Local Government Social Media: Trends, Best Practices, and Data-Driven Insights

Location

Virtual

Date & Time

January 14 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Event Type

Webinar
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Event Details

Course Description

This 2-hour training, hosted in partnership with Bruce Desmarais and Penn State University, will provide municipal communications officials with actionable strategies grounded in the latest research and real-world examples. Participants will learn about current trends in local government social media, analyze effective communication styles, and explore best practices for building trust, engagement, and informativeness online.

 

The session draws on over a decade of academic research into government communication and includes case studies from North Carolina municipalities.
The webinar concludes with a demonstration of practical tips and tools that local government communicators can use to find and analyze peer government social media activity to strengthen their own communication strategies.
 

Objectives:

  1. Identify key trends and challenges in municipal social media communication by reviewing evidence-based insights and recognizing obstacles such as misinformation, trust issues, and data interpretation challenges in public communication efforts.

  2. Interpret research-backed best practices in municipal social media communication, including strategies for effective messaging, community engagement, and addressing public perceptions through data-supported approaches.

  3. Summarize practical strategies to increase public engagement and build trust in municipal social media channels, focusing on communication techniques that foster transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to community needs.

  4. Choose tools that support data-driven communication in municipal settings, including dashboards and data analytics that enhance decision-making, provide transparency, and improve interaction with residents.

 

Delivery Method:  Zoom Webinar


Pricing:
$25 for all participants


Number of AML credits: 2 AML Credits

 

Presenter: Bruce Desmarais; Penn State University Presenters


The training will be led by Bruce Desmarais, Ph.D. Bruce is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at Penn State, where he is also the DeGrandis-McCourtney Early Career Professor and Director of the Center for Social Data Analytics. He is the CEO and Co-founder of Public Square Analytics, a firm that builds data-driven tools and provides consulting to help public sector communicators strengthen their digital communications.