Engaging citizens in social media doesn’t mean posting your news releases on Facebook

Government agencies still do not get social media. Well, most of them. They are still applying traditional media and PR tactics and it’s not really working.

I have been looking around at trying to find good examples of government using social media well and I’m having a tough time finding it.

My observations and research have lead me to believe that social networking sites are basically being used as a newsfeed and place to post things that are not news release worthy.

Nobody cares about the leftovers. They’re not going to engage with that. Government communications departments really need to be more creative with their delivery to citizens.

How to tell your story when the media isn’t enough

When I get into the media relations part of communications one of the things that I keep asking myself is when I have news is ‘how can I reach more journalists and get them to “buy” the importance of my, or my client’s, news?’

Being in a niche industry, I usually get interest from all of the same players. But when I go outside of that realm, I can see those journalists’ eyes glazing over right on the phone and wondering why I am wasting their time. The thing is that topics, like utility rate increases, that affect people are important to a newspaper’s readers and it’s likely that those readers want/need to know about it.

I find that journalists at medium to small circulations are in such a bind from a financial and staff limitations perspective that they cannot devote the individual time to even consider a type of story that is so clearly out of their everyday news cycle.