Effective Use of Social Media by Municipalities: Doylestown, PA
In the third part of a six-part video series, Gina Rubel, founder and owner of Furia Rubel, provides an example of effective use of social media by a municipality. Doylestown Township and the Central Bucks School District utilized social media to quickly inform the public about a safety concern in the Doylestown area.
The Doylestown Township municipality used Facebook to share this breaking news about in real time to spread the word about the developing story providing the community with important updates.
When the township shared Facebooks stories, they were shared and spread through other social media users and pages, which demonstrates how the community was listening on social media and how quickly a conversation grows.
Rubel points out that naysayers will always be present on social media, but there will also be members of the community who are thankful and supportive of the information. Municipalities should consider if they want to respond to naysayers. Rubel cautions that it is often best to avoid having the municipality responding to naysayers because members of the community will ultimately set the record straight.
It’s important for municipalities to develop a social media plan for the effective use of social media. When communicating in real time, there is no time to go up the chain of command and receive approvals for a story.
About Gina Rubel
Corporate and law firm leaders call on Gina Rubel for high-stakes public relations, crisis planning, and incident response support including high profile litigation media relations. She is motivated by results and helping clients to manage their reputation, retain clients and grow their businesses through branding, integrated marketing, public relations, interactive communications, strategic consulting, and serving as a chief marketing officer (CMO). Rubel founded Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., in 2002 and has become one of the leading legal marketing agencies nationwide. In 2018, Rubel was named among Lawdragon’s Global 100 Leading Consultants and Strategists to the Legal Profession.