Local politics will be particularly tough in 2023, given two years of pandemic-fueled infighting and changes in how candidates run. There have been numerous social media posts from disgruntled residents. But what if these posts were targeted by data-mining software and analyzed to provide information to representatives about public opinion?
In some parts of Michigan, that’s exactly what’s happening. Many of Michigan’s 1,856 municipalities do not have social media, and even those that do typically use Facebook to communicate with residents. But some municipalities are going a step further and leveraging social media in ways unimaginable 20 years ago.
Lenawee County, in particular, has had a controversial partnership with data miner Zencity, and it’s not the only municipality using the company’s services.
Founded in 2016, Zencity is headquartered in New York City and Tel Aviv. The company provides several social media tools to local governments. The most popular tool is Zencity Organic. This is a summary of data posted on the internet and accessible to the public, such as posts on public Twitter and Facebook pages.
The software automatically sifts through hundreds of thousands of posts and comments a year, targets comments related to local government responsibilities, categorizes them by topic and sentiment, and allows local governments to create their own social accounts. Allows you to manage it in one place.
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A dashboard accessible to municipalities shows the volume of interactions, percentage of positive and negative sentiment, popular words, top articles, and more.
Linawee County is using the software to track discourse and facilitate more effective communication with residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Deputy County Commissioner Shannon Elliott. It is said that it has started.
Zencity has eight customers in Michigan, including six counties: Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Kent, Midland, Lenawee, and Ottawa. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is also a customer.
What do you dislike? For some county commissioners in Lenawee, monitoring their online interactions feels like an invasion of privacy.
“(This is) a way to ‘listen’ to what residents are saying on social media sites,” Commissioner Nancy Jenkins Arno wrote in an email. Their conversations are being monitored by Zencity and what they say will be turned over to the county government. ā
The board narrowly rejected a motion in March to terminate the county’s $48,000 contract with the software provider.
Ottawa County first partnered with Zencity in the spring of 2020. The county used the software to collect āresident-generated data points.ā Recently, Ottawa County signed a one-year agreement with Zencity to use his Zencity Core in March 2022. It called for community surveys and four COVID-19 benchmark reports on housing funds and ARPA funds.
At the time of the approval, then-Ottawa County Governor John Shea said the county would reevaluate Zencity’s need in 2023 and whether there were any “hot button issues” that needed oversight.
That contract expired on March 19th. The current county commission, made up of mostly new members, has not discussed extending or renewing the contract.
Midland County Administrator Bridget Gransden said Midland County also began using Zencity’s services in 2020.
āWe started with a tool that searches and analyzes organic public opinion from official and unofficial media channels. The insights gained from this information can help shape trends in public conversation on a variety of topics of interest. We can kind of see what the trends are,” Gransden wrote in an email.
Gransden said Midland County has not faced any controversy.
āZencity does not access data on social media that is not available to others. If you post information on social media and your account is private, your account is essentially accessible to others. ,ā Gransden said. āI agree that talking directly to people is a great way to communicate and the more options you have for communicating with local authorities, the better.ā
MDHHS has partnered with Zencity since April 2021 using Core Saas and Insight Reports. The Department has received eight investigations since April 2022, including complete analyzes and reports. The cost over the past year was $280,000, paid for by COVID-19 relief funds.
āZencity has provided tools to help us understand sentiment around the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic and help us determine relevant messaging and timing when encouraging vaccination,ā MDHHS Public Affairs Associate information officer Chelsea Wuth wrote in an email.
“Zencity’s core product provides an easy dashboard to see discussions on social media across a variety of topics. It is used as a tool to understand sentiment. provides insight into how people feel about the coronavirus vaccine, why they will or won’t get vaccinated, and what messages can help move people towards getting vaccinated. We provide.ā
Social media use in local governments has steadily increased over the past decade, according to data from the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan.
“In 2012, only about 18% of local government employees (with a population of 30,000 residents) said their government used social media,” Debra Horner, senior program manager at CLOSUP, said in an email. (including 48% of the jurisdictions above),ā he wrote in an email. , it was up to 29 percent (including 57 percent of cities with 30,000 or more residents and 61 percent of cities statewide). So, although increasing, not all or even most of the 1,856 local governments across the state have their own social media. ā
Matt Buck, assistant director of strategic communications for the Michigan League of Municipalities, said municipalities are using social media in all kinds of ways.
āWhile there are communities that primarily rely on traditional social media such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with the public, I also know of communities that use multiple social media platforms,ā he wrote in an email. I’m writing this. While we’re still Facebook, our community is continually looking at ways to improve and expand our social media reach. ā
The Michigan Association of Townships anecdotally notes that townships are increasingly using social media as a means to communicate and share accurate and timely information with residents and the greater community. According to MTA communications director Jen Fiedler, Facebook appears to be the most popular platform for the town’s official account.
āSocial media allows the town to meet people and deliver the townās message wherever they go for news and information online,ā she wrote in an email. controversial or controversial; But for me, the township’s use of social media provides information, support, and fosters community engagement, allowing residents to feel more connected to the community in which they live. I think it is a means. ā
Jessica Vanderkolk, communications manager for the city of Battle Creek, said social media is a major part of Battle Creek’s communications strategy. City is on her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Nextdoor.
āAs with all of our community engagement, social media is one of the inputs we seek for policy and decision-making. In most cases, we rely on surveys created on other platforms, We will use social media to facilitate more formal forms of engagement for that purpose, such as conversations, specific emails, phone numbers, or public comments required for public meetings/open houses,ā Vanderkolk said. in the email I wrote.
āSocial media can be an important part of a balanced communications strategy for local government organizations. How it fits into that strategy will vary from community to community. To be successful, it’s important to know your audience. As communicators, we do our best to reach as many communities as possible and reach people where they are, in a way that is comfortable for them. I would like to.”
Kara Sokol, director of communications for the city of Ferndale, said the city has traditionally and actively used social media.
āWhat is unique about us is that we actively leverage community Facebook groups by staffing and monitoring them,ā Sokol wrote in an email. My ideal situation would have been for staff and elected officials to stay away from groups we don’t or cannot control, and to avoid gossip, negativity, and rumors. But we soon realized how much we were missing: real opinions from our residents, their fears and concerns, their customer service experiences and questions. ā
Sokol drafted a social media policy that requires these groups to be staffed and involved only by members of Ferndale’s communications department. Other staff and elected officials are asked to refrain from responding to tags and posts.
āThis is a plan we have been running for seven years and have always found it to be productive. When we receive complaints about a project (e.g. a development proposal), we ask our staff to take their temperature on social media. I ask: Is it just a few very opinionated people or is it a lot of people who are passionate about it?
“Do these people have something in common? … That information will help us determine the magnitude, tone, and specificity of our response.”
āThe Holland Sentinel’s Cassandra Lybrink and Mitchell Boatman contributed to this report. Contact reporter Mary Lowe at mlowe@gannett.com..