Mayor Al Pinheiro says he always aims to reach out to
constituents, whether by hosting morning coffees or by making
himself available on his cell phone. Now, he’s setting up a stop
along the information superhighway for local feedback and
interaction.
Mayor Al Pinheiro says he always aims to reach out to constituents, whether by hosting morning coffees or by making himself available on his cell phone. Now, he’s setting up a stop along the information superhighway for local feedback and interaction.
Pinheiro has started a new mayoral page – still under construction – on the social networking site Facebook and he hopes to start a new blog sometime within the next few weeks.
“It’s just another way to connect,” Pinheiro said. “I believe in today’s world that’s what you’ve got to do.”
The Web log – or blog for short – will contain extended items on Pinheiro’s views on various city matters, while the Facebook site will have shorter blurbs on what the mayor is doing. As examples, he said those topics could include items about the recent ribbon cutting for the downtown historical sculptures or Pinheiro’s meeting this week with students from Gilroy’s Japanese sister city, Takko-Machi.
Pinheiro has also expressed annoyanance with people who leave nasty anonymous comments on blogs. He has often been mentioned in the Dispatch’s comment section, among other places. He said comments from various perspectives will be welcome on his site because he wants to hear from all sides, but he hopes to see a respectful dialogue ensue.
Pinheiro said he came up with the idea while attending the League of California Cities’ annual conference in San Jose last month. Charlene Li of the social media consulting firm Forrester Research and coauthor of the book “Groundswell – Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies”, urged participants to dive into the world of online social media.
Eva Spiegel, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities, said she has increasingly noticed city leaders connecting with residents via social media sites. As a result, organizers from the League thought it would be a good idea to have a keynote speaker to help inspire city leaders to consider social media tools.
“Obviously, (social media) is a very important issue right now,” she said.
Sunnyvale City Council member Melinda Hamilton, who attended the conference along with Pinheiro, decided to set up a Facebook “fan” page in hopes of increasing dialogue with constituents after listening to Li speak.
So far, she said she’s seen mixed results, and she has only acquired 24 fans. Although there was an initial spike of interest, that has died down a bit since the site started in mid-September. She said she tries to post a couple of items on the site each week.
“One of the things that I’ve found is that it can be a huge time suck,” Hamilton said.
She said Facebook appealed to her because she could leave short messages online rather than extended essays. In addition, it’s much more difficult to be anonymous because anyone who becomes a “fan” or a “friend” of a person must develop a profile with their name attached. Although Hamilton still initially feared that there would be anonymous attacks on the site, that has not been the case.
Pinheiro has had a personal site on Facebook for about a year after one of his children mentioned the site. However, the new city-related Facebook site he started would be specifically for constituents. Pinheiro’s personal site contains a photo of him and his grandson, while the mayoral site shows a photo of him being sworn in as mayor in the City Council chambers.
While Pinheiro said he would encourage other council members to connect with constituents via social media, some council members may take a wait-and-see approach.
“It will be interesting to see how he does with it,” said Councilman Peter Arellano, who has maintained a personal Facebook site for a few months. “I’ll let him be the guinea pig.”
Arellano noted that residents already can reach him by phone or e-mail and at council meetings. He was not sure what the advantage of a Facebook site might be.
Councilman Dion Bracco, who also maintains a personal Facebook site, said a city-related site might be a good way to communicate, but he did not have time for it.
“I’m on Facebook, but I never use it,” he said, laughing.
Councilman Craig Gartman said he occasionally gets city-related items posted on his personal Facebook site. However, he noted that maintaining a site specifically for city affairs would be a big time commitment. Like Arellano, he wanted to see how things go with the mayor’s site before considering creating his own. Nonetheless, he said the Facebook site sounded like a good idea.
Pinheiro said he may work on his new social media sites while spending time at the coffee shop in the morning. With unforeseen challenges and unknown time commitments – a reason he opted not to start up with another social networking site, Twitter, which allows 140-character mini-updates – Pinheiro said he’ll adapt as necessary.
“It will be a learning process,” he said.
