The Mayor’s office asked me to me to present to Mayor Kiss, department heads and city officials, and provide insight and direction in how the city could use these social web tools. The group was very well informed and most were already engaged in social web. The conversation touched on audiences, goals and tools.
I started by asking why I was speaking there today. My answer? 
This guy: Obama in his campaign and subsequent execution of government uses the same tools available to city government, and they serve as the model.
Look at the consistency and excellent use of each channel starting with the whitehouse.gov website which features its “Stay Connected” box right on the homepage.
The model for social gov
Different budget resources. Sure. Different audiences and goals. Definitely. From DC to Burlington, however, the tools are all the same. Most of them are pretty much free. It comes down to having the will, the people, and the time.
There were some great questions about usability, disability access, structure, strategy, and the foot forward we present online as a city. The website as the core- extending out to some 18(?) different websites for various departments and initiatives, and all managed independently with tools ranging from CMS to FrontPage to hand coding. Not unusual for most municipalities I expect, however I think everyone in the room recognized the inefficiencies of the system and how much better a well planned system could be for meeting the cities goals and serving its constituents.
With the website(s) as the main island, the social web serve as the surrounding islands. These islands hold many of the most expressive, connected, and influential members of the community… making them quite valuable. My main points were how these tools integrate and work together. The role of Twitter for example to broadcast to those “influencers” and how that content can be syndicated out to websites, blogs, custom Facebook page, etc.
Social monitoring was another key point I tried to convey. Even if a city or brand lacks the resources to engage in each channel, I think its critical to hear what is being said. Of course there are going to be extremes of voices, for which you ignore and focus on the middle. Some of social/web monitoring tools suggested included:
- Tweetdeck : tweetdeck.com – Tracks Twitter – Free
- Trackur : trackur.com – Tracks blogs, news, images, video – great filters – $18/mo
- Google Alerts: google.com/alerts – Tracks websites, blogs – Free
Some examples of other cities that seem to be doing a good job online include:
Albuquerque, NM http://www.cabq.gov/
Fresno, CA http://www.fresno.gov/
Chandler, AZ http://www.chandleraz.gov/
Augusta, GA http://www.augustaga.gov/
Many thanks to Mayor Kiss, Joe Reinert and those that attended for your ear and great questions and thoughts.
