The city of Asheville is hiring two social media nerds one will serve as a consultant for a three-month contract, and the other as a p.r. flak who specializes in social media for a 12-month contract. I’m not going to get into why the city is choosing to hire these positions now, while the city faces a budget deficit nearing $6 million. The jobs are two of the most sought-after jobs among the creative set in Asheville, so let’s talk about how the city can take advantage of them.
On Monday, the city announced it had launched several new social media accounts. Hopefully, they will use sites like linktree in order to organize their Instagram profiles in an effective manner. From a press release:
The City of Asheville officially launched its Facebook Fan Page on January 28 and over the first four days the city saw its fan base increase to over 1,000 fans. Instagram could be the next account the City Of Asheville starts. After all, it is not difficult to increase the number of followers you have when you have access to the best instagram bot. During the weekend snow event in late January, the city posted more than 20 weather related updates to help citizens stay informed.
The city will continue to use social networking accounts throughout the year to communicate with the citizens of Asheville. Stay tuned! Various city departments will be launching focused sites in the near future.
Visit the City of Asheville sites at
http://www.facebook.com/cityofasheville
http://www.facebook.com/ashevillecc
http://www.twitter.com/cityofasheville
http://www.twitter.com/ashevillefd
To learn more about the citys social media plan, contact the citys public information officer, Dawa Hitch at 828-259-5981.
That’s a great start. But there’s much more to be done. Here’s my take. I call it the three “T’s” of social media for Asheville:
Turn a profit. There are still plenty of folks in town who are shocked to learn that the Asheville Civic Center runs in the red. How can the Civic Center lose money in a vibrant town like Asheville, they ask? Well, there are several reasons. First, the facility is getting old and it needs expensive repairs, some of which are happening right now to the roof. Second, the old age sometimes limits the type of activities the center can handle. And third, the Civic Center does a piss-poor job of marketing.
Using its own Web site, as well as Facebook and Twitter, Civic Center officials can be relentless about getting butts in seats. Be sly and build buzz. Give away a few tickets. Tell people as soon as possible about when tickets go on sale, or about a cancellation. Lead people to parking decks. Stop relying on media outlets, and get the word our first yourself.
The same goes for the city’s other big festivals, which also are either taxpayer funded or barely break even. Get out front with Bele Chere. Roll out the music line-up via social media, and build buzz. Make suggestions on where people can stay, or eat or find public transportation. Do the same with the Asheville Film Festival.
Speaking of public transportation – the city should ring the Asheville Transit System bell early and often. Repeat the special deal offered recently and let people ride the bus for free for a month. Introduce us to bus drivers and mechanics and even riders. Show us video of routes. Give us great maps.
Transparency. A stated goal for the city’s social media workers is to help it be more transparent. That’s great, but to be frank, the city has a long way to go here. First, it needs to fix its Web site. Then it needs to use that site to be a repository for as much information as it can possibly push out. It’s not government’s information – it’s our information. Our taxpayer money pays for it.
Post every database you can legally post. Then use social media to let people know the information is there and available for them to use. Publish job openings prominently on the city Web site, then tell people where to click and apply. Put up minutes from all boards and commissions in a timely fashion. Use volunteer help to get this done, then use social media to spread the word.
Explain to people how to navigate the planning department. Take the video you create for the city’s television channel and regularly post that to video sharing sites. Create a page to let people tell the city public works department where there are pot holes and burned out street lamps, then go fix them and use social media to tell everyone you’ve gotten the job done.
The city can be transparent in little ways. Here’s a personal example: the city recently announced the winners of it’s “Art on Transit” program. Instead of waiting to put out a press release and wait for me to ask for jpeg images of all 60 submissions, the city should have posted its own photo gallery and press release on its site.
Stop holding back information. Push it out.
Transform the way people think about local government. This goal might sound a little more squishy, but I think it’s important. Most residents, in my opinion, think of government as a hinderance. By jumping into the discussion that rages 24/7 on social media, you can start to change that image. I know that not everyone is into Facebook or Twitter or YouTube. But lots of folks – influential folks – are, and they can help do your work for you. Facilitate that precious “word of mouth” that everyone wants by showing that you’re open, can take kudos and criticism, and can be responsive.
This is especially critical in emergency situations. Just in the past few years, we’ve been hit by devastating flooding and brutal winter storms. The city can change the way people think about it by being out front in showing that it’s preparing and handling these kinds of situations.
That’s it. There are tons of technical details to work out, and certainly some legalities to consider. But I hope the city stops being afraid and starts embracing the tools that are right there at its fingertips. There’s money to be made. There’s information to be shared. There are attitudes to change.
Good luck.
15 Comments
I absolutely and completely agree that we need to transform the way people think about local government. Reading these comments illustrates that perfectly.
1. Local government’s primary focus is to serve citizens.
In order to serve effectively, people need to think first, then speak up instead of throwaway "what a waste of tax dollars" soundbytes (Have you read the City of Asheville budget summary for last fiscal year??) or people taking unnecessary advantage of a city council meeting to rant without context or cohesion. People barely understand what a council-manager form of government is or how things are structured at the local level.
2. Real critical thinking about ways to improve government effectiveness needs to occur and the citizenry needs to be engaged.
Social media might finally bridge that gap. I think it’s a great step forward, if overdue. It is significantly easier to Twitter a question than to pick up the phone and actually call some ‘faceless bureaucrat.’ By getting in on social media, local government is able to reach a totally new group of citizens and provide them with good information.
3. EVERYONE who works in local government works at community relations.
To those that view LOCAL government as a ‘tired old bureaucracy’ – local government is more self contained, more able to make things happen, less likely to ignore their customers (which, as citizens, is what we are), than at any other stage of government, county included.
As far as accomplishing things on the cheap, I disagree. A compromise was made during what is essentially a hiring freeze because this was viewed as too critical to put off any longer.
This is it exactly – You *BECOME* the source of information by *BEING* the source and the first at GOOD, RELIABLE information.
Once that happens, when you tweet or post or announce, PEOPLE LISTEN! People read Facebook posts/blogs/tweets because they love to be ‘early adopters’ of information.
This is good, Ash. I really hope the city takes it to heart.
good example is the FD… they twittered a few things their first day, it was great, and now nothing since 2/10? they lose the password?
Lots of good points made here, but I agree with Wvler on a critical one. Asheville is trying to accomplish an important task on-the-cheap. The city needs to take all this more seriously, showing support and commitment to whomever gets the job.
realityczech
I have to agree that this effort will bear no fruit and will be just another waste of tax dollars. The City of Asheville has a lot better uses for its meager tax dollars than promoting itself on Twitter and Facebook and other such sites.
We have broken water mains, a need for more police officers and more firefighters too. Yes indeed, even our City Hall building is crumbling.
Not everyone in this city is a hip techno-phile. We need out city govt to provide basic services first. This sort of thing would be nice to have, but there are many other priorities in Asheville that come in way ahead of this sort of thing in allocating our ta dollars.
Asheville City council only cares about feel good feelings and buzz words, DOWN WITH SOCIAL MEDIA!!!!!
Murphy, thanks. I’ve fixed the links.
Mel, I absolutely disagree that the use of social media can have no measurable impact on city government. I think a smart use of social media can make a giant positive impact on the city’s bottom line, and on how it’s viewed by residents.
A tired old bureaucracy like City of Asheville government is not going to be effective in such an effort.
It’s a pipe dream to believe that all this social media positioning have any measurable impact. They first need to fix the lame web site and focus on handling basic pr and marketing efforts. This is a case of putting the cart before the horse. The city already has too many folks working full time on pr, marketing and community relations.
Importantly, our art deco City Hall Building is crumbling and in serious need of major structural repairs. And, we need more police, fire dept. staff and other basic services before they even think about getting into this sort of thing. Contract employees or not, this is a waste of tax dollars!
Some folks at City Hall must be smoking Wacky Weed! This is a crazy idea that Mayor Bellamy and the Council need to stop asap.
I agree that the city could be a lot more transparent on its Web site, Ash. The police department, especially, could easily accomplish this by posting daily arrests and a calls for service log. That crime mapper is OK, but it’s not very user friendly and the "critical incidents" hasn’t been updated in months.
The fire department, too, could also post a calls for service log on its Web site.
Amen Get with it, any town that pays $10,000 for bunnies on a bus needs all the help they can get, this city knows how to flush tax payer dollars.
Maybe the Citizen-Times will give up the "asheville" Twitter account to the city, now that it’s tweeting under citizen-times?
Move the Civic center and Thomas Wolf and you get two things for the price of one.
First you get ample parking for people coming to see shows at a new location (agri center).
Second, free up parking for shoppers by moving it out of downtown.
Downtown can’t handle the mess and why are they putting some silly new roof on a structure that will cave in below it. What a waste of tax payer money.
If I remember the postings correctly, they are contract positions. I believe this means that the city doesn’t have to pony up benefits to the people hired. It’s also up to them to pay their own taxes which I would think would mean less paperwork for the HR Dept. I believe the posting also said that those hired have to provide their own working space and equipment, so no city space is taken up and no IT support from the city will be needed to provide a computer or software. I’m not quite sure how you have a PR person, who is not working in the town hall, be beneficial to the city. Seems like the person would be needed downtown so they could get the most up to date info in a timely fashion.
None of the links to the social media sites for A’ville above work,
Brilliant. I think I’ve reposted this like 4 times. You do good work.