Fairfax County NewsWire

Communicating in the Future

beta This concept is a blueprint and it will change with each version

The Issues
Challenge to find comprehensive county news/information
Print vs. Online vs. Social Media
Board of Supervisors’ request for better information coordination
Times have changed and we need to adapt: People seek and interact with news/content in different ways

Changing Times More focus on local news from media outlets (old and new outlets)

Changing Times Anyone with a cell phone or a computer can be a reporter and share pics, tweets and more; rapidly changing world

Changing Times Organizations are direct publishers now, including governments

Changing Times

Introducing the Fairfax County NewsWire, a new way to share information

NewsWire Objectives
Present county news of all sizes in one location
Publish content through many tools and engage the public
Create an integrated, comprehensive news and engagement platform to meet the demands of changing times

NewsWire: Objective 1

Current way the public is presented with news; the top section includes news releases from the Office of Public Affairs that cover some agencies while the bottom half presents department news releases. This is not helpful or user friendly for our public.

NewsWire: Latest News Solution: Integrated news releases from all departments presented in one list

NewsWire: Latest News
What about news of all sizes: small , medium and large ?
What about news that’s already online, but not as an official news release?
What’s news?

Parks homepage features a lot of news/events, but not always as news releases

Police homepage features news beyond official news releases

Family Services’ homepage features many news items that aren’t always news releases

NewsWire: Latest News Solution: integrate web updates and existing content with news releases on the NewsWire

NewsWire: Latest News We already follow this model of web updates and news releases during emergencies; now making it the day-to-day practice of publishing news

NewsWire: Events
Same issue as news releases: stovepiped

NewsWire: Event Map NewsWire will include an Event Map that features selected events from which people can look visually on a map and find events nearby. Only selected events will be manually entered, not all county events.

NewsWire: News Feeds RSS news feeds will be one way we share information with people who choose this method.

NewsWire: News Feeds One overall feed for the whole NewsWire with all updates.

NewsWire: News Feeds RSS news feeds broken down by departments, topics and locations. Headlines will be added to appropriate, multiple feeds as needed.

NewsWire: E-mail E-mail remains the No. 1 reason why people access the Internet. E-mail is a critical tool people can choose to access our information.

NewsWire: E-mail The Weekly Agenda E-mail will continue as part of countywide E-mail efforts. However, our E-mail options will expand…

NewsWire: E-mail 1.) Daily Digest of NewsWire updates E-mailed to subscribers between 3 and 4 p.m. 2.) Weekly Digest of NewsWire updates E-mailed each Wednesday

NewsWire: E-mail Weekender E-mail highlighting upcoming events sponsored by county agencies; E-mailed on Thursdays in advance of the weekend so our residents can plan accordingly

NewsWire: Mobile 93 percent of Americans have a cell phone. Mobile devices will be the primary way people access the Internet; no longer will people be tethered to desks to surf the Web. We need to ensure our place on this platform so people can access us on the go and/or as the primary way they receive county information.

NewsWire: Mobile Continue CEAN emergency alerts

NewsWire: Mobile Twitter now provides a “Fast Follow” option that does not require someone to sign up through Twitter.com, but rather text 40404 with “follow @fairfaxcounty” and people will receive our tweets as text messages

NewsWire: Ask Fairfax! NewsWire will now feature chats with county staff. This is a way for us to engage our community through online tools. We will host a variety of topics from all agencies, departments, offices and more. A topic will be posted online and then questions may be submitted a few days in advance. We will then have the guest(s) answer the submitted and live questions for 1 hour.

NewsWire: Social Voting Yet another way to engage our public so we can learn from the wisdom of our public about a variety of topics. We used social voting in March when the Board of Supervisors and VDOT held a snow summit after the February blizzards. We asked people to submit their ideas for snow removal and communications. 60+ ideas were submitted. Everyone then has a chance to vote ideas up or down; we received more than 1500 votes on those ideas.

NewsWire: Social Voting

NewsWire: Social Voting We will launch a social voting channel about the ways people want to receive information, what kinds of information and more.

NewsWire: Video Video efforts will be a key piece of the NewsWire, both on our YouTube channel and Cable Channel 16

NewsWire: Podcasts Podcasts will continue: News to Use, Health & Safety, Board of Supervisors Recap; Parks and libraries also produce podcasts

NewsWire: SlideShare SlideShare is another tool we’re using as the “YouTube for PowerPoints.” This allows us to publish presentations in a central location and to embed them within a webpage

NewsWire: Flickr One countywide account started in May; 98,000+ views of our pictures.

NewsWire: Social Media Facebook will continue as our primary social media platform. With more than 5,000 fans for the county page (and hundreds more for agency pages), lively discussions and more, it’s an essential tool for us to share key highlights about county government news.

NewsWire: Social Media Twitter is our other dominant social media tool. Like Facebook, we’ve experienced consistent growth and success on this platform.

Achieved! Publish content through many tools and engage the public
Fairfaxcounty.gov

Create an integrated, comprehensive news and engagement platform to meet the demands of changing times
How? Connect Objectives 1 and 2

NewsWire: Objective 3 Solution: Integrate social media and other platform updates with news releases and web updates on the NewsWire

NewsWire: Evolution 1 2 3 News releases only… … News releases and web updates… News releases, web updates and social media updates all in one list

Communicating in the Future

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Fairfax County NewsWire

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Fairfax County NewsWire Presentation Transcript