City uses social media tools to enhance communication with the community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 30, 2009

For more information, please contact:

Danny Lopez, Communications Director, City of Bloomington, 349-CITY, lopezd@bloomington.in.gov

City uses social media tools to enhance communication with the community

Bloomington, IN - The City of Bloomington, recently recognized for having one of the ten best municipal web sites in the country, is utilizing new social media tools to enable residents to track City news.

Online outlets including Facebook and Twitter, coupled with the City's existing communications tools, have allowed the engagement of a larger number of citizens and have been effective in quickly providing continual updates and increased community access to local government.

"These new tools enhance the ability of residents to connect and communicate with their government," said Mayor Mark Kruzan. "Our goal is to help people be informed, be engaged, get involved and stay active with respect to City events."

Twitter users can now follow the City by logging onto www.twitter.com/citybloomington. Facebook users can become "fans" of the City's page by logging onto www.facebook.com and searching for the City of Bloomington, IN. Videos of events, photo galleries and links to recent news releases on both sites will keep visitors current on happenings throughout the community.

These enhanced communications tools also are being utilized on the City's Everybody's Bloomington website, www.everybodysbloomington.com. Video testimonials from members of the community and episodes of the City's Community Access Television program, also entitled Everybody's Bloomington, make the website visually dynamic as well as informative. The site, meant to showcase Bloomington's blossoming technology sector and creative economy, provides links to community partners and resources for new and existing small businesses.

"Ours is an extremely engaged, extremely technologically sophisticated community, and this is definitely part of our ongoing effort to attract new visitors to our websites and encourage people to stay informed about what we have going on," said Danny Lopez, City Communications Director. "The ways in which people are getting their information are constantly evolving, and we are doing our very best to stay ahead of the curve."

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Residents and visitors can elect to receive periodic updates on City news releases via email through Newsflash by subscribing at www.bloomington.in.gov/subscribe.

For more information on how to follow the City, please contact Lopez at 349-CITY or lopezd@bloomington.in.gov.

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