City Connect

for Local Governments and Municipalities

Don’t leave educating your residents to chance.

Siren has structured a short-term solution to aid your community with obtaining and understanding the critical information they need, when they need it.

Background

Our experience with local county, state, and federal government organizations has shown us that maintaining an ongoing and full-scope communication, PR, or marketing retainer is not feasible for all communities.

But we believe ALL communities deserve intentional and proactive communication services.

Heading into election season with absentee ballot preparation, mailings, and processing, paired with shrinking newsrooms and reduced news media coverage, residents are increasingly looking for alternative ways to stay informed. Oftentimes, they are turning directly to the resources hosted by the communities they live in.

Solution: City Connect

In three months through its City Connect program, Siren will integrate as your communication partner to boost capacity around your local government communication needs, especially around election content and leading up to your local elections.

Facebook

Create a new community information page OR update an existing page
Ensure the page is on Meta Business Manager and properly set up for functionality and successful messaging
Ensure there is an adequate auto-reply set up
Create social media protocols for top issues and roll out training for up to five (5) staff

Proactive Earned Media Relations

Pitch a news story about the election and what residents need to know
Prepare a relevant spokesperson for interview success (media training and talking points)
Spokesperson to be city staff or election committee representative

Website

Set up a ‘news’ page on the community website, with an eye for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Train internal personnel to update posts to your established news page

Content Creation

Mine for relevant content for 3-months
Create editorial calendar for 6-months to strategically plan content for your community informational updates
Create relevant content for the community to post to multiple sources, including research, copywriting, image creation (graphic and/or photography and/or sourcing), and strategic hashtag usage for social media
Schedule the content to post at the appropriate time for social media
Train internal personnel on community engagement best practices
Create calendar invite to internal person(s) to remind them to monitor for community engagement
Content includes (but is not limited to) election information including:
- Sample ballot
- Early voting locations, days, times
- Absentee ballot distribution, information
- Drop box locations

Investment

$9,500 flat rate for three-month engagement

The short-term agreement allows for an impactful infusion of communication and increased trust between the local government and its residents ahead of a fast-approaching election season.

Your community deserves intentional and proactive communication services.*

*without the budget constraints of long-term contracts

An excerpt from Bridge Michigan:

Bridge Michigan enterprise reporter Ron French recently spoke with former employees of the Daily Tribune as well as Cheboygan politicians, community leaders and business owners. Each one of them mourned the loss of local reporting or spoke of related challenges that have emerged.

Several residents said they were unaware of a recent water rate increase until it took effect. Richard Sangster, a county commissioner and former Cheboygan mayor, worries that people don’t know who’s running in the upcoming local elections. Business owner Ben Dratnal noted that many residents now have to rely on a Facebook page for town-related information, which “always ends up being suspect.”