Social Networking in a Small City

Recently at a Young Professionals of the Tri-Cities event, a representative from the City of Richland, WA was there and asked how they could get more input from the young adults.  As our small city grows, attracting the young adult age group is apparently high on the City’s priorities.  Information from said age group is highly valuable to them as they attempt to make future planning decisions. 

The City’s representative had heard of a few social networking sites like facebook, but currently nobody at the city department has set up an account or tried to connect with residents on other social media sites, including: Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku, and a host of others.  Social media sites are valueable tools that persons in roles such City officials and staff, could use to keep the population informed as well as receive a large volumn of input.  Using Social Media tools was an idea given to the City’s representative.  Time will tell if the decision-makers find it a valueable use of time and resources.  I for one think would be a great first step.