Presentation given to staff of the City of La Grange, TX on December 16, 2013 on the use of social media in municipal government.

1. Social Media
for Municipal
Government
City of La Grange
December 16, 2013

3. Get these slides here:
:
http://sarahtpage.com/CityOfLaGrange/

4. Today We’ll Cover …
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Why social media?
Daily management
Common social media platforms
Best practices and Examples
Q&A

5. Why Social Media?

6. Keep It Simple
• Remember: It’s just a conversation
• We can either engage in the conversation with
our customer, or they will have the conversation
without us.
Flickr: Search Engine People Blog

7. Primary Functions of Social Media in
Government
• Share – inform citizens of public services and
activities
• Listen – observe, analyze, and understand
what citizens are sharing to improve public
services
• Engage – respond, collaborate, and create
with citizens to improve public services.
Source: http: //www.howto.gov

8. What Are Your Goals?
• Provide additional channels for citizen input
and other potentially affected interests
• Increase the transparency of the City’s
decision-making process
• Facilitate a sense of community
• Reach new audiences with City messages and
information
These are the City of Round Rock’s
social media goals. What are yours?

9. Why Is Social Media Scary?
Someone could say something BAD about you!
Flickr: andyaldridge

10. 2011 Fels Institute Social Media Report

11. 2011 Fels Institute Social Media Report

12. Daily Management

13. Centralized vs. Departmental
Management
Centralized
• Single page = bigger
audience
• Professionally managed
pages/channels
• Control over
content/messaging
• Small cities may lack
resources/staff
Departmental
• Niche channels for niche
content
• Enthusiastic content
experts
• Central office should
guide & teach – not
control content
• Small cities may have
younger/geekier staff
(due to lower pay grades)

14. Things To Consider
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Records retention
Legal issues/constraints
Transparency
Terms of use
Social media policies

15. Assessing New Social Media
• Clearly identify objectives
• Determine a strategy for its use
• “Listen” to the social media conversation for
new potential channels
• Realistically assess resources
• Reach out to peer cities for advice

16. Common Social Media Platforms
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

18. What Is Facebook?
• Social networking service that allows users
to connect to friends and businesses
• Share content, links, photos, and videos
• Comment on others’ activity
• Remember: Personal profiles are for people,
not businesses. Develop a fan page instead.

19. Facebook Stats
• Over 1.1 billion active users
• Average user is connected to 40 pages
• Smartphone mobile users check Facebook an
average of 13.8 times a day
• 751 million users access Facebook from a
mobile device
Source: IDC; expandedramblings.com

20. What Is Facebook?

21. Facebook Benefits
• Low cost
• Engage with fans of your page
• Fans receive your updates and can upload
comments, photos, and video
• When fans engage you on your page, their
activity shows up in their friends’ streams
– This can prompt others to check out the City of
La Grange pages too!

22. Facebook Benefits
• Can incorporate content from other social
media platforms
– Ex: blog posts, updates from Twitter, pictures from
Instagram, videos from YouTube, location-based
apps (FourSquare), etc.
• Targeted advertising opportunities (cheap too!)

23. Know Your Audience
Photo: stijnbokhove

24. Facebook Insights

25. Facebook Insights

27. What Is Twitter?
• Free social networking and micro-blogging site
that allows users to send and read messages
known as “tweets”
• Tweets can have no more than 140 characters
& are delivered to the author’s subscribers,
known as “followers”

28. Twitter Stats
• 500 million users
• 60% of active users use their mobile phone to
tweet
• Average number of followers per Twitter user is
208
• Twitter engagement rates for brands are 17%
higher on Saturdays and Sundays
Source: Linchpin SEO; expandedramblings.com

29. What Is Twitter?

30. Twitter Benefits
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Low cost
Speed of feedback
Potential reach of message
Customer engagement/service
Track what people are saying about you
Create buzz around upcoming events
Promote the city and other content you create

32. What Is YouTube?
• Allows people to discover, watch, and share
originally-created videos

33. YouTube Stats
• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube
every month
• 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute
• 6+ billion hours of video are watched each
month
• YouTube reaches more adults ages 18-34 than
any cable network
Source: http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics

35. Best Practices and Examples

36. Have a Great Bio

39. Share Information

43. Use Cover Photos
As Advertising

46. Use Hashtags

49. Be Human

52. Ask Questions

54. Be Helpful

62. Show, Don’t Tell

68. Use Local Experts

71. Try Instagram

72. Brought to you on behalf of Pedernales
Electric Cooperative

75. Start Pinning

79. Resources
• Social Media Policy
– http://www.portlandoregon.gov/auditor/article/372781
• Portland social media directory
– http://www.portlandonline.com/?c=51425&a=468696
• Louisville social media directory
– http://www.louisvilleky.gov/socialmediacenter
• Social media policy database
– http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
• Fels Institute study
– https://www.fels.upenn.edu/sites/www.fels.upenn.edu/fil
es/fels_promising_practices_the_rise_of_social_media_w
ebsite_final.pdf

80. Can I Help?
Call
Me!

81. Follow Me
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