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From social media management and archiving to AI insights and customer service management, Orlo helps teams streamline communications, stay responsive, and build public trust—whether it’s crisis comms or everyday updates.
Oh, hi!
If you work in the public sector, you know the feeling: The notifications never stop. The comments are flooding in. The noise is deafening.
This week on the Oh, hi! Stories Podcast, I’m thrilled to welcome my first transatlantic guest, Rosie Knight, Head of Value Delivery at Orlo.
Orlo is doing incredible work helping public sector organizations capture and utilize resident sentiment.
Whether you are in the UK or the US, the challenge is the same: We are drowning in data, but starving for insight.
Three things you should know:
1️⃣ You need to find the signal in the noise.
If you have 500 angry comments on a post, it’s easy to feel defeated. But Rosie argues you don't need to read all 500, you need to find the 10 that actually matter. The ones that represent the core issue. You can't do this manually anymore; you need the right tools to separate the venting from the valuable feedback.
2️⃣ The "Listen, Understand, Act" Framework.
Trust is broken when we skip steps. Rosie shared a powerful example of a council that planned to change bin (trash) collection schedules. By listening to social chatter before the change, they realized the current service was already flawed. They paused the project to fix the current issues first. That pause, and communicating why they paused, built more trust than the project ever would have.
3️⃣ The "Stop Doing" List.
In the age of AI, the temptation is to use technology to speed up and do more. Rosie suggests the opposite: Use data to identify what isn't serving your organization and stop doing it. Efficiency isn't about speed; it's about impact.
This part really matters:
Trust is a product of closing the loop.
We often treat social media as a broadcast tool (pushing news out) or a punching bag (absorbing hits). But real engagement happens when you close the loop.
If residents use digital channels to tell you something is broken, and you use that data to make a logical decision (even if that decision is to do nothing yet), you have to tell them. As Rosie said, residents need to believe that you can empathize with them and that you will make logical decisions based on what they said.
What you can do:
Create an "SOS Bucket" for ad-hoc requests.
Stop letting random internal requests derail your strategy. Rosie suggests creating a specific campaign bucket for those low-value, "just get this out" requests. Review it quarterly. If the data shows those posts get zero engagement, you finally have the evidence to say "No" next time.Audit your "Listening" Tech.
Are you just scheduling posts or are you analyzing sentiment? Orlo’s platform is designed specifically for this, moving beyond vanity metrics to understand the emotion and trust behind the comments. If your current tool doesn't help you distinguish a crisis from a complaint, it’s time to look at something new.Close one loop this week.
Find one issue where residents gave feedback. Post an update that explicitly says: "We heard you say X, so we are doing Y." It’s a small step but it’s how trust is built.
The bottom line:
Don't let the noise paralyze you. Use the right tools to find the signal, understand the story, and act with confidence.
🎧 Listen to the full episode with Rosie Knight wherever you get your podcasts.
P.S. A huge thank you to Orlo for partnering on this episode. If you want to see how their platform helps the public sector turn social conversations into trust, check them out at orlo.tech.
Thanks for tuning in,
—Dana
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From virtual keynotes to in-person workshops, I partner with city teams, associations, and organizations to talk about what’s next in digital engagement, citizen experience, and government storytelling.
