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City of Fort Collins Social

Media ProgramA True Inspirational

Story of Pain, Persistence, Policy

Development . . .and Triumph

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A Case Study…

• Identified the need• Education and buy-in• Policy development• Strategy development• More education

and buy-in• Soft launch• Test and tweak• Measure and report

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Identified the Need

• Existing Accounts

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Needs

• Existing Accounts• New, affordable ways to

promote services• Competition• Upcoming projects• Alternative to public

open house• Engagement• Customer Service

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Education and Buy-in

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A Few Examples

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A Few More

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Why It’s Important

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers…96% of them have joined a social network

• Years to Reach 50 millions Users: – Radio (38 Years) - TV (13 Years)– Internet (4 Years) - iPod (3 Years)– Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months– iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months

• The fastest growing demographic using social media is 25 years old and older

• Half of all current adult social networkers access their profiles at least every other day

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Why It’s Important

• On average each adult with a social networking page or profile has profiles on 1.6 sites; 39% of adults have profiles on two or more sites.

• If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia

• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females

• More than half of Facebook users are outside of college

• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama

• 20% of adults have used Twitter

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Why It’s Important

• The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube

• YouTube = 10% of all Internet traffic

• 53% of people say that blog content influences purchase decision

• Generations Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen

• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…

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Facebook

CIA – Recruiting• Goal: Reach top recruits

where they live online• Strategy: Take an agency

that often seems “inaccessible” and provide colorful commentary and information about working for the CIA

• Results: More than 6,400 fans

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Twitter

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How Others are Using Twitter

LA Fire Department• Goal: Offer timely and accurate

info that would improve the lives of city residents in the face of a city government apparatus (the LAFD perceived to be filled with countless bureaucratic impediments)

• Strategy: Leverage a variety of social media outlets to reach residents live online

• Results: More than 3,000 followers; key during 2007 wildfires; received praise from Twitter CEO for uses

Center for Disease Control• Goal: Offer timely and

accurate information about Swine Flu and precautions clinicians, residents, media, etc. should take

• Strategy: Leverage a variety of social media outlets to reach audiences live online

• Results: More than 180,000 followers (as of April 28 there were 27,000); utilizing #swineflu in tweets

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Blogs

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

• Goal: Get airline passengers and agency employees back on the same page. Allow TSA to explain the 'why' of what they ask the passengers to do at the checkpoint and get direct feedback.

• Strategy: Launch a blog using real TSA employees as the blogging team

• Results: In first month attracted ~31,000 unique visitors and generated more than 5,000 responses; great tool for tracking traveler feedback

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Policy Development

• Best practices

• Multi-departmental Team

• Centralized tools unless:

– Unique business need

– Partnership

• Comment policy

• Employee use

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City of Fort Collins Strategies

Communication with the Public

• Promote events, programs, and initiatives

• Engage citizens

• Improve customer service

• Gather citizen input on policy related issues

• Recruit potential employees

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FacebookPromote*Engage*Recruit*Gather

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Twitter

Goal: Promote/Inform

Example: Annual State of the City Address

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Twitter

Goal: Customer Service

Example: Snow Storms

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Twitter

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Twitter

• Snow storm

• A snow plow hit my car!

@portagecity Any chance we can get snow plow info similar to @fortcollinsgov? Is another tweeter doing that? Thanks.

Well, you're apparently off the hook city of fort collins. Now to hope that our property management company is as responsive to work with.

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Twitter

Goal: Customer Service

Example: WoW

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Twitter

General Feedback

• @STiMonSTAR - @fortcollinsgov the patched street is so much nicer. Thanks for making Bueno Dr. drivable again.   

• @gletham - Very cool that the city of fort Collins responds when I bring up a local issue. Much appreciated

• @SprigToys - @fortcollinsgov Thank you for the great updates of road conditions! Have a great holiday, stay warm!

• @ConnectConsltnt - @fortcollinsgov : I see the 2010 Recreator is out! Yahoo! Time to spin again. Dropping any off at the Chamber? Please.

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City of Fort Collins Strategies

Internal Communication

• Inform and engage employees

• Identify and dispel incorrect rumors

• Create connections among employees

• “Humanize” management

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Soft Launch

• Facebook– Live Feb. 1, 2010– No promotion– 117 fans (as of Feb. 10)

• Twitter– Live march 19, 2009– Minimal promotion– 1,150 followers (as of

Feb. 10)

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Test and Tweak

• When we engage– Negative/opinionated – share with staff– Factually inaccurate – correct– Addressed to us/question – respond– Heated – redirect offline to e-mail

• Looking ahead– Blog– Internal communication

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Measure and Report

• Measurements of success– Fans, followers, lists, downloads– Program participation– Citizen Survey: informing, welcoming citizen

involvement, listening