3. Purpose and Objectives
To learn what other municipalities are doing in relation to social media
and engaging their community citizens. The objectives of this study
were:
1.To understand why a municipality should utilize social media.
2.To learn how municipalities integrated and utilized social media in an
existing structure.
3.To understand the cost to approve, plan, design, and deliver social
media to citizens.
4.To understand the challenges and lessons learned for utilizing social
media.
5.Learn of future issues a municipality will have to deal with for social
media.
4. Methodology
•
•
•
•
•
Phone interviews of 3 best-in-class cities
Asked the same questions to eliminate
bias
Interview Subjects had questions in front
of them during interviews.
8 Qualitative
5 Quantitative
o
o
4 multiple choice
1 open ended
5. Due Date
Complete project plan
May 2011
Create a list of needed project resources
May 2011
Create a project schedule
May 2011
Develop research questions to be asked
May 2011
Submit research question to committee for feedback
Timeline
Task
May 2011
Develop criteria questions for preliminary selections three best practice municipalities
May 2011
Review HSRB application
June 2011
Receive feedback form committee
June 2011
Modify research questions based off of feedback
June 2011
Submit HSRB application for approval
June 2011
Collect site selection data
August 2011
Select three best practice cities
August 2011
Conduct interviews with cities
November 2011
Review interview data
December 2011
Develop a best findings report
February 2012
Submit final research paper to technical editor for review
March 2012
Generate a recommendations report to present to the City of Toledo (to be included in final
document)
April 2012
Defend
May 2012
Submitting updated study and online presentation links
November 2013
6. Budget
Expense
Quantity x Cost
Total
Technical Editor
Copies of Research Document
Web Hosting for Final Documents
Conference Calls
1x$150.00
4x$5.00
1x$75.00
5x$0.00
$150.00
$20.00
$75.00
$0.00
Total
$245.00
10. Findings & Recommendations
Working & Not Working
Working
• Transparent
administration
• Engagement level
available
• Social media as a
communication tool
• Go where the masses are
• Free platforms
Not Working
• Media coverage
• Political agendas
• Account creation
• Data retention
• Bureaucratic approval
process
• ROI Benefit
• Lack of funding
Quantitative looked at:
the start-up costs for approval, designing, and launching social media
the budget to date for social media
what measures are used to assess the effectiveness of social media
understanding the elements that are key to the process.
involved drafting and approving the benchmarking plan.
best-in-class selection criteria was developed, the collection techniques were identified and how the data would be entered was determined
best-in-class municipalities were chosen. The preliminary list of municipalities were compared to the best-in-class criteria and tallied based on the criteria. The top three tallied municipalities were selected as the best-in-class municipalities
data from each best-in-class municipality was collected, interview times determined.
best-in-class data was reviewed and prepared to make comparisons to existing tools that could be improved
developing action plans to ensure the suggested recommendations were carried out
Portland - Developed a social media best practice guide. Largest engagement with social media. 50,000+ Twitter,70,000+ Facebook
Pittsburgh – Social media on a wide and large scale. Almost every department or division has at least a Facebook. Implemented social media in 9 months from key stakeholders to luanch.
Manor – When research in BP cities Manor kept coming up in articles for innovative use of technology. Created a custom platform for citizens to vote and suggest ideas and won 3 awards.
2008 CDG Best of, Most Innovative Use of Technology, Best of Texas
2010 CDG Visionary Award, Best of Texas
2012 Altimeter Open Leadership Award for Excellence
Media coverage – decrease in print media (Pittsburgh)
Political agendas – stories told in a different light
Account creation – 1 – 2 people have access.
Data Retention – What to keep vs not
Bureaucratic approval process – not fast enough for social media
ROI Benefit – tough to determine as not set measures have been determined to look for.
Lack of funding – Quantitative results. 2 or 3 stated $0-$1000 for approving, designing, launching, & maintaining.
----- Meeting Notes (3/25/12 20:45) -----
Transparent admin - Portland mayor
Pittsburgh Twitter feed - real-time feed of anything that mentioned the mayor.
Engagement level - reach those who you would not normally reach
SM as comm. - news that is not press worthy (e.g. leaf pickup)
Go where the masses are
Free pltforms - Twitter, Facebook & Youtube are all free so use them.
