Not all cities have rushed out to create Facebook Fan Pages. Some are timidly walking that direction while others are making a made dash away from Facebook and all things social media. Turns out avoiding Facebook simply opens up an opportunity for someone to create a Fan Page for the city. Someone in Cincinnati created a Fan Page entitled "Cincinnati" as a government Page. The Page has 15,911 fans. This is not a trivial number. Who has the most posts on this Cincinnati Page? A Fan named Heidi Gray who posts job openings.
How about Columbus? Or Cleveland. One of the 3C cities must have Facebook Page. Nope. Who knows who created a Columbus Page as a government page. It currently has 6818 Fans. And again, some unknown person created a Cleveland Page. This person categorized the Page as a club. Want to guess the number of Fans? 36,329. What municipal PR department would not be thrilled to have easy access to 36,329 residents and potential visitors of their city?
The most social media savvy municipal representative I have come across so far is Christa Dickey, City of Westerville. She is convinced the activity on the Westerville Facebook Page is due to:
- The conversational tone of her posts.
- The engaging nature of Westerville residents.
If we go with the idea that the nature of the residents has anything to do with the interaction level on a city's Facebook Page, then Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus are missing an amazing opportunity. All three Pages have active Fans. Would they still be that active if the posts were more focused on trash collection, local festivals and construction updates? Maybe, maybe not. What the large numbers of active Fans in each city's Facebook Page tell us is that those cities have active Facebook users. Christa sees Westerville's Facebook Page as an opportunity to interact with the city's residents (past, present and future) AND an opportunity for customer service.
I searched Facebook for the largest cities in Ohio, the largest suburbs in Central Ohio and I threw in a few Appalachian cities just so that region was not left out. Of the 28 cities I searched, I found 5 cities with official city sponsored Facebook Fan Pages:
- Athens - 611 Fans
- Bexley - 1114 Fans
- Dublin - 86 Fans
- Dayton - 1,716 Fans
- Westerville - 2,378 Fans
The most impressive of the 5? Westerville. Why? Not because they have 2,378 Fans (in a city of 38,000 residents) but because their Fans are active. Christa does most of the posting on behalf of the City of Westerville. Fans comment on almost all of her posts. And its not the same 3 people!
Of the 28 cities, 5 had Fan Pages created by someone not representing the city.
- Bowling Green (categorized as a bar!) - 3,565 Fans
- Cincinnati - 15,911 Fans
- Cleveland - 36,329 Fans
- Columbus - 6,818 Fans
- Lorain - 1,357 Fans
The other 18 cities? No Fan Pages created by the cities or anyone else.
- Akron
- Canton
- Chillicothe
- Findlay
- Gahanna
- Hamilton
- Hilliard
- Lancaster
- Lima
- Mansfield
- Marion
- Mentor
- Portsmou
- Steubenville
- Springfield
- Toledo
- Warren
- Youngstown
I did check Facebook Groups. Groups are less functional than Pages. No cities had set up a Group. Non-municipal representatives had set up Groups but none were immensely active, which is a challenge with the structure of Groups.
Moral of the story? Facebook Fan Pages are an opportunity for municipalities. A common concern is the time required to keep a Facebook Page updated. According to Christa Dickey, City of Westerville, she of the most impressive city Facebook Page in Ohio, its a non-issue. Its minutes a day for her. She is posting items that naturally come up in her day. She reads through the comments and responds when necessary. For her, its another tool in her PR toolbox. Another means of interacting with the residents of Westerville. Another means of providing customor service.
