THE CITY OF TEMPE SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM

Social media has become a primary communications tool for Tempe

With newspapers becoming smaller and covering fewer stories and stretched TV crews, it became an opportunity for us to become our own communication outlet. We provide written and visual stories with accurate information to our audiences.

We also greatly cut our advertising budget, like most other cities. Social media has allowed us to continue to reach our audiences.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TEMPE?

BEFORE THE LAUNCH

• Creation of Social Media Guidelines for those employees posting as city spokespeople

• Goal setting – Which tools will help us reach our target audiences? What do we want to communicate? How do we measure it?

• Thorough review of our brand to ensure that we are communicating who we truly are

• Style discussion – not a formal guide, but agreement of how to be one voice for Tempe

• Creation of Social Media Plan• Meeting with City Council to inform them of our

tools and efforts• Gear and training (ongoing)

Copies of our Social Media Plan and Social Media Guidelines are available.

• Our identity is our city logo for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

• Our voice is meant to match the personality of the city – fun, smart, and progressive

• It’s the message, not the tool. The information we provide is the same whether a traditional information release or a 140 character Tweet.

•About 10 people are responsible for social media in Tempe – they are experts in the subjects they cover.

• The number of people who will Tweet, blog and Facebook for us will grow

• We are one person - @tempegov – not individuals working on an account. We use the pronoun “we” in posts requiring pronouns.

• We continue to explore new tools and platforms for our voice

THE PROGRAM

COMPONENTS

Social Media AccountsYouTube http://www.youtube.com/Tempe11Video

Facebook www.tempe.gov/cityoftempe

Twitter @tempegov -frequent user of Twitpic

Posterous http://www.tempegov.posterous.com/

Blogspot.com http://blogwithonnie.blogspot.com/; http://www.tempemanager.blogspot.com/

Twitpic, Twitterfall and many other items are used. We manage our Twitterfeed with CoTweet.

TOOLS WE USE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

• Microsoft Tags • Email lists• Slideshare.net – for those PPTs that you want to post• Newsroom web page and other driving web pages• Newsletters, banners and other traditional communication tools

PARTNERS

• We follow, like and RT for our community partners, like the Tempe Chamber, the Tempe Tourism Office and other groups

• We follow the media; they follow us

• We have superfans and indulge them – we mention them by name; prizes

• We attend and sometimes sponsor Social Media Arizona and other social media-friendly events, like TedX and Ignite.

• The more people you know, the more people will follow you.

MORE FRIENDLY, LESS GOVERNMENT-Y

• Water cooler stuff is important – rocket Christmas tree, new pizzeria on Mill

• Opinions about the weather, favorite restaurants + stores very popular (shared experiences)

• Technology items usually draw attention

• Photo of temporary Hello Kitty cart on Mill generated huge response

• New businesses to try, events to go to, safety tips but all told as you would to a friend

SIDE EFFECTS …

People who would never call City Hall let us know about burned out light bulbs on basketball courts, potholes in public parking lots

They Tweet about seeing our public officials in public places

They treat us like friends, not Big Brother. They treat us like heroes when we fix something fast.

SOCIAL MEDIA IN A PINCH

• When Town Lake burst in July, social media was a primary communication tool

• We had more than twice as many new followers and fans in July and August as usual – pretty amazing for the most mellow time of year for Tempe

• We Tweeted and posted our status for repairs nearly every day the lake was down, greatly reducing phone calls and letters.

• Twitpics, webpages, YouTube, more

• Crisis drives numbers – when people need your info, they find you fast.

YouTube 80,500 viewsFacebook +/- 1500 ‘likes’Twitter +/- 2,800 followersPosterous NEW – will launch in February

Odd stat: we get about one RT per Twitter post and about three comments per Facebook post.

Our most popular YouTube video is a spoof about a yellow slide and a city pool. It has more than 11,500 views.

THE STATS

WHAT’S NEXT?

Don’t know yet.

We will use whatever mechanisms come out that allow us to communicate with our audiences more easily and are conducive to public sector use.

Want to share this with someone? Download this presentation at slideshare.net/tempegov