Agenda Item 8DAGENDA ITEM # 8D
JANUARY 24, 2011
STAFF REPORT
City of Atlantic Beach
Commission Meeting
AGENDA ITEM: Report on City Use of Facebook
DATE: January 18, 2011
SUBMITTED BY: David E. Thompson, Asst. City Manager
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this report is to provide information relative to the use of
Facebook (FB) as a mechanism to enhance communication between the City of Atlantic Beach
and its citizens. To accomplish this goal, information has been compiled from a number of
sources for review and discussion.
According to Wikipedia, "Facebook is a social network service and website launched in February
2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. As of July 2010 Facebook has more
than 500 million active users. Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends
and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile.
Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school, or
college, or other characteristics. The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the
book given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US
with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better. Facebook allows
anyone who declares themselves to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the
website."
An individual can start a FB page online at no cost (FB generates revenue through advertising).
Users typically provide profile information about themselves and a profile photo. After
establishing the page, they contact other people online to become "friends." If a person
accepts an invitation to become a "friend ", then this allows these people to share information,
data, photos, etc. with one another. When the page owner posts photos or messages, the data
is automatically sent to all of the "friends" where it will show up on their FB pages. This can
then be forwarded to "friends" of "friends" or others. FB Friends are able to access and post
data on the sites of their "friends." In the event that someone decides that they no longer want
to be "friends" with another user, then the user can be "defriended" and blocked from posting
future data on the site.
Security settings on FB allow different levels of participation from "friends." A page can be set
up that does not allow anyone to post data on the site. In essence, the page becomes a bulletin
board where the owner posts information, and no one else can post anything on the site. This is
a practice common for business pages when there is a very large population who may want to
post on the site, or when there are concerns with the content of comments that may be
offensive. When a site allows others to post comments on it, the management of the site
becomes much more intensive and time consuming.
A review of various governmental websites demonstrates that allowing only one -way
communication is a common practice. Some of the governmental agencies that have allowed
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JANUARY 24, 2011
people to post comments on their sites have found it to be problematic at best. Governmental
sites are subject to "freedom of speech" and "public records" issues that are not applicable to
private sites. Attorneys who specialize in this field of law recommend one -way communications
when using FB.
Atlantic Beach Potential: The first step in assessing the usefulness of FB for the City of Atlantic
Beach is to establish the specific goals and objectives of the initiative (enhancing
communications is very vague). Various governmental agencies have initiated FB sites for
various reasons. For some, FB is a way to market their community to the outside world. They
post videos touting their educational system, business community, etc. For some, FB is used as
a bulletin board for announcing special events. And for others, FB sites were thrown together to
demonstrate that the organization was technologically advanced, even though their sites
suggests otherwise. The purpose and intent of the site should be the first priority in
determining whether or not to initiate a FB page, and other alternatives for accomplishing the
goals and objectives should be considered before committing to FB.
Another consideration is to determine whether or not the site will be a citywide site, or if it will
only be used by a specific department or division. Some communities have FB pages for
individual departments like Recreation & Special Events. Others use FB or Twitter for
emergency notifications. Some use FB for the entire city or county.
If the goal is to provide a mechanism to reach most of the citizens living in Atlantic Beach, then it
is doubtful that a FB page is going to succeed on its own. FB is typically used by younger,
technologically savvy and socially committed individuals who have the resources (computer
access) to keep up their social interactions on a daily basis. This typically eliminates the majority
of the low income citizens living in the City, and it also eliminates a majority of the older citizens.
People who are handicapped or do not have cell phones or home computers may be missed. In
a brief survey where governmental FB pages were reviewed for participation, it was determined
that in most cases, less than 1% of the citizens were signed up as "friends."
Conclusions: Ultimately, an organization must perform a cost /benefit analysis to determine
whether or not a FB page is worth the investment. Depending on the decisions relative to the
purpose and operations of the site, the maintenance of a FB page can be very time consuming,
and staff time is limited. Before ever launching a site, it is important to establish policies
regulating the content of the site and the conduct of the governmental employees. Questions
relative to public records laws and freedom of speech issues must be addressed, and then
educating staff and users is a necessity. A FB page can be designed that requires constant
attention throughout the day; or it can be designed to minimize the amount of staff time
necessary to maintain the site.
If the City is interested in pursuing a FB page, then staff recommends doing so initially with one
department: Recreation & Special Events. If a FB page is established with one -way
communication (no comments from "friends "), then staff can provide updates to all "friends"
who register for the page. Recreation & Special Events staff members already prepare
announcements and calendars on an ongoing basis, and they maintain an email list of people
who have registered to receive the announcements. If Recreation & Special Events initiated a
FB page, then they could basically copy and paste the information from the announcements
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JANUARY 24, 2011
onto their FB page. This will require additional staff time from Recreation & Special Events
staff members if this course of action is pursued.
BUDGET: Staff time will be required to set up and maintain a FB page. No funding has
been identified for this purpose.
RECOMMENDATIONS: None
ATTACHMENTS: None
REVIEWED BY CITY MANAGER:
A NDA ITEM NUMBER: