news-record.com

GREENSBORO -- As constant updates from social networking sites such as Twitter become a routine part of the day, it’s not just kids and cubicle dwellers who are harnessing the power of social media. Local governments and their departments are joining in, so far with mixed results.

“We started the Twitter account about 18 months ago,” said Jim Collins, communications manager for the city of Greensboro. “So far, we’ve been using it for putting up things of citywide import, announcements, trying to get people to participate in public meetings.”

The free Web site Twitter, at twitter.com, allows people to communicate in short bursts of 140 characters, which can include links to other sites. Users “follow” other Twitter feeds to receive information and network with each other to gain “followers” of their own.

Signing up is free at the Twitter home page. All that’s needed is a valid e-mail address. The service can be used from a computer or mobile phone with Web or text capabilities.

Many social media fans say using Twitter to simply post announcements is not taking full advantage of the medium.

Ryan Shell, a Greensboro blogger and marketing communications specialist, said the biggest mistake organizations make with Twitter is forgetting that it’s supposed to be a conversation.

“It’s better if it’s not all one way, just pushing information at people with no give and take, no interaction,” Shell said. “Look at the city of Greensboro on Twitter. They have 1,260 followers. That’s way more than me — more than most people. But they’re only following five people. That’s not a conversation, and it doesn’t interest people.”

Shell’s run for City Council this year was heavy on new media, with video updates to his campaign blog and updates for his more than 600 Facebook friends and more than 750 followers on Twitter.

Shell lost his council bid, but his reputation for online organizing has led some to seek him out for advice on connecting people online. Governments would do well to look at how successful individuals and groups use Twitter rather than trying to adapt Twitter to continue the way their bureaucracy communicates, he said.

The city of Greensboro Twitter account (twitter.com/greensborocity) posted six messages in November and fewer than one per day this month.

Guilford County had an active Twitter feed (twitter.com/guilfordcounty) with more than 900 followers, plenty of back-and-forth and multiple daily updates. But its last Tweet was in June.

Barbara Weaver, the county’s chief information officer, said the county’s Web site is being redesigned and that its Twitter feed is on hold until it’s relaunched. Responsibility for the feed will shift to the county manager’s office when the redesigned site is launched in the new year.

The Greensboro Coliseum uses its feed (twitter.com/Gbocoliseum) primarily to promote its events but also has begun pointing to online albums of photos from those events.

Shell points to the near constant Twitter updates of Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, N.J., as an example of what politicians can do with social media.

Sue Polinsky agrees. As owner of the Tech Triad Web design company and a local new media organizer, she’s been trying to get government more involved online for years. But government didn’t take to blogging, she said, and isn’t taking very well to social media either.

“If you look on the city of Greensboro Web site, there’s no mention of social media — Facebook sites, Twitter, blogs. Nothing,” said Polinsky, who designed the city’s site. “And I built that site with room for those things. It could be done.”

Polinsky said that years ago, she and other new media advocates tried to get City Council members to blog. Former council member Sandy Carmany was the only one who blogged regularly and was heavily criticized for it before losing an election, Polinsky said.

In the end, it may be a question of how large governments with multilevel bureaucracies communicate with the public — and whether they’re suited more to questions from the floor of public meetings than the continual give-and-take of Twitter.

Polinsky said she has seen many smaller nonprofit groups in the area use Facebook and Twitter well to overcome shoe-string budgets and staffing problems.

“If you look at what the Triad Health Project, Goodwill or United Way are doing on Twitter, on Facebook, you’d be amazed. They’re doing it so well,” Polinsky said. “So why can’t my government do the same thing? Maybe the mayor doesn’t want to blog, but the city could manage one Tweet a day.”

Roch Smith said that’s not quite fair. As a Web designer and administrator of local blog aggregation site Greensboro101, Smith said he’s not convinced that short, fast updates on social media sites are the best way for government to communicate with residents.

“Of course, if there’s a no-cost, low-effort way of reaching people who are already interested in information from you, you should avail yourself of that,” Smith said. “But it could be there’s not a lot of effort in that direction because Greensboro is already doing a number of good things on the city Web site that you can’t do over Twitter.

“They have Web video of Greensboro City Council meetings, full council agendas and minutes on the Web site and an e-mail operation for news. Maybe that’s just where they’ve put their resources.”

Collins said that’s true but that a study the city is doing could get its departments more involved in social media.

“Right now having an actual conversation on Twitter, using social media that way, it’s basically a staffing concern,” Collins said. “But we’re finding ways to have more people use social media to keep people informed.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com