Providing road closure information to the citizens of Ontario for provincial highways

1. 511 ONTARIO ON
FACEBOOK

2. SOCIAL MEDIA
• Government must be open to new forms of communication
• Social media encourages widespread spontaneous use and the platform providers
frequently change the technological features.
• Social media improves interactivity between government and public
• Reaches populations that do not consume traditional media as frequently as others
do

3. FACEBOOK – GOVERNMENT
• There are approximately15 provincial government Facebook pages
• OPP, Service Ontario, Ontario at Work, Ministry of Health, Human Rights Commission,
Ministry of Training, Colleges & Universities, etc.

4. ONTARIO HAS 6.4 MILLION
ACTIVE USERS ON FACEBOOK!!!
• Social media (Facebook) allows us to have two way conversations with
our users
• Allows for active discussion
• Allows to post creative content
• Allows to add videos and images
• Use a more fun and casual tone

5. ROAD CLOSURE INFO
Why Facebook?
People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going
on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.
• Road closure information matters to the citizens of Ontario!
• Web: 17 millions webhits to Ontario.ca/511 annually
• Phone: 100,000 callers to 511
• Twitter: 20,000+ Tweeps

6. AUDIENCE
• Facebook says: Creating pages gives a voice to any brand, business or organization. It is
a central place to tell your story, have conversations with current and potential customers
while generating powerful word-of-mouth marketing.
• Who is our target audience
• Studies have shown the largest group of users on Facebook are women between
the ages of 55 to 65. We’re also hoping to draw in the younger generation (16-25
age group)
• In Canada, there are 15,000,000 active users (logging in once per month or more)
and 9,000,000 who log in every day
• The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups,
and events.

7. HOW TO PROVIDE THIS INFO
• Tactic 1: Push content
• Provide (real time) road closure information on provincial highways in Ontario
• Post factual, press releases, public education campaigns, etc.
• Tactic 2: Pull content
• In addition to providing official government content, encourage customers to provide insight,
feedback, etc by posting comments, likes, etc.
• Tactic 3: Networking and Customer Service Management
• Answer questions and respond to enquiries and or requests
• Provide surveys, questionnaires

8. IMPLEMENTATION
• Create profession/business account oh Facebook ensuring naming convention is
consistent. In this case it would be 511Ontario (English) and Ontario 511 in French
or simply have one account that allows us to post in a bilingual format
• Identity is to be clear that this is an official government page monitored on a 24/7
basis
• Include a Terms of Service. This is to avoid any violations (ie no personal use)
• Acceptable use policies to be developed and shared among team.
• Security, ensure that employees are aware of Privacy Act. Educate users about
social networking policies.

9. CREATING A FACEBOOK PAGE
In a few simple steps you can
Create a Facebook Page
• Step1. Create a login
Choose the appropriate
classification
There are several to choose from:
Company, Organization, or
Institution
In this case it would be
Organization

10. CREATING FACEBOOK PAGE
Step 2: Complete Basic Information.
Write about our organisation ie. About 511Ontario /
Traveller’s Information
Upload a picture (this could be the logo and possibly
include a photo of the team updating the content
Add to favourites (include similar organisations posting
on Facebook)
Include hyperlink to our website Ontario.ca/511

11. CREATING FACEBOOK PAGE
• Step 3: Adding content
• This is when we would publish content to the 511Ontario Page
and then invite users to be a part our growing community.
• Facebook currently provides six different posting options:
• Plain text status
• Photo with caption
• Link with caption
• Video with caption
• Event page
• Location check-in

12. CREATING A FACEBOOK PAGE
• Step 4: Metrics (Measuring our Success)
• Facebook has embedded helpful metrics. Simply click the "Insights" option in the
top navigation:
• Overview: 7-day snapshot of your metrics such as Page Likes, post reach, and overall
engagement.
• Likes: Shows your overall fan growth and losses.
• Reach: Highlights the raw number of people your
Page is reaching every day.
• Visits: Indicates where on Facebook your
viewers are coming from.

13. DAILY ROUTINE
Road Info staff would be required to:
- Check in daily to review any comments from public
- Post closures immediately upon receiving in a timely, accurate and user friendly
format
- All closure information is to include: City, Highway, location/direction, cause, reopening
time and detour info if known.
Ex: Niagara Falls: QEW is closed Fort Erie bound at Mountain Road
due to a collision. Reopening time is unknown. Follow EDR - D1 signs.

14. BEST PRACTICES
- Respond to any inquiries/questions/feedback using appropriate language,
netiquette and defined guidelines within 1 hour.
- Provide update /status of closure information every three hours.
*All comments and posts are considered to be public therefore considered public
record.
A procedure guide will outline I&It resources, Terms of Use/Service, Privacy Act
information, Content, etc)

15. CONCLUSION
• Facebook would be an effective and efficient way for the Ministry of Transportation
(MTO) to share current road closure information whether it is a closure due to a
collision, condition and /or construction.
• This allows us to continue to share and participate with the public in a manner that
is more community oriented.
• This shows that the MTO strives to provide accountable and transparent
government.

16. REFERENCES
• North Caroline Dept of Cultural Resources, April 2010, Best Practices for Local
Government Social Media Usage
• National Seminars Training, Ted Janusz, Facebook Essentials: Developing a Great
Facebook Strategy for Your Organization
• Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Ines Mergel 2012, Manager’s Guide
to Designing a Social Media Strategy
• Champions of Social Media, JoanneLee, April 17, 2014
• How to Create a Facebook Business by Anum Hussain, October 6, 2014
• Are Canadians the world's most extreme users of Facebook?, Knowlton Thomas on
May 23, 2011