Apology to Thanet District Council about their promotion of The Big Event.

This post relates to yesterday’s post, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2011/06/thanet-district-councils-new-local-news.html and my complaint to the council that their RSS feed was working incorrectly.

I have had an assurance from Thanet District Council that that this is due to fault with Google and not a problem with TDCIT, see below.

Dear Mr Child,

Customer Feedback Reference:28711

Thank you for your email which was received on 15/06/2011 and for bringing this 

issue to our attention.

We have investigated the problem and discovered that this has occurred due to an 

issue with Google provided readers and not as a result of bug within the TDC RSS 

feed. 

I agree with you that the Margate Big Event should feature as the main news 

event on our feed and indeed it does. The top article in our feed is “Line up 

for Margate’s Big Event” and this is showing as the top article in all readers 

not provided by Google. It appears that Google has been caching a few old posts 

incorrectly which has resulted in old posts showing at the top of feeds viewed 

through their reader. 

This should be an isolated incident but we will monitor this and have reported 

this to Google directly.

In promoting the Big Event 2011, we use a variety of channels to ensure maximum 

coverage. These include:

Leaflets handed out over May Bank Holiday and at the Margate Meltdown as well as 

30,000 delivered to households across Kent.

Flyers to local Margate schools.

450 Posters at many locations in East Kent.

Banners on thanet.gov (on every page), This is Margate, Youth Matters, visit 

Thanet, visit Kent, visit Britain and Kent online.

Twitter updates.

Facebook.

TDC switchboard phone message.

Eposter, posters and leaflets to our partners to distribute.

A direct Mail campaign across Kent.

Press ads in Thanet Extra, Canterbury Extra, Folkestone Extra, Ashford Extra, 

Medway Extra, East Kent Mercury as well as front page editorials and double page 

features in our free local papers.

1 week of radio promotion across KMFM.

We expect the Big Event 2011 to again be well attended. In addition, the new 

location of the Margate seafront will help to boost income for local businesses 

and promote Margate as a tourist destination. 

Thank you for the support you are showing to the Big Event and for highlighting 

the problem you have encountered with the RSS feed. I hope that clarification of 

our promotion campaign resolves your concerns about attendance and that you 

enjoy the weekend.

I hope that this response resolves the matter to your satisfaction.

If you are not happy with our response, you may write to us with your reasons 

within the next ten working days, requesting a further review.  

In order for us to respond as efficiently as possible, please ensure that you 

quote the above reference number and address your communication to ********** - Customer Feedback Co-ordinator, Business Services.

Yours sincerely

************

Corporate Information & Communications Manager