The City of Chelsea will soon launch a social media presence to keep residents informed and to better communicate with the community utilizing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube following the unanimous vote of the Chelsea City Council on July 18.
City Manager Roy Atkinson said he is a big proponent of the use of social media as an additional news source to provide community outreach, alert residents about meetings, employment opportunities, city services and other city-related issues.
He comes to Chelsea with experience in social media operations from his previous job in Wisconsin, where as the assistant city administrator for the City of Altoona, he served as the Public Information Officer.
He wants to engage and educate residents with this new social media program in Chelsea.
While introducing this program to the City Council Monday night, he included amendments to the city’s current social media policies and an authorized user agreement form, which would be used for any staff members administering the social media pages.
He said at the start, he will monitor the pages and there will be an additional staff members added to assist in the process.
“Social media shall be used to enhance city services and shall be used to further the city’s mission by providing: community outreach, marketing and publicity, including creating a conversation about municipal government and its activities, education of the community in the use of city resources, development news, advertisement for volunteer and employment opportunities available at the city, publicity of meetings, information about general city services, or other city-related uses as approved by the city manager.”
He said the Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce and the Chelsea School District currently have active social media programs.
Public terms of use will also be explained and posted on the city’s social media pages and residents will be able to interact with the posts and ask questions as well.
Council Member Peter Feeney was was absent from the meeting.
(Publisher’s note: This is the first of several stories from the July 18 City Council meeting.)
For a full explanation of this new program, please see the following agenda items at the end of this story.
