Creating Content from Residents’ Comments

Entities will often struggle to come up with new ideas for content. Blog articles and social media posts should always be relevant to your audience and your area of expertise, but what if it feels like you’ve covered every possible topic already?

For local government agencies, a valuable source of content inspiration is readily available: comments from residents on your social media posts. This blog article will explore how you can incorporate residents’ comments into a robust, effective content strategy.

What Are Your Residents Talking About?

One of the best ways to find out what topics matter most to your residents is to observe how they’re engaging with your social media posts, starting with the most recent.

Do some posts get more likes and comments than others? That would indicate more community members have an interest in what they’re about. Are residents commenting with questions on your posts? There may be a need for a piece of informative content that goes into detail around subjects that people in your community want to learn about.

For instance, if your social media posts about events happening at recreational facilities are getting more engagement than others, it might be a good idea to publish a blog article with upcoming event dates and information. If you notice a lot of residents bringing up road closures in comments, putting together a piece of content about upcoming road closures and making a plan to share the content via social media over multiple days would be highly appreciated. When you engage with residents’ comments by paying attention to what they’re asking about and interested in, it builds trust and helps members of your community feel seen and heard.

Trolls will always be an issue on the internet — but there are strategies to deal with them effectively. Don’t let a few bad actors discourage you from tapping into the voices of your community online. In addition to using resident interactions on social media as a guide for your content, part of your social media policy should be devoted to providing guidance for agency staff who respond to public comments directly.

Use Social Platforms to Your Best Advantage

Even if you understand how residents’ reactions to posts can inform your future content, residents have to engage with your social media accounts first.

To build more of a social media presence for your agency, you should know what to post where. Given that 48% of U.S. adults get news from social media, regularly publicizing important news and events should be an established practice across all channels. But there are countless opportunities to promote all that your agency has to offer.

Posting about your community’s history or distinguishing features can also help promote pride and a sense of camaraderie among your residents. You might find an opportunity to celebrate local businesses or institutions, or to raise awareness about your agency’s services. When you start with the topics you already know matter to your residents, you’ll be more likely to spark interactions and conversations that inform you about what types of content you should publish next.

You may even be able to poll your residents directly to find out what topics are most likely to engage them. All major social media platforms offer ways to create interactive polls, and this can be another valuable resource if you’re looking to gather resident reactions in regard to a particular topic, program, project, or initiative.

The Value of Using the Right Social Media Archiving Software

Archiving posts is a best practice for government agencies. Due to records retention laws, governments are obligated to provide social media posts and comments when included in a public records request. However, social platforms provide no assurances that posts and comments will be saved, nor is it easy to search your accounts for specific posts or comments.

The right social media archiving software preserves all posts and comments — even those that have been deleted. With CivicPlus® Social Media Archiving software, data and analytics features enable you to search keywords and discover what topics residents are discussing the most. Using this search functionality, your government agency can gain insight into the most popular topics of discussion to help you produce highly desirable content in an engaging and timely manner.

Don’t Let Residents’ Comments Go Ignored

By incorporating residents’ comments into your content strategy, you can develop more blog articles and informative pieces that residents genuinely appreciate. Social media is a public forum for everyone in your community to ask questions, have conversations, and seek information — the simple act of engaging intentionally to generate content ideas can go a long way towards establishing your local government agency as a trusted resource.