Getting Social

New London looks to go big with social media

If you asked any municipal employee, who knows the most about their town, they will undoubtedly tell you the folks at town hall are the experts. And while, towns and cities contract out for all manner of things, social media is one of those things that needs experts in order to make use of. That’s why New London is looking into expanding their social media capabilities with more internal input or “going big” with a third-party service.

From an article in the New London Day, reporter John Penney writes about an interesting exchange that took place at a City Council meeting in early August. As discussion pertaining to the renewal of a third-party contract ensued, President Reona Dyess is quoted as saying “go big or go home.” To which, Director of Economic Development and Planning Felix Reyes responded: “I’m just not used to someone saying they want to increase something.”

It’s no surprise that this conversation would be taking place now, in the year 2023. Social media isn’t just the place to do advertising, sometimes it’s the only place for towns and cities to effectively advertise within the constraints of a town budget. On sites like Facebook, you can buy short advertising campaigns for as little as $20, meaning that you can micromanage campaigns, or you can go all out and buy advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube, and more.

The question is whether or not your town has the budget for a social media staffer, let alone department, to adequately keep up with the trends and potentially go viral, or leave that up to a third-party professional. For the past two years, New London has partnered with Socialike, a New London-based media service according to the Day.

New London has a big reason to look into this now – as City Councilor Akil Peck notes, the Coast Guard museum will be a big attraction. With the right social media campaigns, it can be a huge boost to economic development. Reyes noted that the town now has thousands of followers, but that can be raised exponentially with the right strategy. Social media isn’t going anywhere – despite whatever Elon Musk is doing with Twitter on any given day. Facebook’s first generation users are in their late 30s and have been on social media sites for nearly two-decades now (probably more if you count early sites like Friendster, Myspace, and LiveJournal). If they haven’t left yet, they won’t be likely to any time soon. Like New London, this is a conversation worth having, what Reyes calls “a good problem.”

If towns and cities across the state are wise, it’s a good problem that should go viral.