#ourcouncilday is the second, bigger and better instalment of #MyDCCDay, our first attempt in Ireland of using Twitter to show the work we do on a typical day and to engage with the public. If you speak Irish you can also follow #ÁrLáSaChomhairle.
by Zaira Rivera
At some stage in 2013 a colleague and I in The Studio heard about #ourday in the UK and thought to ourselves “that could work very well here!” so we put a team together, started spreading the word and #MyDCCDay happened in February 2014.
For a day we talked about the work we do in Dublin City Council and discovered quite a few Twitter talents amongst our ranks, you just never know where you are going to find them, do you?! We also had the added bonus of creating quite a few Twitter ‘champions’ who have since got involved on a more regular basis.
The Studio was closed last April and, happily, I started working in the Web Unit, our partner in #MyDCCDay. We thought it was such a valuable project that we decided to do it again this year and we also asked the other three local authorities in Dublin –Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council - if they would like to get involved. A few weeks later we thought, ‘why not ask local authorities in the whole country?’ So we proposed the idea through the Local Government Management Agency and we were delighted to get a very positive reaction.
The whole reason behind this project is to engage more and in a better way with citizens, visitors, business... everybody we work for. We aim to give a glimpse of one of our days, the services that the councils in Ireland provide 24 hours, the people behind them and spark positive conversations though those tweets.
Last year #MyDCCDay got a great response from the public and we hope the same will happen today. Do pop in #ourcouncilday and #ÁrLáSaChomhairle ; we hope you enjoy it!
Zaira Rivera works in the Web Unit at Dublin City Council.
