Parks and Open Space Social Media Outreach Program

About the Program

Category: Civic Education and Public Information (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

Boulder County Parks and Open Space added the use of social media sites in the last year to the mix of communication tools used to reach our constituents. We hoped to provide better public service by showing residents that we listen and respond by increasing opportunities for two-way conversations. Specifically, we wanted to address the impression/complaint that most of our open space was “closed space” by providing more frequent and timely information about “what’s happening on open space today” (events, wildlife sightings, new trails, active construction or rehabilitation projects, etc.) and increase awareness of all of the services open space provides to the community Utilizing Facebook, Twitter and YouTube independently and as feeds embedded in our website pages, open space staff now recruits volunteers, promotes events, and delivers news (including trail conditions, closures, and emergencies) through text, video and photos. Most importantly, social media channels are interactive and provide the public with a venue to ask specific and timely questions about current trail conditions and events, rules and regulations, policies, and public involvement. They can post pictures and share their experiences of open space recreation or volunteer work in a public forum. Boulder County also launched an interactive GPS-enabled iPhone application that helps trail users find the nearest open space park, see the trails and their length, and dynamically follow their location while they’re on the trail in relation to other trails and the parking lot. Open space followers routinely repost county information, increasing the reach to our constituents exponentially (currently, friends of BoulderCountyOpenSpace Facebook fans alone total 263,823.)