SmyrnaCity.com has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of Georgia. Below you'll find an interview with Jennifer Bennett, Community Relations Director for the City of Smyrna.
- SmyrnaCity.com is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
As team lead and webmaster during the rfp, design, content development, training and deployment of the new site, it has been a pleasure to work with a quality team of web developers (Vision Internet) and City staff along with a very dedicated and attentive Council member (Mike McNabb) throughout the entire process. It was from start to finish an outstanding team experience and continues to be so and I am a proud member of that great team.
- Can you summarize the history of Smyrna's web portal?
We have been thoughtful and conservative, waiting for the right moments and standards advancements to make the most of funding. The City of Smyrna was among the first to use a CMS and in a fiscally conservative yet creative frame of mind, we made use of that early generation CMS while we gathered staff strength and the appropriate resources – not to mention identifying the best development partner for our needs (Vision Internet) – to move toward the highly functional and flexible product and systems that we have today. We knew from past experience that we needed all departments engaged and producing content and worked this into the plan. The process for the new web portal actually began a couple of years ago (evaluation and standards watching). It was over the last 12 months that we made the most progress. With that said, we worked at lightning speed once our new product was in our hands, building or rewriting content and going live within about 30 days with the new portal launching in May 2010. The team (made up of staff in various City departments) was prepared in stages throughout the planning and development process so that they had a good idea of what to do when the product arrived. We began the social media work well before launch and had that strength and service to citizens already in place when our new portal was birthed. Keep in mind that we are still working, currently building strength behind the public interface to add more robust functions and processes.
- What are the overarching objectives of Smyrna's current e-government initiatives?
It is important for citizens to be able to communicate with and conduct business with the City regardless of location or time of day, as much as this is possible. We wish to evolve and grow in responsible, thoughtful and useful ways for the benefit of our citizens in services and content that they find useful and, dare we say, inspiring and constructive, while we expand upon efficiencies. Concentrating on a sense of community is as important as making sure services to the community are quality and our portal and social media channels should reflect this and be part of the overall process, not separate.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by SmyrnaCity.com, both on- and off-line?
Having the social media channels up and popular in advance of the launch of the new portal was vital to getting word out and getting a buzz going about the new portal. We have moved to more online advertising for special events and those event ads draw traffic to the Smyrna portal and we will continue to make robust use of social media, drawing attention back when appropriate to the new portal. Posting about features such as the search that helps citizens learn what ward (number) they live (or will live) in or what their sanitation route is (will be) helps. Moving forward, we intend to use video to a higher degree for instructional and informational purposes, too. At launch in May, we used video to offer an overview of what the new website offers and shared it on social media. Of course, all other advertising (including print and TV/Radio) lists/mentions the City website address. Search engine optimization continues to be important as well.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Smyrna's e-government services?
Now that we have more staff contributing to and evaluating web-based services and staff processes that directly serve citizen needs, we are better able as a team to make decisions about technology issues and know that form is following function (in new and “inspiring” ways). We made sure that in the development process, this approach was not only planned for moving forward but was well exercised at every turn. The best and most simple yet elegant illustration of this is when we asked for and got lists of most frequently asked questions from every department. This gave us clues on how to develop paths and was very important in forming the “I Want To” tab structure. We were able to combine concepts (such as “I Want To… apply for) and create paths rather than FAQs for each department, make access to information a much swifter and satisfying process.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
Given that we are in the times that we are in and as of today, you could probably guess that Employment features fall just under Utilities/bill processing as far as our stats tell us. But, we believe the “I Want To” tab is allowing citizens to find these things faster. We also have evidence through citizen participation and the outstanding number of people who show up for showcased activities, that our social media and communication (Event/E-notificaiton/News) platforms are a key part of their lives now and in that way, we may say that these communication channels rival fixed portal features on a daily/ most frequent basis. Anyone out there surprised?
At various times popularity of features will shift and this is a good opportunity to point back to citizen feedback. During holidays, obviously anything having to do with sanitation schedules are prominent. During a recent (city-wide) change in sanitation routes, the searchable sanitation schedule feature was king. Of course, we promoted it shamelessly (but made sure we made adjustments as the feedback started rolling in, too). We can’t look at is as a popularity contest between features as much as what features form the most useful service to citizens at any given time under various sets of circumstances and this takes constant adjustment and vigilance. Our portal gives us this flexibility.
- In what way has harnessing social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and blogs allowed you to connect more directly and personally with the citizens of Smyrna?
We are able to send posts about traffic and everything from fundraisers to Council meetings at a moment’s notice and those messages arrive where the citizen determines and the types of messages that can be sent through social are more wide ranging than are practical on a standard City website. What could be better? We love the multiformity and the organic feedback that social media provides and feel that it helps us not only send but also receive not just information but an actual pulse. And, don’t forget the value it has in communicating the brand to new viewers. Beyond current residents, social media allows those who have moved away or travel a lot a connection they may need, but without having to remember the portal address. This means that our universe is a lot bigger than our City boundaries.
- How has video integration made your site more interactive for citizens while still providing a means for disseminating information?
Although still in the process of building video content, we believe that it has so many possibilities and it was a big help in communicating the features of the new site at launch. When we add new features, we intend to use video to help communicate and instruct. With video it is possible to provide everything from instructional information to highlights of community activities. Producing consistently, however, with a very small staff (who also do many other things) will be a challenge but we are looking forward to using the team approach with video as well. In this way, we see our many departments being able to contribute to the production process by helping with image capture. There will be times such as with anything that we may produce about activities such as community gardening, when we may opt to have citizens involved capture video as well. Having many different perspectives supply content will be beneficial, and probably surprising. In time, we believe that the video production and offerings will be good for staff as well as citizens. We hope to use video to invite interaction more than deliver a message. Having the newest selections featured on the front page is a real plus.
- In developing the Smyrna portal what were some of the obstacles that had to be overcome? How did you surpass them?
A responsible government should always list cost at the top of any list, including the obstacle list. Making sure that we got the most for funds expended and that those purchased features and the product would be useful for a long period of time if needed presented some challenges. We made sure that what we got allowed us to also build other options in-house (such as the searchable sanitation schedule) and that connecting them to and incorporating them into the content stream and portal structure would not be problematic. Anyone who has been through an rfp process in government for website services probably knows that you could get quotes for one very solid rfp that range in price from $18,000 to $800,000 and our process was no exception. In the end, we overcame the cost issue through teamwork. We cut our initial estimate in half by committing to building content and paths in-house. We also used the opportunity to fully engage City staff in content structure and maintenance. Beyond this, training was a daunting idea, but our development partner (Vision Internet) did an outstanding job of helping us get our team trained efficiently with minimal costs and staff emerged from training fully engaged and eager to perform. It was thrilling to see and continues to be one of the best benefits of overcoming the cost obstacle. We are in the process of addressing backend technology such as accounting and other processes software upgrades that will allow us to offer more options for citizens moving forward. This was not possible prior to launch. Additionally, what we did to overcome the complexities of things like submitting service requests or reporting items for repair online through various existing components or third-party services (again adding new prior to launch was not possible for cost considerations) was to make use of thoughtful paths and deep linking into affordable options. We love the “I Want To” option which is where most of the deep linking occurs. And, lastly, government will always have the challenge of editing itself when it comes to volume and complexity of content. We (meaning government in general) will always have to work against structure/nature to make sure that the paths and information offered are truly useful. We (City of Smyrna) made a commitment early in the process to this and though we are building content and restructuring some portions of the site almost daily, we continue to work toward it never becoming an obstacle for citizens. The portal that we have also allows us to easily edit and adjust paths as processes and needs change.
- Where do you see e-government heading in the next 2-3 years? Are there any exciting new features or services currently in the works for Smyrna's web portal?
We are looking forward to efficiencies that run through staffing ranks and right into the hands of citizens with the reverse being a wish as well. As we advance our internal use of technology expect modules and components that will benefit citizens and/or those who do business with the City (commerce options). We expect to be able to provide more mapping and GIS interface in addition to options with things like licenses and permits. Mobile technology (needs no explanation) and we anticipate will be a next step and we are looking forward to advances in meeting streaming/interaction options as they emerge that are cost and time efficient.
- What else would you like to tell us about SmyrnaCity.com?
I’d love to thank the team and hope that not a single person is left off the list. I wish to thank Maggie Jones and the team at Vision internet. On our staff team it is important to thank Councilman Mike McNabb, City Administrator Eric Taylor, Information Systems Manager Chris Addicks, Assistant City Administrator Tammi Saddler, Tiffany Wallace, Jered Sigmon, Clarence Blalock, Michael Smith, Lee Miller, Rosemary Rivera, Carol Lincoln, Kay Bolick, Jessica Myers, Patty Wilson, Monica Jones, Dustin Davey, Lizette Bryan, Susan Hiott, Cynthia Sanh, Meredyth Brown, Donna Cox, Broddrick Archie, Michael Siegler, Kiernan Dozeman, Ken Suddreth, Andrea Hall and Penny Murphy. We also thank Mayor and Council for their support of the team through the entire process.