1. Blogging & Social Media
for Local Gov’t Leaders
Leveraging your influence
in a hyper-connected world
Griff Wigley, Wigley & Assoc
League of Minnesota Cities
2013 Leadership Conferences

2. Ray Cox & Scott Neal
Ray Cox, MN House – blogger,
2002-08
Scott Neal, City Mgr, Eden
Prairie/Edina – blogger, 2003-
present

3. Scott Neal
• 1995 – Northfield City Administrator
• 1996 – Online panel: State of the City
• 2003 – Eden Prairie City Manager - Blog
• 2010 – Edina City Manager - Blog

4. Blogging for Civic Leaders

5. Scott & Griff – UK connection

6. Scott & Griff – UK connection

7. What to expect today
• WHY you should start a leadership blog and
supplement it with social media, esp. Twitter
& Facebook (leveraging your influence)
• WHAT the content of good leadership
blogging and tweeting looks like
• HOW to be more effective at it; what to avoid
• NO technical how-to
• NO blogging or social media 101

8. Who’s here?
• Elected/appointed officials?
• Administrators/staff?
• Read blogs more than once/month?
• Added a comment on a blog?
• Have/had a blog?
• Follow others on Twitter?
• Have tweeted/retweeted?
• Have a Facebook personal profile?
• Have used the like, commented or share features on
Facebook?
• Have a Facebook page or have admin access to one?
• Have a smartphone and use it with social media?

9. Types of local gov’t blogs
• Leadership blog
• News/Department blog
• Project blog
• City of Edina (leadership, dept, project blogs)
• City of Northfield (Downtown Parking
Management project blog)

10. A tale of two blog posts:
The good, the bad, the ugly
• City Manager Rick Cole, Ventura
City, CA
Honoring the ultimate sacrifice at
Ivy Lawn on Memorial Day
• Mayor Mike McGinn, Seattle, WA
Weekend in pictures

11. Why leaders avoid blogging & using
social media in their jobs

12. Why leaders avoid blogging & using
social media in their jobs
Fear and Loathing in the Executive
Suite: Why Leaders Avoid Blogging
and Other Social Media

13. Lack of time/Tyranny of the urgent
“My days are packed, and increasingly, work is
encroaching on my evenings and weekends.
Why would I add regular blogging or tweeting to
my to-do list?”

14. Fear of an increase in the
flood of electronic messages
“My email inbox is overflowing. I’ve got
umpteen voicemails piled up waiting for me. I’ve
got no choice on dealing with the onslaught of
text messages on my mobile phone. If I start
blogging or tweeting, it will just encourage
people I don’t know or care about to contact
me.”

15. Social networking seems to require
pointless socializing
“I don't see the value in constantly socializing
with people I don't know. And I don't see how it
would scale: the more I'd interact, then the
more people would expect me to interact. And
from what I’ve read, people are nasty online.
Why would I subject myself to that?”

16. The literary skills required
seem too demanding
“I can handle giving a speech and being
interviewed. But writing isn’t one of my strong
suits. I don’t need the aggravation of staring at a
blank electronic page, wondering what to blog
or tweet about. And trying to craft meaningful
stuff all the time would take more time than I'd
care to devote.”

17. The technical skills required
seem too demanding
I’m fine with email and Microsoft Office apps.
But I’m no techie and I don’t have the time to
learn to blog and tweet and whatever else is the
technology du jour, especially when one little
screw up can get broadcast to the whole world.”

18. Fear that once you blog or
tweet something, you can't
change your mind
“If I take a public position now on something
that I may change my mind about later, I’ll look
like I’ve flip-flopped.”

19. Blogging & tweeting seem narcissistic
“Too many people think they’ve got so many
important things to say to the world so they
decide to start blogging and tweeting. Most of
it’s drivel. I’ve got no such delusions of grandeur.
My musings aren't that important.”

20. Why a leadership blog?
Strategic, near real-time,
short storytelling used to
more effectively leverage
your influence

21. Why social media? Your audience has
audiences & they use social media

22. Why use blogs and social media?
Leverage your influence to get important things done
Interactive Circle of
Influence graphic

23. Blogging and social media for leaders
Strategic, near real-time, short
storytelling used to more effectively
leverage your influence with your
audience who has audiences

24. What to blog & tweet?
Answer the question:
“What’s going on with my work
this week that’s significant?”

25. What to blog & tweet:
Your (mainstream) media diet

26. Leverage your media diet

27. Leverage your media diet
(small group; print)

28. Leverage your media diet
Email attachments, small group

29. Leverage your media diet
(email links, small group)

30. Leverage your media diet
(disadvantages of using email for it)
• Viruses
• Spam filters
• Forwarding chaos
• Comment chaos
• Exacerbates your email overload
• Others can’t link to it
• Others can’t search for it

31. Leverage your media diet
Use a blog post
Scott Neal
• DOING WHAT WE DO BEST
• “I DON’T WANT THAT TO
HAPPEN TO HERE.”

32. Leverage your media diet
Use Twitter
Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker
Tweet, May 17, 2009
NY Times article on NJ Foreclosure:
http://bit.ly/3KcSY8

33. Leverage your media diet
Use Twitter
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn
Retweet Aug. 6, 2010
RT @Aaronpickus: Scary article in
@nytimes today about deep cuts in gov't
services around the country
http://tinyurl.com/2g7s2wj #newseattle

34. Leverage your media diet
Use Twitter & a blog post
Shakopee Mayor Brad Tabke
Tweet: Jan. 2, 2013
Dog park moving forward for #Shakopee in
2013!! http://ow.ly/gtEVw
Blog post: Shakopee Dog Park (Dec. 21, 2012)
(image link to Shakopee Valley News story)

35. Leverage your media diet
(Advantages of a blog post/tweet)
• Linkable (permalinks don’t expire)
• Social media-ready: Easy for others to link to,
retweet, ‘like’
• Search engine-friendly
• Appreciated by other sites (pings/trackbacks)
• Comments optional; contained, archived,
linkable

36. Leverage your media diet
Social media sharing
Article sidebar, footer, pop-up

37. What to Blog: Provide recognition
Scott Neal
Deb Fields, roof damage
Robert Lawton, volunteer photographer
Three staffers
Paul Levy (CEO Hospital)
Caller-outer of the month

38. What to blog:
Illustrate your values, mission, goals
The mission of the Northfield Police Department
is to enhance the quality of life in Northfield by
developing a close partnership with our
community to solve problems, preserve the
peace and provide a safe environment for all…

39. What to blog:
Illustrate your values, mission, goals
• Typical government (Scott Neal)
• Lights, cameras, silver paint (Rick Cole)
• Vacant stores, where we shop, how we
support city services

40. What to blog:
Illustrate your values, mission, goals
• Let’s have (urban) fun in 2012
(Northfield Councilor Betsey Buckheit)
• Tuesday Night’s Marriage Amendment
Debate (Shakopee Mayor Brad Tabke)

41. What to blog:
Teach the complexities of an issue
• Funding of a pedestrian bridge
or not (Scott Neal)
• Public pay disconnect and the
magic of dialogue (Rick Cole)

42. What to blog: Teach about services,
programs, departments
• Hose testing (Scott Neal)
• Edina PACE - Property Assessed
Clean Energy

43. What to blog: Explain a decision
• Fire Department Decisions (Brad
Tabke)
• Financing the Public Safety Center-
what and why (Betsey Buckheit)

44. What to blog: Chronicle the
unresolved & undecided
• Chase the money (Scott Neal)
• Golf dome decision
• Passive enforcement
• Meth problem (Ray Cox)
– Blog post 1
– Blog post 2
– Blog post 3
– Blog post 4

45. What not to blog
• How you plan to vote
• Anything about quasi-judicial functions
(property, licenses, land use, etc)
• Anything about your ex

46. What to blog:
Chronicle a slice of life
Putting a face on the faceless bureaucrat
(Scott Neal)
• Ultimate sunburn
• Annual First Day of School
• Turner’s heart birthday

47. How to blog effectively:
Use a voice of authenticity

48. How to blog effectively:
Use a voice of authenticity
People tune out:
• Memos
• Press releases
• Brochures
• Reports, minutes
“A meeting was held with representatives from Xcel Energy. The
purpose of the meeting was to introduce Xcel’s new Community
Relations Representative and to explore what Xcel could do to advance
numerous initiatives that are being explored in town. The more
detailed review of the proposals for the business and industrial park
continues. The review committee will meet again next Wednesday.
Staff also attended several meetings related to the review process of
the proposed Land Development Code.”

49. Use a voice of authenticity
• “I”
• “Me”
• “Mine”
• “My”
• Active vs passive voice

50. How to blog effectively:
Frame it with near real-time words
• “Yesterday”
• “Last week”
• “On Monday”
• “Tomorrow”
• “Next week”

51. How to blog effectively:
First-person, near real-time

52. How to blog effectively:
Tell stories
(The Sunday sermon)
Why Sharing Stories Brings People Together: Our
brains sync up when we tell stories
The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is
the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains

53. How to blog effectively:
Introduce a post with very simple stories
• "I ran into a citizen in the hallway yesterday
and she asked me…"
• "My colleague, John Smith, handed me the
latest issue of Minnesota Today this morning
and suggested I read the article on…."
• "On my way home from work last night, I
passed the park near my house where…“
• Small Town (Scott Neal)

54. What to blog & tweet?
Answer the question with a
little story:
“What’s going on with my work
this week that’s significant?”

55. How to blog effectively:
Link, link, link
• It allows your readers to easily go deeper and
broader
• Search engine spiders come back more
frequently when they see links in your posts,
as their algorithms depend on them
• Those you link to generally appreciate it and
are more likely to link back

56. How to blog effectively:
Use images
• Draws reader attention
• Breaks up the text
• Another way to inform (infographics)
• Chase the money? (Scott Neal)
• National Police Week

57. How to blog effectively:
Take your own photos & insert them
• Edina heritage: Convention Grill (Scott Neal)
• Good stuff from good staff
Taking photos is hard. Tips:
• Get close
• “Fix your hair”
• Allow for retakes

58. How to blog effectively:
Use it to answer your email
“Can you repeat the question?”

59. How to blog effectively:
Optional interaction via comments
• A blog is a bully pulpit, not a roundtable
• A good speech is still a good speech without
Q&A
• Contact Me form
• Comments occasionally enabled
• Time-limited comments
• Your participation is optional

60. Open Meeting Law considerations
• I think blogging by an elected official is fine; it’s the
comments attached to a blog post that poses some risk
because a quorum could end up commenting and thus,
it could be seen as an unannounced public meeting
under MN Open Meeting Law
• My suggestion: Put your comments on ‘moderate
mode’ so that you have to approve all comments (two
clicks)
• I think a post on a project blog by a local unit of gov’t
could be done in such a way that a quorum could
participate and not violate OML. Example: Northfield
Public Schools Transformational Technology discussion

61. How to blog effectively:
Create a culture of civility
Broken windows and a safer and
cleaner Ventura (Rick Cole)
Griff Wigley’s civility guidelines
• Avoid sarcasm
• Addressing a person directly by first
name when disagreeing with them
• Public enforcement

62. How to blog effectively:
Reference comments in a post
• Broken Windows II: Making a
difference one neighborhood at
a time (Rick Cole)

63. How to blog effectively:
Alert people when it’s updated
• Email subscription
• RSS Feed
• Twitter feed
– Scott Neal blog post example
• Facebook Page wall post
– Scott Neal blog post example

64. Using Facebook
• Use a Page, not your Profile
• Kenyon, MN Police Dept Facebook page with
Police Chief Lee Sjolander

65. Promote your blog/Twitter feed
• Email signature file
• Business card
• City website link
• Bottom of letters to the editor/columns
• Tweet all new blog posts
• Post all new blog posts to appropriate
Facebook page

66. The Problems with a Group Blog
• A leadership blog is a different tool than an
information blog or a project blog
• A group blog undermines individual incentive
to excel and be acknowledged for it
• If the group blog is neglected or done poorly,
no one is accountable

67. Misc Other Cautions
• A blog is not a journal; be selective with your
truths; picture a reporter with a live mic
• Avoid deletion but make corrections and make
them obvious
• Reveal conflicts of interest
• Beware your own ego if your blog becomes
popular

68. Group critique
• Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak
– Twitter: @MayorRTRybak
– Blog: The Mayor Blog
– Blog post: Pushing forward in the fight against gun
violence
• Shakopee Mayor Brad Tabke
– Twitter: @MayorTabke
– Blog: Moving Shakopee Forward
– Blog post: Very productive meeting – 1/22/13

69. Creating a blog: Blogger
Blogger.com

70. Creating a blog: WordPress
WordPress.com

71. Follow-up
• My business blog: WigleyAndAssociates.com
• My online course: SocialMediaForLeaders.com

72. Blogging & Social Media
for Local Gov’t Leaders
Leveraging your influence
in a hyper-connected world
Griff Wigley, Wigley & Assoc
League of Minnesota Cities
2013 Leadership Conferences