7 / 83
7
•
Currently, the Police Department is the only City agency/Department using Nixle.
There are only 1,059 total unique people/businesses in the Nixle contact database—
roughly 2.5% of the City population.
Summarized Recommendations
Based on the observations above, Tripepi Smith formulated the following recommendations to
help the City enhance its communications and create/optimize platforms to further engage its
residents. These recommendations have been formed with both a general goal as well as
specific Action Steps to take to achieve the goal. The recommendations have been geared
around improving the execution, delivery and impact of the City’s outreach and messaging
efforts.
1. Continue to Optimize Website and Define Governance
While the City’s communication efforts have advanced on social media platforms, these all
generally drive traffic to or link back to the core repository of the City’s website, which typically
receives 40,000-60,000 Visits per month. The CivicPlus website organizes content into sensible
categories and most webpage content is easy for City staff to update. Tripepi Smith identified
several Action Steps to improve the website experience for users, as well as formalizing
processes for website admins.
2. Develop a Social Media Strategy & Policy
Social media is an integral part of any Communications plan for cities today. Staff realizes
residents have come to expect their government to engage via social media channels and has
established a presence on a number of social media platforms. However, all platforms have
relatively modest followings and some are being managed by multiple staff members, which
can lead to confusion over who is responsible for posting content and when. Tripepi Smith has
suggested that the City adopt a formal Social Media Policy, develop a long-term strategy that
harmonizes with the City’s goals, and establish regular “social media team” meetings to review
future content.
3. Optimize Social Media Sites
The City has invested time, energy and resources into establishing an official Facebook Page,
Twitter Profile, Instagram account and YouTube Channel. There is room for improvement on
each of these assets in terms of fleshing out Bio/About sections and optimizing the way posts
are displayed to make themmore engaging to Fans/Followers.
4. Drive Social Media Audience Growth
The social media audience being reached—while growing—is not large. The fixed cost of
producing these communications are not being sufficiently leveraged across a larger audience.
To that end, the City should invest in audience growth tactics and long-term strategies that
may cost more in the near future but yield higher outreach results and better leverage
Maureen’s time.
5. Integrate Cohesive Communications Strategy Throughout Departments
Morgan Hill’s communication efforts currently happen on a somewhat “decentralized” basis
where Department heads are largely responsible for their Department’s external
communication efforts. As a result, there has been some variation in Departments’