In an era when adults use social media for gathering news, checking in with friends and following their favorite businesses, it only makes sense that local governments also have a presence. To really connect with residents, though, cities need to do more than just post standard memos, especially since the pandemic has made digital personas even more valuable. Three Georgia cities: Griffin, Brookhaven and Tucker, are taking unique and innovative approaches on social media to further engage residents.
Early last year, the city of Griffin was planning a big Spring Fling to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its popular Second Saturday series, a free community event that drew residents to downtown once a month. For the celebration, the city planned to close the streets off, put out Astroturf and have food trucks and vendors for the crowds to enjoy.
Then COVID-19 swept in and everything changed. At first, the city thought the events would have to stop. “But then we realized that would not be beneficial for our businesses who were struggling to figure out what they were going to do during this time,” said Danielle Hancock, the city’s economic development administrative coordinator. “So, we came up with an idea to host our Spring Fling and do it in quarantine style, because at the time we were encouraging people not to get out and about.”
The result was a nearly 12-hour virtual event with live streams including an at-home scavenger hunt, a concert from a local band and virtual classes with kits for making pizzas and doing a facial or painting with a child. It was a fun way to encourage people who were feeling scared that they didn’t “have to be so down in the dumps with quarantine,” Hancock said. The day’s events garnered about 150,000 views.
“Facebook basically blew up with having Griffin everywhere, because it was just constant businesses sharing, our page sharing and then people watching sharing,” she said.
The event continued to grow, capturing viewers from other states including Florida, Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina and New York. Second Saturdays have since returned to in-person events with required social distancing, but the city continues to do a few Facebook lives for those out-of-staters or people who’d rather stay home.
Social Media Increases Inclusion
Brookhaven, which has a large Spanish-speaking population, saw the benefits from work it put into innovative social media practices before the pandemic. In July 2019, the city brought on a full-time public engagement specialist, Julissa Canas, who speaks Spanish. She created “Ciudad de Brookhaven” Instagram and Facebook accounts, which are separate from the English language ones, and started translating, publishing and distributing city documents into Spanish.
These efforts to increase outreach and accessibility for Spanish-speaking residents contributed to Brookhaven winning GMA’s Visionary City Award in January. Burke Brennan, the city’s communications director, said although the city places a lot of emphasis on outreach, they still have a long way to go.
“We are not, by far, reaching as many people as we need to reach. We know that,” said Brennan. “So, we’re hoping to build upon our successes and continue to provide the information that the community wants and needs.”
Canas said there was a deep need for information in Spanish, especially in the Buford Highway community. When COVID-19 hit, she saw followers on the Spanish channels increase significantly. Canas shifted the content of the posts to make sure everyone had helpful information about resources that were available to them.
“The idea is to have equitable access to city communications materials, because even if you don’t speak the language, you are entitled to your government’s information,” Canas said.
Welcoming Residents ‘Nextdoor’
In Tucker, social media was used during the pandemic as “part educational tool and part entertainment morale booster,” said Matt Holmes, the city’s director of communications and admin services. As a result, he said engagement “skyrocketed,” with followers or subscribers increasing by nearly 2,000 across different channels since February 2020.
To meet residents where they are, Tucker goes beyond just being on the most obvious platforms for branded accounts. The city started an account on Nextdoor, an online site for neighbors, a few years ago.
“We are on all kinds of social media channels, but one of the promises that was made when Tucker be- came a city in 2016 was that we weren’t going to leave anybody behind,” Holmes said. That meant getting on an additional platform—niche though it may be—to communicate and engage with all residents’ questions and concerns.
“Between jobs, between the pandemic, between family stuff, people are busy,” said Holmes, a working father himself. “And a lot of times, they don’t have time to do a real deep dive and figure out all these things that we take for granted when it comes to meetings and city happenings.”
Last year, Tucker started posting pertinent pandemic-related information on Nextdoor, such as an emergency dinner giveaway for children, face mask distribution and a notice that the third annual July 4th firework show would be virtual. Other posts detailed a series of spring events “aimed at improving morale in the community,” which included a challenge to send a card or encouraging note to someone in the community, the Tucker Takeout Picnic Challenge and a virtual prom for high school seniors.
“I think that Nextdoor, while it is a social media channel, it’s not quite as involved as some of the other ones, and there are a lot more casual and older users,” Holmes said. “It’s an opportunity for us to reach them, and I think they’ve been appreciative of that.”