There is no lack of public engagement when it comes to speaking out online about municipal affairs. With easy access to things like Facebook, more and more people are stepping up on their virtual soapbox to announce their displeasure of their city’s actions. From casual political debate to the downright nasty and negative, we’re seeing an era of social media discourse that’s quickly evolving and presenting our city officials with a new problem. Everyone is getting their 15 minutes.
Unfortunately the comments through Facebook almost always lean towards negative criticisms, which feel more like virtual shouting matches and name-calling. Spurred by our current economic turmoil, it’s hard to avoid. People are emotional beings and anger is one of the easiest feelings to convey. They feel abandoned by their municipal counterparts. Opinions are often left on deaf ears.
Or are they?
We would be silly to assume that in all of our time spent complaining about the state of our poor city that no municipal official has had our concerns brought to their attention. They aren’t all dinosaurs plodding through town stepping on the little townsfolk. While that may seem like a confusing analogy, its not far off from what many envision.
The truth is, many municipal staff are online (yes they own computers), and a large percentage of them are on Facebook and most likely even reading your comments. As a municipal employee, responding to comments can be a scary thing, and there tends to be red tape involved which prevents a lot of it.
Does the city really need a Facebook page?
In an article earlier this year, the mayor of New York discussed the potential of building a Facebook page for their city. He realized that social media isn’t going anywhere so he feels the city should get on board. He already runs his own Facebook page with over 30,000 likes. He comments on recent news articles and events, no different than you or I. Now I’m sure that an official of his stature in a city the size of New York doesn’t update his own Facebook page all of the time but it makes him appear more accessible to the general public.
Another example of a city establishing a Facebook presence is the city of Takeo in Japan where they switched from a standard website to Facebook entirely. Their reasons were slightly different but make great sense. They wanted to interact with citizens on Facebook because it presents a little more accountability. People can anonymously comment on news sites very easily, but when you’re name is attached to that comment like on Facebook the comments tend to be a bit more reserved and thought out.
So how can the municipality take part?
The reason for the Facebook pages, in both cases above, are to communicate with citizens, respond to concerns, and provide an outlet for local events supported by the city. It provides a more real-time method of getting in touch with the people. The wall could be used to post important notices and welcome comments from the people. Custom tabs and applications can be used to provide a range of features. A simple discussion section can act as an open forum for municipal affairs. It’s a lot easier for someone to voice a concern there rather than attending a once-a-month council meeting. Photo galleries can be used to show pictures of around the community, including events that have taken part there. Municipal department info can be easily organized and displayed for quick access. I would urge local council members to take part as well. The opportunities are massive and their are a great number of examples of successful Facebook pages out there. Most are businesses like McDonalds and Coke, but similar efforts can be translated for municipal use. Yes there will be the usual red tape and policies that have to be followed but that shouldn’t dissuade the city from doing it.
While all of this may not fend off all of the negativity online, it will make the city more accessible to those who live in it and let them know that someone is listening. It won’t turn around the economy and it won’t answer all our questions but it will make the citizens feel like they are a part of their city and have a connection with those who run it.
It will build community.
Brandon Houston
As an example, let’s say you’re Ford dealer with a website that gets 10,000 visits a month for the keyword ‘car’. Fantastic, right? But how many of those visits converted into actual sales? Of those 10,000 visits, 2,000 of them were people looking for car repairs which you aren’t focusing on, 3,000 were looking for car reviews or information about their own car, and 1,000 of them were trying to find toy cars for children. That leaves 4,000 visits that were potentially looking for car sales. Of that 4,000 only 1,000 of them were interested in Ford vehicles. Of that 1,000 only 30 were within three hours of your location. Out of those 30 you sold 1 car.
