Taking It to the Streets:Social Media at
Arlington County
December 2010
Briefing for COG Trash & Recycling Committee
Maureen Dilg, Arlington County Office of Communications
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Across the County
Several Arlington County departments maintain a social media presence: Office of Communications (Facebook: 4,683, Twitter: 1,962)-
Enterprise level updates, emergency notices, local events, general announcements
Libraries (Facebook: 750, Twitter: 879)- Events, book suggestions, logistical information
Environmental Services: FreshAIRE (Facebook: 165, Twitter: 121) and Car-Free Diet (Facebook: 879, Twitter: 2,407)
Housing: Under One Roof cross-departmental housing blog and Twitter account
Others: Office of Emergency Management, Volunteer Arlington, Artisphere, Arlington Employment Center, ShopArlington
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Where Are We?
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Goals
Reach a new, different audience
Raise awareness of County programs
Start “conversations” with constituents
Provide customer service
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Strategies
Transparent, open government Encourage honest engagement, welcome all comments, wall posts, etc.
Integrated Approach Use multiple communications tools – print, TV and digital media Push to County website for complete information
Multiple accounts, general & focused:
We have accounts for general County updates. In addition, we encourage divisions to enlist social media for their specific focused needs.
Creative cross-promotion Create once – Use & promote many times Promoting across multiple social media accounts Advertise social media channels using traditional media
Creative staffing Tweet Squad Guest posters Work with the experts
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Connecting Through Snowmaggedon
FB: 3,300+Twitter: ~1,300
Flickr group/set
Website: 110,000+ visits
eNewsletter: 10,000+
Snowfighting video
Arl. Alert:32,300+
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Lessons Learned
We can’t do it alone Replying with a phone number is often
enough Sometimes you have to “go analog” Can’t always predict most popular topics It’s OK to make mistakes Lots of shades of gray in social media