City revisits communications strategy
By Randy Bell
The City of Clinton uses social media posts, a website, a newsletter, a phone app and a live broadcast of the Board of Aldermen meetings to try to make sure local citizens know what’s going on in the community. But not everyone is receiving the information.
“There still seems to be a gap,” says Director of Communications and Tourism Marlee Price. “So, I’m just trying to figure out where those gaps are and how we can effectively communicate better as a City but also (determine) what they want to hear about.”
Price says the recent public debate over a rezoning proposal (see “Rezoning vote delayed again after petition issue,” page__) prompted her to look for ways to help explain to citizens the processes the Board goes through.
A lot of times, people don’t really understand the way that government works,” she says.
Price would like to get some feedback on whether Clintonians might appreciate a “Civics 101 behind the curtain” educational effort. She describes it this way: “What our government does on a day-to-day basis and what those votes during the Board meeting [mean] and what those big words mean sometimes.”
She’d also like to find out if the public wants the City to provide more material focused on local events.
“Obviously, we can’t send everybody a postcard every time something happens. But, is there a [communications] way that I’m missing that people go to for information?”
Price says she used to be selective about the types of information she posted on the various City platforms.
“I would put certain information on the website and certain information on Facebook.”
But she realized that some people don’t use social media, and those citizens were missing the Facebook posts.
“Now, because of that, I’m starting to put everything everywhere, unless it is something that can only be shared on Facebook. Any posts that I put on Facebook, I also try to make it a news article on the website, and then I also update it to the news section on the app, as well, just so that, regardless of where you’re getting your information, everyone’s getting the same information.”
Local hometown newspaper publisher Clay Mansell believes that the use of The Clinton Courier, the sole printed paper in town, to disseminate City-related information is an important resource that Price should take advantage of. The publication distributes for free at more than one hundred fifty locations around the area.
“One great way to reach the majority of the residents of the City of Clinton – and beyond – is to utilize your hyper-local news outlet, The Clinton Courier,” said Mansell. “We print 9,000 papers, twice per month, which reach all ages and demographics of the populace of Clinton,” said Mansell.
Mansell also says the organization has a very large and active online reach, as well.
“We have one the largest social media followings of any pages in Clinton,” Mansell continued. “We have an eblast with over 10,000 local email addresses, and we have the only news website focused on Clinton, with up to 50,000 hits per month.”
Price’s job requires her to split her time between communications and tourism, but she believes the two can work together.
“Let’s make our residents our advocates,” she says. “I think the best way to make residents love where they live is to make sure that they’re informed and that they’re engaged and they feel a part of the community. When they travel and people [ask] ‘Where are you from?’ and they say, ‘I’m from Clinton, Mississippi; Let me tell you about my community.’ And I think that starts with communication. And that’s what I’m trying to do here.”
