City of Beachwood Looking for New Ways to Connect

with the Community

By: Kyle Cassidy
December 14, 2014

Photo by C ity of Beachwood Photo Gallery

How can social media help cities connect with their community? Over a billion
people around the world use social media. Local cities like Beachwood are
attempting to change the way they communicate with its citizens.

The Issue
Local cities are having trouble getting in touch with its immediate community and
have been struggling to find new ways to raise awareness of issues and promote
upcoming events. Beachwoods Mayor Merle Gorden said, Mayors all over are
having media issues.
Last Monday, Beachwood held a Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss
what the next steps are for its media campaign. While current contracts with
Lesic & Camper Communications are still in effect, the committee looks to
improve the already developing media relations.
A member of the City of Beachwood Council, James Pasch said, There is room
for significant improvement.

According to the Florida League of Cities, The positive benefits for cities to join
the online social media community would seem to outweigh the risks, and the
overwhelming trend is toward greater e-government.

Impact of Social Media

Social media allows local cities and government to communicate information
through a variety of channels. These new tools provide Beachwood with a way to
enhance community involvement and public participation. Among these tools are
applications like the one shown in Figure 1. This free mobile app is the first of
many positive steps Beachwood is taking to improve its
community involvement.
A member of Council for the City of Beachwood, Alec
Isaacson said, The center of gravity of the city is
changing.
Using mediums like shown in Figure 1 is extremely
important when collaborating with a community who are
all on a different schedules. Communicating using
mediums that the majority of people are comfortable
with and understand is critical when planning a
successful social media campaign.
Lesic & Camper Communications currently overlooks
Figure 1
Photo by Kyle Cassidy

Beachwoods social media, media relations, marketing,

advertising, and other media related mediums. Creating

everything from the mobile app in Figure 1, to developing all website content and
support.

Since renewing their contract with the City of Beachwood last year, Lesic &
Camper has assisted with everything from the Beachwood Buzz to discussing
the launch of a new resident focused e-newsletter.
They have also established many business to business relationships on social
media with organizations like; BioOhio, Infiniti, NOACA, Cleveland ED
Department, UHHS, Ahuja, and the Greater Cleveland Partnership. Without
online media, none of these relationships would be available to Beachwood and
its community.

Whats Next?
The main topic of discussion in Mondays meeting was how to better develop their
social media campaign. The committee has
concluded that they need to hire a full time
(40 hours a week), in house lesion. This
would create a stronger collaboration
between Beachwood City Hall and Lesic &
Camper, so that new media can be updated
on a more frequent basis.
With large upcoming events in 2015,
Beachwood Council needs to find some kind
of continuity in its media efforts. Mayor
Gorden (shown with author in Figure 2)
gives hope to these efforts saying, We have

Figure 2
Photo by Kyle Cassidy

always taken the logical approach to our

decisions. Lets explore options and talk to other professionals and cities. We are
in a crisis and we need to deal with it logically.

Over the next year council members will be deliberating what will be the best
route to take for Beachwood and its media efforts with Lesic & Camper
Communications.
In 2015, they have already planned to try new advertising with WCPN, Inside
Business, Facebook, and Crains. This also includes the 2015 Centennial event
and the Master Plan rollout, so stay tuned.