City of Burleson Marketing and Communications Strategic Plan

C I T Y

O F

B U R L E S O N

MARKETING &

COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIC PLAN

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT

MISSION STATEMENT

To make Burleson a national leader in community engagement which showcases our city as the place to learn, live, play and work.

GOALS • Focus on increasing transparency, efficiency and innovation through the creation and implementation of various digital resources.

• Continue to look for ways to meet the needs and interests in our community for technology like new mobile applications and social media platforms which help better serve and inform residents, visitors, and businesses.

• Provide residents city information through various multimedia outlets.

• To brand and market the city as a premier place to learn, live, play and work.

• Enhance internal communications to support external messaging.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND THE COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING DEPARTMENT TASK IS TO ENSURE THAT THE ORGANIZATION IS BROADCASTING CONSISTENT MESSAGES THROUGH THE DISTRIBUTION OF APPROPRIATE COMMUNICATIONS VEHICLES.

The department will set the standard on how the organization takes in information, relates to its staff, listens to concerns or questions, and responds accordingly.

It should be noted that strategic communication is not the sole responsibility of the communications and marketing department or city employees who are tasked with communications duties as part of their job description. All elected officials, staff, residents and businesses are, officially or unofficially, ambassadors for the city, and they help to define, shape and communicate the city’s messages to various key audiences.

It must be top-of-mind for all city staff and leaders as they interface and interact with the public and other key constituents via phone, written correspondence or in-person. It is a shared responsibility that all city leaders and employees – at all levels and in all departments – must integrate into every facet of their work, to serve as the advocate for the city to ensure that Burleson residents and businesses, as well as audiences outside of Burleson, receive the right messages to further communicate the city’s key messages.

This plan will conduct an audit of existing communications materials and processes, conduct an assessment, and develop key objectives and strategic recommendations to help the city leverage its resources to more effectively and efficiently communicate with its target audiences.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

SPECIFICALLY, THE PURPOSE OF THIS PLAN IS TO:

• Help the City of Burleson elevate its internal and external communications to a level that effectively engages the city’s residents, businesses, employees and visitors in key city initiatives, events and programs; • Implement marketing and communication strategies that will help the City of Burleson position itself as a national leader in community engagement which showcases the city as the place to learn, live, play and work; • Organize and enhance existing marketing and communications resources; • Develop systems and processes that will enable the city to strengthen the implementation of communications at all levels; and • Align communications activities to support the advancement of the city.

METHODOLOGY

To initiate the strategic plan process, the communications and marketing director met with City Manager Dale Cheatham to discuss expectations and goals of the newly established department. Subsequently, the director developed a set of questions to guide stakeholder interviews.

One-on-one interviews with high-level staff members and elected officials were conducted.

A group interview was conducted with the participants in Burleson 101.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

Situational Overview Burleson is an established city whose borders lie within southern Tarrant County and northern Johnson County. Burleson has experienced tremendous commercial and residential growth in the last twenty years and is poised for more due to its location along Interstate 35-W and an additional 28.29 square miles in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.

Burleson has a deep history which is very evident in the amount of founding families that have descendants who still live in the community and the preservation of founding family’s homes and Burleson’s Old Town area.

The city provides a large variety of services to the community which includes your common city services such as water, streets, library to specialty services such as a golf course, senior center, farm and art center, recreation center and a restaurant at the golf course. City departments are located throughout the city in a variety of buildings which tends to lead to a lack of inconsistent branding and communications. Maintaining an accurate and consistent flow of information about the city to internal stakeholders is necessary for the communications plan to be successful.

The city would like to bring more awareness to its amenities, success stories and community events. Burleson is fortunate that the community is served by a local newspaper, Burleson Star, to help distribute information. However, the city does not have a dedicated media representative at The Star-Telegram or other major broadcast media outlets.

Burleson has introduced new communication initiatives in recent years and is always exploring how to deliver timely information about city council activities, initiatives and other news. One of the recent tools launched was a redesign of the city’s website. The challenge that the website creates is the branding of the site does not match the current Burleson logo and there are no plans to integrate the website branding citywide.

There are opportunities for improvement with the branding of current communications vehicles (website, social media, e-newsletters and signage, etc.) and consistency of a message with the development of a city mission statement and official tagline adopted by the city council. The city’s brand will need to be fully embraced by the city and better known among key audiences, including both internal and external stakeholders.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

Opportunities & Challenges The City of Burleson has a strong history and a bright future, the goal is to communicate this flawlessly to its key audiences.

During the stakeholder interviews many existing, positive features and opportunities of the community were discussed, including the following: • Historic Old Town district that serves as the city’s common area, provides restaurant and retail opportunities and hosts many special events: o Founder’s Day o Boo Bash o Wine Crawl o Hot Sounds of Summer concert series o Old Town Picture Show o Christmas Parade, Fireworks and Tree Lighting • The Plaza development in Old Town, that will serve as a community gathering place • Economic development that focuses on bringing employment opportunities to the community (Highpoint Business Park) • Chisenhall Sports Complex that provides a first-class facility for softball and baseball • Hidden Creek Golf Course and expansive parks and greenspaces • Small-town, family-friendly community feel • Burleson Recreation Center (BRiCk) provides the community a family and budget-friendly opportunity to recreate in a modern facility • Proximity to Fort Worth as a major hub of business activity and big-city lifestyle/cultural amenities • Easy access to a major interstate • Quality, affordable housing • Highly rated Fire and Police departments • The Burleson Opportunity Fund sets the city apart from any other in the area • Easy and affordable access to higher education through the city’s partnership with Hill College • Friendly and accessible public servants • Burleson ISD met the highest performance standards in Student Achievement and Progress. They continue to offer tailored education options through schools an programs of choice.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

Opportunities & Challenges At the same time, the City faces some challenges that affect its ability to consistently deliver a positive communications message to key stakeholders.

These include: • No consistent branding, many departments don’t utilize a logo or utilize a completely unrelated logo • Many departments weren’t sure what the city logo was • The city’s recreation center (BRiCk) needs branding assistance and signage on the building • Capital projects need to be communicated with residents and businesses • Lack of sharing new development and progress of development around town • Work needs to be done with communication between the city and local builders and developers • City council is not included in city’s communications strategy or initiatives and the city has not shared the council’s initiatives • No ability to sign up for parks and recreation special events online • Difficulty in marketing and communicating information about public input meetings • Target audiences have differing preferences for how they like to receive information (online, social media, printed publications, broadcast media), and information must be available in both “push” and “pull” formats as well as repeatedly delivered via each channel, to ensure message processing by recipient • Lack of consensus on how much to market Old Town versus other areas of the city • Concern over coordination and communication between the city and the Burleson ISD • Monument signs throughout town do not have similar branding and some are unable to be seen due to overgrown vegetation • Lack of gateway sign into Old Town • Lack of presence of Burleson’s character on I-35W • Concerns that not enough is being done to improve older neighborhoods due to a lack of effective homeowners associations

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

• Residents • Homeowners/ neighborhood associations • City staff • City councilmembers • Civic groups and religious institutions in the community • Burleson businesses and their employees • Prospective businesses and residents in the Metroplex • Media (primarily in the DFW market, and beyond, as warranted)

Target Audience The following audiences must be reached with effective and consistent communications, in order for the City to achieve its objectives: CITY OF BURLESON

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• Surrounding municipalities

• Affiliated professional organizations to share and present the city's best practices in municipal government

• Influential groups in the Metroplex (North Central Texas Council of Governments, North Texas Commission, Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition, Metroplex Mayors Association, etc.)

• Visitors, tourists, and business and events groups

Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

Key Messages Burleson has a great story to share. The city is/has: • Home to a wide variety of recreation opportunities and outdoor activities, including Hidden Creek Golf Course, 18 city parks, over eight miles of developed trails and dedicated bike lanes within the city • A modern recreation center that features a 10,000 square foot fitness center, indoor swimming area complete with water slides, vortex pools, a current river and a five-lane exercise pool, as well as an outdoor pool and two 1,400 square foot meeting rooms • Home to a growing and redeveloping historic Old Town that features unique dining and shopping opportunities, a visitor center and museum, trolley car tours and live entertainment • A great residential value, while also offering superior public services, strong schools, low crime rate and highly rated police and fire departments • Host to distinctive, family-friendly community festivals and events throughout the year • A great place to do business, with a growing market for products and services, and access to a strong workforce • Great access to a major interstate to assist transportation needs of residents and business, alike • Conveniently located to numerous employment and lifestyle amenities within a major metropolitan area while retaining its small-town feel and charm • Exciting entertainment options such as Jellystone Park’s water amenities and two award-winning wineries • Burleson ISD offers tailored education options through schools and programs of choice

Current Marketing & Communications Activities The City of Burleson uses many different media vehicles and materials to communicate information to its key stakeholders. The primary communication vehicles were reviewed as part of the communications strategic plan process.

LOGOS The City logo features the text “Burleson, Texas” in blue and white with the addition of a red background behind the words “Texas” with a fade out of blue and red and an addition of a white star. The logo is currently on the city’s business cards, water towers, vehicles, letterhead, etc. This logo was found to be utilized as early as 1999 on the official city website, however during several of the one-on-one meetings when the question of what is the official city logo came up interviewees did not point to the current logo. Several interviewees mentioned the “large B” logo that the city utilized over 20 years ago. The City also utilizes a seal that was created for the 100 year anniversary of the city, in many of their communications efforts, including the website.

City Logo

City Seal CITY OF BURLESON

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

Many departments utilize their own logos. Below are logos being utilized throughout the city. An evaluation of the city’s current logo should be made during the City’s overall branding discussion. The current city logo, and future city logos should all adhere to written branding standards. It is recommended that departments not create their own logo unless approved via the marketing and communications department to ensure the city’s future cohesive branding efforts.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

WEBSITE The City of Burleson website (http://www.burlesontx.com/), which was redesigned in 2015 is one of the main resources that the City uses to distribute information to the public. The new design poses a branding issue as the colors selected are not utilized anywhere else in the city nor are the colors in the most widely used city logo.

As visitors first view the page they are greeted with a very nice photo of a fountain and flowers. The issue with the photo is that it does not give the viewer an immediate feel for the City of Burleson nor does it feature a well-known landmark within the city that would allow the viewer an opportunity to understand the community. There is no branding of the community at first glance on the website.

Concerns of the city’s news and calendar being below the scroll have been mentioned by city councilmembers, staff and residents. Also, mentioned is the need for online payments of recreation special events.

Information on the site is categorized and easy to navigate but some information is out-of-date and needs to be updated.

The site needs to reflect the city’s branding and have a similar color scheme to the city’s logo. It would also benefit the city to utilize photos on the homepage that showcase the city. Suggestions could be Chisenhall Sports Complex, the recreation center, golf course, Bailey Lake or Old Town.

Internally, information on the site needs to be reviewed by every department and updates need to be made. Staff members who are trained on the website should also have the ability to delete, move and update their department’s pages as needed. Currently a strict approval process is being utilized for approval of submitted content.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

There is also a need for some departments to have the ability to customize their webpages and provide guests with more content. The Burleson Recreation Center (BRiCk), Library and police would all benefit from having department headers which allows them to create special content and utilize photos that reflect their department. An example of the City of Irving’s use of department headers can be seen below.

City of Irving Homepage

Library Department Header

Economic Development website (http://www.burlesontxedc.com) The current Economic Development Department website was started in 2014. Staff is currently utilizing portions of the site, mainly the Old Town Burleson webpage. Information and photos are dated and need to be reviewed. Economic development and marketing staff have begun updating the site with new pictures and information. The branding of the economic development site also does not relate to the city’s site, however, since the city’s website poses branding issues this isn’t necessarily an immediate concern.

This vastly underutilized site should showcase the many great success stories, plans for the future and available property.

Currently, the city website provides economic development web pages with information. Once updates are completed on the ED website, a direct link should be made to that site instead of separate web pages. This is a duplication of efforts and is not needed.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

MOBILE APPS The city launched a mobile app (City of Burleson) with the redesign of the city’s website. However the app lacks effectiveness and ability to create separate content as it simply redirects users to the pages on the city’s website. The mobile app may not be an effective tool as only 399 apps have been downloaded on iTunes and 198 for Android users. Of the Android users that have downloaded the app 98 have uninstalled it. A review of the need for the current app is suggested for the future.

The public works department also launched an app (Burleson Waste & Recycling) that allows participants to view the schedule for their next collection, and what will be collected (garbage, garbage and recycling, special pickup/bulk collection week). This app is not integrated within the city’s app, so a user would have to download both apps. Since inception, this app has been downloaded 841 times.

WEEKLY ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER The city distributes a weekly electronic newsletter that is sent to more than 1,700 subscribers.

The purpose of the e-newsletter is to provide residents with the latest news about happenings and events in the city. The e-newsletter does match the branding of the website. There is concern that the medium includes too many repetitive weekly stories. The e-newsletter needs to shift to utilizing more images and less text. The number of subscribers is incredibly low compared to the amount of time it takes to create the e-newsletter (3-4 hours weekly). A review of the enewsletter effectiveness should be evaluated. To better promote the newsletter and to get more subscribers, it is suggested to create a button or separate tab on the website to make it easier to locate and sign up.

COMMUNITY GUIDE The community guide is a full-color, 8.5” x 11” 32-page booklet that is created by the Recreation & Lifelong Learning Department. The printed piece has relevant information and utilizes great photos.

There is a lot of text in the booklet, especially in regards to information about programs. There is some desire to make this publication digital. It is suggested that the guide start to remove some of the text and begin to encourage readers to go online for the full information. This could assist in the transition to a completely digital booklet if that happens in the future. Once a brand is established within the city this booklet should work to integrate it within its publication.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

MEDIA RELATIONS The marketing and communications department handles all of the media relations duties, in addition to core public information functions. The city produces and distributes news releases, as needed, via the city’s website and email.

Concern was indicated over the amount of press releases that were distributed in the past. Many of the stakeholders that were interviewed felt the number of releases saturated the reader with information. News releases should be used sparingly, and other information should be distributed more frequently via social media outlets. The creation of an editorial calendar will assist in ensuring key city stories are featured and supported.

SIGNAGE The city currently does not have any permanent electronic signs that it can utilize for marketing efforts. There is discussion to include one at the police department. Several interviews suggested the need to utilize electronic signs for the city’s messages.

The gateway/monument signs need to be cohesive, and the passerby should be able to see the sign through the vegetation surrounding it. The city currently does not utilize outdoor advertising. Directing traffic to the heart of Burleson by using outdoor advertising on I-35W would be beneficial.

DEPARTMENTAL MATERIALS Many other city departments handle a large amount of the communications materials and information on their own. There should be a concerted effort to coordinate all communications citywide to ensure that monthly communication themes and proper branding are used across all communications vehicles, ensuring consistent and accurate distribution of the city’s key messages. Creating marketing calendars for each department will assist the marketing and communications department’s ability to assist in creation and distribution of material.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

CITY FOCUS NEWSLETTER This two-page newsletter is mailed to all city utility customers and provides information about City programs, events and services. The newsletter is incredibly text heavy and should focus more on eye-catching graphics while encouraging the viewer to go to the city’s website for more information. In the 2014 city survey, 20% of respondents said they received their information about the city from this medium. The city spends approximately $35,000 printing and distributing this newsletter. In April 2017 the newsletter was redesigned from a monthly twopage newsletter to a quarterly four-page newsletter in a redesigned format.

COLLATERAL MATERIALS At different times throughout the year, city departments create posters, signs, brochures, rack cards, fliers, etc., for city events. The materials are mostly well designed but some do not appear to have a current or consistent identity. Departments should utilize the marketing and communications department to assist in the creation of collateral materials.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION City staff would receive an emailed news release as the need for information presented itself.

Many interviewees discussed saturation of emails with little real communication being digested.

Identify what information needs to be distributed internally to other departments and/or groups and the method in which to distribute to staff members.

CABLE CHANNEL The city’s cable channel is available to city residents using certain cable TV providers and online via the city's website. The channel content includes bulletin board material, event dates, videos and public meetings. The marketing and communications department has started the redesign of the channel with new material. New content needs to be added and rotated. Interviewees reflected little awareness of or interest in seeking municipal information from this communications outlet.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

SOCIAL MEDIA There are links to the city’s social media pages on the website’s home page, as well as in the city’s e-newsletter. The city has a large number of social media accounts and very little direction for staff on how they should be run or how they can be created.

Facebook The Official City Facebook page (/BurlesonTX) is nicely laid out and does a good job of keeping the public informed of upcoming events, festivals, and news that affect the residents. Based on feedback from interviews, this page is one of the best ways for the community to stay engaged with what is going on in the City. The page has over 18,200 likes as of June 2017 and provides a fantastic tool to reach a large population in a very cost-effective manner. This page is maintained by the marketing and communications department.

Many other departments also utilize Facebook to distribute information.

Page

Likes (as of June 2017)

Maintained by

/BurlesonAnimalShelter

7,304

Animal Shelter & Marketing Staff

/BurlesonLibraryTX

2,262

Library staff

/BurlesonRecreationCenter

6,645

BRiCk staff

/VisitBurleson

1,645

Economic Development staff

/OldTownBurleson

7,054

Economic Development staff

/BurlesonTXPD

17,396

Police Department staff

/BurlesonFireDepartment

2,589

Fire & Marketing staff

/RussellFarmArtCenter

892

Russell Farm staff

/BurlesonMYC

226

City Secretary staff

/BeHealthyBurleson

4,547

City Secretary staff

/TheTerraceatHiddenCreek

278

Golf Restaurant staff

/HiddenCreekGolfTX

90

Golf Course Staff & Golf Pro

/BurlesonArtsMangaFestival

162

Library staff

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

Twitter The Official City Twitter account (@CityofBurleson) is managed by the marketing and communications department and has 3,847 followers as of June 2017. Interviewees expressed concern over the amount of Twitter posts that were RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds or linked information. Posts should take a more active approach to daily tweets to make sure key communications objectives are communicated.

Other departments utilize Twitter to distribute information.

Page

Likes (as of June 2017)

Maintained by

@behealthybtx

65

City Secretary staff

@BurlesonMYC

40

City Secretary staff

@BurlesonPolice

1,178

Police staff

@HiddenCreek_GC

41

Golf Course staff & Golf Pro

Instagram The Official City Instagram account (/burlesontx) is managed by the marketing and communications department and has 1,286 followers as of June 2017. This is the newest form of the City’s social media outlets. Posts should be made more frequently and feature compelling images and stories of the community.

Other departments utilize Instagram to distribute information.

Page

Likes (as of June 2017)

Maintained by

/burlesonlibrary

89

Library staff

/behealthyburleson

53

City Secretary staff

/burlesonmyc

70

City Secretary staff

/burlesonreccenter

172

BRiCk staff

/bricksummercamp

41

BRiCk staff

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

YouTube The Official City YouTube page has 42 followers as of June 2017 and is managed by the marketing and communicators department. The page lacks updated videos. Videos should be uploaded that feature a good mix of videos from various city departments, highlighting community activities, festivals and service projects. The content is not currently compelling and focus should be given to increase the city’s video library.

In May 2017, an employee YouTube page was created, BTV, and will be utilized to make employees aware of internal activities. The human resources department manages this page.

LinkedIn The Official City LinkedIn page has 667 followers as of June 2017 and is managed by the human resources department. The page only had one update. This would be a great opportunity to share some business and employee featured stories.

LinkedIn Showcase Page The economic development department has a showcase page and as of June 2017 had 76 followers. The page has a good number of economic development stories and would be a great way to communicate what development is happening in Burleson.

Social media should be treated as the most powerful communications tool the city has. Staff should be correctly trained before they are added as account managers. The concern of social media is that the message is delivered immediate and has the ability to reach a huge segment of our audience, staff should be well-trained in how to deliver the city’s message. City social media accounts should be publishing relevant, timely and interesting information, at least weekly.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

RECOMMENDATIONS OBJECTIVE 1: ELEVATE THE CITY’S EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

Through the reorganization of the city’s marketing and communications department the city will begin the process of elevating this communication message through appealing social media content and engaging videos.

• Focus on city council communication needs, key initiatives and objectives.

• Assist in "Connect with Council" marketing, social media town halls and neighborhood town halls • Departments should, with the assistance of the marketing and communications department, develop yearly marketing and communications goals and editorial calendars to assist in the accomplishments of the goals.

• Developing a city-wide editorial calendar will assure that key city objectives and initiatives are communicated effectively with the target audience.

• Developing social media training, guidelines and procedures for staff will assist in outlining the city’s message and communication style. Supplying staff with the correct tools to help them tell their story will increase external communications.

• Redesigning the city’s cable channel and supplementing it with new and constantly changing video content will serve as a great visual tool for residents and visitors.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

RECOMMENDATIONS OBJECTIVE 2: IMPLEMENT MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES

• Developing a city mission and vision statement will help steer the marketing and communications strategies.

• Determine the most important Council initiatives and ingrain these into the city’s marketing and communication message.

• The City’s website should be current at all times, including department pages. Setting up a review time with each department would be beneficial to maintain the up-to-date information.

• The city’s website look and feel should be reviewed to determine if it is effectively sharing the city’s most important initiatives and most searched for information.

• Enhancements of department’s webpages should be considered, especially for departments who distribute large amounts of communication to the public. The police department, library and BRiCk would all benefit from department headers instead of webpages.

• Partner with the city's tourism and Old Town marketing to provide timely updates on the Plaza development and marketing.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

RECOMMENDATIONS OBJECTIVE 3: RE-ASSESS CITY BRAND

In speaking with interviewees there seems to be confusion on what the city’s brand, tagline, logo, colors are.

• An official mission/vision statement and tagline needs to adopted by City Council.

• A decision needs to be made if the city would like to move forward with the current logo, revamp the current logo or move forward with a redesign of the brand.

• If the city decides to keep/revamp the current logo branding standards and templates need to established and distributed through the city.

• If the city decides to develop a new branding package it is recommend the city retain a marketing and design firm to research the city’s existing and desired perceptions. The research should include surveys, stakeholder meetings, one-on-one interviews and at the end of the research the firm should develop several branding options that enhance the city’s initiatives.

• The City of Burleson has a variety of logos and brands being utilized for departments throughout the city. No additional logos or branding should be created until the city’s brand is reassessed.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

RECOMMENDATIONS OBJECTIVE 4: STRENGTHEN EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS

Reaching out to community partners and engaging them in two-communication will help to strengthen the city’s message.

• Partner with school district on marketing and communications efforts and possibly town hall and PTA meetings.

• Partner with economic development to reach out to the business community and determine the most effective communication method for this group.

• Utilize Be Healthy Burleson to share city’s message with local non-profits and the business community.

• Engage the police department’s Ministers and Officers program to determine best method for sharing information with multiple religious organizations in the community.

• Develop a neighborhood academy that would allow citizens and business owners an opportunity to understand what the city does on a day-to-day basis and encourage them to be the city’s ambassadors.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

RECOMMENDATIONS OBJECTIVE 5: ENHANCE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

Consistent and timely information to internal stakeholders is incredibly important.

Ensuring that staff members are well-versed on city happenings and issues is a very important part of the city’s communication plan.

• Partner with the human resources department to meet with city departments and gauge effectiveness of internal communications. Learn ways to better communicate with departments in the field with those who do not have direct electronic access.

• Develop a weekly communications tool for staff and after six months review success to make sure staff is receiving and sharing the city’s key messages.

• Assess greater staff awareness of, and use of, key messages related to the city’s initiatives.

• Conduct more internal education events for city employees. Utilize current staff special events to share the city’s message and to direct staff on where to readily find information.

• Measure city staff awareness of key issues and messages.

• Coordinate with city secretary’s office for city council communication needs and to be made aware of city council key initiatives and objectives.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

RECOMMENDATIONS OBJECTIVE 6: REVIEW AND UPDATE CITY’S EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

Taking the time to outline potential crisis situations, detailing primary principles for how to handle crisis’s and preparing a general order for how to react will greatly benefit the community.

• A logistical emergency plan is already in place via the emergency operations center, this plan will focus on communications needs.

• Develop a communications action plan that outlines what the city’s vulnerabilities are and what the most effective communications tools are for potential situations.

• Develop a crisis communications team that is prepared to monitor and respond to city’s social media accounts.

• Establish communication protocol and develop spokesperson training for key staff members.

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan

THE WORKING PLAN as of April 1, 2019

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Marketing & Communications Strategic Plan