Agnes Mainka and colleagues over at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, published a study using findings from their examination of the social media services provided by the governing institutes of 31 major cities around the world. The cities all have advanced infrastructures and are informally classified as Informational World Cities.
Re-engaging our citizens
Vancouver places 6th, ahead of Toronto and surprisingly Tokyo, but behind such cities as Berlin and New York. With much of the younger population active on social media, such platforms can be leveraged by the city to tackle the disengagement of its citizens. In September 2013 it launched the Talk Vancouver citizen engagement community in collaboration with Vision Critical, which polls citizens regularly on topics in which they are interested.
We’ve come a long way since then. Just use the technology.
The study measured the types of social media service used by each city and the level of activity in each account they manage. The most common type of account used is Twitter with YouTube following close behind, but Twitter activity far outstrips that of YouTube. Barcelona is diverse and active on Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare; plus they blog! Berlin tops the list in activity but is almost exclusively on Twitter.
Future direction
Thus far, Vancouver is active on Youtube, Twitter and Flickr. Its activity on Flickr is on the higher end of the scale but on YouTube there is much left to desire. This is surprising for a city well-known as a go-to filming location for movies and television shows. Maybe the local talent ought to be leveraged to both promote the city and showcase skills that could attract revenue to help the city towards its ambitions Greenest City 2020 goals.
Citizen opinions on interacting with government on social media platforms vary by country. 31% of residents in South Korea and 42% of residents in India would like to use such services to engage the government administration compared with just 22% in the U.S. In Brazil, 40% would like to be involved with policy decisions through social media platforms versus just 19% in the U.S. The take-home message: growing cities need to leverage technology to keep citizens in the loop and satisfied with the direction of progress.
Sources:
Government and Social Media: A Case Study of 31 Informational World Cities
Why London Comes Last in Social Media City Rankings via MIT Technology Review
Vision Critical, City of Vancouver Launch Talk Vancouver, an Innovative Online Community via Vision Critical
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