How have local governments successfully used social networking tools to gain and keep support for their programs and keep citizens up to date? Sheila Samuelson, the Sustainable Community Coordinator at City of Dubuque, IA asked that question.
Suisun City, CA is using a Facebook page. They keep putting new status items up regularly. That’s part of the secret of Facebook; you have to update it on a regular basis. That way your page is always showing up on your fans’ Home page. But not so often that you annoy your friends and they (god forbid!) un-friend you.
Many are now using Twitter. You might want to look at the city of Santa Clarita’s Twitter page. http://twitter.com/santaclarita
San Francisco’s Facebook page is growing quickly.
We (Placemaking Group) work with many cities and towns on how to communicate with the public via social media. Twitter and Facebook are an easy and cost effective way for municipalities to talk about their events, news, meetings, city services, etc.
It’s also a publicity opportunity…because they can issue a press release when they launch their Twitter and Facebook pages.
