1. Improving Citizen Participation: Social Media at Arlington County
NACCED
September 2011
Joel Franklin, Arlington County
Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development

2. Across the County
Several Arlington County departments maintain a social media presence:
Office of Communications: Emergency notices, local events, general announcements
Libraries: Events, book suggestions, logistical information
Environmental Services: FreshAIRE and Car-Free Diet
Housing: Under One Roof cross-departmental housing blog and Twitter account
Others: Office of Emergency Management, Volunteer Arlington, Artisphere, Arlington Employment Center, ShopArlington

3. Where Are We?

4. Goals Reach a new, different audience
Raise awareness of County programs
Start “conversations”
with constituents
Provide customer
service

5. Strategies Transparent, Open Government Integrated Approach
Multiple Accounts,
General & Focused
Creative Cross-promotion
Creative Staffing

6. How and Why It Happened
Current news system (newsletter) was out of date
With tight budgets, needed to better promote work
County-wide promotion of social media
More popular - can reach larger audience together, bring in new people
Silo busting - improved work coordination
Less work by sharing the load
Improved messaging
Improved resident knowledge and participation

7. Examples
Consolidated Plan
Housing Events and News
Planning Studies

8. Consolidated Plan Consolidated Plan Forum Needs Survey
Over 100 Interested Citizens Participated in Multiple Workshops
Needs Survey
215 Surveys Completed
153 in English and 62 in Spanish
64% made less than $50,000 and 70% were Renters

9. Housing Events and News
Easily Promote Upcoming Events
Inform Community of New Initiatives
Promote Recent Accomplishments
Development Highlights

10. Planning Studies Series of In-depth Posts
Identification of Past and Current Issues
Update Community on Current Planning Efforts
Get Community Feedback on Plan

11. Accomplishments Usually 3 Posts/Week Over 170 Subscribers
22,000 Total Views, Over 60 Comments
Covered in Local and National Press – Planetizen, Local Newspapers and Local Blogs

12. Lessons Learned Motivated team and leadership support are essential
The more we promote, the more views we get – targeting
Thematic posting is effective
Sometimes post short and quick, sometimes deeper
Time needed to promote is as significant as time needed to craft content

13. 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

14. What’s Next? Social Media workgroup for employee outreach and support
Continue to work with existing tools if they remain relevant
Keep eyes on horizon for changes in the social media space
Work on using technology to enable conversation and engagement with constituents

15. Next Steps Grow audience, get other residents involved
Increase participation by County staff
Better integrate with County website
Find other social media tools that would improve planning process, promote more dialogue
Identify staff time for social media work