Communicating with the public is an important part of your job. Sharing what you’re doing isn’t about showing off or getting applause for what you’re doing (that will be rare enough!) but about being transparent and accountable to the people who have elected you. The other real benefit of communication is that it may help to engage people with issues that you know are really important, but just aren’t on the public’s radar at all at the moment.
To communicate well, you’ve got to use lots of different channels, to reach people in lots of difference circumstances, and you’ve got to keep on doing it.
I chose to keep people updated by using this website and Twitter, by occasional articles in the press, and by accepting pretty much all media requests. I went along to meetings organised by groups who had an interest in a particular issue, and heard their concerns or explained what the States was doing. (I find focused meetings much more useful than general-purpose drop-ins.) Other people did other things – lengthy Facebook status updates, videos, podcasts, organising parish drop-ins. Do what works well for you, but do plenty of it; and, where you can, share what your colleagues are doing too.
