Recently, several cities have adopted using social media as a way to gain public reaction to certain policies and decisions. For example, in Boston, public sector employees have created a blog and publishing platform alerting citizens of government projects. In California, city employees have adopted location-based social media platform, Foursquare, to increase attendance at community events.
In addition, social media allows local governments go beyond traditional communication and marketing tactics and helps them provide new and improved government services. Below are five steps that will help cities adopt the use of social media:
- Clearly identify you city’s objectives.
- Listen to the social media conversation and discover where your city is already being talked about.
- Evaluate how new social media platforms will help meet your objectives.
- Assess resources to determine if staff time and funding are available to maintain a new program.
- Lastly, conduct research about new technology or channels being considered.
For more information, please visit the National League of Cities.