Thought Leadership, Best Practices, Insights and Examples

Since they were first published in the 1990’s, blogs have evolved from online journals to information hubs. They’re an essential building block for social engagement and one of the best ways to engage with your community. Blogs let you share your own stories, gather feedback before implementing a new policy and promote local community events. Almost every part of your organization can leverage the power of blogging, including elected officials, library, and public works.

The augmented reality (AR) app that’s riveted the nation has also created new opportunities and headaches for communities across the nation. Pokémon Go has gotten folks off the couch and into the nation’s parks, shopping districts and monuments – not to mention parking lots, alleys and backyards.

It’s not so hard to get social media engagement when you have a great story to tell – a new restaurant opening, an exciting new event – but what about when your update is a little less interesting to citizens? How do you get residents to tune into your reminder about the upcoming census or water conservation rules? We asked our panelists during our recent Social Media Webinar (view a recording here), and they had some great examples of how to liven up government news announcements using video.

Vision recently hosted a webinar on how to use social media to improve civic engagement featuring Jen Snyder from Queen Creek, Arizona, Brett White from West Hollywood, California and Anthony Wilson from San Angelo, Texas. Each of these professionals manage the social media accounts for their city and shared their insights for building and improving civic engagement.  

Vision is constantly updating our CMS system based on feedbacks and suggestions from our customers. We have heard that doing a better job with social media is at the top of our customers' minds, and we just released visionSocial to simplify social media management for our local government customers.

During my career, I have managed the social media presence for several companies, but since joining the Vision team, I have been struck by the unique challenges faced by local government staff as they seek to use the same social platforms to reach their audiences in the public sector.

To learn more what local government experts have to say about social media, we reached out and asked, What is the best piece of advice you would have for a local government agency just starting out with social media?