Staßfurt – The snow chaos in spring was the stumbling block. The Staßfurt CDU parliamentary group found no information or advice on the subject in the city’s social media. Because today citizens not only get information on the website, but especially young people even more on Facebook, Instagram and Co.
The accusation at the time: there was a lack of important information. What political decisions are made in the city council? Where are polling stations? What is closed for how long due to Corona? “We find that the citizens of Staßfurt chase after the information and often only notice it when it is almost too late,” said parliamentary group leader Stephan Czuartis (CDU) at the time.
The main source of information is the website
The debate resulted in a presentation to councilors and an explanation of why less is often more on social media. The city’s website www.stassfurt.de is intended for a wealth of information. “We tend to use social media for city marketing and positive short reports from our city,” said Christian Schüler from the business development agency, explaining the basic principle. Facebook and Instagram are rather loosely flaky, with picture impressions, entertainment and Co. The pure information about residents on the city page.
City employee Janine Sparmann, who is responsible for the city’s media presence, said in more detail: “We use our social media channels very carefully, which is why we are making fewer contributions here.”
In June, for example, you can find twelve city posts on Facebook – that could be much more in general, the CDU also criticized the frequency of the information. An argument by the city worker why few posts on Facebook are just as good as many: “The interaction rates are always the same, no matter how much we publish,” says Sparmann. They compared how often city contributions were ever commented, linked and marked. By the way, in 2020 the city made 75 entries.
Another reason: “At the end of 2020 there was a certain Corona fatigue, there were no events, the general mood was bad. We held back in terms of content, ”said Sparmann.
Prevent abuse and abuse
Because in social media, caution is generally advised. Debates could very quickly drift into the irrelevant. In Magdeburg, contributions by the city about corona vaccinations would have ended in insults and insults. “No, we don’t want to offer a platform for things like that,” is the city’s declared motto.
It can be legally dangerous for the city if users inadvertently publish their names and addresses on Facebook under a post by the city. That could have happened quickly if the users had written in the spring where the snow was highest. “According to the data protection regulation, this is extremely problematic,” said Julia Föckler, who is responsible for public relations at the city. In addition, the employees of the winter service should not be criticized in public. “We don’t want to fuel any irritating topics.”
There are also differences between which topics are going well on Facebook and Co. and which are not. Politics hardly, says Föckler, and also gives target group-specific considerations: “Parents get special information about schools and daycare centers from us on other channels. You don’t need a post on Facebook. ”
As a result of the less-is-more policy, the city of Staßfurt gets more attention in social networks than other cities, evaluations have shown. The more often other municipalities write, the less interested the users are.
After the city councils including the CDU were informed about this background, they were satisfied. Consensus: Better that way than a confusing appearance and wild rushing like in some Internet magazines.
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