RE: ‘IS Twitter marketing a waste of money’? (LDP Creative, July 16).
Over recent weeks, interest has grown around the relationship building between social marketing and social media, and how a recent £30m social marketing roster by the NHS North West will potential-ly be used in this context, and I feel some inaccuracies around this discussion need to be clarified.
In the article, an MP was cited as criticising the notion that this £30m will be spent on using Facebook and Twitter, but, at this stage, no decision has been made as to where money will be spent.
Unfortunately, there also seems to be some confusion around what the two are. Social media is a new and evolving form of communication, while social marketing begins with talking to the people you’re trying to reach, finding out how they feel about the issues you’re trying to address, such as smoking and helping them to create positive changes.
The two can work together, which is why the team at ICE is leading from the front on this discussion. It needs to be stressed that social media will play a supporting role in this campaign, as social marketing is about going directly into communities.
Ultimately, I do not believe that behavioural change can be achieved through social media sites alone, and the idea that the NHS might spend £30m on it with agencies such as ours is not only unwise, but also untrue.
Stuart Jackson, CEO, ICE Creates Ltd
No quick fix
“KNIFE crime action plan fails to cut grim statistics” read your headline in the Daily Post. Really, is anyone at all surprised?
Like most government initiatives, this one has come to nought. That is largely because they are all spin and bluster and never really address the reasons for these crimes.
A few adverts on the telly, some posters and a bunch of celebrities telling kids it is not cool to carry weapons will not save lives.
We need more police on the streets, we need young people to be motivated, we need parents to encourage their children to grow up to be kind, thoughtful and considerate individuals, we need schools to enforce discipline like they used to and harsher penalties for those who go against the laws and mores of society.
These things will not come overnight, but as usual this Government has been hoping for a quick fix.
A Sampson, via email
Common sense?
IT’S comforting to know that crime in Liverpool has dropped to such a record low level that the police have time to visit the backwaters of industrial estates looking for cars to ticket. Last week, I parked my small hatchback on Gascoigne Street, off Leeds Street.
Many people do as it’s quiet, a shortish walk to work and free of double yellows. It’s an unkept, cobbled street with one or two garages or storage places backing on to it. Not noticeably a street you’d pick to walk down – although weeds, cracked, Tarmac pavements, puddles and lorries rumbling past may be some people’s cup of tea, who knows?
I parked with two wheels up on the pavement, leaving more than enough space for people to pass on the pavement – common sense told me it would be less of a nuisance to other people using the street that way.
But, in my opinion, common sense can be a rare commodity among Britain’s finest. It was slapped with a ticket. “Unnecessary Obstruction’’ – £30 fine. Obstruction to who, it wasn’t clear. Two-strong teams of police officers fearlessly scouring little-used streets for easy collars and income, perhaps.
K Kehoe, Hightown
About time
"CITY gets £100m new rail link to Manchester" (Daily Post, July 23). Better late than never!
It's ridiculous that in a day and age when – on a good day – you can get from Liverpool to London in two-and-a-quarter hours, that it often takes half that long just to trundle to Manchester.
Could someone also put in a request for the occasional no-stopping train between the two cities, as well as retaining the services which pick up at towns along the way?
City centre to city centre in less than half-an-hour would certainly get me travelling more frequently, and hopefully would encourage more of our neighbours to venture out of Manchester and pay a visit to Liverpool's attractions.
Lucy Andrews, Aigburth
At long last
AT LONG, long, long, long last! Work is finally set to begin on the electrification of the Liverpool to Manchester railway line, which will cut the journey time from the present up to 54 minutes to just 30 minutes.
But can I ask why this long-overdue upgrade has been such a "slow train coming"?
We are, after all, talking about the oldest passenger line in the whole of Britain!
And we are also, of course, talking about a link between two of this country's major and most important cities.
I welcome the announcement that work is set to start on the improvements – but myself and all the other regular passengers will never be able to get back that "overtime" we have spent on those diesel trains which currently crawl between Liverpool and Manchester.
P Morrison, Liverpool 25
Rail revival
THE news abut the electrification of the rail line to Manchester was definitely the high point of the week.
I cannot be the only one who thinks it utterly insane that you can now be in London in a little over double the time it takes you to get from Liverpool to Manchester – a paltry 30 miles or so.
Just a shame it is going to take a good few years and probably a lot of red tape before it becomes reality.
Mrs A Shore, Mossley Hill
