Our #OurDay favourites! - Knowledge Hub Team

#OurDay 2013 was a great success with 3,500 contributors, nearly 11,000 tweets and an amazing reach of 3 million. All across the land councils took to Twitter to tell the local government story. The day was a great chance to celebrate local government and show the wonderful variety of services provided. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part and made the day such a roaring success.

Our stats show that our top 10 tweeters of the day, in terms of numbers of tweets, were:

• Gloucestershire County Council @GlosCC
• Staffordshire County Council @StaffordshireCC
• Redcar and Cleveland Council @RedcarCleveland
• Bournemouth Borough Council @bournemouthbc
• Swale Borough Council @SwaleCouncil
• London Borough of Bexley @bexleycomms
• North Devon Council @ndevoncouncil
• Wycombe District Council @wycombedc
• Newark and Sherwood District Council @NSDCouncil
• Telford and Wrekin Council @TelfordWrekin

There were so many great tweets throughout the day it’s hard to choose our favourites, but we thought we would try and share our picks of the day with you. If we happen to miss your favourite, please do add your own in a comment below, as we’d love to hear from you.

Liz’s picks:

Liz loved this picture from Solihull Connect showing a Food Safety Team member inspecting imported fruit and vegetables at Birmingham Airport. It’s not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the work of a council, but it’s an important job. Liz admits… She’s never seen a jackfruit before, let alone one this big!

As a great supporter of good employee engagement in organisations and a member of the Engage for Success movement, Liz was really pleased to see Redcar and Cleveland staff recognised by the Mayor for going the extra mile. #OurDay was a great opportunity to recognise so many of our public servants who work really hard in our communities every day.

Easily the funniest tweet of the day in Liz’s opinion, she couldn’t resist putting this one in… Thanks to North Lincolnshire Dog Wardens who tweeted tonnes of useful info and gave a great insight into their work throughout #OurDay.

Michael’s picks:

As a Dad, Michael liked seeing all the great tweets about activities for children and young people going on in councils, like this one from Northampton about their rhymetime session in the library.

On his way in to work on #OurDay, Michael tweeted about the range of council services he sees just on his commute and invited others to do the same. One resident in Bournemouth took up that challenge and noted a whole range of council services on her travels around the borough.

As a keen cyclist himself, Michael was pleased to note this quirky pic of Gloucestershire County Council Chief Executive Pete Bungard heading off to a meeting on his bike.

Dimple’s picks:

As a Merton resident with two young daughters, Dimple was thrilled to see children at a local primary school getting the opportunity to meet the Mayor.

Dimple enjoyed seeing the collective views of the national graduate development programme’s cohort 14 gathered together in one image. This wordle represents what local government means to our next cohort of talented rising stars.

Like all of us who hate littering and dog poo fouling up our streets, Dimple liked seeing this clever film from Charnwood Borough Council – great fun, but with a serious message.

Sarah’s picks:

Last year, Sarah remembers a tweet about independent living that really stayed with her so she was particularly struck by this tweet by @MIRDudley.

Jen Beardsmore, Head of Libraries & Archives in Dudley, did a fantastic job on #OurDay visiting local libraries and posting pictures of what they were up to on Twitter. With a soft spot for Pat’s black cat, this one was Sarah's top choice.

Of course, the purpose of #OurDay is to raise awareness of the breadth of local government services. So, it was great to see this tweet from a resident in Redcar and Cleveland saying something positive about the council (plus the picture is ace!)

Sarah also put together a separate storify dedicated to all the animals who took part, some of whom were strays who we all hope managed to find homes.

For more great stories from #OurDay 2013 check out our OurDay storify.