County Uses Social Media to Quickly and Cost Effectively Connect with Constituents

The county is progressively involved in establishing communication outlets that will best serve the community by providing up-to-date information in a quick and cost-effective manner.  In today’s world, with newspaper readership at an all-time low, Internet social networking sites are quickly becoming the most effective means of communication for any organization, including the government.   As a result of this, the Public Affairs Department has implemented several social media applications on its homepage (www.pbcgov.com).

Currently, the county has an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds with breaking news items in the form of a simple list that is automatically downloaded to your computer or handheld device (http://pbcgov.com/newsroom/rss/feeds/headlines.xml).

A Twitter (http://twitter.com/pbcgov) account has been established and is being used to transmit (tweet) our press releases and Channel 20 video releases to media, government and citizen subscribers.

In addition, a YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/pbcgov20) has also been established and is being used to post videos with information on county programs and services.  Recent programming included the Justice Academy, Census 2010 and hurricane preparedness.

These efforts were researched and created by Public Affairs with assistance from the county’s Information Systems Services (ISS) Department.  The second phase of implementation will include a Facebook fan page with county news, events and information as well as a partnership with YourPBC.org, a blogging site for civically engaged organizations.

The county will continue to assess and improve its communication efforts with the public.  A main objective is to maximize Internet, print and broadcast information to inform residents about Palm Beach County government services at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.

Please contact me if I can be of assistance or if you have any comments and/or suggestions.  I can be contacted at sabrams@pbcgov.org or at my office at 561-355-2204 (West Palm Beach) or 561-276-1220 (Delray Beach).  Please visit my Web site at http://www.pbcgov.com/countycommissioners/district4/ for updates and links to county divisions and other governmental agencies.