Working together with the Center for Economic Growth, the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany has launched a webinar series designed specifically to help local governments develop and enhance their municipalities’ social media efforts.

The webinar, entitled “Strategies for local government: Keeping the cost of social media low,” was produced in response to results gathered from a survey of CEG members in which they were asked to identify the most pressing challenges they face in the areas of information technology, information access, and community engagement. The responses from the survey indicated a high level of interest in the use and creation of a social media environment for the CEG Local Government Council Members.

The Social Media Webinar Series consists of nine modules to provide key concepts regarding social media and include insights from other municipalities regarding what has worked best for them as they have begun to navigate this relatively new communications channel. Topics covered include content creation, social media policies, managing accounts and engagement, appropriate employee use, and more.

The creation of this series with CEG is the first partnership under CTG’s Virtual Academy, which is one of four sections of a larger Leadership Institute that CTG operates. The Leadership Institute provides thought leadership workshops, seminars and webinars on key topics based on CTG’s work with governments around the world. The CTG Leadership Institute programs are built on a solid foundation and knowledge of government technology innovation and their broad experience from over two decades of ground breaking research and hands on work with various levels of governments. Aside from the Virtual Academy, the three additional sections of the Leadership Institute include the Leadership Academy, Institute by Design, and Resource Center.