Local Government should Twitter because there’s currently no better way to connect with voters. One at a time (person, over the phone or in person) or even group interactions through community forums are great ways to talk with constituents. Yet they can waste too much time and money.

There are so many different ways to use twitter now, JoCo uses it to find merchandise table workers for his shows (they get in for free!), Businesses use it to advertise job openings, and to answer customer complaints. Local Governments are missing out on a prime opportunity to show their value to the people they serve. The question ‘What are you doing?’ has special signifigance when applied to our elected officials.

If you turn to Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages as a more direct system of conversation with your residents, you will find yourself truly in tune with the needs of the people. They will not hesitate to share what they think are the most important issues to them. I’ve seen a recent article in the local paper about local police departments running Facebook Fan Pages and using them to catch the town’s ‘most wanted’ criminals. This would work for all sorts of community involvement instead of merely the police.

The very best part of the system is that Twitter and Facebook are a two-way conversation! You have a invaluable opportunity to spotlight everything about your town to the world! Facebook fan pages can act as a huge tourist and business draw. What makes your city attractive to businesses? To current and potential residents?

You can tweet and promote the current and upcoming community festivals, farmers’ markets, trade conferences, and even local businesses to patronize! Charity Poker Runs, Marathons, Cancer Walks and Bike Trails! Where is the nearest bed and breakfast? Restaraunts, Coffee Shoppes, Seamstress/Tailors, Flea Markets, Groceries and Garage Sale Days! What recreational opportunities does your community offer? Do you have the best park system in the county? Is it a short drive to major entertainment destinations such as Cedar Point or Clay’s Park? Are there open, developable properties available for new businesses? Do you have a young, educatable, older and experienced, or a healthy mix of such local job applicants to entice companies to locate in your city? For goodness sake, BRAG about it!

There are almost no end to the possibilities.

You can sit down and formulate winning strategy with each of the city departments that are going to tweet. Target various issues to educate the public about, and share links to online content such as NEW state requirements for tree trimming or water drainage standards. These are issues that affect residents and they should have an opportunity to understand the reasoning behind such laws and regulations. As public officials, it’s already your duty to remain abreast of current events in your field, you may even gain new perspective on issues facing the city from talking with other officials from nearby, or even far away!

Twitter can be an excellent tool to educate and influence voters. Let’s be clear that ABSOLUTELY NO CAMPAIGNING should be done from the town twitter accounts. But if you are stuck using old, outdated city water systems, let the people know! Tweet photos and explain the situation to them, then present a plan to them, showing the costs and benefits of a new, safer water system. Also be ready to show the extra costs associated with running outdated equipment. Sometimes, the repair costs over a decade or two could be much higher than an upgrade and may approach the price of a fully NEW system!

The Street Department can take reports of issues with potholes, non-functioning street lights or snow clearing issues. Were the lights (every other one) turned off because of budget woes? If the town is experiencing a budget problem, you can explain the situation in clear terms, and even invite ideas from residents if a decent solution cannot be found “in house.”

You can also introduce the town residents to their employees. Show them who the officers are that are protecting and serving them. You can spotlight a different employee each week! Firefighters, Clerks, Councilmembers, a photo and a short blurb can familiarize the citizens with their representatives and those people who keep the city running smoothly.

The only problems that might crop up are someone hacking the account, and any elected official that doesn’t care. Because if they can’t justify their jobs to the people they are supposed to be serving, then they should resign and let someone who needs a job, and who will do their best to serve the people take their places.

Sure, there may be chronic complainers and people who try to bring stupid feuds with neighbors into the digital space, but knowing about these things and talking to the parties involved may prevent the need for police action in the future. How are chronic complainers different online from those who call up the Mayor’s office every week to gripe, or persons complaining about animals?

To make a long post short, with the abundance of positives, and dearth of negatives, your local government needs to be asking itsself ‘Why aren’t we on Twitter/Facebook?”

Oh, and the ‘timewasting’ excuse is just that, an excuse. You can easily budget time, even setting online timers so that you don’t get too distracted during the day. Check twitter when you come in for the day, write replies, schedule some tweets for the day, and then get down to the business of governance. Sounds like a BIG win to anyone who wants to leap in to one of the best feedback tools so far this century!

Note: This is a expansion of a blog comment I left to Matt, a commenting guest on Justin Kownacki’s blog here–Open Letter To My Audience

When I was growing up, my Dad did the crossword daily, and he still does.  I didn’t know anything that could help on most days of the week, unless it was a comic book related clue.  Jump to today, and I can help with about half of the puzzle, even on the hard days.  I just hadn’t read enough, lived enough, caught up on enough history to be useful to him when he was working the crossword puzzle.

Our generation was the first generation to spend our formative years on the internet.  We are a different kind of social creature than our parents.  The next generation will differ from us in ways we can’t imagine right now.  Do kids today even go to chatrooms anymore?  They sure as heck text and sext each other a lot, but where we were the internet generation, they will be the smart-phone generation.  The interaction is there, it’s just that it’s dialed down, one on one character assassination conversation.  They’ll do the 140 character dance, but so far, only in ways that immediately benefit them.  Flirting with a girl, making a date, or informing parents they knocked up someone so they don’t have to face the ‘rents’ wrath right away (if this hasn’t happened yet, just wait).  Do you remember forums?  I dare you to find me active and interesting forums aside from Fark.com, Metafilter, or Wikipedia.  I was at MentallyIncontinent.com back in its heyday, and it was awesome.  These days forums are solely the realm of gear-heads, and other hobbyists.

Teens don’t Twitter because Twitter is a messy MOB compared to the simplicity of texting on your cell.  On Twitter, anybody can talk @ anyone, and you kind of have to track down the parts of a full conversation sometimes.  If it’s not instant gratification or a nudie FWD, I think teens really could care less at the moment.

Do you remember how self-centered, self-important, and self-involved you were in your teenage years?  I vaguely do.  If you constantly market to a demographic, and tell them they are the most beautiful, most loved, most important group to come along, they are eventually going to believe it (at least a little).  Hey kids:  They’re only saying it to get your money!

Twitter is mainly social commentary (at its best) and self-promotional whoring (at its worst).  From news (tragedy, politics), to media (TV, Movies), and mundane life happenings (“I’m a twitter-shitter!”), most teens just aren’t wired right to have the ability and burning desire to make witty comments and share them with the world.  In a lot of cases, their ego-in-training could never handle the potential abuse.

Twitter can be a popularity contest in the extreme, well, how many friends do you have?  How many of them are real people you converse with?  You’ve met?  Sure you pimp content you’ve created, share that hilarious video you just discovered, and totally Favorite and RT things you find humorous or especially brilliant.  But at it’s core, twitter is a numbers game, and score is kept with friends lists:  mine’s bigger than yours!  Do today’s teens really need another popularity contest?  While in the shark-infested waters of HIGH SCHOOL?  (apologies to whomever I’m cribbing, I know I read something along these lines in a blog, if it was you, let me know, I’ll check it out and link you here)

Okay, one last anecdote, to wrap this up.  A good example of age breeding wisdom and all that.

When I was in school I took the Family Relations/Parenting class, y’know, that one where you carry the fake baby and your classmates try to kick it so you get a failing grade?  Anyway, we were to bring in a love song to share with the class.  Any love song.  So, since I had the chance to inflict my burgeoning punk-rock musical tastes on the rest of the class, I chose… “Mabel” by Goldfinger.

Our assignment was to decide whether or not each song represented “true love” or “lust.”  Soo difficult, I know.  Everyone in the class agreed for my contribution, “lust.”  I went along with that determination, because I was young, and timid, and didn’t know the half of what I know now.  If I were able to teleport back to that day, and lock my past self in a storage closet, taking my younger self’s place, I would argue for “love.”  I would argue that love is not always reciprocated, and that love being unrequited makes it no less true.  The actions of the woman he loved in the song, dumping him for another man, deprecating his man-tackle, yet he still thinks she’s “The Bomb,” this only shows the love to be true.  He can’t help himself.  If you say you’ve never fallen in love with the wrong person, I’ll tell you that you haven’t lived life yet.  Love can end in tragedy sometimes, but there is no true love without risking part of yourself.

Today, we can twitter that sort of thing if we want to share it.  I look forward to all those teens joining us and sharing their insights, whenever they grow up.  When they finally “get” Twitter.