As September came to a close, the City of Bloomington officially announced its participation in social media, featuring a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. This is the kind of local activity I was hoping for when I joined Twitter in 2007.
The Twitter account for the City of Bloomington isn’t following anyone. Yet.
The loudest voices giving advice about Twitter strategy tend to argue for maximizing followers. These large network broadcasters often reject Twitter as an effective means of two-way communication, pushing links and retweets as the way to improve signal. If one’s focus is solely on broadcast of information, then size does matter and content should have relevance to the general audience. However, a relational community—particularly one with a mission of improving face-to-face interaction—is better served by quality over quantity. In a local context, knowing where someone is headed to lunch can add value to an offline relationship.
There was a time when one could describe local Twitterers with a short bullet list. Today, there are almost 1000 confirmed Bloomingtonians using the service (unconfirmed estimates are closer to 1300 accounts). Bloomington is a college town. A high percentage of transient residents coming and going through the academic cycle of Indiana University, making the relevant network considerably larger. While Bloomington appears to have found its voice as a technology and innovation hub, it remains small potatoes among the millions now using Twitter.
As an organization, the City was slow to pick up the value of social media. It is likely officials view it primarily as a broadcast medium. This is evident in the fact that, at the moment, their Twitter account isn’t following anyone. Two other local pillars—the Herald-Times and Indiana University (with many specialized accounts)—are also primarily broadcast accounts, but they have each made use of the two-way communication the service offers and humanized the information they distribute to their following.
Over time, the City of Bloomington will figure this out. We’ll know we’ve turned another important corner when our Mayor is tweeting about where he’s headed to lunch … and welcoming the conversation that follows him there.
3 replies on “The Local Social”
I’m among the 300 who are hiding from the confirmed list. :}
Well done. Wow–you’ve been on Twitter since the early ages. I wonder how its growing popularity and ubiquity has changed interactions, and what you’ve noticed in the last 2 years. I mean, before the city of Bloomington joined Twitter I could rant about lame govt officials without any fear or repercussion–and now I would have to think about the potential of an invisible audience listening in.
The presence of Twitter in the local scene has been a valuable source of information but more importantly has helped galvanize offline connections. When we did Bloomington Startup Weekend in early 2008, a number of active local users were trying it for the first time. That use helped keep participants in that experience present in each other’s lives long after the project had died.
Both Indiana University and the H-T have jumped into the social media pool with both feet, and I would consider their efforts very successful. I was hoping the Obama campaign and subsequent presidency would have inspired local government to be significantly more active much sooner, but I’m glad there is some internal support for this kind of interaction. I do suspect City Hall could benefit from formal social media literacy training, as well as finding ways to encourage internal use of these tools.
As for invisible rants, there is certainly some value in being able to vent and express ourselves without fear of repercussion. A barrier is lowered when there is no consequence. However, that’s not a relational approach to the situation, nor is it an effective way to spark change. The world is not a Disney movie. Disconnection and negative feelings are part of everything we do. I think we are well served to view these moments, through a social media lens, as opportunities to engage. From my perspective, I think every tweet is a chance to exercise authenticity and get comfortable with communicating, a little bit at a time.