For Local City and County Governments: You Should Be Using Social Media. Here's How.

Revised with new information as of January 1, 2018

A free resource for nonprofit organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations,
charities, schools, public sector agencies & other mission-based agencies
by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

For Local City & County Governments:

You Should Be Using Social Media.

Here's How.

No excuses: your city government or county government MUST be using social media to communicate with your community. To not be using social media to deliver information and to engage means you are denying critical information to much of your community and promoting an image of secrecy and lack of transparency. In fact, the lack of use of social media can be seen as your city council or county government trying to hide something, and even lead to rumors that are much harder to dispel than they would have been to prevent.

The days of everyone getting their information from one newspaper, or listening to a small town radio station to get critical information, are over for much of the USA. Newspapers and local radio stations continue to disappear and most of those that are left don't readily provide local government-related information anymore.

This list of tips is mostly for US cities and towns under 100,000 people, or counties under or around 500,000 - but there are certainly suggestions here that large municipalities could use, and is easily adapted for other countries.

Social media helps government officials and public sector officials build relationships with residents, show transparency and exhibit a human touch in working with the public. Yes, it means that the public will have an outlet for anger online, but it also means they have an outlet to be eager, committed, interested, funny and committed to their communities. The public is not the enemy, and they shouldn't see the government as such - we're all people, and the public deserves the very best effort of elected officials to engage them.

Remember, you aren't creating any new text or information to share on social media - you are using information you already have prepared for other communications, like print newsletters and press releases. If you are preparing public information in any format, it needs to be provided on your social media accounts as well. Often, that means just cutting and pasting information from another platform - it takes just seconds.

What should your city council or county government share regularly and promptly on social media?

Office closure reminders
Public government meetings dates and times, like your upcoming city council meeting or meetings where the public is invited to comment on an issue; include links to the online agenda
Links to the minutes from all public meetings
Links to surveys soliciting public comment
Links to interviews with public officials in online media (TV, radio, newspaper, etc.)
Openings on city and county citizen committees, like your historic commission, arts commission, public safety commission, bicycle and pedestrian commission, housing commission, etc.
City or county government office paid job openings
Repostings from other government agencies, like the fire department, the police department, the city library, waste management, etc.
Repostings from key nonprofits in your area, like the local community theater auditions or performances, dates of parades, etc.
Anything you are publishing in a newsletter you include in a public utility bill (make each information item a separate post)
Deadlines for registering to vote for an upcoming election
Reminders of upcoming elections
Links to non-partisan, neutral information about upcoming ballot measures or bond issues
Election results
Road construction updates and road closings
Reminders about key community events, like the weekly farmer's market or the upcoming county fair
Information about government representatives that will attend at a public event, like the upcoming county fair, and where your display table will be
Press releases and press statements
Reminders of school closures and in-service days
Public service announcements, like days that it is too dangerous to leave pets or children in parked cars for ANY length of time
Awards to government officials
Thanks yous to departing interns
Announcement of retirements
Announcement in changes in senior staff at major city or county departments
Major warnings about the weather
Acknowledgements of key observances, like Black History Month, Earth Day, and key religious holidays

You may want people to know about the availability of flu shots, about a traffic light software glitch, about public transit changes - whatever is going to affect a large portion of your community and may result in phone calls and emails to your city or county offices.

But what about the law?!?

In collaboration with a member of your legal team, create a policy regarding what comments are allowed, and what comments are NOT allowed and will be deleted, and clearly state these policies on all of your social media accounts and your web site. There is some great advice regarding legal issues and how to create a social media policy via Social Media & Governments Legal & Ethical Issues by representatives of the law firm of Gilberts, Lindenhurst, and Wadsworth, published in November 2013.

Which social media should you be using

Facebook for all of the above. Yes, all of it. Until Facebook is no longer so popular, all of the above needs to be posted to your Facebook page promptly. Remember: Most people will see your posts in their newsfeed, not because they decided to go visit your Facebook page. The more people that like your Facebook status update, and the more people that share it, the greater chance it will show up in people's newsfeeds. You will also want to use the Events feature on Facebook to input information about upcoming official events; anyone who chooses "interested" or "going" for the event will get reminders of the event automatically (but if you need RSVPs, you need to make sure people know that if they mark "going" as to whether or not this is an official RSVP or not). and remember that you should have a Facebook PAGE for your city office or department, NOT a Facebook account that people "friend."

GooglePlus for all of the above as well. I know that GoogePlus is not that popular, but posting here greatly improves the search engine results on Google for your city or county government office. Just post exactly the same thing you post to Facebook to your GoogePlus page.

Twitter for most of the above, particularly the urgent items, like weather-related closings, and links to information that relates to your city or county government being in the news lately. Do NOT create an online bridge between your Facebook and Twitter accounts, where everything you post to Facebook gets posted to Twitter! This creates truncated, meaningless messages on Twitter.

Instagram for for the fun stuff, like photos of city council members at the local farmer's market. You can also do screen captures of short public notices from your city or council newsletter and post them on your Instagram account as photos - just make sure you also cut and paste the text in the description as well.

YouTube for all videos. You will also share links to these on Facebook and GooglePlus for sure, and probably Twitter as well. You may also want to share videos to Instagram.

It's not absolutely necessary for you to use the hottest social media app for today that will be gone tomorrow, or something especially niche, like Snapchat. But such tools can be great for reaching younger people, and for posting fun things. These tend to be time-intensive to use, however.

How often to post?

It's not too much to post three times a day. You certainly should be posting once a day at least three times a week. But what's more important is that you must RESPOND. Not to every comment, but certainly to ALL questions.

What about comments?

Disclaimer: I'm no lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice.

Many government offices and elected bodies avoid social media because they fear negative public comments and per unfounded fears of legal issues. The reality is that those fears are mitigated just as they are regarding onsite, public comments at, say, city council meetings. If you are transparent and consistent about your policy regarding deleting comments or closing comments on your Facebook page, you will probably avoid most, if not all, social media public relations problems. It might not be easy to read negative comments, but it is better in the long run to have a full understanding of various opinions and needs than to try to avoid them.

The reality also is that most people who comment on your posts on social media are going to say "thank you" or something else positive - if anyone posts at all. Don't be surprised if most of your posts never receive any comments at all.

If someone has a question in response to a social media post, answer it promptly. If someone has a complaint, address it, or link to where you address it, promptly.

The best approach to resolving a complaint posted in response to a social media post you have made may be to invite the person that is complaining to someone's office to explain face-to-face his or her concerns, or ask the person to email a certain person with his or her phone number to set up a phone conversation to talk about the issue.

If negative comments are becoming repetitive - the same negative comment over and over - you may want to turn off commenting and end the response period to a social media post, HOWEVER, before doing so, post a comment yourself saying that you are turning off the comments because the conversation has become repetitive, and remind everyone how to call or email their feedback, or of a public meeting where their comments could be expressed in person.

You do NOT have to respond to trolling comments, like "the county magistrates are all a bunch of idiots", and those may be deleted, however, they should be screen captured and that image saved on the government office's hard drive or an intranet before the comments are deleted from social media, in the remote chance that they are needed later for a formal complaint or legal action. Again, if you fear more trolling, you can also turn comments off, but before doing so, post a comment reminding everyone how to call or email their feedback and saying, "We're turning comments off for this thread."

You may want to email or send a direct message to a person whose comment is being deleted, explaining exactly why the comment is being deleted from your Facebook page and how the person can register a formal, official complaint against the government office. Be sure to save this communication in the remote chance that they are needed later for a formal complaint or legal action.

What comments should be deleted from your social media page? Were I to write a policy, I would say that the following comments should be deleted (but only after screen captures and preservation of those images offline):

a threat to safety (death threats or other threats of violence towards staff),
an accusation against an elected official, staff member, volunteer or contractor,
the naming of an elected official, staff member, volunteer or contractor who is subject of an allegation,
a violation of your office's confidentiality policy,
a message that could be considered as harassment,
a message that could be considered racist, obscene, sexist, or insulting to an entire nationality, region, religion or philosophy (including people who are atheists)
profoundly inaccurate information, like "Vaccines cause autism!" or "the city council are all members of the Illuminati"

Don't just write these prohibitions in your social media policy: have a training for key staff on what violations of these policies would actually look like.

Encourage key staff to "like" posts

Don't require staff to "like" posts made to your city or county government page, but do encourage them to "like" such. The more "likes" a status gets, the more often it will show up in people's newsfeeds.

All communications staff must be involved in this

Some towns or cities are going to have whomever is in charge of public relations to also do the actual posting and responding on social media. Some are going to place the overall responsibility in that person's job description, but have someone else to actually do the posting and responding - even a volunteer. Whomever it is, remember that this isn't just posting information; this is community engagement. Treat it as seriously as you want the community to treat you.

Other sites that provide guidance on this topic:

16 Ingenious Ways Local Governments Use Social Media, from a for-profit company called ViewPoint, that helps government agencies adopt "better technology."

Cities Must Change Facebook Page Names, or Else from Government Technology magazine

The City That Incorporated Social Media Into Everything (Roanoke, Virginia)

Social Media & Government: Cutting Red Tape for Increased Citizen Engagement, from Sprout Social

Social Media & Governments Legal & Ethical Issues by representatives of the law firm of Gilberts, Lindenhurst, and Wadsworth, published in November 2013

Use Caution when Monitoring Comments on Your School’s Social Media Page, from representatives of the Franczek Radelet law firm. This article ALSO talks about government use of social media, specifically regarding how to handle comments.

Also see:

Launching & Maintaining a Successful Online Community for a Neighborhood, Town, City or County
There are lots of resources for how to start and maintain an online community, but they are focused on online communities for customers of a company, or people all working in a particular career field (knowledge communities), or people all engaged in a similar activity, or people all suffering from the same condition (support communities). But the resources for helping people launch and maintain a successful online community for people living or working in neighborhood, town, city or county, a community that's meant to help neighbors get to know each other and to build offline community are hard to find. This resource is meant to help with those that are moderating online communities to build a sense of community offline focus on people living or working in particular neighborhoods or towns, parents of students at a particular school or all of the residents of a building or compound. These online communities are meant to promote civility, respect and thoughtfulness among members offline, and this resource is meant to help moderators and facilitators reach those goals.
Nonprofits & NGOs: you MUST give people a way to donate online

Mission-Based Groups Need Use the Web to Show Accountability
The number and tone of media stories regarding mission-based organizations/civil society and how they spent contributions in the wake of various disasters have done little to help such organizations better serve people in need. Rather, by concentrating on a few bad cases, or by misrepresenting administrative expenses as somehow unnecessary, they have made potential supporters suspicious of all charities, and those these organization's serve pay the ultimate price. There has never been a better time for mission-based organizations to use technology to show their transparency and credibility, and to teach the media and general public about the resources needed to address critical human and environmental needs.

Daily, Mandatory, Minimal Tasks for Nonprofits on Facebook & Twitter
There are a lot of nonprofits using Facebook and Twitter just to post to press releases. And if that's how your nonprofit, NGO or government agency is using social media, then your organization is missing out on most of the benefits you could gain from such. Facebook, Twitter and other social media are all about engagement. Social media is NOT one-way communication; you want people and organizations to read your information, but you also want them to respond to it. And they want YOU to respond to what THEY are saying. I broke these must-do tasks down into the most simple, basic list as possible - these tasks take minutes, not hours, a day.

The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit
As of July 2019, Reddit ranked as the No. 5 most visited website in the USA and No. 13 in the world. Reddit is a community of communities, and its communities are called subreddits. A subreddit can have a focus on a geographic area, a book, a celebrity, a particular time in history, a specific hobby - anything. Statistics suggest that 74% of Reddit users are male. Users tend to be significantly younger than other online communities like Facebook with less than 1% of users being 65 or over. If you want to reach a younger demographic regarding your volunteering opportunities, your awareness messages, your data that shows your value to the community and more, you need to build posts to Reddit into your marketing strategy, no matter what your nonprofit's size or focus. This resource tells you how to do it.
Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action
Hundreds of "friends" on an online social networking site. Thousands of subscribers to an email newsletter. Dozens of attendees to a virtual event. Those are impressive numbers on the surface, but if they don't translate into more volunteers, repeat volunteers, new donors, repeat donors, more clients, repeat clients, legislation, or public pressure, they are just that: numbers. For online activities to translate into something tangible, online action must create and support action. What could this look like? This resource can help organizations plan strategically about online activities so that they lead to something tangible - not just numbers.
How to handle online criticism of your organization.
Getting More Viewers for Your Organization's Online Videos
Videos are a great way to represent your organization's work, to show you make a difference, to promote a message or action that relates to your mission, etc. But just uploading a video isn't enough to attract an audience. This new page on my site offers specific steps that will get more views for your organization's videos on YouTube. Note that many of these tasks would be great for an online volunteer to undertake, with guidance from an appropriate staff member.
The importance of Twitter lists
The awesome power of tweet tags
Why I won’t follow you on Twitter
14 (was 13) things you do to annoy me on social media
A tongue-in-cheek effort to encourage mission-based organizations to do a better job with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social networking sites.
Facebook use to organize Women’s Marches: lessons learned
Facebook was an essential tool in organizing women’s marches all over the USA in January 2017. They may have been the largest single day of marches in US history. This blog is a list of things I learned observing the online organizing first hand.
The dark side of the Internet for mission-based organizations
Measuring social media success? You’re probably doing it wrong.
Volunteers can help you reach more people on Facebook
Snapchat’s Potential Power for Social Good – with REAL examples.
Stages of Maturity in Nonprofit Orgs Using Online Services.
How Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Agencies REALLY Use Online Technologies
Police: use social media to invite community participation, show compassion
Addressing criticism, misinformation & hate speech online
Basic Press Outreach for Mission-Based Organizations
Like fund-raising, press relations is an ongoing cultivation process. Your agency strategy for press coverage needs to go beyond trying to land one big story -- you want the press to know that you are THE agency to contact whenever they are doing a story on a subject that relates to your mission. These are basic, low-cost/no cost things you can do to generate positive attention from the media.
What are good blog topics for mission-based organizations?
The word "blog" is short for "web log", and means keeping a journal or diary online. Blogging is NOT a new concept -- people have been doing it long before it had a snazzy media label. The appeal of blogging for an online audience is that it's more personal and less formal than other information on a web site. Readers who want to connect with an organization on a more personal level, or who are more intensely interested in an organization than the perhaps general public as a whole, love blogs. Blogs can come from your Executive Director, other staff members, volunteers, and even those you serve. Content options are many, and this list reviews some of your options
For Nonprofits Considering Their Own Podcasts: Why It's Worth Exploring, and Content Considerations
(includes my own podcast)
How folklore, rumors and urban myths interfere with development and aid/relief efforts and how to prevent or address such.

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