Content about Twitter

Most of us grasp the concept by now that social media has the potential to create a powerful a two-way dialog between government and constituents. So, why aren’t more municipalities embracing this form of public outreach? Cutting through the clutter of social media can be quite intimidating for the novice, we agree; however, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Plus and even Pinterest can and should be viewed as a communications asset. Recently, technology and communications experts from three U.S. cities were asked for their recommendations regarding social media strategies for engagement. 

Mobile technology is powerful; literally everyone seems to own a cell phone these days. When used in public settings, it has the potential to involve citizens in various stages of planning processes. A few projects have used mobile  tools to help enfold citizens into community planning at the pedestrian level.

If a mark of a healthy organization is its capacity for allowing internal debate and dissent, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is quite healthy, at least judged by the recent 20th annual conference held in West Palm Beach, Fla.  New Urbanism has been, in the words of founder Andrés Duany, “the least unsuccessful” recent movement in community building, and therefore has some confidence and capacity to entertain dissent.  Nevertheless, even the greatest of skeptics would have been impressed by the range of topics featured in different sessions, and the range of speakers within given sessions.  One session was particularly notable for its central importance to the evolving nature of New Urbanist project and its interdisciplinary and intergenerational panel. Great skeptics might point out some glaring absences from that panel, but the lively discussion was evidence that New Urbanist leaders are deeply committed to a future of intelligent, collaborative city building.     

It seems that cities known for their successful public transportation programs have done a bit of listening to residents to make improvements, plan, and respond to citizen needs. In a city like Chicago where each day thousands of people rely on the Chicago Transit Authority to get to their destination, a good transit experience seems to make or break their day. And how do we know this? Search for the Twitter hashtag #cta and you’ll discover a multitude of statements from the Chicagoland populace.

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.

We see them every day, popping up on our Twitter feeds, filtered through blogs, or even scattered throughout the New York Times: maps portraying not the usual locations or destinations, but data. From people’s kisses in Toronto, to the concentration of pizza joints in New York, to the number of women who ride bikes, to the likelihood of being killed by a car in any given American city, the list of lenses through which we can now view our cities and neighborhoods goes on, thanks to data-mapping geeks.

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.

As we embark on one of the busiest times of the year, with the holidays upon us, we know many of you are in the midst of planning for 2012. One thing we hope you will consider for next year is to continue supporting EngagingCities, by becoming a sponsor.

There are many ways to leverage your project’s web and mobile presence in our ever innovative world of outreach and communications technologies. In our day to day dealings with clients, we teach businesses, including real estate companies, non-profits, local authorities, and government institutions how to reap the most benefit from today’s most popular social media services, including blogs, online communities, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Now that many planning projects have launched their social media campaigns and are moving in the direction of actively managing a web presence to maintain open online dialogue platforms for public engagement, its time to evaluate what can be done to effectively measure their success rates. It is difficult to benchmark respective activity in the social media realm, as performance is measured differently. This is especially true due to the fact that social media is so versatile, diverse, complex and multi-faceted, spanning many disparate objectives and many different platforms.