February 25, 2012
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With the rise of social media, e-commerce and data-driven consumer marketing, the high-tech sector is growing leaps and bounds. More than ever, a need exists for electronic communication, data management and public outreach—especially for the cities, counties, foundations and special districts that support today’s Web-savvy citizens.
While local government consultants understand the situation, public affairs communities face obstacles the business world may never see. At the top of list is money. For budget-strapped bureaucracies that rely on public funds, the up-front costs of a major technology upgrade may be tough to accommodate.
Money as a challenge
Ryder Todd Smith, President of Tripepi Smith & Associates in Southern California, has witnessed these challenges first-hand. With core competencies in marketing, technology and public affairs, the firm picked up its first city government contract in 2011 after several years of attending conferences and making pitches at council meetings.
“Local government budgets are really quite challenged right now, and this is especially the case in my primary market of California," Smith says. "Recent state policy changes have eliminated a key revenue source for local government, and this is causing a lot of changes. The bad news for a firm like mine is that with tighter budgets cities may choose to cut back on outside help.”
Efficiency and new opportunities through technology
Smith points out, however, that financial constraints create opportunity windows for public affairs contractors. In this space, efficiency is invaluable, and local government consultants can help cities and agencies leverage technology to accomplish that goal.
“Cities may choose to look at outsourcing large elements of their operations to save money—if there is money to be saved—and I think city councils are more willing to look at these outsourcing options, Smith says. "Technology has consistently shown an ability to increase efficiency in a service oriented economy and that is true for local government. The proper application of technology can help make staff more efficient and enable cities to do more with less. In these times, that is exactly what the world is pressuring them toward.”
As one example, cloud computing can help governments consolidate infrastructure and share resources to reduce data management overhead.
"Cities will be looking for this kind of consolidation going forward so they can pull costs out of the IT budget while implementing new technologies to drive efficiency," says Smith.
Social media’s value proposition
Among consumer-facing brands, social media has become a communication staple. Through free platforms including Facebook and Twitter, businesses have a free and efficient way to ask market intelligence questions and streamline customer service requests.
As with the private sector, social media has the potential to improve communication between local governments and their communities. Smith's recent experience with a shutdown freeway on-ramp illustrates this argument:
"It was a simple thing but highly disruptive to our normal routine. I searched all over to get an answer on the timeline for that work to complete and could not get it. But one simple query to the Facebook page of my City of Tustin and I had an answer 30 minutes later. Plus, ever other affected citizen who was on the page had an answer, too."
The unique needs of government
According to Smith, local governments vary from corporate technology and social media users in two ways: municipal code restrictions and success assessments.
With respect to the first difference, cities in California and possibly other states "face record retention requirements related to social media platforms that actually discourage two-way engagement with residents," says Smith. In the world of local government, social media is very new and policies are ambiguous.
Unlike the business community, in local government success is not about marketing efforts that ultimately facilitate sales.
"It is about citizen engagement, education and listening. The great thing, for a city, about social media is that it can be a constant focus group for the city and they can be more immediately responsive to citizen concerns, or at least inform the citizens about an issue directly, without a media filter," says Smith. "That can help a city a lot."
Keeping it practical
Smith reminds consultants to remember the practical considerations of working with local government clients.
"First, cities can be very politically sensitive. Your job is to make the staff and the council look good. If you undermine one or the other, you lose. Second, total transparency is the key to trust," Smith says. "If you feel you have something to hide, don't engage in the work. Third, cities have some relatively detailed contracting requirements, including liability insurance requirements. Even if they seem irrelevant, you will have to likely have that in place, and it can be a substantial upfront cost."
Ritika Puri is a user research professional with expertise in product strategy, data analysis, business, and online media. Ritika blogs via Contently.com.
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