February 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 52

Fun Fact: Although

Building the Bridge

There are many social memainframe-based interdia tools out there and it's
office email was used as
important use the right
early as 1965, the World
ones to accomplish your
Wide Web was publicly
goa l s. T hat ra i ses t he
launched in April 1993,
question: What are your
facilitating email as a
goals? Driving members
global communication tool.
to your services? Driving
citizens to your events?
Connecting people with
your community? Collecting a pool of professionals
to use as a resource? Collecting a pool of advocates
to mobilize?
It's important to choose the right tool for the job.
Up until five years ago, email was virtually the only
" bridge " available to drive people to your website-10 years ago, it was considered cutting edge
to send emails with hyperlinks to your customers/
members-but now, with everyone experiencing
" email overload " at home and work, it's critical we
change our approach.
" It's moved beyond simply being a tactic or a
novelty-today, it is expected that your agency has a
Facebook and/or Twitter presence, " says Scott Carpenter, Director of Public Relations at Metroparks of
the Toledo [Ohio]Area. " For most college students
(including my daughter), it has replaced email as a
primary form of communications. "
It's more than communication. There's a business impact as well.
" We were losing [program participants] by relying solely on email to contact them, " says Kathy
Worrell, Recreation Coordinator for the Town of
Fountain Hills, Arizona.

About the Island

Jon Reiter, Communications Coordinator for
Louisville Metro Parks reports solid traffic on his
agency's website (approximately 150,000 hits per
month), but still he believes " Those sort of traditional ways of communicating with the public [phone
calls and email], particularly with park and recreation users, might not go far enough. "
There's a clear consensus that Facebook and
Twitter are " must haves " in building your social
media bridge, followed closely by LinkedIn and
blogs and each reaches a different audience for different purposes.
■■  Twitter-launched in 2006, is the latest and great-

est sensation in social media. Described as a " microblog, " Twitter had more than 44.5 million users
as of August 2009. The beauty of Twitter is its capability of tying many other technologies together in
applications, such as TweetDeck, sharing website
links, pictures, and videos. Your single " Tweet " has
the potential of reaching all 44.5 million Twitter users (whether they are following you or not) through
RTs (Re-Tweeting) or keyword searches. Certainly, you have a greater chance of having your message being seen if the user IS a follower. A such as
Metro Parks of Toledo, Cleveland Metro Parks, and
Louisville Metro Parks have had great success with
running contests with giveaways to increase Twitter followers.
" I consulted a professional Social Networking,
Advertising and Media Specialist, " explains Kathy
Worrell, " and she said in order to make Twitter
work, you have to tweet once a day or at least twice
a week-because your tweet will fall off the page
quickly and no one will ever see it My advice is:
Tweet often to keep [up] interest. "
■■  Facebook -although often said in the same

Your organization's website is a digital island. But the question is: Is it an uninhabited
wasteland that your organization will starve on because no one knows it's there? Or
is it an inviting " go-to " vacation spot for weary web travelers looking for the just the
information, services, and events you have to offer? Ryan Hegreness, Assistant Director
of Essex Junction [Vermont] Recreation and Parks Department and creator
of " Recreation 2.0 " , best articulates the situation.
" An organization's website should be of central importance- it is where you have
the greatest amount of control, where you convert on sales, where you experience the
most traffic, where you can cross-promote programs, etc., " Hegreness says. " But it is
absolutely critical to use social media both outside the website (to expand the reach of
the departments marketing campaign and direct people to the website or office) and
within the website to keep the site engaging and relevant.
" It is important to not rely on any one social network as the primary area for a department's
updates and interaction, " Hegreness continues. " Technology and user preferences change so fast
that you cannot have all your eggs in one basket. "

50	 Parks & Recreation

February 2010

www.NRPA .ORG



February 2010 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2010 - Parks & Recreation

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