City of Morgan Hill Communications Assessment

Relative to other City Departments, Community Services produces the most amount of content for the community, ranging from information about Centennial Recreation Center (CRC) programs to weekly “The Scoop” updates. Community Services teammates have been empowered to create and publish their own content for social media, flyers & posters, as well as email campaigns through the City’s Constant Contact account, while Nichole Martin provides support and training to teammates in this effort. The Department has a strong grasp on its communication metrics and reviews this data on a quarterly basis to improve its own practices. Chris is aware that the Department/City lacked a formal social media policy and raised a team- wide concern that such a policy could potentially curb the Department’s content production efforts. The current practice is to empower a few trusted full and part-time teammates (in addition to Nichole) to post on the Department’s multiple social media sites and on appropriate sections of the City’s website. There is no official Department ‘content calendar’ for social media, website updates or email campaigns, so communications (aside from known events) are relatively spontaneous on a week-to-week basis. Per the Department’s Child Safety Policy, teammates at Recreation facilities must use City-owned devices (e.g. iPod Touches) in order to take photos of program participants; these photos live on the City’s shared drive. Over the past couple years, the Department has focused on making its communications more engaging while leveraging direct electronic communication methods as much as possible. To that end, the Department utilizes the City’s Constant Contact account frequently and will liaise with Maureen Tobin to ensure the City’s email communications are being spaced out from one another. There are three regular emails regarding Department events and programs: 1) Monthly Event Calendar (to community and Media). This email goes to approximately 6,792 recipients via a List named “Calendar, which includes general interest, MH City Council, City commissions, Chamber of Commerce, Leadership MH Board, Splash Aquatics, CRC&AC Members, Morgan Hill Businesses, MHUSD, City Employees and Youth Action Council. a. The Department also sends an email to Media Only via Constant Contact that provides a calendar two months out. This List is comprised of approximately 20 local media representatives, reporters, media event calendar submission, etc. 2) Upcoming Major Events (internal to City teammates). Nichole creates and sends this email to share upcoming major events on City property with City teammates, namely in order to avoid scheduling conflicts. This email (sent via Outlook) lists the event date, name, location, anticipated participation and any road closures associated with the event. 3) Monthly Newsletter to Centennial Recreation Center members. This newsletter goes to the “CRC & AC Members” Constant Contact List (currently has 4,780 emails) as well as the CRC Management, Executive Team, and Morgan Hill City Council Lists. Nichole will update the “CRC & AC Members” List every other month with up-to-date information from the CRC’s database. The Department primarily uses Facebook for its social media communications, but also leverages the City’s Twitter account and manages two Instagram accounts as well. All Community Services Constant Contact emails are auto-posted to Facebook, and Instagram posts will be auto-posted to their related Facebook Pages as well.

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