How’s your digital presence holding up amongst your community?

Having a website of course is crucial, but that’s just one aspect of your digital footprint. Social Media is another force that organizations should reckon with sooner rather than later if they intend to build upon and not diminish their relationship to their community.

The tools WordPress lends to your Social Media strategy are among the many important benefits WordPress offers. Think of WordPress as “home base” for your online presence and Social Media as a very active and remote online presence for your organization.

What’s the big deal about Social Media anyway?
Residents turn to Social Media multiple times a day for news, social updates, information, recommendations, entertainment and to share their own voice or opinion. Your organization needs a presence where residents are going to find their information. Today many citizens are interacting more with Social Media than they are with their neighbors right next door!

What Social Media can do for your organization:

  •  Provide multiple avenues to connect with your residents, and not just limited to working hours
  •  Help build trust and a sense of your community through a digital platform
  •  Allow for direct and immediate two-way interactions
  •  Provide valuable information that can be easily “shared” among your community
  •  Share community accomplishments through creative ways such as apps, videos and infographics
  •  Highlight all the service oriented features your municipality provides for its residents and any events that are community focused
  •  Put a name and face behind your local government officials and staff through sharing roles and biographies

How WordPress Can Help
WordPress is by far the number one content management system. WordPress is six times more widely installed than the second place CMS. The range of tools and number of tools available through WordPress far outnumbers that of its competitors. And this wealth of tools is passed on to you to help you power and customize your website.

Managing your Social Media With WordPress
WordPress can act as the hub of all your Social Media activity. Maybe you have a blog on your home page with valuable information. You may have new information to post to the blog and soon you find a Twitter or Facebook feed may be a good place to share your information as well. WordPress has tools (Plug-Ins) that allow to coordinate post to multiple Social Media sites, automatically. There are many Social Media Plug In’s available to help you strengthen your digital presence.

Here are some plug-ins that one may consider, to help utilize WordPress (and your website) as a hub for Social Media communications:

SNAP
Allows you to automatically publish posts from your blog to your Social Media accounts.

Share This
Allows you to post a button near content on your website so residents can easily share your content. Maybe you’ve posted an article about a local event or an emergency alert, that would be beneficial for residents to share.

Social Media Tracking
Allows you to track the performance of your post to see which are performing well. This helps you monitor what information your residents are finding helpful.

Revive Old Post
Allows you to automatically retrieve historical information and re-post. Maybe you would like to remind residents about important information on your website or alert residents to seasonal information as it becomes pertinent.

Social Media Following
Allow residents to follow you through any means convenient to the individual (blog, email, Twitter, or Facebook, etc.).

Video Plug-Ins
Allows you to easily post videos to your website. Maybe you want to keep your residents updated on important current topics by sharing public meetings. Videos may also encourage participation from citizens on important local government issues.

In summary, most of us recognize Social Media has become a pillar to the way people network and communicate today. If you haven’t embraced the use of Social Media at your organization, you likely will be soon. WordPress websites are powerful and versatile in helping grow your online presence. The ability to manage Social Media is just one of many of the ways WordPress can help to power and customized your municipal website.

E-Gov Link is more than just a website design & development provider, we partner with you to Build A Stronger Link To Your Community!

 

Create a more user-friendly experience
Provide residents more self-service options
Save staff time & increase productivity

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