Marketing Group Praises Culver City's Online Communications Strategy

By Dan Abendschein

A marketing agency that studied Internet communications strategy for every city in L.A. County concluded that Culver City, along with Sierra Madre, have the best overall strategies for communicating with residents.

The Tripepi Smith & Associates wrote on their website that they conducted the study to "help promote best practices and to recognize the cities that are making the effort to engage their residents more aggressively through the Internet."

The study used the following 14 questions, weighted by importance, to conduct the analysis:

1. Does the city have a friendly URL (i.e.http://www.ci.commerce.ca.usversus http://www.bellflower.org)? 
2. Does a search for the city’s name result in enhanced search results?
3. Does the city have a Twitter account? 
4. Has the city updated the Twitter account in the last 7 days? 
5. Does the city have a Facebook page? 
6. Has the city updated the Facebook page in the last 7 days? 
7. Does the city have a LinkedIn Account? 
8. Does the city have video and audio of council meetings online? 
9. Is there a search function on the site? 
10. Is an email for the mayor or a generic email for the whole council available on the website? 
11. Did the mayor or mayor’s staff respond to a test email? 
12. Is the city’s budget online? 
13. Is the city’s website mobile capable or mobile optimized? 1
4. Does the city’s website provide links to its social media accounts?

The study, which can be viewed in full here, was released in July.

Patch asks: Do you think the city has a good communications strategy?  What would you improve?  Tell us in the comments