Author Archives: Donncha Hayes

We need to talk about how we use Facebook

By Donncha Hayes | Thu 31st October 2019 - 2:06 pm

For the AGM of our local party, our diligent party secretary recently emailed the local members outlining the elected positions (Membership Secretary, Diversity Officer etc.) of the local exec. He helpfully included a link to the party’s website with some guidance on what’s involved in each role, and what help and support is available from the party. For one role I looked at, the top 3 sources of support are:

You can join the Liberal Democrats Local Party Officers Facebook group, to make contact and share best practice with other officers.
For peer-to-peer help with learning and using Connect, join the Connect Users Facebook group.
Similarly, for help with NationBuilder, there is the Liberal Democrats NationBuilder Users group, also on Facebook.

It strikes me that, intentionally or otherwise, a large part of our party’s support network is being run through Facebook. This could mean that people who don’t have a Facebook account don’t get the support they need; or are put off from getting more involved in the party; or aren’t even aware of developments within the party. This strikes me as problematic:

Young people simply don’t use Facebook to the extent that people in older age cohorts do. If we’re relying on Facebook to organise ourselves, then we may be excluding a lot of people under 30.
Even for those people who do have a Facebook account, all the indications are that usage has dropped off a cliff, especially over the last 18 months.