Government Social Media
Bullying is an issue facing almost every school district in the 21st century. In order to combat bullying, the Shakopee Police Department recognizes that the entire community needs to work together. In partnership with the school district, the Shakopee Police Department started a weeklong online campaign utilizing Twitter and Vine called #BandingAgainstBullying. The event was in collation with the school district's anti-bullying day on October 4, 2014. The first part of the campaign involved getting people on Twitter to start thinking about the harmful effects of bullying. During the Banding Against Bullying week, the Shakopee Police Department posted bullying facts and images each day. The facts posted evoked an emotional response as well as emphasized how harmful bullying can be. The Shakopee Police Department wanted the event to raise awareness and, therefore, active participation was required. The Police Department offered a prize for interaction. Each interaction had an assigned number of entries into a drawing to be held at the end of the week. For example, a Twitter user who favorited a post was awarded one entry, while a Twitter user who used #BandingAgainstBullying was awarded three entries. At the end of the event, the drawing was held, and the winner received a $20 gift card to Pizza Ranch. For this event, Shakopee Police Department also created a Vine Account. On the Vine account, they recorded local persons who would resonate with their target audience of middle and high school students. Several students were recorded as well as teachers, principals, coaches, School Resource Officers and DARE officers. The participants were asked to respond to why they are "Banding Against Bullying". In one week, the videos had over 2,000 loops on Vine. The videos with the students were by far the most popular and were a great way for other students to see their peers taking a stand against bullying. On the last day of the event, they added an in-person component. At the junior high schools, officers were stationed with strips of colored paper in which students would write why they are "BandingAgainstBullying". Some of these responses were also shared on Twitter. One response stated that they were banding against bullying because "My brother is bullied and it breaks my heart to see him cry". The strips were then taped together to create a paper-chain of over 1600 responses. In order to remind the students every day of their pledge, the chain was hung up in the lunchroom, and each student who participated received a wristband that had "Banding Against Bullying" written on it. Throughout the campaign, the participation of the community was outstanding. During the Banding Against Bullying week, Shakopee Police Department earned 37,000 impressions on Twitter (at this time, they had roughly around 1000 followers and the population is only around 37,000 people). The Shakopee Police Department also interacted with several local news anchors that helped spread the word about the campaign. During the live event, several students mentioned they had visited the police page during the week and that some of the statistics shocked them. The goal of the campaign was to get the community, especially students, thinking about bullying and the harmful effects it has. Judging by the response we received in person as well as the number of Twitter impressions, the Shakopee Police Department successfully reached their goal.
After a recent officer involved shooting in our city and other national law enforcement shootings, the City of Lakeland decided to highlight officer involved shootings. We wanted citizens to know that when an officer has to shoot someone in the line of duty, it's not just another day in the life. Lives at both ends of the gun are abruptly changed forever in the wake of a deadly force incident. The officer is affected, as well as his or her family. We wanted to convey to the community that despite what Hollywood portrays about police officers, the truth is they never want to be in a shooting. It only a matter of seconds for a use of force incident to take place, the resulting action can stay with that officer for life and may have life-altering effects. The City of Lakelands Communications Department assisted with the film and editing of the video which was posted on YouTube, Facebook, various social media sites as well as on our local government network TV channel. We followed up with a Ministerial Alliance Meeting and spoke to them about officer involved shootings as part of the social campaign.
The City Manager's Office of Marketing and Public Relations (OMPR) was established in October 2014 to expand the City's presence and marketing capabilities. It's purpose, to create, launch and implement a brand that is synonymous with innovation, culture, arts and entertainment. The City of Miramar It's Right Here In Miramar brand was introduced to showcase Miramar as a global destination for businesses, residents and visitors to live, work, play and prosper. The objective for this particular Social Media Campaign is to increase community engagement. Strategy #1: Consistently produce and disseminate quality content with attention-grabbing graphics that is of high interest to the Miramar community. Subsequently, the IRHIM Facebook Page entices users to frequent the page for information, as well as providing for an open medium to engage in dialogue with the City. The page features posts regarding City events and activities, such as, ground breakings, ribbon cuttings, youth sporting events, etc. Strategy #2: Community Engagement. Launching day: engaged the community through a social media selfie contest during the city's Holiday Lighting event. Attendees were encouraged to first like the IRHIM FB Page, upload a selfie with #HolidayLighting in the comments. Two winners were randomly chosen and received a $100 gift card. Community Events and Activities: promote City events (MLK Celebration, Relay for Life, Career Fairs, etc.). The results were outstanding! OMPR received approximately 200 likes within the first couple of hours and have a 5 out of 5 star rating to date!
Launched: December 6, 2014. Total Organic Likes within the first couple of hours: 197, Total Organic Likes within the first week: 216. Total Organic Reach within the first couple of hours: 1,285, Total Organic Reach within the first week: 1,889. Total likes as of 2/13/2015: 303. As of 2/13/2015: 5 out of 5 Star Rating
In the Fall of 2014, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners were hosting a two-day educational conference to raise awareness for Human Trafficking. They had a goal of 600 people to attend the events and wanted to use a promotional mix of social media, PR, and digital marketing to promote the event. Since the Board of Commissioners does not have their own social media channels, we created and implemented a social media strategy leveraging the Oakland County official accounts. We used a combination of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest to promote the event. As this is a very important but sensitive topic, we were challenged to create compelling posts that would educate and inspire our citizens to take action. We sent about 50 messages in 3 weeks. We were very successful on social media, as our posts had a reach of 77K, made 13.3K impressions, and engaged 210 users. But more importantly were the real-world results: the conference sold out, and over 650 people attended 2-day event! Since the conference, we continue to work with the Board of Commissioners to keep this important conversation going with our citizens on social media and in the real world. This past January we posted about the increase in human trafficking during the North American International Auto Show (one of the largest events in our area each year), and provided resources for people to get more education on what they could do to help. Now the Board of Commissioners is working on a plan to expand on the conference to make an even bigger impact year-round. Below are: screenshots from some of our most successful posts, an infographic of our social media campaign results, and a photo of the Board of Commissioner's Human Trafficking Awareness Committee.
"Like A Girl" is a campaign close to our hearts! Empowering girls and women to do everything their male counterparts are doing and having a blast at it! We at Santee Lakes wanted our social media community to see females fishing, camping and spending girl time at our Park and Campground! In a prevalently masculine pastime, it has been great to see femininity and the great outdoors combined! We began in September 2014 and continue to post regular "girly" stuff on our sites! Recently we have concentrated on our Pinterest boards and launching our Instagram site and thought adding a feminine touch there would be perfect!
This YouTube video and trailer were created as part of a larger campaign to promote Wake County Public Libraries (WCPL) Summer Reading Program. In 2014,WCPL developed the summer reading program with one tagline, Spark a Reaction for school age children, teens and adults. Staff on the Summer Reading Planning Committee and the Digital Library worked together to incorporate characters that were familiar to our library patrons in the video. Brian -- the blue dog represent the libraries open source ""dogalog"", Sly Fox is featured in a passive program for children offered each April, August and December and Girafficus is Brian's friend. The video and trailer appeared on our YouTube channel. Todd Frei was the primary artist. Library staff provided the voice overs. The video was viewed more than 800 times. The URL was also provided to media specialists throughout Wake County Public Schools to share with area students. DVDs of the video were burned and shown prior to movies features at local municipal theaters before their family film programs. Participation in WCPL's Summer Reading Program increased tremendously in 2014: unique participation increased by 15% for children, 16% for teens and 27.5% for adults.
We decided to wrap up 2014 with a campaign called the "Best of 2014." This campaign was started in order to showcase the great things the department accomplished over the last year or so. The idea was to highlight certain aspects of our department from the bureaus, to leadership, to the future, to apparatus, to new initiatives, and everything in between. This gave our followers an inside look at what goes on and why we do the things that we do (for them) to keep the county safe! We also used #Bestof2014 for Twitter. Engagement increased over the 25 day period we ran this campaign. The results were excellent. The attached PDF includes some of the more popular posts. Also, all reach numbers are organic; we did not pay to boost anything.
The AmeriCorps service program celebrated its 20th anniversary during 2014; including a simultaneous, nationwide swearing-in on Sept. 12, 2014. AmeriCorps members across the nation simultaneously took the pledge of service via live stream from the White House featuring presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton along with Corporation for National and Community Service CEO Wendy Spencer. The Kentucky Commission on Community Volunteerism and Service (KCCVS) manages the AmeriCorps programs for Kentucky. Shannon Ramsey, KCCVS Executive Assistant, coordinated a social media blitz entitled "20for 20"� for the twenty weeks leading up to the anniversary celebration, featuring Facebook content rotating weekly from programs, commissioners, alumni and staff (copy attached). The KCCVS Facebook page increased its number of likes 47 percent in 2014 and obtained our highest daily post reach on Sept. 14, 2014 of more than 6,000 unique visitors. Facebook insight data for the 28-day reach during Sept. 2014 was more than 20,000. Kentucky's success was praised on the national level by the AmeriCorps funder, the Corporation for National and Community Service. The KCCVS Facebook page has continued to grow and is now up to more than 1,500 likes.
With recent reports of an elevated homeless population in and around the Boise, Idaho area, the Ada County Paramedics Association began brainstorming ways we could aid folks in our community who have found themselves facing homelessness. The Ada County Paramedics Association is comprised of employees who donate a portion of their own paychecks to a community-help fund. Considering the spike in our homeless population, our Association came up with the concept "Paramedics & Plastic Bags". One day last month, Ada County Paramedics Employees went shopping for and assembled "Care Kits'' stuffed full of healthy snacks, water, soap, gloves, hand warmers and other staples for paramedic crews to hand out to homeless patients and/or anyone they encounter in the field who might need some extra help. Each ambulance is now stocked with two care kits. With the power of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest) we were able to spread word of our Paramedics & Plastic Bags campaign to our community, private businesses and even local individuals who rallied in support to help make our program sustainable. We were featured on our local Channel 7 news, in The Idaho Statesman Newspaper, in the Idaho Business Review Newspaper, Nominated as "Hero of the Week" by EMS1.com and will be featured in the trade publication Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) this Spring. On Facebook alone, we were seeing numbers for "reach," "likes," "shares" and interaction like we have never before. To date, one of our Paramedics & Plastic Bags campaign Facebook posts totaled 61,952 people "reached," 591 "likes," 286 "shares" and 47 comments. At that time, with just a little over 2,000 business page likes, we were overwhelmed (in a good way) with the visibility and resulting community support our campaign produced.
The goal of this social media campaign was to educate citizens about the new hands-free driving ordinance. We tried to target different groups of people to show how they could be affected by the ordinance, as well as outlining other transportation and technology options to avoid getting a ticket. Though this was not the only way we disseminated the information about the ordinance, we were able to educate portions of the Austin citizenry who otherwise may not have heard about it.
The mission of Wake County's Communications Office is "We involve, inform and prepare the County, its employees and the public through Public Relations and Communications Services". One way to fulfill the mission is through social media. Wake County's corporate Twitter account @WakeGOV was created in 2009 as another tool to communicate to County residents, visitors, businesses and others. In the six years since its launch, it has gone from a communications tool for communicating to people to communicating with people. While most people view Twitter as one-way communication, it has truly become an interactive form of communication with the County. The account had a very corporate sounding voice initially. However, over the last two years, it has found its voice and is much more conversational. There are currently 15,000 followers of @WakeGOV. That is more than twice as many as this time last year. It is also more than larger counties such as Palm Beach County, Florida, and Hennepin County, Minnesota, which have much larger communication departments. Over the last month, we are averaging 37 new followers each day. Wake County sends multiple tweets daily to keep the interaction with followers ongoing and lively. People are informed about new jobs in the County, information on partnerships as well as events happening in the County, especially ones where the Commissioners are in attendance. While winter weather often skips Wake County, a year ago there were two major weather events. Twitter has been a very effective way of sending closing and delay information. The County itself does not close. It is up to the individual facilities as to whether they should open. With a number of libraries, parks and offices, it was important to quickly inform everyone the status of each facility. More importantly, during a serious storm it quickly gave residents information on emergency shelters, driving tips and information they could use if they lost electricity. With a smartphone, residents could easily check their Twitter account even if they lost electricity. Outside of weather events, there are other uses for Twitter in which to keep residents informed. While the regular meetings of the Board of Commissioners air on cable television stations in the County and online, their annual retreat and monthly work sessions do not. The County live tweets these events so residents can stay informed. Without this, there is no way for those who are unable to attend to readily know what is happening as not all of these sessions are covered by the media and the minutes are not distributed immediately. People find this valuable with the posts during meetings usually getting retweeted. Quality is often more important than quantity with social media. @WakeGOV has a lot of interactions, questions, direct messages and mentions. People are not just clicking to follow the county but are paying attention and wanting to interact. During last year's storm, many people retweeted and favorited @WakeGOV tweets related to closings and delays. We would tweet weather related announcements as soon as it would get them but would often get questions asking if a certain facility was open. We would also respond to questions related to other organizations, such as the school system, state government agencies and trash collections to let them know how they could find that information.
Residents would also connect for non-storm related issues such as asking questions or giving their opinions on hot button policy issues such as transit and on job openings. While people often go on Twitter to vent, the County does get positive comments and mentions including one user who thanked the county for the way it provides restaurant inspection information.
In June of 2014, our Sheriff Dee Anderson hosted the National Sheriffs' Assn. Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. Sheriff Anderson was the first sheriff to use various social media platforms and especially the hashtag to unite conversation and utilize relevant communication tools. We were able to encourage SM discovery, build excitement for the event and our city, unite conversation among attendees, give news updates, create buzz for exhibit hall vendors and sponsors, recognize award winners instantly and help those unable to attend feel like they were in on the fun. We also provided daily recaps on our Facebook page to help friends, families and our employees stay connected to the conference. The results and experience were a first, especially for a large group (thousands) of professionals who honor tradition. Sheriff Anderson and his staff embraced the future and it was a big hit. The vivid tweets, posts and commendations were measurable and exemplify the power of SM to benefit citizens exponentially.
July is National Parks and Recreation month. In celebration of this, we randomly gave away very nice glass water bottles to people we found recreating in our parks throughout the month of July. We stumbled upon this duo and immediately knew we needed to capture this Kodak moment. It was well-received by the public and has since become one of our most popular Facebook posts- one of our favorite also. The hashtag #JulyOutIsIn was used continuously throughout this campaign.
County of Marin, Department of Health and Human Services, Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Social Media Campaign. Objective: Increase community awareness and outreach efforts. Strategy: leverage YouTube videos, webpages, flyers, and social media. Results: greater reach through targeted approach.
In order to really get the message across about the importance of seat belt safety, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) went out of the ordinary and ran a thought-provoking ad on the subject on television during Super Bowl XLVIII. The ad was also posted on social media as well. The feedback was about 50-50. There were many that were appalled by our seeming insensitivity on showing such a stunning commercial knowing families were going to be watching. Others, after some thought, realized that this was meant to spark a conversation, and applauded us for talking about seat belt safety. All in all, it was a great campaign because it got people talking, regardless of what side of the argument they were on, and this in a state where there isn't a primary seat belt law.
City of Bryan produced a State of the City video with our Mayor and Mayor ProTem. The theme of the campaign is Better in Bryan. The video was shot in-house using a video camera, quadcopter, and even a GoPro attached to a car to drive around the streets. The objective was to showcase how the City is moving in a positive direction and that things are Better in Bryan than they've ever been before. We've had over 4200 views to the video on Youtube. From our landing page on our website, we've had 66 likes on Facebook and 21 tweets. On our original Facebook post of this, we had over 4700 impressions, more than 250 views of the video, an organic reach of more than 2200 and more than 200 engagements with the post.
The City of West Hollywood launched a social media campaign in October 2014 aimed at encouraging drivers and pedestrians to pay more attention to crosswalks and to devote less time to digital distractions, such as text messages, emails, and social media. The campaign includes a humorous music video as a Public Service Announcement (PSA), which was released on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OCPSYRfT6o. The video, Alice in WeHoLand, was produced by the City's Public Information Division and conceived by YouTube sensation Todrick Hall, a singer, actor, director, choreographer, and dancer who rose to the semi-finals of American Idol in its ninth season. He received international acclaim for his creative role in the CLIO Award-winning safety video for Virgin America airlines and he has just signed a deal with MTV for a new unscripted series. His YouTube channel features his music-inspired projects and has a loyal following of devoted fans with more than 1.1-million subscribers. Alice in WeHoLand is a humorous West Hollywood-themed parody of Taylor Swift's hit song Shake It Off, which broke Billboard records by entering the Hot 100 chart at No. 1. The dance-filled video offers viewers a colorful twist on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland set to new crosswalk safety lyrics, written by Hall, about curbing smartphone use and walking and driving safely. The video features a vibrant cast of characters with drag queens, gym-bunnies, models, go-go boys, and fierce dancers who perform a pulsating choreographed routine in West Hollywood's iconic Rainbow Crosswalks, as well as other recognizable locations in the City. Alice in WeHoLand has received more than 570,000 media hits on YouTube and received positive media coverage in outlets such as the Los Angeles Times. In addition to the Alice in WeHoLand safety video, the City launched an ad campaign on large electronic and traditional billboards and social media and web-based placements in a variety of online publications as well as on mobile apps such as Grindr. The campaign features three distinct creatives.
In Spring 2014, Wake County predicted, per the Census Bureau Population Division 2013 estimate, that the County would reach one million residents on or around Friday, August 22, 2014. Leading up to the day, the Communications Office developed a communication plan. Part of it was a social media plan for the milestone which included scheduling Facebook posts and tweets that used the hashtag #WakeHitsAMillion. An infographic highlighting resident statistics was used as well as a YouTube video explaining how the date of the millionth resident was predicted. It concluded with a celebration at the regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Commissioners on August 18, 2014, where a birthday cake with the infographic printed was displayed and photos from the event were posted on Instagram. The project was successful because the messages received positive feedback and had a large total reach. Wake County was the 13th most popular subject on Twitter in the area on Friday, August 22, 2014. Between 12:15 p.m. and about 8 p.m. on that day the popularity level was as high as 5th. There were several tweets leading up to the event as well. The 14 tweets posted by Wake County received 37 combined retweets and 16 combined favorites. Eighty tweets contained the hashtag #WakeHitsAMillion. The two Facebook posts on August 22 had a combined reach of 819 people. The Facebook post that shared the population counter received 16 likes, comments and shares and 26 post clicks. Furthermore, the YouTube video that explains how the date of the millionth resident was predicted received 279 views and the four Instagram posts regarding the event received a combined 47 likes.
The CHP is always searching for new and better ways to engage the public we serve. Using available social media sites seemed like a natural way for the CHP to provide education and information to the public. The citizens we serve are able to share their thoughts and feelings, whether by comment or concern, about CHP operations and allow them to feel connected to our Department. Our goal with this Facebook page is to improve the image of the California Highway Patrol (CHP), build trust with the public, and provide traffic safety education. The Department utilizes the Facebook page to advertise various traffic safety programs geared toward different cultures and different age groups. The CHP page provides a valuable means of engaging communities in public education, emergency or traffic notifications, and crisis communications. The CHP utilizes Facebook's new business platform to manage 47 different Facebook accounts including a headquarters page reaching hundreds of thousands of people a week, eight division level social media accounts, 4 recruitment pages, and 34 local area office pages.
We decided to wrap up 2014 with a campaign called the "Best of 2014." This campaign was started in order to showcase the great things the department accomplished over the last year or so. The idea was to highlight certain aspects of our department from the bureaus, to leadership, to the future, to apparatus, to new initiatives, and everything in between. This gave our followers an inside look at what goes on and why we do the things that we do (for them) to keep the county safe! We also used #Bestof2014 for Twitter. Engagement increased over the 25 day period we ran this campaign. The results were excellent. The attached PDF includes some of the more popular posts. Also, all reach numbers are organic; we did not pay to boost anything.
Building knowledge of Hawaii's unique geology and vulnerability to tsunami are keys to raising the public's level of preparedness. The more you know, the more you care. This post was popular in hits and shares, indicating a high effectiveness of content and photos.
Just prior to this FB post, there was speculation in the media on the Ebola virus' ability to mutate into a more virulent and contagious strain. This was on top of the worldwide health concern over the disease that, at times, bordered on hysteria. After posting this, in an Ebola discussion among hospital/healthcare staff, a member feted the posting, and others felt it was a great counter to rumors/speculation.
Keeping emergency preparedness fresh and in the front portion of people's brains can be tricky. Repeat the same tired message again and again, and people will turn you off very quickly. We sometimes use past events' anniversaries to remind the community of the reality of disaster and the constant need for preparedness. Factoids from Hurricane Iniki, which devastated the island of Kauai in 1992, work pretty well.
The campaign was designed to capitalize on the excitement of the March basketball tournament and generate more likes for the City of Wichita’s Facebook page.
The City of Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management's social media campaign works to prepare citizens for emergencies, keep citizens informed during emergencies and help them recover from emergencies. Through their #ReadyTip of the Week, the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management uses blog posts, pictures, infographics, and YouTube videos to illustrate important preparedness steps. They address emergencies preparedness topics throughout the year. For instance: how to evacuate, what emergency supplies every home should have, how to prepare for a hurricane, 15 Essentials for Winter Roadside Emergencies, and barbeque fire safety for the Fourth of July.
When an emergency happens in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management' social media feeds provide up to date information around the clock. The most recent snow emergency saw thousands of shared posts and new followers. Prior to the storm, they posted safety tips and information on how to prepare. They live tweeted and provided video of the Mayor's Snow Emergency press briefings. News agencies and the public interacted with their social media accounts seeking information and assistance. The Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management's social media outlets have become the place where citizens can get the information they need before, during and after an emergency.
