Polk County Commissioners have agreed to create social media profiles to keep in touch with its residents.
Commissioners met April 22 and heard from interim county manager Marche Pittman regarding creating social media profiles, including for Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google Plus.
Pittman said although several of Polk County’s departments are now on social media, through department head meetings county officials realized Polk County government doesn’t have much of a presence. Pittman said social media can be used as an outlet to get factual information out to the public.
He said more than 40 percent of the nation’s residents are on some type of social media and translating those numbers to Polk County could mean the county can reach out to 8,000 of its citizens. Some of the county’s advertisements can be streamed through social media as well, Pittman said.
A three-phased plan was discussed with a social media policy presented for commissioners to review with plans to vote on the policy at the county’s next meeting.
Pittman said one of the ideas is to have an outlet for residents to post their ideas to social media so people who may not attend meetings can give their feedback regarding county business from home.
“I think it’s great we’re working on that,” said commissioner Michael Gage, “and trying to communicate better with citizens. It looks like you’re (Pittman) on the ball here and I appreciate it.”
Commissioner Ray Gasperson said given the times, it’s what the county has to do. Pittman said once commissioners approve a policy he will issue Facebook and Twitter accounts, which will get the county through phase II of the project. He said he plans to then look into costs and feasibility of contracting with a company such as Granicus, which currently manages the world’s largest legislative content network with more than 20,000 government users with programs that allow citizens to interact with government through social media.