Content about Social media

More local governments now have a “face” thanks to social media. Once citizens connect with a humanized local government, are there any risks or barriers to this engagement? Is social media proving to be the most effective vehicle to engage with hard to reach segments of the population? In Australia, one of the most urbanized countries, an interesting case study presents itself. 

The question of how to effectively and appropriately communicate with the public regarding department or organizational planning initiatives and achievements frequently comes up for us with clients. Although some planners may have fine tuned their project communication strategy, it became apparent to us recently, while browsing discussions on Cyburbia.com, that many are still struggling to find some fresh ideas on how to spread the word about what they are actually working on.

The results of a survey conducted by Networked Neigbourhoods in 2011 are revealing that local government leaders are paying more attention to neighborhood websites than ever before. The UK consultancy’s survey results shows that local council officers and elected members consider neighborhood websites to be the most useful online channels, above others such as Facebook or Twitter.

An entry level planner approaches his manager and asks if the department should be considering creating a Facebook page to get the word out about current projects. Says he knows a planner in the Bay Area that has recently done this for his community. The manager is skeptical. His only experience with Facebook in this context is work-related questions that would come in directly to him from residents, which foiled his attempts to have a personal life in the small town he managed. So, is this a good idea? Or a bad one - to have a Facebook page dedicated to your community and managed by your city department? What about controversial projects you are working on?

For our friends at MobileActive.org, the idea of using mobile technology to support social change among people and organizations around the world is nothing new. MobileActive.org has long been on a mission of connecting citizens; providing resources to NGOs that will enable them to enrich and serve their communities. Many may be surprised to learn that in today’s technologically advanced world, there are still roughly 5 billion global citizens without reliable internet access. However, as mobile phone usage continues to rise, resources like the MobileActive.org’s new Mobile Media Toolkit, may just be the answer these offline communities need to activate their public engagement efforts. 

Social media and new technologies can bring new ways for communities to interact. Yet the growth in online technologies is a fast moving picture with potentially good and bad outcomes. In recent riots in the UK social media was blamed for facilitating bad behaviour by the social underclass. 

Free online workshop on the practical use of social media and web-based tools hosted by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies (TRB) will feature panel discussions lead by experts and interactive breakout sessions.

Results are in from President Obama’s July 6 live question-answering Twitter session, and from what we can tell, Americans were more than eager participate with reports of over 40,000 questions coming in and over 110,000 individual Twitter messages sent during during the live event. However, it seems that the latest attempts of the Whitehouse to blend traditional media and social media in hopes of reaching people who really care about current political issues, may have fallen short of participants’ expectations of openness.

These days RFPs for planning projects often include the requirement to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites as a means to communicate with the public. Unfortunately, it typically doesn’t go beyond that and many projects that we have seen simply use these venues under the assumption we-build-it-and-they-will-come. Therefore the level of activity and fans or followers is often low.

A recent study released by Pew Research Center on the Internet and Campaign 2010 shows some strong similarities between politics and planning when it comes to public involvement.

Affectionately referred to as the Detroit of Australia, Newcastle inauspiciously jump-started their own downtown revitalization with the simple creation of a Facebook page.