Lakeville Government, Schools Uncertain About Social Media

Despite the overwhelming popularity Facebook and Twitter, Lakeville’s government and schools are hesitant to jump on board the social media bandwagon.

The city of Lakeville established a Facebook page for last year.  With 489 “likes,” the page has significant user engagement. 

However, the possibility of expanding Lakeville's social media presence has not been revisited by the City Council.

“There’s a lot of things to think about,” said Sue Palm, communications manager for the city.

Increasing Lakeville’s presence on Facebook would require evaluating personnel time requirements, profile content and whether to create a general “City of Lakeville” page or separate pages divided by department.

Palm stated that the council is interested in further considering Facebook. The topic of social media use is included on council work session lists, but is not a top priority. 

The city is not considering establishing a twitter account or instituting city bloggers at this time.

Nevertheless, one council member is speaking out as an ardent supporter of social media. And he's gotten in hot water over his use of .

“This is a useful tool for governments to communicate with their constituencies,” said Council Member Matt Little. “People are using Facebook, people are using Twitter to get information. So city hall needs to be flexible in what citizens are using.”

have experienced success with their Facebook page, which has 713 “likes.” The page launched approximately a year and a half ago.

“That’s where people are,” said Linda Swanson, communications coordinator for Lakeville Schools.

The school district primarily uses the page as a bulletin board to post announcements and events, but they hope to initiate more two-way conversations in the future.

Until last summer, Facebook was blocked within the district. It is now slowly becoming unblocked. 

Tony Massaros, the district director of administrative services, is currently working on a policy that will inform future district use of social networking tools.

Superintendent Lisa Snyder, a strong advocate for technology, has a Twitter account and a blog.

The district is not currently considering the addition of a Twitter account or blog, but Swanson said that they may in the future.