How the City of Walla Walla, Washington Uses Social Media in Local Government
In this Government Technology Webinar, David Brauhn, Communications Director for the City of Walla Walla, Washington, joined us to talk about using social media in local government to engage with citizens.
Brauhn shared his experience with using social media as part of the City of Walla Walla’s overall engagement strategy, and how social media compares with traditional media. Check out Bruahn’s top 3 tips below!
1. You can communicate directly to citizens.
Bruahn first highlighted why government agencies should be using social media as part of their overall communication strategy. Brauhn sees being able to communicate directly to citizens as a huge advantage of social media.
“If you aren’t there communicating with citizens, no one else is… There are a lot of sources for misinformation out there, so you need to put the ball in your court.” Get the right information into your citizen’s hands to get ahead of rumors!
2. Share stores about the good work you do.
If your agency is getting great work done for your citizens, you definitely want to spread the word. “Even if you are covered on traditional media, a lot of times they don’t share the good news stories, and not as often as you like.”
Get control of that publicity by putting the message out yourself!
3. It’s efficient, nimble, and cheap!
Social media lets you get a lot out of your marketing budget. “For $100, i can hit everyone in Walla Walla with a Facebook account.” Compare that with how much traditional media can cost for who knows how much reach and that makes anyone’s walla-wallet happy.
Not only is it cheap, but it’s quick and easy to push that information out. Brauhn shares that he can “react very quickly to any type of emergent situations and reach citizens directly, instead of relying on traditional media sources to do it for [me].”
Even if promoting a post isn’t expensive, sometimes creating content can seem like a huge investment. But in Brauhn’s experience, that doesn’t have to be the case. “You don’t need an expensive production to make a successful video post – create interesting content and you’ll see the social interactions follow!”
Find out More!
Check out the webinar to hear a few stories from Brauhn’s experience managing social media for the City of Walla Walla and how using a social media archiving solution makes sure all of that awesome outreach is compliant with open records laws.
Watch the full webinar for yourself at GovTech.com.
Check our more social media archiving resources for government here.
How can ArchiveSocial help your agency? Find out more and sample your archive at ArchiveSocial.com
