This document discusses Design Bristol, a social media platform created by the City Design Group to facilitate engagement around urban design, placemaking, and heritage in Bristol. It provides guidelines for participation on the platform, including being time efficient, posting appropriate and relevant content, avoiding personal opinions, using plain English, and introducing linked content. The benefits of Design Bristol include more efficient community engagement, improved design processes and outcomes, and fostering appreciation of design and heritage across the city. Lessons learned indicate it works best alongside other activities and requires consistency to be sustainable.

1. Design Bristol
Using social media to link
heritage, places and people
City Design Group

5. Seeing the connections

6. Historic
Environment
Quality
Place Making
Heritage / Place

7. Historic
Environment
Participation
Quality
Place Making
Heritage / Place

8. Historic
Environment
Participation
Quality
Place Making
Heritage / Place
Localism,
neighbourhood
planning
Developers,
consultants
Local societies,
amenity groups
English
Heritage

9. Historic
Environment
Participation
Quality
Place Making
Heritage / Place

10. http://designbristol.ning.com/

11. Business case
1
Time
efficient
2
Appropriate
/ relevant
3
Avoid
personal
opinion
4
Plain English
5
Introduce
your
content
Making a start – 5 golden rules

12. Business case
1
Time
efficient
2
Appropriate
/ relevant
3
Avoid
personal
opinion
4
Plain English
5
Introduce
your
content
Making a start – 5 golden rules
1
Time efficient
Make sure that officer work
time is kept to the absolute
minimum. Creating a brief
blog entry or event post on
the site should only take a
few minutes.

13. Business case
1
Time
efficient
2
Appropriate
/ relevant
3
Avoid
personal
opinion
4
Plain English
5
Introduce
your
content
Making a start – 5 golden rules
2
Appropriate and
relevant
Content must be
professional, appropriate and
relevant to the urban design
and placemaking agenda. “If
in doubt leave it out.”

14. Business case
1
Time
efficient
2
Appropriate
/ relevant
3
Avoid
personal
opinion
4
Plain English
5
Introduce
your
content
Making a start – 5 golden rules
3
Avoid personal opinion
Design Bristol is not to be
confused with personal social
media like Facebook. Do not
use terms that express
personal opinion like “I like
the trees that they have
planted at…”

15. Business case
1
Time
efficient
2
Appropriate
/ relevant
3
Avoid
personal
opinion
4
Plain English
5
Introduce
your
content
Making a start – 5 golden rules
4
Plain English
Use clear, unambiguous
sentences. Avoid jargon. Aim
for 20 words per sentence or
less.

16. Business case
1
Time
efficient
2
Appropriate
/ relevant
3
Avoid
personal
opinion
4
Plain English
5
Introduce
your
content
Making a start – 5 golden rules
5
Introduce your content
Links to other content should
be introduced with a short
descriptive preface. E.g.
“The Design Council have
published some new
research/interesting work
on........... It's available to
read here.......... What do you
think?.”

17. 6
Photographs
Photos should be titled and
summarised with an
appropriate caption. Credits
should be added where
necessary, such as “image
courtesy of…”.

19. Minimise effort – maximise quality
“Design Bristol enables CDG to be more responsive to
community/neighbourhood engagement and reduces
the level of time spent responding to email, telephone,
letters and face to face ‘traffic’.”

20. Financial benefits
‒ Improved value for money, through a more efficient and effective design
process and use of City Council resources
‒ Promoting long term sustainability of designed solutions
‒ The greater likelihood of getting design solutions right first time; reducing the
need to revisit and amend projects
‒ The opportunity to encourage public and private sector investment in local
areas

21. Non-financial benefits
‒ Design expertise is developed and nurtured within the council, its professional
partners and community representatives
‒ The high levels of community interest in design quality that currently exist are
more effectively harnessed
‒ The importance of quality placemaking is more widely understood, with a
greater appreciation of the social, environmental and financial benefits of good
design
‒ The design agenda and heritage value is increasingly seen as relevant to all parts
of the city, not just the city centre and the conservation areas

22. http://engagingcities.com/
#eparticipation
#IAP2
#Localgov
#engage2act
#digitalengagement
#gov20
#communityengagement
#coproduction
#consultation
#participation

23. http://storify.com/Locallearning/our-place-oldbury-court

24. Lessons
‒ Time – noticeable drop in activity when dedicated officer absent
‒ It works best in conjunction with other activities that provide a focus to
discussions
‒ Consistency – stick to the rules and consider moderation
‒ Sustainability?
‒ Can I afford not to use social media? The conversation will be going on anyway.
Do you want/need to be involved?

25. Design Bristol
Using social media to link
heritage, places and people

26. City
Design
Group
Thank you
www.bristol.gov.uk/knowyourplace
http://designbristol.ning.com/
@DesignBristol
@locallearning
City Design Group
Bristol City Council
citydesigngroup@bristol.gov.uk
0117 922 3366