I actually heard about the #BoulderFire from Jessica, our Director of Social Media Design. She lives in Denver and has been on the listening end of my long rants about how great it will be when I am able to move my family to Boulder, CO. It’s been a favorite city of mine for a few years. I’ve made numerous weekend trips to Boulder, using the “it will allow us to learn more about the city” excuse. My wife loves it too so it has never been a hard sell.
I began following the #BoulderFire hashtag to learn more about the crisis. What I discovered was the power of Twitter and Facebook as crisis management tools. The folks at Downtown Boulder were posting on both platforms, sharing tons of updates as well as resources for local residents. It prompted a new research project here at Vestor Logic on how cities and municipalities use social media to engage with their residents. We’ve been following 50 cities across the country and even a few in Canada. We are learning a lot about how cities use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch with the locals.
At the forefront of this group is Downtown Boulder. The folks at Downtown Boulder know social media. So I reached out to them with an idea – an interview of sorts, designed to capture some of their story with social media. The Q+A’s below reflect the story of Downtown Boulder as told by Terri Takata-Smith and Eli Madrone, the social media voices behind Downtown Boulder on Twitter and Facebook.
Tell us a little about the Downtown Boulder. What is the mission of your organization?
There are two distinct groups that fall under Downtown Boulder. The first is the Business Improvement District. The BID was formed about a decade ago when property owners in a 49 block area decided to tax themselves to create the district. The BID supplements services already provided by the city (e.g. additional maintenance & security), works on ensuring economic vitality and provide a comprehensive consumer marketing program.
Downtown Boulder, Inc. is a membership based organization. Members support the overall vitality of downtown through public advocacy, political involvement and community events that enhance the Boulder experience for residents and visitors.
How did your foray into social media happen and when did you start your efforts in earnest?
In early 2009, social media buzz started generating throughout the Denver/Boulder marketing/PR communities. I started reading lots of articles and attending workshops. I attended one hosted by Andrew Hyde (http://andrewhy.de/) and a light bulb turned on in my head. It was at that point, Downtown Boulder dived head first into social media (specifically Twitter & Facebook ). We had a YouTube channel, Flickr account and Yelp presence but not much else. Andrew was about ten steps ahead of the rest of us. He had been using Twitter and blogging successfully. In fact, by the time he was teaching the workshop, he was looking forward to the next big thing. In a way, he was over Twitter before the rest of us even got started. Andrew used social media to get his message out to the masses and the masses were listening, paying attention and engaging with him.
What was your initial goal(s)?
Connecting with people. We wanted to find out who exactly was out there and were they listening. Did they care what we had to say (and why) and what did they have to say about us? We wanted to figure out how social media could be could be used to market Downtown Boulder. Even more so, we wanted to be able to educate downtown businesses on how they could use social media to enhance their marketing campaigns. We wanted to be involved with our community and use our knowledge as a resource to our merchants and public.
What do want to accomplish with social media now? Has that changed over time?
We want to figure out what’s next and how “it” can help downtown businesses. Social media has forever changed marketing and communication plans for businesses big and small. We’ve created a community in social media that connects us to people who share an affinity for Downtown Boulder. We realize that it’s not about “selling” in the traditional sense. We don’t use social media to “market” the district. We keep people connected, informed, entertained and engaged. Realizing also that social media is just another arm of a multi-pronged effort to increase awareness, it can’t be the only thing we do, but can be leveraged in certain situations to enhance the effect.
When did you realize that you were “onto something” with your social media efforts?
Within a few months of developing a Facebook and Twitter account, the numbers of people engaging with us continued to grow on a daily basis. In fact, in the past year and a half, our numbers have continued in an upward motion. We haven’t had one month of decline since we started! We also have been recognized in the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook community as being leaders in our field, even so far as to have been contacted by other business districts as a resource.
What tools do you use for engagement (facebook, twitter, etc)?
Mainly Facebook & Twitter. We also have a YouTube channel, Flickr account, we keep up with Yelp and have explored BrightKite. We are now also experimenting with location-based services like Foursquare and Facebook places.
How do you monitor the online chatter about your company, your city, and your downtown business partners? What is powering your “listening”?
Eli is the ears (and mouth) for Twitter and I oversee Facebook. We follow all the downtown businesses who use either/both and also stay well connected to local “social media” leaders. We monitor keywords important to our mission, receive Google alerts and have created a community to where other partners are also on the look out for chatter. In Boulder, a true community has developed through social media. By listening to what our followers are talking about, we’ve been able to join in on the conversation and engage them in a meaningful way.
How many staff members are directly responsible for your updates/posts?
While Eli and I focus heavily on Twitter and Facebook, we like to engage our interns to find their voice through our blog. The nice thing about having so many downtown people and businesses interacting with us is that we have a wealth of information to share from multiple sources.
Tell us about some of the challenges you’ve faced, or mistakes you’ve made along the way.
Finding our voice was hard at first. We are speaking as “Downtown Boulder” but really need to be transparent. People don’t want to engage with a company/organization. They want to interact with other people. We had to learn to speak as individuals while representing our downtown. We realized that Twitter and Facebook are two different audiences and need to be handled as such. We linked both for a few days and the Facebook audience was overwhelmed by the number of tweets. We also have different approaches and “voices”. Eli’s humor and tone works extremely well for Twitter and my “voice” fits well on Facebook.
Can you share some of your best results. Any ah-ha moments?
People don’t use social media for one way communication. We measure our results in the number of interactions (Facebook wall posts or re-tweets) we get with each post. Our fans like to share their thoughts, opinions and ideas. We ask a lot of questions. This past summer on Facebook, I posted a quote from a movie that was playing each week at Boulder Outdoor Cinema. I then asked people to post their favorite quotes from the movie. Yesterday, I asked everyone to tell me their favorite downtown coffee shop. It’s post like those that get the best interactions. For Twitter, the more irreverent and “only in boulder” moments you can post, the more people like it. Pictures are great to include, as it links to video and being an active member of the community during times of crisis, as we were during a recent fire the threatened Boulder.
If you were starting over today, what would do you differently, or what would you do more of in the initial phase?
I’m not sure we’d do too much differently. We moved forward pretty quickly and once we started to get the hang of things we shared the information with anyone who wanted to listen. The biggest mistake we made with Facebook was initially setting up our page as an individual rather than a fan page. Facebook took away our page but I was able to convince them to give us all our fans back!
Can you offer any recommendations to other municipalities interested in developing a social media presence?
Set goals and expectations. Remember to use social media as an engagement tool. Don’t talk at your audience. Find a voice that works (a tone and persona – don’t be fake but genuine) and talk about things that people want to hear about. Before you start talking…listen! It’s not a marketing tool, it’s a listening and engaging tool.
What can we expect to see from Downtown Boulder in the coming months? Any special social initiatives that you can tell us about?
At the beginning of this year, we launched our mobile site (m.boulderdowntown.com). Look for us to enhance the site in the coming year. We are also dabbling in FourSquare. We are not exactly sure how we will use it but we are watching other businesses who are using it well. We are about to launch a new photo contest (I am Downtown). We will rely heavily on social media to encourage participation. Watch what Andrew Hyde (and other industry leader) are doing…remember he’s always 10 steps ahead. We will see what he’s up to and maybe follow suit! The best part of being in the heart of Boulder is being surrounded by so many talented individuals who are amazing resources for social media and other cutting edge technologies.
Is your city using social media effectively to connect with locals? What are they doing?
