#OurDay – a good day had by all - Liz Copeland

I wanted to share a few quick thoughts on #OurDay yesterday. I know we’ll do a lot more analysis of things and we’ll present the stories of the day in a much more whizzy way than a blog from me, but I just wanted to say three things:

1. Thank you

A huge thank you to everyone who took part so willingly. We were quite overwhelmed at how many people tweeted right through the whole 24 hours.

Here’s the chart of our success:

2. Pride

Just look at all the things that go on in local government. We have such a lot to be proud of. We don’t shout enough about the things we do well and it's so easy to get caught up in our own little part of it, we sometimes lose track of the bigger picture.

Tweets ranged from gardening and recycling tips, to photos of library events and drain inspections, to tweets from full council meetings, information on school catering and updates on police incidents.

My personal favourites were the tweets from the Torbay Dog Wardens, who had some great advice for dog owners and Redcar and Cleveland’s tweets about a whole range of services through the entire 24 hours.

3. Next steps

We wanted to raise awareness of the many council services that never get a mention and the unsung heroes of local government who work so hard in our communities. I think we did that really well, but what happens next?

We need to build on this momentum. What should we do next? How can we continue to build local government’s reputation online?

Join today’s live discussion between 11am-1pm and let us know what you think.