Rinaldi Major Project Final November 11, 2013

8/14/2019 Rinaldi Major Project Final November 11, 2013

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2013

Andrew Rinaldi

All Rights Reserved


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ABSTRACT

Dr. Paul Cesarini, Advisor

Municipalities today are faced with many challenges and one of those challenges

is engaging more with the community. Social media is one area many municipalities have

not tapped into to connect with the community. Municipalities that have branched out

into social media are using Facebook and Twitter are their main engagement tools. The

purpose of this study is to look at the municipalities out there that are best practices when

it comes to using social media to engage and connect with the community.

The problem of this study was to look at three best practice municipalities and

compare them to the base municipality of Toledo, Ohio. The objectives of this study is to

help provide recommendations to the City of Toledo of things they should focus on with

using social media for engagement.

Results from this study show common and unique things the City of Toledo could

utilize as they start to use social media to engage with the community. Common

platforms they should use are Facebook and Twitter with YouTube being a newer

platform some municipalities have started to use. All municipalities used social media to

provide information that drove people back to the municipalitys website.


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This is dedicated to my dad as proof that I did not give up and I set out to do my best.

12/14/1940 - 01/19/2004


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section I: Background & Goals ..........................................................................................1

Statement of the Project & Background Info .............................................................1

Objectives of the Study ..............................................................................................2

Definition of Terms....................................................................................................2

Literature Review.......................................................................................................2

Social Media for Community Engagement ....................................................4

Social Network Tools ....................................................................................7

Facebook ............................................................................................7

Twitter ................................................................................................8

Google+ .............................................................................................8

Blogging Tools...............................................................................................10

Wordpress ..........................................................................................10

Tumblr................................................................................................11

Blogger ...............................................................................................11

Co-Creative Tools ..........................................................................................12

Huddle ................................................................................................12

Basecamp ...........................................................................................13

Google Docs.......................................................................................14

Video Sharing & Streaming ...........................................................................15

Youtube ..............................................................................................15


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Vimeo .................................................................................................16

Ustream ..............................................................................................16

Livestream..........................................................................................16

BlogTV ..............................................................................................17

Social Media Challenges for Municipality ....................................................17

A Case for Social Media:: The 44 thPresident of The United States ..............18

Summary ........................................................................................................20

Section II: Procedures .........................................................................................................21

Investigation Procedure .............................................................................................21

Benchmarking Process ...............................................................................................22

Step 1: Project Conception.................................................................22

Step 2: Planning .................................................................................23

Step 3: Preliminary Data Collection ..................................................23

Step 4: Best-in-class Selection ...........................................................23

Step 5: Best-in-class Data Collection ................................................24

Step 6: Assessment ............................................................................24

Step 7: Implementation Planning .......................................................25

Section III: Description/Methodology/Development ........................................................26

Restatement of Projects & Outcomes ........................................................................26

Research Design.........................................................................................................27

Population Sample ....................................................................................................27


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Participants ................................................................................................................28

Data Collection Instrument ........................................................................................30

Procedure of Data Analysis .......................................................................................31

Protection of Human Subjects ...................................................................................31

Timeline .....................................................................................................................32

Budget ........................................................................................................................34

Section IV: Results & Recommendations ..........................................................................35

Findings......................................................................................................................35

Quantitative Results ...................................................................................................35

Qualitative Results .....................................................................................................37

Making Social Media a Strategic Priority ......................................................37

Need for Social Media .......................................................................37

Social Media Accomplishments ........................................................39

Engagement of Citizens .....................................................................41

Social media Strategy & Policies ...................................................................42

Overview of Social Media Strategy ...................................................42

Development of Social Media Strategy .............................................44

Approval Process o Social Media Strategy ........................................45

Social Media Platform ...................................................................................47

Designing the Platform & Tools ........................................................47

Maintaining the Platform & Tools .....................................................48


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Measuring Effectiveness ....................................................................49

Overcoming Challenges for Social Media ....................................................50

Lessons Learned.............................................................................................52

Do Differently in the Future ..........................................................................54

Future Issues and Use ....................................................................................55

Discussion & Conclusions .........................................................................................57

Implications for Practice ................................................................................57

Limitations of Study ......................................................................................58

Future Research and Projects to Consider .....................................................59

References ..............................................................................................................................61

Appendices .............................................................................................................................66

Appendix ADefinition of Terms ............................................................................66

Appendix BConsent Letters ...................................................................................71

Appendix CRespondent Interview Transcriptions .................................................74

Appendix DInterview Script ..................................................................................106

Appendix EInterview Questions ............................................................................108

Appendix FHSRB Approval ..................................................................................110

Appendix FQuantitative Response Table ..............................................................111

Appendix FCity of Toledo Recommendations Report ..........................................112


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SECTION I: BACKGROUND & GOALS

Statement of the Project & Background Information

The purpose of this benchmark study was to learn what other municipalities are

doing in relation to social media and engaging their community citizens and compare this

to the base municipality of Toledo, Ohio. Municipalities are commonly known as a city,

town, village, or a small grouping of them, and governed by a mayor and city council or

municipal council (Wikipedia, April 24, 2012). The current economy has municipalities

being asked to do more with less like many other businesses, organizations, and

individuals. An article about Northville, Michigan supports this claim. In the article it

was stated, Providing the same level of services and in some cases doing it better with

less staff has become a normal thing at city hall in Northville (Huhman, 2012, p.1).A

new communications and engagement outlet for municipalities that has emerged is the

use of social media. The types of platforms looked at were social networks, blogs, video

sharing and streaming, and internal co-creative tools.

Municipalities that use social media tools were only using them at a fraction of

their full potential. The best use for municipalities with social media is to connect to their

citizens by providing them with information, updates on projects, and other news that is

not normally shared through traditional media outlets. Along with providing citizens with

information, municipalities could use social media to provide opportunities to get

feedback and thoughts on a particular topic and allow citizens to engage in conversation.


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A solution to the lack of social media used by a municipality would be to provide a place

that showcases the best social media tools.

Objectives of the Study

When the benchmarking study was conducted an evidence-based approach was

taken. The evidence-based approach looked at the history, research, tools, and cases

related to the topic that was being studied. The objectives of this study were:

1. to understand why a municipality should utilize social media.

2.to learn how municipalities integrate and utilize 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 about future issues a municipality will have to deal with for social media.

Definition of Terms

The full list of terms (identification and description of resources) used in this

study can be found in Appendix A.

Literature Review

Historically people have associated social media as Facebook and Twitter, but

social media is more than that. Social media is used to describe the activities, practices,

and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information,


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knowledge, and opinions using conversational media (Safko & Brake, 2009, p. 6). Social

media can also be defined as a group of new online media, which shares most or all of the

following characteristics: participation, openness, conversation, community, and

connectedness (Mayfield, 2008). Pendergraft and Associates (2009) suggest three reasons

why a municipality would want to use social media:

1. Social media allows new audiences to engage and connect.

2. Social media helps to increase participation in government.

3. Social media helps to inform citizens about what is going on and why.

In addition, the rapid development and adoption of devices that enable people to

connect anywhere is making social media an opportunity a citys government and its

leaders can utilize to communicate to its citizens. According to the 2009 Horizon Report

(Johnson, Levine & Smith, 2009), within one year or less, mobile devices will have the

capability to support third party applications. This can be seen today as most new phones

have the ability to support third party applications. The 2010 Horizon Report (Johnson,

Levine, Smith, & Stone, 2010) took the idea of mobiles one step further by stating that

the mobile computer would be common within one year or less. The 2010 Horizon

Report not only mentions the ability of mobile smart phones, but also the ability of

netbooks and laptops. This has all become possible through the advancement of cellular-

based hot-spots, mobile broadband cards, and wi-fi hot-spots, which have become very

common among places where people congregate or meet. The majority of cellular

devices today can access the Internet in some capacity. Many netbooks come with the


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ability to connect to cellular networks for Internet access and this allows people to

connect on-the-go. With the invention of new mobile technologies, such as Apples iPad

with cellular connectivity, it is only a matter of time before more people connect via

distance versus in person.

Social Media for Community Engagement

Social media is all about engagement and involving the online user population.

Before a conversation is started, and certainly to continue one, you have to engage your

audience (Safko & Brake, 2009, p. 7). Sending an email invitation to users to read your

newsletter, view an article, take a survey, or join an event, starts the engagement process.

Platforms such as Facebook offer similar features that allow a person to share links,

conduct polls, and send out event invitations.

When looking at social media platforms and tools, there was a need to understand

how they best worked for a municipality. To help understand the functional use of the

platforms, each was placed into a two-by-two diagram based on two dimensions. The

first dimension is based on the timing of the interaction. Synchronous means working

together at the same time, and in the online world, chat rooms and online conferences are

examples of this (WorldWideLearn, n.d.). Asynchronous is the relaying of information

with a time lag. Discussion forums and email are two examples of how asynchronous

communication is [used] (WorldWideLearn, n.d.). Synchronous is real timeinteraction,

while asynchronous is on the participants own time. The second dimension focuses on

the purpose of the interaction. Informing is the imparting of information to make aware


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of something (The Free Dictionary, n.d.). Collaborating is a working practice whereby

individuals work together with a common purpose to achieve business benefit (Aiim,

n.d.). Informing focuses on disseminating information to ensure understanding, while

collaborating focuses on interacting to come to a joint conclusion. The resulting four

categories were then used to place each platform into a two-by-two diagram (see Figure

1). This diagram is an adapted version that can be found in the

Figure 1City Social Media Engagement Model


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Figure 1 above was Adapted from The Change Handbook: Causes, The DefinitiveResource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems (p. 636), by P. Holman,T. Devane, and S. Cady (Editors), 2007, San Francisco, CA:Berrett-Koehler Publishers,Inc. Adapted with permission.

Further, when determining which tool to use for a situation, the routine and

complex nature of the tools features were an important determining factor. The more

complex and less routine items require more synchronous and collaborative use of the

tools. As can be seen in the Figure, one platform can be utilized in more than one

quadrant; in other words, for more than one purpose.

The first quadrant encompasses asynchronous and informing tools. These tools

are used for providing information to the public and are accessible through a searchable

archive. The second quadrant encompasses asynchronous and collaborating tools. These

tools are used for collaborating with others, within the municipality with delayed timing

of responses. The third quadrant encompasses synchronous and informing tools. These

tools are used to provide live updates, breaking news, and alerts. The fourth quadrant

encompasses synchronous and collaborating tools. These tools are used for collaboration

among two or more people at the same time. Each person is able to provide feedback and

make changes. All others involved are able to see the change instantly and contribute

pending their permissions.

A variety of social media resources were looked at regarding how a municipality

could use them to engage citizens. The problem was that there were so many resources

available that a municipality could not decide on which ones to use and where to begin.


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Three areas were identified that a municipality should consider when engaging their

citizens. These areas were social networks, blogging tools, and video sharing and

streaming tools. For internal collaboration in a municipality co-creative tools were looked

at. The platforms and tools listed below should be considered as concepts and ideas when

a municipality develops their social media engagement strategy.

Social Network Tools

Social networks allow a person to create a personal profile page to post

information about themselves or their business, invite people to join their network, join

groups, blast messages and events, connect with other people and much more (Hay, 2009,

p.137). Below are the top social networking tools that complimented and supported this

study.

Facebook. Connects people with friends and others who work, study and live

around them. People use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, post photos, share links

and exchange other information (Webopedia, n.d., p.1). The features of Facebook best

place it in Quadrants one and three of the model.

Quadrant 1: Facebook offers the ability to share links, videos, and photos

from third party applications or a municipality's website. For example, a

municipality administrator can post an update on leaf pickup dates and

have it link back to the website for specific details.

Quadrant 3: Facebook offers the ability to post status updates. This ability

can be used to provide updates as they happen at an event or as breaking


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news happens. A good example would be if the mayor of a municipality

attends a conference, the mayor could provide updates on what was

happening at the conference.

Twitter. Twitter is A free social messaging tool that lets people stay connected

through brief text message updates up to 140 characters in length (Webopedia, n.d.).

The features of Twitter, like Facebook best place it in quadrants one and three.

Quadrant 1: Twitters search ability allows a person to search for specific

terms. For example, a person wants to know what people were saying

about the iPhone 4 launch at Apples World Wide Developers Conference

in 2010. That person could search for WWDC 2010 and iPhone 4 and see

all the tweets about the event.

Quadrant 3: Twitter offers the ability to quickly post updates that allow for

live updates from an event. A good example of this would be the mayor

attends an event and can provide minute-by-minute updates on what was

happening at the event to keep citizens informed. These types of updates

are especially important if the conferences is related to something that will

impact the municipality.

Google + (plus). Google Plus is defined as Googles social networking

project...sought to replicate the way people interact offline more closely than is the case

in other social networking services, such as Facebook and Twitter. The projects slogan is

Real-life sharing rethought for the web (Whatis.com, 2011). The features of Google


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Plus best place it in quadrants one and four. Google Plus excels beyond the capabilities of

Facebook with the ability of Hangouts and utilizes them for synchronous document

collaboration with video, audio, and text chat.

Quadrant 1: Google Plus offers the ability to share links, photos, and

videos from third party tools and a municipalitys website. Just like the

example given for Facebook, a staff member has the ability to post a quick

reminder or update on the municipalitys Google Plus page and link back

to the website for specific details.

Quadrant 4: Google Pluss ability to offer synchronous collaboration of

documents with chat and video sets it apart from other social networking

sites. Google Plus Hangouts allows for multiple people to have a video or

audio chat while screen sharing, reviewing and editing a document, or

discussing ideas for a new project. Google Plusalso offers a feature called

Circles where only those groups are allowed to participate in the

hangout. For example, a municipality has a document that has cross-

departmental uses. The person in charge of that document could invite an

individual division or both divisions, based on the separate circles.

For this study LinkedIn and MySpace were not considered. LinkedIn was not

considered due to the professional business nature of networking. MySpace was not

considered due to losing many users to new social networking platforms, such as

Facebook. MySpace in the past year has lain off 47% of the workforce (Hudson, 2011).


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The new plan for MySpace could be a network for musicians. In June of 2011, new CEO

of MySpace, Tim Vanderhook, announced that Justin Timberlake would be part owner in

the company (Bruno, 2011). The idea was to have a community where artists could be

discovered and share their talents (Bruno, 2011).

Blogging Tools

There are a wide variety of blogging platforms. Blogging has become a more and

more sought out media to be used as a communication tool for informing the citizens

among municipalities. A blog is an online diary with articles, photos, Web links, or other

entries made by the blogs' creators, or "bloggers" (What is Blogging, 2006, p.1). Below

are the best blogging tools to consider when building a social media strategy for a

municipality.

WordPress. WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a dynamic

content management system (CMS) based on PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and

My Structured Query Language (MySQL) (Wikipedia, 2012). The features of WordPress

best place it in quadrants one and three.

Quadrant 1: WordPresss blogging feature allows a person to provide

updates and other news for all to see. For example, a municipality could

provide an update from an event and provide links to pictures or a video

from the event.

Quadrant 3: WordPress offers the feature of adding additional pages that

provide custom content. With a custom content page a live broadcast


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video stream could be added. Live broadcasting will be discussed later in

the video sharing and streaming section. A good example would be a

virtual town hall meeting page. A municipality could create a landing page

for live town hall meetings with the video player embedded and provide a

link to the page on social networks.

Tumblr. Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes,

links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you

happen to be (Tumblr, n.d.). The features of Tumblr best place it in quadrants one and

three.

Quadrant 1: Very similar to WordPresss blogging feature, Tumblr

provides the ability to provide updates through text, photos, videos, and

links. Just how a municipality would use WordPress to provide a news or

event update, they could do the same in Tumblr.

Quadrant 3: Where Tumblr differs from other blogs is the hybrid design of

the tool. Tumblr allows people to post quick, status-like updates similar to

Twitter. For this ability Tumblr is great for a municipality to provide

updates similar to how they would through Twitter.

Blogger. Blogger is A web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New

stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new (Blogger, n.d.). The

features of Blogger, similar to WordPress and Tumblr best place it in quadrants one and

three.


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Quadrant 1: Blogger, just like WordPress and Tumblr offers the ability for

municipalities to post updates with links, photos, and videos for citizens to

view.

Quadrant 3: Blogger allows a person to create custom pages similar to

WordPress. These custom pages allow for embedded video players. A

municipality could add their live broadcasting player to the page and

navigate citizens to that page when they are conducting a town hall

meeting.

Co-Creative Tools

Co-creative tools allow multiple people to work together and co-edit a document,

presentation, report, etc. For this study the definition of co-creativity from Laberge and

Svendsen (2007) will be used. The definition provided states, Co-creativity, is the ability

of members of different groups, organizations or networks to harness co-creative power

in order to act together on common issues, needs and goals (p.1). Co-creative tools can

be any tools that allow collaboration with one or more persons. Below are some of the

co-creative tools to consider when building a social media strategy for a municipality.

Huddle.Huddle is the number one SharePoint alternative for Enterprise

Collaboration and Content Management in the cloud and is used by more than 100,000

government organizations and businesses globally (Huddle.com, n.d.). SharePoint is a

software platform and a family of software products developed by Microsoft for

collaboration, file sharing and web publishing (Wikipedia, n.d., p.1).


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There is a drawback to Huddle of cost; on the website they state to contact us

for pricing. Huddle does offer a free version, but is limited to the number of features and

other abilities. The features of Huddle best place it in quadrants two and four.

Quadrant 2: Huddle provides tools for multiple people to collaborate

asynchronously. Huddle helps people collaborate asynchronously through

tasks assignment and document editing. A task can be assigned to a person

and he or she will be notified via email about that task. Asynchronous

document editing is where a person edits a document and another person

can view that document at a later time and see those edits and remove

those edits or add additional edits. A municipalitys staff could use Huddle

to ensure tasks are accomplished for key projects and collaboratively work

with other employees on key documents.

Quadrant 4: Huddle provides synchronous collaboration between multiple

people for document editing. A municipality could use Huddles document

collaboration feature to work together with others on creating key

documents and policies.

Basecamp. Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by

37signals and was launched in 2004 (Wikipedia, 2012). Just as Huddle has a drawback

of cost so does Basecamp. Pending the number of projects that will be worked on at any

one time the costs range from $20 a month to $150 a month. They do offer a free 45-day

trial. The features of Basecamp, similar to Huddle, best place it in quadrants two and four.


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Quadrant 2: Basecamp offers many of the same features of Huddle.

Basecamp offers asynchronous features such as task tracking, document

creation, and a one-stop shop for all items related to key projects. As with

Huddle a municipality could use Basecamp to track and collaborate on key

projects.

Quadrant 4: Basecamp offers the ability to collaborate with others for

document creation. According to Basecamps website, you can collaborate

real-time with others on documents.

Google Docs. Google Docs is a family of Web-based applications from Google

that includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, forms creation and online

storage (PCMag.com, n.d.). Google Docs allows for multiple people to edit a document,

spreadsheet, presentation, etc. at the same time. Each person is able to see what the other

person is editing and add to those changes or improve them. Google Docs is a free

service for all to use, which makes it the ideal tool to use for a municipality. The features

of Google Docs place it best in quadrants two and four.

Quadrant two: Google Docs allows for asynchronous editing of documents,

spreadsheets, and presentations. A person can edit a document when he or

she has time and others can view the document later and view the revision

history to see the changes that were made.

Quadrant four: Google Docs, along with asynchronous editing of

documents, offers synchronous editing of documents. For example, two


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municipal employees can have the same document open and editing it at

the same time. Each employee would see what the other is doing and each

employee could work on separate portions of the document.

Video Sharing & Streaming

For this study video sharing sites and video streaming were both looked at

separately, but grouped together. A video sharing site is a Web site that lets people

upload and share their video clips with the public at large or to invited guests (PC

Magazine, n.d.). For video streaming the definition of streaming was used. Streaming is a

technique for transferring data so that it can be processed as a steady and continuous

stream (Webopedia, n.d.). Below are some of the video sharing sites and streaming tools

to consider when building a social media strategy for a municipality.

YouTube. YouTube is A popular free video-sharing Web site that lets registered

users upload and share video clips online at the YouTube.com Web site (Webopedia,

n.d.). The features of YouTube best place it in quadrants one and three.

Quadrant 1: YouTube,as mentioned above allows a person to upload and

share video clips, as long as it does not violate copyright laws. The staff of

a municipality could use YouTube to share video updates of projects or

share videos about the functions or activities of specific departments.

Quadrant 3: Youtube offers the ability to post video responses for videos

along with the traditional text responses. A municipality could use this

feature by asking citizens to post video responses to a question proposed


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in a video or by asking citizens to post a feedback video reacting to a

video the municipality staff posted. Posting video responses is a unique

way to get thoughts, reactions, and other comments from citizens. The

video responses allow the staff of the municipality to see the expression of

the citizen as text responses can be taken out of context.

Vimeo.Vimeo is a friendly place where people who take and love videos can

share, watch, discover, and be inspired (Vimeo.com, n.d.). The features of Vimeo best

place it in quadrant one for video updates. A municipality could use it to provide news

and project updates, much like Youtube. Vimeo however, does not allow video responses.

Vimeo does have a feature that allows a person to download videos.

UStream.Ustream is the leading live interactive broadcast platform. Anyone

with an Internet connection and a camera can start engaging with their family, friends or

fans anytime, anywhere (Ustream.tv, n.d.). The features of Ustream best place it in

quadrant four. Ustream is a great tool for the administrators of a municipality to use for

virtual town hall meetings and with the chat integration allows for interaction, as if the

people are there in the room. Using Ustream will help to minimize the understanding

citizens have of how town hall meetings are conducted by allowing everyone an equal

chance to ask questions and voice concerns.

Livestream.Livestream lets you stream live events over the Internet, expand

your community and engage your audience when they cannot physically attend your

event (Livestream.com, n.d.). The features of Livestream best place it in quadrant four.


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Just as Ustream allows for live broadcasting, Livestream allows for the same ability with

chat integration. Livestream has developed a mobile decoder box that allows for a person

to use a camera and broadcast from anywhere with a 3G or 4G connection. Livestream

also offers a mobile application for smart phones that allows a person to broadcast from

the camera built into the mobile phone.

BlogTV.BlogTV is a leading live, interactive, Internet broadcasting platform

that enables anyone with an Internet connection and a camera to connect to their audience

in a evocative, direct way (BlogTV.com, n.d.). The features of BlogTV best place it into

quadrant four. BlogTV offers all the features and abilities of Ustream and Livestream.

The downside to BlogTV is the mobile application offered currently does not allow for

broadcasting from the phone.

Social Media Challenges for Municipalities

Pendergraft and Associates (2009) suggest three challenges a municipality will

need to overcome when implementing social media into their already existing structure.

The first challenge a municipality has to deal with is their states Public Information Act.

For example, are municipalities required to keep a record of the information that they

post on Twitter, Facebook, etc.? If they need to keep a record of posts, comments, and

other social media information, how would they track and keep a record of these? The

second issue a municipality will have to address is security. Security for municipalities

covers both hardware and network weaknesses. One security question to address is

whether social media [sites] are inherently more dangerous than other types of websites.


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A second security question to address is if a municipality creates a social media presence,

some people will need to be given access. How can a municipality ensure this freedom

will not be abused and who are those that are granted access? The final issue that needs to

be addressed is to determine who should be involved in the planning process of social

media and how it is used. A supporting question to the above issue is how knowledgeable

do these people need to be?

A Case for Social Media: The 44th President of the United States

To get a sense of how much social media and other online tools could help a

municipality the story of how the 44

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President of the United States, Barack Obama,

used social media to win the election was looked at. The first use of social media was

traced back to Colin Powells endorsement of Barack Obama on NBCs Meet the Press in

2008 (Qualman, 2009, p. 61). It was posted on the Web so fast the west coast could see it

before it aired on traditional television. Obama embraced social media from the

beginning, knowing he had a chance to dominate [social media] over his opponents

during the election (Qualman, 2009, p.62).

To understand Obamas social media presence, social network statistics of Obama

and John McCain at the time of the 2008 Presidential race were looked at. At the time of

the election Obama had more than 3.1 million fans on his Facebook page compared to

McCain who only had 614,000 (Qualman, 2009). This does not include the additional 2

million from the next top 20 groups for Obama, bringing the total to more than 5 million.

A similar scenario was looked at for Twitter, as Obama had 113,000 followers to


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Summary

Municipalities have been scrambling to find new ways to get things done and

identify better ways to provide services to citizens. Municipalities have a very

knowledgeable and untapped group of people who they interact with everyday. This

group of people is the citizens. Since President Obama has been in office, the number of

opportunities and the ways to engage with the citizens has significantly increased. This

study helps to identify why a municipality should use social media, what the challenges

are when integrating social media, and understand what best-in-class municipalities are

doing with their social media.


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SECTION II: PROCEDURES

The procedure used in this study was an adaptation of a standard benchmarking

process. The sections below will provide you an outline of each step in the benchmarking

process that was used for this study. This process entailed identifying municipalities,

determining the questions to be asked, and collecting data compared to the base

municipality of Toledo, Ohio.

Investigation Procedure

Benchmarking is the process of comparing and measuring an organizations

business process against best-in-class operations to inspire improvement in the

organizations performance (Global Environmental Management Initiative, 1994, p. 1).

For this study, municipalities were the organizations. A benchmark study can help lay the

foundation for an organization to build an action plan to meet and surpass its needs and

promote awareness. A benchmarking study can be conducted for nearly any business

activity or process and ranges from products and services offered to strategic plans. The

purpose of this benchmarking study was to learn what municipalities were doing in

relation to social media and engaging their community members. The study will help

with understanding what a municipality should and should not do when developing and

using social media. Conducting a benchmarking study means to focus on only one

process or activity to ensure the best results. This study focused only on community

engagement.


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Generally, before a benchmarking study has been conducted, the organization has

identified areas that need improvement and in some cases new areas that need to be

created. For this benchmark the three most commonly used social media tools (Twitter,

Facebook, and YouTube) were considered. The study helped determine how they were

being used and where improvements could be made. To summarize, benchmarking helps

to focus more closely on an area of improvement and identify critical elements in that

area.

Benchmarking Process

Below is the modified outline of the nine-step benchmarking process used in this

study (GEMI, 1994). For this study, seven of the original nine steps in the GEMI process

were used. The implementation and recalibration steps were not utilized, as they were

deemed outside the scope of this project. The seven steps utilized were:

Step 1: Project Conception

The project conception phase of the benchmarking process involved

understanding the elements that are critical to the process. Elements include proper

project identification, right people involved, and the project schedule. Project conception

helped in gathering the data necessary to complete the project planning in step two. The

key tasks associated with this step are listed below:

Established an environment conducive to benchmarking

Established the benchmarking project scope

Estimated and commit the necessary project resources


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Established a realistic and achievable project schedule

Step 2: Planning

The planning portion of the benchmarking phase involved creating the

benchmarking plan. Those involved in the benchmarking process reviewed the draft plan

and suggested changes. After the changes were made the benchmarking plan was

approved. Those who were involved in the planning phase had to be educated in the

overall process of benchmarking. The key tasks associated with this step are listed below:

Developed the benchmarking project plan

Shared it with project committee

Step 3: Preliminary Data Collection

During this phase the best-in-class selection criteria was developed by the project

committee, the collection techniques were identified and how the data would be entered

was determined. The best-in-class data criteria were then compared to the preliminary list

of selected municipalities.

Developed criteria for selecting best-in-class municipality

Developed entry forms for data research

Established data collection techniques and sources

Collected preliminary data

Step 4: Best-in-class Selection

In the best-in-class selection phase of the benchmarking process, the best-in-class

municipalities were chosen. The preliminary list of municipalities were compared to the


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best-in-class criteria and tallied based on the criteria. The top three tallied municipalities

were selected as the best-in-class municipalities.

Selected benchmarking partners that have best-in-class process based on research

to date

Reviewed and refined the questions set for upcoming reviews of identified

municipalities

Step 5: Best-in-class Data Collection

In the best-in-class data collection phase, the data from each best-in-class

municipality was collected. During this phase the interview times were determined, the

data collection method was revisited, and the script and other logistics were identified.

Interviews were conducted with each participant to collect best-in-class data.

Revisited the data collection approach

Scheduled and prepared data collection sessions

Step 6: Assessment

In the assessment phase of the benchmarking process, the best-in-class data was

reviewed and prepared to make comparisons to existing tools that could be improved.

The best-in-class data was used to identify gaps between the existing structures to best-

in-class structures. Areas with gaps that could be improved were identified and

recommendations for improvements were suggested.

Analyzed the data collected

Defined elements of a best-in-class model


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Identified gaps between the best-in-class model and current programs and

processes

Identified sources for improvement and associated recommendation

Step 7: Implementation Planning

The implementation planning phase of the benchmarking process involved those

who were required to carry out the recommendations from step six. The members from

implementation planning were charged with developing action plans to ensure the

suggested recommendations were carried out. Members are selected from the leadership

of the organization or in this case the municipality conducting the benchmark. The

members are a diverse group from inside and outside the municipality in various roles.

This ensures that the group is a good representation of the whole.

Assessed municipalities change readiness

Developed operational plans for program or process improvements

Developed integration and implementation strategies


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SECTION III: DESCRIPTION/METHODOLOGY/DEVELOPMENT

For this study qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized to

understand how the top three best-in-class municipalities designed, developed and

delivered social media to its citizens. The data was collected through phone interviews

with each participant from each municipality. The participants were selected based on

their involvement with social media in their municipality. Municipalities were selected

based on criteria of similarities to the base city of Toledo, Ohio, unique aspects with

engagement, and awards.

Restatement of the Purpose & Objectives

The purpose of this benchmark study was to learn what other municipalities are

doing in relation to social media and engaging their community citizens and compare this

to the base municipality of Toledo, Ohio. 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.


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Research Design

A modified benchmarking primer was used for this study. As described above,

the original primer called for a nine-step process. For this study, only seven of the steps

were utilized. The two steps excluded were the last two steps of implementation and

recalibration. That is, this study did not look at implementing the results and

recommendations from the study. Since the recommendations were not implemented

there was no need to recalibrate by looking at improvements made from implementation.

Sample of Population

The sample population of municipalities was determined from a search through

the web on best practice municipalities. Municipalities that had multiple social media

outlets through various departments or divisions were added to the list. The three

municipalities the Department of Public Service for the City of Toledo used for their

benchmark study were considered as well. Between the initial search and three

municipalities already identified the list was quite large. For the sake of time and this

study the list was kept to fifteen.

The list of preselected municipalities was then compared to the preliminary data

collection criteria to help narrow down to the three municipalities to be studied. The

preliminary criteria was:

How close were they to the size of the base municipality of Toledo, Ohio?

What were their unique ways of engagement?

What were the number and kinds of tools used for engagement?


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What kind of recognition and awards have they received?

Once the list of municipalities was compared to the preliminary criteria, the three

best-in-class municipalities were selected in step four of the benchmarking primer. The

municipalities that were placed into two or more of the preliminary data criteria were

looked at in more detail. The three best-in-class municipalities, that were selected and

why are listed below.

Manor, Texas, was selected for being known for their innovative uses of

technology. They also developed a platform that allows citizens to submit ideas,

review and comment on other ideas that help improve and do things better in the

municipality.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was selected because it is a municipality that is using

social media across departments and other programs to communicate information

to the community. The initiative to use social media was implemented in nine-

months.

Portland, Oregon, was selected because they have very engaged mayors who deos

most of his own posts. They conducted and from that developed social media

engagement best practices guide and a complaint/issue reporting application for

smart phones.

Participants

The participants interviewed worked in the three municipalities chosen for the

study. Each participant was in charge or had a direct impact on the use social media for


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their municipality. The participants from each municipality were asked to participate in a

phone interview via email that, included an attached letter of support from the mayor of

Toledo (Appendix B). The interviews began by asking for consent to participate in the

interview. Each interview lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. The interviews were

recorded and later transcribed (Appendix C). From the three municipalities, there were

five participants, two each from Portland, Oregon and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and one

from the Manor, Texas. The five respondents were introduced to the study and the same

list of questions were used with each participant (Appendices D and E).

The identity of each interviewee was kept anonymous. So each municipal

employee was referred to as Respondent One and so on up to Respondent Five.

Respondents two and five were from Portland, Oregon; respondents one and three were

from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and respondent four was from Manor, Texas.

Respondent one and three both work in the office for the mayor of Pittsburgh.

Respondent one is the City Performance Manager. Respondent one provided the

perspective of looking at the technologies that were in place and how an innovative

approach was taken to improving those technologies to handle more volume. Respondent

three is the Communications Specialist for the mayor and provided the perspective of

being the main conduit for sending out communications to the community.

Respondent two is a part of the Bureau of Technology Services with Portland and

directly responsible for the balance of the municipality's overall use of social media and


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websites. The perspective brought by respondent two was from city administration and

the accomplishments and issues being faced as a whole municipality.

Respondent four is the City Manager of Manor and was charged with

understanding the social media platforms in place and determining the plan for those

platforms. He or she provided the perspective of the things to avoid when developing

social media.

Respondent five is the Communications Director for the City of Portland and the

direct communication link between the mayors administration and the community.

Respondent five brought the perspective of the mayor and how he or she utilizes social

media.

Data Collection Instrument

Participants of the study were asked the same set of questions via over the phone

interviews. All participants were given the same set of questions in advance of the

interview. They recieved the questions via a mailed packet from the mayor of Toledo

sent to the mayor of their city and via an email from Andrew Rinaldi with the packet &

questions attached. During the interview participants were asked to have the questions in

front of them for quicker response. The interview protocol consisted of five quantitative

questions; four that had multiple choice responses and one that required a quantitative

open ended answer and eight qualitative questions. With each responded having the

question in front of them it allowed for quick & accurate answers for the quantitative

portion. Quantitative questions were asked to understand the start-up costs for approval,


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designing, and launching social media, the budget to date for social media, and what

measures are used to assess the effectiveness of social media (Appendix E) .

Procedure of Data Analysis

The interviewer, Andrew Rinaldi conducted this study to assist the City of Toledo

in developing their social media plan. In order to limit the effect the interviewers bias,

the same set of questions were created for all participants in the study. These questions

were sent to them by the mayor of Toledo and also emailed to them by Andrew Rinaldi

before interviews were conducted. Each interview used the questioning procedure and

welcoming script to ensure all interview subjects were asked the same questions in he

same way. Each interview subject also had the questions in front of them during their

interviews to ensure accuracy of answers.

Protection of Human Subjects

All requirements established by the Humans Subjects Review Board (HSRB) at

Bowling Green State University were complied with while conducting this study

(Appendix F). The steps that where taken to meet HSRB requirements are as follows.

Step 1: Creation and vetting of interview questions to memebers of major project

committee.

Step 2: Consolidated questions to 8 qualitative and 5 quantitative.

Step 3: Created questioning procedure and welcome script to be used for each

interview (Appendix D).


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Step 4: Craft letter to be sent to each municipality's mayor from the mayor of City

of Toledo and send to the mayor and have signed and approved.

Step 6: Submit packet of questioning procedure, interview questions and welcome

script to HSRB for approval.

Step 7: Make any requested changes by HSRB and resubmit for approval.

Step 8: Approved by HSRB.

Timeline

The timeline below was used to ensure completion of project, completed all tasks

and stayed on task. The project spans over a thirty month period from May 2011 to

November 3013. A variety of items caused the project timeline to be modified. The final

timeline is presented in Table 1.

Task 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 May 2011

Develop criteria questions for preliminary selections three best May 2011


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practice municipalities

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

Submit Final Document November 2013

Table 1Project Timeline


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SECTION IV: RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Findings

The findings of this study are first presented with the quantitative results. The

answers from the five respondents were compiled into a summary chart (See Figure 2).

Next, the qualitative responses were themed into seven categories: strategic priority,

strategic plan, social media, challenges overcome, lessons learned, do different in the

future, and future issues. These categories were based on the qualitative provided during

the interviews (Appendix E).

Quantitative Results

The quantitative questions were organized into three parts. The first portion of the

interview consisted of the start-up costs for approving, designing, and launching social

media. Part two consisted of the budget for social media. Part three consisted of the

measures used to assess the effectiveness of social media.

Part one revealed common responses from four of the five respondents for the

start-up costs for the approval of social media. Four respondents stated the start-up costs

were $0 - $1000. The fifth respondent stated start-up costs for approval of $5001 -

$10000. Part one also had common responses from the start-up costs for designing social

media. Three of the five respondents stated a cost of $0 - $1000 and the other two

respondents stated a cost of $1001 - $5000. Common responses were also found across

the start-up costs for launching social media. Three of the five respondents stated a start-


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up cost of $0 - $1000. The other two respondents had responses of $1001 - $5000 and

$5001 - $10000.Figure 2shows the responses for approval, designing, and launching

social media.

Figure 2Quantitative Costs Responses

Part two of quantitative responses had two common responses to the current

budget to date. Two of the five respondents stated the current budget to date was zero.

One respondent stated a budget under $10,000, while another respondent stated a budget

of $16000. The final respondent said the budget for social media was absorbed within

existing employees job duties and salaries.

Part three was comprised measures used to assess the effectiveness of social

media. There was a common response from four of the five respondents. The four


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respondents stated that verbal feedback was their main measure to assess effectiveness.

The other respondent stated that a survey was conducted through a third party

organization. The raw data of quantitative responses can be found in Appendix F).

Qualitative Results

As mentioned, qualitative data was collected in seven specific areas: strategic

priority, strategic plan, social media, challenges, lessons learned, do differently, future

issues and use. The interview responses were grouped into common themes and unique

comments.

Making Social Media a Strategic Priority

The first series of questions examined why the municipalitys administration

decided to make social media a priority. What have been some of their accomplishments

with social media, and how has social media helped them engage with the community.

Responses from each participant was analyzed and common themes and unique

difference were pulled from responses. Below you will find the common themes and

unique differences around the need for social media, social media accomplishments and

engagement of citizens.

Need for Social Media. The first common theme observed across the responses

from each municipality was the need for a new outlet to share information with the

community. Pittsburgh, for example, saw a decrease in print media and believed that the

newspapers told the story in a different light due to political agendas (Personal

Communication, Respondent 1, August 29, 2011). Respondent four from Portland also


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stated political issues was a reason for them to utilize social media (personal

communication, November 9, 2011). They felt that the media was only covering the

negatives of the administration so they decided to develop a plan to get the good out to

the community. Since Portland has started using social media to communicate the

positive things the city is doing, media has started to cover more news that is positive

about the city. Portland communicates to more than 50,000 Twitter followers and over

70,000 Facebook users. The potential combined 120,000 followers in turn leads to huge

word of mouth to those not connected to the city on Facebook or Twitter.

A second common theme observed across the interview responses was the size

and popularity of the top two social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. All of the

interviewees stated they used Facebook and Twitter to connect with their citizens.

Interviewees all mentioned the size of Facebook and Twitter as being factors in the

decision to use. As of October 2011, Facebook had 800 million users and Twitter had

approximately 200 million users which is to connect and communicate with. More than

50% of Facebook users and nearly 50 million Twitter users log in each day (Nielsen,

2011). These numbers are based on world numbers, but you can still see the size of the

community to communicate with. Both of the respondents from Portland stated that the

decision to make social media a strategic priority was to go where the people already are

(Personal Communication, Respondent 2, November 4, 2011). Given the size of both

Facebook and Twitter it is obvious why each respondent interviewed stated those were

their main focus to communicate with the community.


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The last common theme observed across the interview responses was the need to

be more open or transparent with sharing information. Respondent three from Pittsburgh

stated this was their reasoning for making social media a strategic priority.

There were a couple of responses unique to each of the municipalities that are

important to mention, as they are relevant to supporting this study. The first unique

response was from respondent two with regards to feeling the constant pressure to

improve delivery of services with lower cost (Personal Communication, Respondent 2,

November 4, 2011). Portland also has a mayor who fully embraces technology and posts

90% of his or her own posts on Twitter and Facebook (Personal Communication,

Respondent 2, November 4, 2011).

The second unique response was from respondent three, who stated, we felt we

had more control over [content] than relying on the media (Personal Communication,

Respondent 3, November 9, 2011). The administrators of the municipality control social

media and this provides them with the ability to post what and when they want.

A third unique response came from respondent four. He or she said that

recognition on a national and international level is what sparked them to make social

media a strategic priority (Personal Communication, Respondent 4, November 15, 2011).

They have received three awards for their innovative use of technology.

Social Media Accomplishments. The next questions addressed what each

municipality viewed and felt was accomplished in regards to social media. Each

respondent indicated a variety of accomplishments, some unique and some similar. The


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two common responses was that there was a social media policy in place or they were

currently developing a policy. Each municipality had many accomplishments, but two

cities stood out as having the biggest accomplishments. The first municipality, Manor,

Texas, received three awards for their innovative use of technology and open leadership.

The first award they received was in 2008 and it was from the Center for Digital

Government (CDG) for Best of Most Innovative Use of Technology, Best of Texas. In

2010 they won two awards, one was the CDG Visionary Award, Best of Texas, and the

second was the Altimeter Open Leadership Award for Excellence. Keep in mind that

Manor, Texas is a much smaller municipality compared to the other two best practices

cities and compared to other big cities in Texas who use social media.

The CDG (n.d.) is a national research and advisory institute on information

technology policies and best practices in state and local government. They offer a variety

of awards that include Best of Texas, New York, and California. Second is Altimeter,

also known as Altimeter Group (n.d.), a research-based advisory firm that offers

pragmatic strategies to help companies thrive with distractive technologies. They give out

open leadership awards in a variety of industries that include non-profit and government.

The municipality of Portland has a mayor who was active and deeply engaged

with social media. The mayor of Portland had close to 50,000 followers on Twitter,

tweeted more than 5,000 times and over 70,000 likes on Facebook. The mayor does 90%

of his own posts and takes the time to log-on to Twitter and answer questions real-time.


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This is great as it allows 50,000 plus people to know the answer versus one when

replying to an email.

The City of Pittsburgh staff held a contest on their Facebook page that increased

the amount of likes by over 2000. The winners of contest were to perform at the

celebration for NFL player Hines Ward who won Dancing with the Stars. The contest

allowed the top five to post their videos to the citys Facebook page and the top three that

received the most likes and comments performed at the celebration. This is a unique and

great way to use Facebook to engage a community in a unique way, instead of municipal

staff pushing out information and watching comments and other feedback. It is citizens

interacting with other citizens.

Engagement of Citizens. This portion of the interview addressed how social

media has helped municipalities engage with their citizens. Two of the three

municipalities interviewed provided specific feedback. Respondent four from Pittsburgh

(Personal Communication, Respondent 4, November 9, 2011) stated that [he or she uses

social media to] share items not press release worthy, but information worth sharing and

that people want to know. Many municipal pages had updates related to trash pick-up,

community events, and other minor updates.

The second municipality to provide a response was respondent four from Manor.

They stated it allowed them to interact with the community real-time versus posting

notices and waiting on public hearings (Personal Communication, Respondent 4,

November 15, 2011).


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Social Media Strategy & Policies

The strategy portion of the interview addressed the development and approval

process a municipality went through for creating their plan. When reviewing each of the

responses, all respondents stated that they were currently working on a social media

strategy or that they currently did not have a strategy specifically for social media. Please

note that respondents two and five looked at social media two different ways. Respondent

five discussed the approval process the staff went through for the mayor's

office.Respondent two discussed the approval process the staff went through for using

social media across all other departments.

Overview of Social Media Strategy. The City of Portland is the only

municipality that had a social media policy and guidelines in place. Respondent two

(Personal Communication, Respondent 2, November 4, 2011) stated that they wanted to

take better advantage of social media across the city. The mayor is using social media

well, but they would like to use social media to engage all departments with the

community. Another response from respondent two was looking at new technologies to

integrate with social media and the website, such as Open ID (Personal Communication,

Respondent 2, November 4, 2011).

Respondent five from Portland discussed how they were posting to their

Facebook page. The strategy called for them to feed items into their Facebook page via a

blog or RSS feed. These posts had few views, interaction, or conversation around them.

Respondent five (Personal Communication, November 18, 2011) discovered that if they


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post original content with a link to the blog post they saw much more engagement and

conversation. A second item brought up by respondent five was that they use social

media to drive people back to their website (Personal Communication, November 18,

2011). Lastly, respondent five (Personal Communication, November 18, 2011) stated

their social media strategy was to adopt new mediums as they become available like

Google Plus.

The Pittsburgh respondents stated they were currently working on their strategy

for social media. Their current plan was based on the following from respondent three:

The overall [strategy] for using social media is to post any type of press outreach that we

think residents would be interested in (Personal Communication, Respondent 3,

November 9, 2011).

Respondent three provided two specific items they were looking to focus on. The

first item mentioned was to view pages of community groups and non-profit groups and

post comments, likes, and post things from their page that is relevant to the type of

content they post on their page (personal communication, Respondent 3, November 9,

2011). All the elements were targeted to engage with others posts that in turn will help

engagement with the municipalitys post. The second item mentioned was to update the

plan to include on going fan engagement tactics that used did you know questions,

interesting facts, etc. (Personal Communication, Respondent 3, November 9, 2011).

These two items are good to keep in mind as both can help increase the engagement the

page has with the community and other organizations in the municipality.


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The respondent from Manor provided examples of what to avoid doing when

utilizing social media for engagement. When respondent five was asked what their social

media strategy was, they responded that their current strategy is to find out what

platforms they have in place (Personal Communication, Respondent 4, November 15,

2011). The city of Manor at the time of the interview, was going through a rough

technology transition as the original creators of the platforms in place left suddenly. They

had only one or two people who handled all their social media platforms and tools. A

municipality will benefit from addressing the issue of access early when creating their

social media strategy. Municipalities will want to ensure there is a group log-in or main

log-in that is shared with those who need access to the various social media platforms and

tools.

Development of Social Media Strategy. Each respondent was asked about the

process they went through for developing their plan for social media. Each of the

respondents from Portland provided information about their municipalitys social media

strategy, including details from the decision makers involved to the creation of the

document. Respondent two stated that the [strategy] started as a grassroots effort

(Personal Communication, Respondent 2, November 4, 2011). Respondent two shared

detailed steps that were taken to develop their social media plan. The plan started with the

methods and practices that were presented to them from a best practice study. From there

they moved into the policy making process that led to the development of a social media

committee that reviewed and revised the policy. From the social media committee the


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plan moved to the city attorneys and human resources department to review and create

the actual policy and guidelines document.

Respondent two provided details of the training plan Portland used to train

content managers for each department. The plan called for training in two areas. Area one

addressed etiquette when posting to social media sites and how to deal with comments

appropriately. Area two addressed account setup and ensured more than one person had

access to the social media being used.

Respondent five, who is also from the same municipality, explained the

development from the perspective of the mayor and his administration. Respondent five

stated that the strategic plan sort of developed organically and that they learned as they

went with what worked and did not work (Personal Communication, November 18, 2011).

Approval Process of Social Media Strategy. Respondents were asked who in

the administration and the municipality were involved in getting approval to use social

media. One common theme observed across the municipalities of Pittsburgh and Portland

was the communication department was involved with the approval process. Respondent

five from Portland stated that the communications department staff were the decision

makers and decided what the plan was for social media. Respondent five also mentioned

that early on they involved the chief of staff (Personal Communication, November 18,

2011). One concern from the mayors administration was the communication department

wanted a live Twitter feed on the website. This feed would be unfiltered and real-time.

This was a concern to the administration because of the unfiltered nature and the worry of


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profanity and other unprofessional things making it into the feed. The communication

department was able to get approval from the administration to have the feed and it has

become a very positive element to the website. The citizens really appreciated the

openness and transparency of the mayor for having the unfiltered feed.

Respondent two from Portland went into detail to who was involved in the

approval process for the social media plan for the city. They stated that the plan started

with best practices research, followed by a committee who reviewed those best practices.

From the committee it went to the bureau of directors, from the directors it went to the

second committee, the social media committee, and once the social media committee

finished, the plan went to the city attorneys and human resources where those two

departments determined the final plan (Personal Communication, Respondent 2,

November 4, 2011).

Respondent three stated (Personal Communication, Respondent 3, November 9,

2011) the original social media efforts for the City of Pittsburgh went through the

approval process of the mayor to the chief of staff then to the law department. The

current social media plan for Pittsburgh involved the communication department who

worked with the chief of staff for the mayor and the support of information technology in

the technology department. The communication department for Pittsburgh consisted of

three people, the communications director, press secretary, and communications assistant

(Personal Communication, Respondent 3, November 9, 2011).


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Social Media Platform

For the social media platform portion of the interview, the data was divided into

three parts: design, maintaining, and measures. In quantitative question five, respondents

were asked about what measures they use, but those were specific types of measures.

When asked about measures again during the qualitative questions, respondents were free

to state other measures used.

Designing the Platform & Tools.The design for social media involved how a

municipality developed, created, and implemented their social media platforms and tools.

A common response observed across all respondents was that each municipality used

platforms already in place with the exception of Manor, Texas; they had a custom Web

platform they used. The platforms in place each municipality used were Facebook and

Twitter.

Respondent two (Personal Communication, November 4, 2011) stated that the

design for social media consisted of platforms already in existence. Respondent one from

Pittsburgh stated that they took the time to figure out how they wanted their Facebook

page to look (Personal Communication, Respondent 1, August 29, 2011). Respondent

one also said that determining who managed social media was a part of the design

process.

Additionally part of Pittsburghs process for designing social media was to

involve those responsible for managing social media. While the plan for social media was

provided, those involved had to get it done. One last item from Pittsburghs interview


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was the staff and administration went from design to launch of social media in 9 months

and this included involving key decision makers (Personal Communication, Respondent

1, August 29, 2011).

Respondent five for Portland referred back to question two of the qualitative

questions for how they designed social media. The design of Portlands social media for

the mayor was covered in their plan. The plan called for the use the two social media

platforms where the masses already were and those platforms being Facebook and

Twitter.

Maintaining the Platform & Tools. Interviewees were asked about the steps or

things a municipality does to ensure they are continuing to engage their community

members on a regular basis. Respondent two stated they made sure that social media

remained active in terms of content and conversation and that the key was to make sure

that the content was relevant and consistent (Personal Communication, Respondent 2,

November 4, 2011).

Respondent five deals directly with the mayor and assists him with maintaining

social media for top level of administration. To help maintain social media for the mayor,

respondent five ensures that they and other staff members are supporting the mayor by re-

tweeting and helping share information through their social networks (Personal

Communication, Respondent 5, November 18, 2011). The other element respondent five

focused on was to ensure that when the mayor is attending an event, they know the


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relevant hash tag for the event, twitter account to post to, and URL to use (Personal

Communication, Respondent 5, November 18, 2011).

Respondent one referred to respondent three when answering how social media

was maintained. Respondent three commented on multiple things for maintaining social

media. First, communications staff reviewed posts that were sent out from the press

office for consistency. Second, communications staff reviewed other posts sent from

other departments for relevancy and consistency. Third, communications staff reviewed

posts that came from the mayors office staff (Personal Communication, Respondent 3,

November 9, 2011).

Respondent four had been given the task of determining the platforms they have

in place and select the platforms to keep and not keep. Once that has been determined

respondent four has the additional task of determining how to use them.

Measuring Effectiveness. A municipalities ability to measure the effectiveness of

social media helps them to understand how well the content they post works to inform

and engage the community. Respondent two stated that they measured how effective their

social media use was by the number of followers on Twitter, number of likes on

Facebook, the growth rate of those numbers, and the number of participants (Personal

Communication, Respondent 2, November 4, 2011). Respondent five (Personal

Communication, November 18, 2011) stated similar measures for the use of social media

for the mayor. They stated that they looked at how active, lively, and the quality of the


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conversation was. Respondent five continued with that they looked at the engagement

returned from the people (Personal Communication, Respondent 5, November 18. 2011).

When asked about measures, respondent one referred back to their response for

quantitative question five. In quantitative question five, respondent three stated that their

main measure was to look at the number of likes on Facebook. They have 7,217 people

who like them on Facebook and that is 7,217 people that did not have that interface with

the city before (Personal Communication, Respondent 1, August 29, 2011).

Respondent three gave two things they looked at to measure social media. The

first measure used was Facebook insights that measured a variety of engagement

measures. The other measure they used was word of mouth and what they heard on the

streets from the community (Personal Communication, Respondent 3, November 9,

2011). Respondent four has been charged with determining a way their municipality can

measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media to see its value.

Overcoming Challenges for Social Media

Municipalities have had many challenges when it comes to social media that

range from government policies to staff learning curve. The five respondents from the

three best practice municipalities provid

Documents

Rinaldi Major Project Final November 11, 2013