Social media is our public face, our personal habit and our professional outlet. With 1 billion Facebook users, and Twitter hashtags on the television screen during last fall’s presidential debates, social media has become a necessity, not just an accessory.
Edina Magazine offers three examples of how social media has aided Edinans, from city employees who blog to converse with residents to a business consultant whose hobby is moderating an online political forum to the marketing director who routinely updates a stable of social media sites to help her member businesses.
PUBLIC
When Jeff Long became Edina police chief in 2010, a top agenda item was better communication with the residents he serves. To meet his goal, Long cleared his schedule for one-on-one or one-on-many opportunities to engage residents.
There was “Chat with the Chief,” where Long visited residents’ homes to answer questions from homeowners and neighbors.
“I tried that and had limited success,” Long laments.
He rekindled the idea with “Coffee with the Chief,” where Long sat in coffee shops, poised for conversations.
“Again, limited success and a limited audience,” he says.
Then in May, Long, a 23-year veteran of the force, met people where they spend a lot of time these days: online. He started a blog. Now, Long’s blog is one of seven online journals produced by Edina’s city employees or departments.
“I think it’s important,” says city manager Scott Neal of blogging. “It provides a source of information that people aren’t going to find in a newspaper or a news release.”
Edina’s blogs—whose subjects range from public works, the fire department, liquor, city manager, neighborhoods and more—are building a growing audience. From summer to fall, the number of unique visitors more than tripled, Long says proudly.
“Mine is one of the more popular ones, which surprises me,” Long says. “But I’m excited about it.”
Neal knows what that popularity can do. As Eden Prairie’s city manager last decade, Neal became one of the first city managers in the United States to blog. Publications including the Los Angeles Times asked to interview him. He was invited to travel to England to speak to the prime minister’s office.
“It was pretty exciting, and people were excited about it,” Neal says. “They wanted to see more people do it.”
Governing magazine’s executive editor Christopher Swope wrote, “Neal’s blog is intensely personal, timely and insightful.”
Neal is working to instill the successful strategies he built in Eden Prairie with Edina’s new stable of blogs (see sidebar). He says that blogs can acquaint residents with the often-overlooked perspective of city government.
“People oftentimes today look at their government and look at themselves as a customer,” Neal says. “If they don’t get what they want, they will say that we gave them poor customer service. Well, sometimes what they want is directly opposite of what someone else wants, and we can’t satisfy both of those customers simultaneously. What I try to provide is additional information, context and perspective that I hope helps people gain a better understanding of what it’s like to live in a city and be in a city government.”
Long will tackle topics such as new bike lanes, coyote problems or why squad cars are kept running during stops. Some posts inevitably prompt negative comments.
“They didn’t like what I wrote, but it’s good to hear,” Long says of the car-running post. “They are respectful, but they are blunt. That’s what I wanted. I wanted to spur conversations and have a different way to connect with the community.”
Sometimes, Long says he can squelch the echo chamber of emails forwarded with unsubstantiated rumors before they spread too much.
“There were rumors floating around that we had completely botched [preventing] an attempted kidnapping at one of our parks—at least that is what the emails were saying that were spread around,” Long says. “[The blog] gave me a chance to quickly dispel that.”
PERSONAL
Traditional media wasn’t cutting it any longer for Tom LaForce. The Edina business consultant read newspaper comment sections and thought there had to be a better way.
“I was aghast at the level of dialogue and people taking shots,” LaForce says. “It didn’t seem like it was getting anywhere.”
He wondered if there was a way for people to talk politics without being so nasty to each other.
LaForce hatched Politics in Edina (PIE) three years ago. PIE is a Facebook page “for people who don’t eat much cake, but do enjoy a nice piece of pie when discussing elections and political issues that affect Edina.”
LaForce and co-moderator Tyler Armstrong—who politically lean left and right, respectively—post links on the school board, city government or local legislative elections. The posts will sometimes generate dozens of comments from PIE’s hundreds of “likes.”
But LaForce doesn’t judge the success of the site based on the “likes” or comments.
“I’m trying to get it so people have more information and make better decisions,” LaForce says.
LaForce says he has heard throughout the community that people are paying attention to PIE or passing its messages to friends or family.
“I do know or have been told that residents read the site all the time, but they don’t want to comment. They don’t want to be out there with their political beliefs,” LaForce says. “Others say that they read it and they talk to their friends about it.”
Police Chief Jeff Long cited PIE as a destination he uses to learn about what’s going on in Edina. He says it helps him be a better officer.
“We are able to look at that and see what residents are saying,” Long says. “It really gives us the chance to respond to what is being said and being done.”
The goal of Politics in Edina is to improve civil discourse in two ways: Commenters are not anonymous, since they must post through Facebook profiles; and since it’s Edina-only, there’s a strong chance you might know or run into the fellow commenters or dissenters.
“If you are anonymous, I think it brings the worst behavior out,” LaForce says. “I think [having to use your own name] helps people discuss these hot topics in a little better way.”
LaForce, a 24-year resident of Edina, says social media is a tool, and its success or failure depends on the devotion of its producers.
“The only reason it works is that somebody locally does it,” LaForce says of his labor of love. “I live here. I like politics. I pay attention to what goes on politically. It’s easy for me to do it.”
PROFESSIONAL
Julie Boehm pauses as she lists all the social media sites and outlets she helps to update or track for the 50th and France Business Association and the Edina Art Fair.
There’s Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google+, Yelp, the E Club Newsletter and the favorite finds at 50th and France’s blog.
“Is that everything?” she asks herself.
Though it can seem overwhelming, she takes it in stride. “It’s definitely fast-paced, go with the flow, but you just go with it,” says Boehm, who is the association’s marketing director. “We have so much content, so it’s easy for me to have numerous things to pick from to post.”
Social media is a large component of how the business association markets its 120 members. It maintains print advertising and will run TV commercials next year for the first time in Boehm’s three years.
“What’s nice about social networking is it’s free, especially for a nonprofit,” Boehm says. “You can control your budget.”
“We don’t have the marketing dollars that large corporations have, so we definitely want to get our name out there as much as we can,” Boehm says. “To stay competitive, you have to be on all of these platforms.”
Sacha Martin has co-owned Bluebird Boutique on West 50th Street for eight years, and has been on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for her business about a year. But nothing works quite like Facebook, where the store posts photos of outfits, Martin says.
“If we put something up, most likely, it’s going to sell,” Martin says. “It’s huge for our business.”
Martin doesn’t use traditional mail to announce events, nor does she use traditional media to get the word out about a promotion. Social media is “the only thing we’ve ever done,” she says.
The 50th and France Business Association has entertained the idea of producing an app, but for now, it will ride Facebook and other social networks.
Social media has a big impact, Boehm says. “The statistics of mobile users that use Facebook applications per month is impressive. It’s people’s go-to source, and I don’t think that it’s going to die anytime soon.”
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On the Web
Scott Neal was one of the first city managers in the United States to blog, starting in about 2003. He cultivated his skills in Eden Prairie and built a strong following. He wants to instill those successful strategies in Edina and its seven blogs. (Note: A lot of these skills can also be used in other social media, too.) Here are some of his tips:
- Post regularly
- Tell stories
- Use photographs and video
- Make it current
- Avoid Controversy
