TECHNOLOGY The Digital Bulletin Board: Connecting to your citizens in the 21st century
S
ocial Media isn’t something that is particularly new when you think about it. Societies have always found ways to share information quickly throughout their village, town, city or what have you. The position of Town Crier, Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, the local newspaper, and television have all been ways for people to disseminate information quickly. Far from one if by land, when Facebook opened its doors to everyone on September 26, 2006, you can let people know exactly what you were doing through a status update. Twitter was essentially a ticker tape for the modern age, brief messages, often in shorthand because of the limited characters. Instagram a bulletin board. What has changed is the personalized touch you could put on the message, the speed with which the message can spread, and the ability to connect with people in their homes without having to bring in a tricorne hat and bell. You put up a status update, tweet, or Instagram and, as long as you don’t have your page set to private, any of your followers could see what you have to say. If they found it interesting or pertinent, it could be shared to their friends. Studies show that views grow exponentially if it is shared by enough people. These platforms have far reaching effects for municipalities that decide to adopt strong social media presences. They can brand a city, showcase positive stories for media, announce town meetings, post public service announcements, foster conversations amongst residents, generally help CEOs connect with their constituents, and even let us know if the British are coming in an extraordinarily unlikely situation. Here are a few stories about towns and cities that have successfully adopted social media platforms.
We’re Not In Kansas Anymore For all the extreme weather that Connecticut gets, you’d think we’d be ready for anything. We have weathered blizzards, hurricanes, and heat waves, but the one weather pattern that catches nutmeggers off guard is the tornado. Maybe it’s because of the Wizard of Oz, but the typical tornado happens in the Midwest. As a matter of fact, Connecticut averages one or fewer per year while stretches of Texas and Oklahoma can see upwards of nine per year. So when a rash of tornadoes hit Connecticut on May 15, no one was expecting the damage to be as severe as it ended up being. But that didn’t prevent Curt Leng of Hamden from being on top of the storm, letting his constituents know what was going on with the emergency response and clean-up. When it was confirmed
to be a tornado, he went right to Facebook to let people know what had happened, and that there appeared to be no serious injuries. Many of his followers thanked him for his continued updates, urging others to “be kind and patient,” and also praising town employees for their “outstanding job of dealing with this weather event that brought areas of Hamden to its knees.” His efforts earned him a write-up in on CTnewsjunkie.com, where they lauded his ability to quickly and effectively post “scores of updates on road closings, power outages, school closings, emergency center openings, police and fire updates.” His efforts have not stopped in the days and weeks after the tornado. In June, Leng was updating Hamden residents on the Public Works department progcontinues on 46
NOVEMBER 2018 | CONNECTICUT TOWN & CITY | 45
