First on the “good list” has to be the SnowedInAtlanta
Facebook page. It was started by an experienced Facebook user, Michelle
Sollicito who lives in Marietta, GA. Looking at her page, it looks like she
started it about 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
As I write this Thursday morning the page has over 55 thousand
followers.
At this moment it is still quite active, much of it with
people inquiring about road conditions. Over the past 2 days it has been filled
with requests for information and help but also with people offering to help people
stranded in nearby areas, people who have welcomed children home or found
missing relatives, even a lost cat who wandered into someone’s home.
Notice that Michelle has pinned today’s emergency management
report to the top of the page. If you read further you find that the page has
spawned a large number of neighborhood-specific pages to systematize the
process of getting the right type of help to the people who need it. Also note
the petition (on the White House site) to honor Michelle for her unstinting
effort over the last almost-48 hours.
There is also “plenty of blame to go around” on social media.
Can we have civility—not northerners goading southerners for not being able to
handle the rare ice or snow storm? And government officials like Mayor Reed certainly
should not respond to uncivil and ill-informed posts from outside his
city/state.
Mayor Reed @KasimReed may never recover from his post on
Monday that says that Atlanta is ready for the snow storm. Both government
officials and corporate execs take note! His tweets have changed their tone in
the past two days—some informative, more retweeting information from state and
local agencies. He (or more probably his staff) have also been careful to
retweet items (from political followers?) who are reporting what great shape
some parts of the city are in!
Governor Deal @GovernorDeal doesn’t score any higher on my “good
use of twitter” scale. He will have a hard time living down the tweet at 3:05
p.m. on January 28 touting his introduction of Mayor Reed as he won the
Georgian of the Year award. The next tweet was the twitter page announcement of
the emergency declaration at 7:42 p.m. that evening. Beginning on January 29 there are an
uncountable number of retweets mostly from the Georgia DOT and the 511
reporting line. Those are useful information, but putting all them on the
governor’s page makes it hard to find anything of value. Michelle’s solution of links to area-specific
information makes a lot more sense (quel
surprise!!!).
We all owe a great debt of gratitude to citizens like
Michelle, especially those who jump in to provide important services when our government
fails us.
Politicians should train their staffs in the effective use
of social platforms. It might also be wise to train them in what improves the
politician’s brand image and what makes them look venal and self-serving.
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