(Yuppie)Towns Using Twitter for Public Bulletins

Posted 04/07/2009 at 1:34pm | by Andy Salisbury

2

Comments

Print

For many, Twitter is a great way to let their friends and family know what they’re up to at any given moment, or keep track of their favorite public figures. But, a few towns in Minnesota have decided to use the micro-blogging service as a way to keep their inhabitants up to date on local affairs.

The towns of Falcon Heights, Minnetonka and Edina, Minnesota have all become “suburban government pioneers” by employing Twitter’s ease of use to inform locals of everything from snow emergencies to sewer backups.

According to the Falcon Heights parks department, using Twitter and Facebook to post notices is more efficient than traditional methods. And, for those in Eden Prairie, MN the use of YouTube for posting video bulletins (including a city promotional 13 different languages) has become common practice.

“Everybody's trying to figure out how to best do this, similar to when websites first became prevalent,” stated Justin Miller, Falcon Heights’ city manager. “Who can post? Who can publish? What's appropriate to put out there? These are the types of questions we think about.”

While to many the news isn’t that important (one such tweet reads “Today is NOT recycling day”), it is a neat first step towards putting even the localest of local news online. But, will it catch on?