To combat rumors, city needs to get social

Social media drives everything these days. I couldn’t help but chuckle last week when reading Tia Lyons’ story on El Dorado City Council finance committee efforts to stop rumors that city services are in jeopardy. Facebook status shares of information and photos have been rampant, indicating city officials are seeking to cut services as cost-cutting measures to meet a projected revenue shortfall in the 2017 budget.

That, of course, led local residents to contact their aldermen and express concerns.

Alderman Dianne Hammond, who serves as committee chair, said she was out shopping when she was stopped several times by concerned citizens who had heard the rumors. She was unable to complete her shopping due to the barrage of questions and time she spent answering.

From working in public positions all of my life, I know the frustration of being recognized and people feeling as though anytime is the right time to discuss their likes and dislikes and to vent, in general — while I’m dining out with family, or in sweatpants with no makeup at the crack of dawn in Walmart or trying to enjoy shopping in beautiful El Dorado.

Mrs. Hammond has my sympathies and knows, as I do, that it goes with the job. But that does not make the intrusions any easier to bear when you just want to run into the store for a loaf of bread.

The finance committee first addressed the rumors on Nov. 9, saying then that while city officials have asked city department heads to tighten their belts in anticipation of a $1 million – 10 percent – revenue decline for the year, city jobs and city services are not at stake. Despite those statements, the talk persisted and eventually made its way to Facebook where it was spread further.

“The finance committee has been targeted by multiple messages on

social media,” Hammonds said in Lyons’ report. “We’ve never discussed any changes to day-to-day (city) operations. Social media is no place for the discussion of such critical matters.”

While I agree to a certain extent, social media is where EVERYTHING is shared. The day the finance committee story ran across the top of the front page of the newspaper, the second story was about Ohio State University students being urged via Twitter to “run, fight and hide.” At first university officials thought they had an active shooter, then learned it was someone who plowed onto the campus in a vehicle, jumped out and began stabbing people.

Universities use social media and smart phone apps, email and other Internet platforms to communicate with students. That’s because they wouldn’t reach them if they didn’t. Having returned to Southern Arkansas University this fall for some classes, I can tell you that many students walk around with earbuds and iPhones. Social media platforms are where they hear about most things.

I read the News-Times and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette each morning on my iPad apps. I have liked the Facebook pages of major media outlets, so their information shows up in my news feed. I also follow them, their reporters and elected officials on Twitter. All of these news groups and people know that is how information moves the quickest these days.

I get where Hammond is coming from about social media being no place for discussions of city business. I, too, wish people would pay attention to old-school news reports, attend public meetings and be truly engaged in the process. But, those days and ways are past. If it is not shared via social media, many will never know it. And some, myself included on occasion, will share “news” of local concern when they see it shared by friends they perceive as “in the know.”

That is why city job loss rumors have persisted.

Hammond said during last week’s committee meeting that rumors are believed to have originated from within city departments. She asked the department heads who were present during the discussion to talk to their staffs about the matter.

I agree that’s a good place to nip things in the bud, but city officials could save themselves some time and frustrations if they utilized social media resources for more than public relations tools and sharing positive local stories. A Facebook statement or tweet from an official could be shared like rumors — and it only requires one post on the part of the official.

If you doubt the power of social media, look no further than what savvy politicians like President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump accomplished with its usage during their respective campaigns. Or watch people in restaurants, walking around town, in grocery store lines, traffic stops (and often while driving). They are looking at social media or texting on smart phones.

If you want to reach people, you have to go where they are — and these days, it’s on some form of social media.