Incorporating New Media into the Environmental Review Process: A State DOT Overview

1. Lloyd D. Brown
Director of Communications
American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials
Incorporating New Media into the
Environmental Review Process:
A State DOT Overview
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting
Washington, D.C.
January 16, 2013

2. What we’ll cover
• Social media tools
• How are they being used
• A few best practices

3. Social media tools
What’s so social about today’s media?
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
It’s all about the conversation!

5. Face it: Today it’s all about MOBILE!
• 85% of U.S. adults own a
cell phone.
• At least 25% own tablets
(pre-holiday season)
This leads to:
 "Just in Time"
information searches
 Massive downloads of
data/apps

6. Where are the eyeballs?
‘Consumers downloaded a
record 1.76 billion apps
between Christmas and New
Year’s Eve 2012.’
http://gigaom.com/mobile/app-downloads-hit-record-1-76-billion-over-holiday-week/

7. Note the growth in
tablet computer
ownership

8. Most state use social media
… but few actually use it socially
2012 AASHTO survey of state DOTS found:
• 37 states use Twitter
• 32 states use Facebook
• 16 states have blogs
• 7 states use Pinterest, 4 states use Storify
• Just 11 states give their employees
access to social media sites at work.

9. Social media content
• Primarily operationally focused
 Road closures, current traffic, weather alerts
• Safety messages/Campaigns
• General interest and promotional
information
What’s missing? Environmental
engagement

10. But the conversation is changing
"We’re seeing a slow and steady gain in
Twitter and Facebook followers. We’re
seeing more and more people asking
questions, sharing comments or airing
concerns via these two medium."

11. Putting social media to work
2011 focus groups & interviews reported
state DOTs barriers to implementation:
• Organizational culture
• Budgets
• Legal concerns

12. Best practices
• Social media are complementary tactics
• A social media plan should include:
 specifics about how your agency will use social
media and what it hopes to achieve,
 protocols for dealing with inappropriate comments
or sensitive postings,
 clarifies team or individual responsibilities for
regularly updating the sites
 and a process for recording comments

13. DOTs and Public Engagement:
Social Media in the NEPA process
Contact:
Lloyd D. Brown, Director of Communications
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
(202) 624-5802 office
(202) 677-5811 cell
lbrown@aashto.org
4/26/2012 13