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Sunday, October 19, 2014

Getting Content, The Easy Way

When setting up local government webpages, Facebook accounts, twitter feeds and other social media platforms, getting good content can seem pretty daunting.  However, when you take a step back and look around you will find that you are surrounded with a lot of easy to find and use pictures and documents. 

Preliminary Steps

There  are five things that must be done before you start a social media engagement program.
  1. The first  thing that must be done is to make engagement an organizational priority.  This is a top-down leadership issue.  Engagement should be as important to the organization as marketing is to Amazon or Target.
  2. The next step is to put someone in charge of engagement.  I don't mean that it is just another item on a staffer's "to do list".  Someone needs to be specifically assigned to this task.  It should be a top priority for them. In Stephen Covey terms, it should be in the 1/1 box of the urgency/important matrix.
  3. Provide adequate resources.  This means staff time, equipment, and software. 
  4. Develop an engagement plan.  I recommend developing a full marketing plan, but at a minimum: the plan should include which content is appropriate to publish, who has approval authority to publish content, publishing schedules, training and education of staff who will be gathering or providing content.
  5. Make submitting content easy.  People will be more willing to submit content if you make it easy to do.  You can do this by excepting a wide variety of formats and making it easy to submit content, such as e-mail or a simple content submission program.  This does not mean anyone should be allowed to upload content to social media sites, but rather, it should be easy to get it to whoever will be doing so. 

Where to Get Content

This is the easy part.  Local governments produce tons of information every day.  Even small communities will have content, even if it's just meeting agendas and minutes.  Below is a sample of where you can get content.

  1.  Agendas and Meeting minutes from Boards, Commissions and committees.  These are the low hanging fruit of the local government content world.
  2. Meeting notices, public service announcements and emergency alerts.
  3. Staff reports.  Local government staffs are constantly producing reports and updates.  These include financial and budget reports and planning actions (rezoning, subdivision, enforcement).  Most public works departments are a great source of information because they cover such a wide range of duties.
  4. Events, parades, and festivals announcements and pictures. 
  5. Project updates, both public and private.  Staff will have to go to works sites for inspections or to perform work.  Turn them into content generators. 
  6. Information from other agencies and organizations. There is usually a steady flow of information form other jurisdictions and the State and Federal Government that is pertinent to the locality's residents.
  7. Job opening announcements
  8. Public procurement opportunities

Picture credit: Social Media for Local Government by Joeyshepp.com

















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