As if we didn't have enough to do paving roads, fixing broken water mains, and cleaning sewers, along comes this thing called social media and now everyone wants to know if we're on Facebook or Twitter. The good news is that social media does offer us an opportunity to better communicate with each other and the communities in which we work. The only problem is figuring out what exactly it is and how to use it in the limited amount of time we have each day. 

So the Public Works Group is going to help you out with that! We're sending out this newsletter full of information and resources you can use to figure out just what social media means. And we will give you examples of how it's being used in public works by people just like you!

And don't forget, you can also visit our Social Media for Public Works Toolkit anytime for more tips and tricks.

Photo by Flickr user: lsgcp (Louisiana Sea Grant College Program Louisiana State University)

Photo by Flickr user: United Nations Development Programme

Twitter is one of those things that most of us in public works might at first dismiss as a waste of time. How can a bunch of short, random messages randomly posted on some website be any help to us? But some people working in public works are finding out Twitter can serve a critical role in our business - particularly in times of emergencies.

Here are just a few articles discussing the use of Twitter to help send out news and information during major disasters: 

• In Haitian Earthquake Disaster, Twitter Gets the Word Out 
• Research Paper: What Hazards Threat Reveals about the Social Life of Microblogged Information
  
• Emergency Managers and First Responders Use Twitter and Facebook to Update Communities 

We'll give other example of how to use Twitter in future articles. But for now, if you want to learn more about how to get started using Twitter, you can check out the following resources: Twitter 101 at the Twitter Website, and our very own Twitter Chapter from Your Social Media Journey Begins Here.

Television has been popular for many years, but in the past, producing a segment for TV would have been cost prohibitive for many of us. With today's new video cameras and online services, anyone can create a video, post it online, and grow an audience.

AASHTO has taken advantage of these new opportunities by showcasing Transportation TV online at http://www.transportationtv.org.

Segments on the site include news, commentaries from lawmakers and administrators, state briefings and conferences, and several educational segments. Not only is this a great place to stay up to date on transportation related information, but it also has material to post on your own site. Most videos offer an embed code that can be used to post Transportation TV videos on other sites. This is done by clicking the "get code" text at the bottom of the video. Look for the embed code that pops up. This code allows the video to be copied by clicking the "copy code" button. This can then pasted on another website or blog where the segment is intended to be shown.