I think it’s time that we started calling Staffordshire ” Social Staffordshire ” ( although I always like to remind people that Social Media is being used for a lot of business applications ) alongside my other description of the A38/A5 crossroads area as
” Silicon Crossroads “. Why ?? well in my mind Staffordshire is one of the leading counties in the U.K. in terms of use of Social Media.

Staffordshire Police’s David Bailey presented at the Social Media World Forum earlier this year

http://www.socialmedia-forum.com/europe/agenda/speakers/626-david-bailey-communications-manager-staffordshire-police and they have to be one of the most pro-active police forces in the country in terms of using Social Media. Staffordshire Police has over 11,000 followers on Twitter. Find them:

( @StaffsPolice )

Staffordshire County Council

( @StaffordshireCC )

have over 3000 followers and Staffordshire Fire Brigade

( @StaffsFire )

has around 2,200 followers

Staffordshire University

( Staffordshire Uni

@StaffsUni

Official tweets from Staffordshire University run by Communications Manager Judy O’Brien

Staffordshire, England · http://www.staffs.ac.uk )

has nearly 6,000 followers.

It is not just on Twitter that Staffordshire is active either. Staffordshire C.C. has Facebook, YouTube and Flickr pages aswell. Staffordshire Police are very active users of YouTube e.g. :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DxvtbEjPY&feature=relmfu

and have a Facebook account aswell.

When you combine this use of Social Media with recent announcements of the investment into ” Superfast Broadband ” it paints a picture of a very forward thinking Council.