs and quite interesting. It also features someone I know, Alastair Smith from Newcastle City Castle, who has done a hell of a lot to increase the usage of social media for councils, and as such Newcastle CC’s Twitter account has one of the highest followings of any UK Council.

I am sure many of our Councillors feel the same way, so are these surgeries going to change their perceptions?

I hope so!

From October WMCSMS in Solihull on the 6th

This will be the 2nd SMS for Solihull Councillors, and we’re expecting more people this time, so please visit the blog and leave a comment if you will be able to come along as a surgeon, or just interested in being part of the conversation about why blog or use social media/networks, and how it’s helped you etc.

As before, free coffee, biscuits, and parking around the Council House itself.

6-7:30pm Civic Suite

View Solihull Council in a larger map

This will be the 2nd SMS for Solihull Councillors, and we’re expecting more people this time, so please leave a comment if you will be able to come along as a surgeon, or just interested in being part of the conversation about why blog or use social media/networks, and how it’s helped you etc.

As before, free coffee, biscuits, and parking around the Council House itself.

6-7:30pm Civic Suite

[googlemaps http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=101345853077325692828.00047494e05e75d93d874&ll=52.411451,-1.777747&spn=0.002291,0.00456&z=17&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

And if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, Ping! seems to be a good way of doing it for free.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=303612602&mt=8

I gave it a whirl and it seems quite good, I just need to get more people using it. (hint hint)

So please give it a try, I think you will like it, the only drawback of applications like this is that there are so many, and apathy kicks in before enough people start using it en masse. Tell people you know about it too, and drop me a message to chimerax

The last one was arranged by Paul Hadley at the fantastic Saleems on Ladywood Road in Brum, and a great time was had by all.

I think it’s time to sort out another one!

Let me know in the comments where we should eat, and dates that are good for you, and we’ll get something sorted out soon!

Pics from the last one here

At the moment, lots of planning!

A few of us are running a series of social media surgery sessions for the Council’s Members, to get them up to speed with blogging etc, and hopefully this will help them engage more with their wards. You can find more info about this here.

Also, plans are afoot to create both a Social Media Cafe, and Social Media Evening, so keep an eye on the page links above, and this blog to find out more, as and when it happens

The SMS for Acocks Green will be on the 1st of October from 5:30-7pm, and held in the Inn On The Green pub, located on the main roundabout in the Village.


View Inn On The Green in a larger map

Let us know in the comments if you will be able to attend.

… if you’re in Solihull or Acocks Green anyway.

I’ll be using this blog primarily as a place to inform, organise, and blog about social media things going on around where I work and live, as everything else I see seems to revolve heavily around Birmingham itself, and other large towns and cities around us.

Starting soon, Solihull will have regular Social Media Cafe, Social Media Surgery, and Social Media Pub/Bar events, and Acocks Green already has regular Social Media Surgeries most months, and will possibly be getting a cafe style event if enough of the website owners and bloggers want to do something.

Don’t expect much over the course of the next few days, as all of this will take me a little while to set-up, however do let me know if you would like an account on the Solihull or Acocks Green blogs to inform people of events etc.

I’m sitting with Cllrs Allport and Rebeiro talking about Wordpress, and how easy it is to post articles, and comment!

I can see Kate, and Gavin helping 3 other Cllrs, but I bet I’m the only one posting an article about it