Raleighite has a standing goal to encourage our City Council members to use social media to engage with citizens. Facebook alone advertises to potential ad buyers that it has over 385,000 daily active users in Raleigh. That makes social media the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to engage with Raleighites.
Nearly every candidate in the 2017 Raleigh municipal election made use of social media during the campaign season. However, now that we’re a few months into the term of those who won a seat on City Council how well are they continuing to use social media to engage with citizens?
Raleigh City Council members have been emailed this report ahead of time and given one week to provide feedback or ask questions. They have also been informed that Raleighite is willing to give each of them a free one-hour basic training course on using social media for political candidates.
Readers should keep in mind that using Facebook as a political candidate is very different from using Facebook as a regular private user. Engaging correctly as a political public figure requires specific knowledge that Facebook doesn’t make easy to find.
City Council members and the Mayor were graded on a simple criteria. Do they have an actively maintained social media profile, is it set up correctly, are they actively engaging with constituents on that platform, and are they making use of more advanced functionality like live streaming? Keep in mind the ranking is based on December 2017 to March 1st 2018. No activity during the campaign season impacts the ranking.
Overall Ranking of Social Media Use by Raleigh City Council Members as of March 1st, 2018:
- Councilor David Cox (District B)
- Councilor Stef Mendell (District E)
- Mayor Nancy McFarlane
- Councilor Nicole Stewart (At-Large)
- Mayor Pro Tem Corey Branch (District C)
- Councilor Russ Stephenson (At-Large)
- Councilor Kay Crowder (District D)
- Councilor Richard A. “Dickie” Thompson (District A)
Individual Report Details
Total following calculated by (Facebook likes + followers) + Twitter followers + Instagram followers
#1 David Cox (District B): (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) Total Following: 1,599
The most active social media user of City Council maintains a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account. Mr. Cox is quick to respond on social media platforms and doesn’t shy away from topics that are controversial. He helped establish the District B Facebook group which is also very active and has over 500 members. He routinely shares information with groups he follows in social media and posts about many of those topics in the District B group. He has even shown to be open to changing his opinion during discussions on social media, and does not shy away from making his opinion and intended vote known as well.
I’d encourage Mr. Cox to consider keeping his political page updated as aside from a recent post in late February the last post was from during the election in October 2017. It’s also generally preferred for an elected official to use their campaign page to engage and discuss, instead of their private Facebook profile. Lastly, I’d encourage Mr. Cox to look at hosting a live stream on his page to engage with constituents.
Given Mr. Cox’s extensive use of social media, I have a lot of hope he will serve as an advocate to get more of his colleagues on City Council to make use of social media outside of campaign seasons.
#2 Stef Mendell (District E): (Facebook | Twitter #1 |Twitter #2 | Instagram) Total Following: 2,022
A very close second to Mr. Cox is one of two new members of City Council, Stef Mendell. Ms. Mendell is active on both Twitter and Facebook engaging with citizens, sharing posts and articles that interest her, and advocating for her position. She has kept her Facebook page updated with current events. She has also shown to change her position on topics in discussions with citizens online with compromise. Ms. Mendell has spoken several times at Council meetings about the need to televise more city government and committee meetings. She is starting to see that live streaming to social media could potentially fill that need and has asked for budget and staff to try it. This is very promising.
Dual Twitter accounts make it a little difficult to know which account to tag to reach Ms. Mendell on a given topic. While there’s no need to respond to internet trolls, or those using excessive profanity, we don’t see Ms. Mendell engaging as often as Mr. Cox with those who disagree with her viewpoints. As Ms. Mendell has been a vocal advocate for issues online, and in person, it would be encouraging to see her encourage members attending her meetings to be more open to live streaming and it benefits.
#3 Mayor Nancy McFarlane: (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) Total Following: 23,764
By far the most popular member of City Council on social media. The Mayor has a total following on her accounts of 23,764 followers at the time of writing this blog. That’s 7,000 more followers than all City Council members accounts combined. She has also made use of live streaming, pictures, and video since the election ended. Her accounts are properly tagged as well to ensure they show up highly ranked in search results when people look for her via search engines like Google. While her posts are rarer than Mr. Cox and Ms. Mendell’s, they are done at a regular cadence. The mayor also excels in mixing casual lifestyle posts with political posts to give her followers a wide range of content to enjoy and learn about her interests as a person.
All Council members here and below in ranking have in common an issue with engagement, and the Mayor is no exception. She has responded to some comments on her page, but it’s very rare to see her engage with someone who disagrees with her. Any social media user is free to decide who to respond and interact with, and who to ignore. However, engaging with and debating those who disagree provides a better opportunity to learn about the Council member’s views and opinions on matters. Making use of the Mayor’s much larger Social Media following by posting more frequently would be great to see. The regular live streams that happened during the campaign would be a great opportunity for engagement as well.
#4 Nicole Stewart (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) Total Following: 4,710
One of two new members of Raleigh’s City Council. Nicole Stewart built a total following of over 2,000 on her Facebook page. Aside from the Mayor, Mrs. Stewart enjoys the largest Social Media following of City Council members. What’s most impressive is she built that following in less than a year, and out of ALL of City Council members grew her following faster than anyone. She has been posting frequently on both her Facebook page and Instagram account since the campaign ended. The posts aren’t simply text only, or web links either, most include photos or videos which take extra effort to make.
As mentioned in the Mayor’s summary, engagement is also an issue for Mrs. Stewart. Her posts don’t contain anything controversial so it’s hard to generate comments and engagement on something no one would really disagree with. Also of note, Mrs. Stewart’s Twitter account has been inactive since the election and has a very low following as a result when compared to her Facebook page. Reviving some of the live streaming activities from her campaign would help drive engagement, as well as inserting a few posts about topics that would generate conversations between the charity and event picture posts.
#5 Corey Branch (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) Total Following: 3,137
The Council member with the third largest social media following is Mayor Pro Tem Corey Branch. His usage of social media is very similar to Mrs. Stewarts with the main reason for their ranking difference simply due to the difference in their volume of followers. Mr. Branch has continued to post to all three of his social media pages, with the most favored platform being Facebook.
While Mr. Branch has continued to post to his social media accounts, it’s not quite as frequent as Mrs. Stewart’s. He does take the time to post events and important notifications to other Facebook groups and pages to ensure citizens see them, however, Mr. Branch’s approach to social media engagement is a bit lacking. While some Council members don’t bother to engage, Mr. Branch has actively deflected from most questions or disagreements. Mr. Branch is well respected in his community, so entering debates should pose no risk to his credibility or standing. Therefore it is confusing he would shy away from such discussions, but also make it known he is there and read a comment or post by responding. It is still a big plus that he continues to push out notices to citizens in his district to events and meetings. This helps his constituents find real-world opportunities to engage with him. Bringing that enthusiasm for real-life engagement into the social media realm as well could easily improve Mr. Branch’s future ranking in this study.
#6 Russ Stephenson (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) Total Following: 3,173
The longest-serving member of Raleigh’s City Council also has the 4th largest social media following. Mr. Stephenson did continue to post to his social media accounts after the election, right up until the end of November. However, since then he has retweeted one article on gun control in late February, and a few pictures of plants on his Instagram page. While his accounts were still active in November he did engage with some people on Twitter that expressed disagreement with him or asked questions, however, it was short lived. It’s unclear if the sudden departure from social media was because he decided it was no longer worth his time, or if it was his campaign staff were continuing to run the accounts until November was up.
Mr. Stephenson’s viewpoints on City Council are extremely detailed at times. He also has a large amount of knowledge around the UDO and city zoning in general. He could make a big impact if he was willing to engage with citizens on social media, answer questions, and take feedback in the way Mr. Cox has demonstrated. However, for the time being, Mr. Stephenson’s social media presence remains virtually untouched.
#7 Kay Crowder (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) Total Following: 1,110
There is no point deduction or penalty for not having an Instagram account. Mrs. Crowder announced her candidacy via a Facebook video and also posted campaign events on her Facebook page. Those must have been done by campaign staff as her accounts have been almost inactive since the election ended.
Mrs. Crowder, like most members of City Council, does not engage with citizens on social media. The details of this issue can be found in the Mayor’s write up. However, aside from the absence of engagement or posts, there is another issue as well. Mrs. Crowder did post to her Facebook and Twitter accounts after a long absence, but only for self-promotion. The posts focused on how she received no credit from the press for her efforts on textile recycling and free bus rides for students. This creates a very unfortunate feeling to those following the pages that her presence is merely there to pop in to highlight her accomplishments, and then leave again until she has something else she wants to highlight. These activities are completely fine when done in conjunction with regular posts and engagement on a wide range of issues, however, by themselves give the impression of self-promotion.
Mrs. Crowder has recently been seen at community meetings and events all over Raleigh, and not just in her district (D). Making use of social media could give her a large reach as she starts to branch out into the greater Raleigh area. Her advocacy on issues like the environment, textile recycling, and free bus ridership work well with Raleigh citizens interests in social media discussions. She is in a unique position to champion not only those ideas in City Council, but also become the public face of educating people online on the topics and how to use services like the city bus.
#8 Dickie Thompson (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) Total Following: 1,414
Mr. Thompson’s social media presence comes and goes with each election cycle. Likely, these accounts are maintained by campaign staff and therefore only active during the campaign season. Lack of engagement and meaningful use of any social media platform outside of a campaign cycle puts Mr. Thompson at the bottom of our ranking.
Raleighite believes Mr. Thompson could also be extremely effective in social media given not only his seat on City Council but also his position on the board of Raleigh-Durham’s Airport Authority. No other sitting member of Council holds a position at the airport, and Mr. Thompson could give citizens updates on airport events, changes, and news.
