Getting social with the Council

An ever increasing number of people are using social media to communicate, find information, keep up with the news and participate in society - and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council has added to its online community presence by joining Facebook.

The Council has already done a lot of work to make it easier to for everyone to contact us - including relaunching our website and introducing a customer portal so that people can create their own individual accounts with us.

Our new Facebook page joins our already established Twitter account - @TweetSMDC - and increases the ways in which we can provide our services to our customers.

Councillor Tony Hall, cabinet member for customer services, said: "The popularity of social media in the UK shows no signs of slowing and here in the Moorlands we know that people are regularly using Facebook and Twitter to access Council services.

"More than 5,500 sessions on our website have been carried out as a result of a referral from social media and referrals are up a staggering 618%! So it makes sense for the Council to be part of this community to share news, information and updates about our services and to provide another way for our customers to communicate with us.

"That's why we're pleased to say we now have a Facebook page - alongside our already established Twitter account - and I'm inviting everyone to take a look at it, 'like' and follow it and let us know what you think."

According to Ofcom's Communications Market Report published in August last year, Facebook had a national digital audience of 39.7 million - which equates to more than three-quarters of active internet users.

And YouGov research has revealed that Facebook is the most popular site to belong to or use with seven in ten UK adults claiming they either use and/or have a profile on the site. It's also the most frequently used platform with the highest audience reach with average users checking Facebook 12 times a day.

So whether it's the traditional methods of getting in touch or using the modern, digital platforms the Council is doing all it can to make keeping in touch with us easier than ever.