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Date: 10/5/2017
EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met on Sept. 26 to discuss licensing matters and licensing subcommittees, but one item of new business that may be of great important to some townspeople is the Council’s new approach to creating a Media Subcommittee, which will affect how residents receive town news.
Town Council member Donald Anderson proposed the idea of creating a Media Communication Subcommittee where town officials and the town government would come together in a collaborative effort to use social media to their advantage.
“I see it as better communication with constituents, getting important information out in a more effective way than we’re doing now,” Anderson said. “People just don’t walk into town hall looking at flyers and checking things anymore, they’re looking at their smart phones or their laptops, they’re checking others, we just need to find strategies to get the message to them.”
Anderson mentioned information he’s shared on his public figure Facebook page in an effort to reach East Longmeadow residents, including material regarding the new 911 registrations of cellphones and the new training that the fire department is having.
“If you choose to have a page like that, just strictly as a town councilor, it makes it more organic and it gives it more relevancy and the citizens will find out about it. The 9/11 Memorial Event, other important events, The Taste of East Longmeadow, or whatever future events, otherwise things just get buried.
That’s what I’m just trying to work on is trying to talk to the school committees and talk to others and finding the way to cross-promote each other to get the boards message to the town of East Longmeadow,” Anderson said.
Anderson is hopeful that if all of the town’s board and committees are up to speed and create social media pages, they can cross-promote one another by sharing each others posts. This way, the information of all of East Longmeadow’s boards and committees will be penetrating the towns social media market.
Town Council member Joseph Ford believes that creating this program is a step in the right direction.
“I think the individual pages are helpful, I look at us as a town, what our responsibilities are in terms of disseminating information and how people are currently consuming information, and we’re so far off. We’re not getting to people because our format is not there, we have to modernize our media and let people know what’s happening and what’s going on,” Ford said.
The group stressed the importance of getting Millennials and the younger generations of East Longmeadow residents involved, and they decided the first step is to update the town’s use of technology.
“That younger generation wants to be a part of it, they can be very socially active and involved if you connect with them in the right way,” Ford added.
Town Manager Denise Menard said she would be looking to update the town’s Facebook page so that it isn’t as cumbersome. She’s hoping that this page can turn into a place for residents to go to, to ask questions, vent and voice concerns.
Anderson is looking for people who are interested in working on the Media Subcommittee should contact him. He notes he hopes these people will be media-minded and up-to-date with technology. To reach Anderson, email him at donald.anderson@eastlongmeadowma.gov.