Social Media Policy

About the Program

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

Year: 2017

Expanding community outreach is one of Charlotte County’s key long-range goals. Social media delivers news and information where residents want to get it in a medium they already use daily. Beginning in 2015, the county’s Public Information Office initiated an expansion of social media as part of its broader outreach strategy. New social media portals were opened on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for countywide messaging and outreach. Additional portals were established for several departments not already using them. Facebook pages were created for the Community Development Department, the Public Works Department and the Veteran Services Division. A new Twitter feed and Instagram page were created for our Community Services Department to augment existing Facebook pages for the department’s Parks and Recreation Division and Libraries Division. In all, the county has 15 Facebook pages, six Twitter accounts, four Instagram pages and four YouTube channels. The Facebook pages have generated more than 25,000 combined page likes and hundreds of thousands of post likes, comments and shares. The main county Facebook page grew to more than 3,000 likes within a year of its launch. The highlight of our social media campaign in 2016 was when we accepted singer Justin Timberlake's challenge to create a music video of his song "Can't Stop The Feeling." Our TV personnel taped county staff, residents and visitors at various locations around the county, highlighting our natural beauty, the many amenities available and the vibrancy of our people. As of March 23, 2017, the video reached 1,068,268 Facebook users and was viewed 385,167 times. It was viewed 26,292 times on our YouTube page.