Perry Council entering world of social media

The Perry City Council is looking to join the 21st Century and has hired an intern to guide it along the way.

At Monday’s city council work session, Economic Development Director Robert Smith introduced council members to Grace Delacruz, the city’s new social media intern.

Delacruz, currently a graduate student at Valdosta State University, had a simple question: What would you like to see utilized on the city’s social media?

“Everything,” said Mayor Jimmy Faircloth. The room filled with laughter.

Smith said Delacruz is currently doing digital marketing for the university, putting together electronic newsletters and generally engaging the Valdosta State University community, the students and faculty.

“We thought it would be best to engage a younger mind on this,” he said. “We think Grace is going to do an excellent job, and we hope to have something rolled out in January.”

Smith went on to say a task force will look at personnel requirements and resources required to have a robust, meaningful social media strategy.

Faircloth reminded Smith and Delacruz social media is not a field with which he and most others are familiar.

“In my case, you’re not dealing with neophytes, you’re dealing with Neanderthals,” he joked before turning serious. “I know we can’t be everything to everybody, but I do want to make sure we have a viable, active presence in the social media forms people your age (early 20s) look to.”

Councilmember Willie King said the city does not want to be left behind on this.

“We want to stay competitive with everybody else,” he said.

Councilmember Randall Walker asked if the strategy would address costs as well as personnel requirements.

“We cannot develop a program and not have somebody to administer it,” he said.

“You need the proper staffing to make it happen.”

“Yes, that’s critical. We absolutely want something that we can maintain, and it can really be a fulltime job,” Smith said. “With social media, you have to stay on top of things, you have to have the knowledge and expertise to do that, and our department heads don’t have that.”

He said the task force will look at what level of staffing will be necessary to maintain a viable system.

“We hope to bring you a proposal that will bring Perry into the 21st Century,” he said.

“Good, and welcome aboard,” Faircloth said to Delacruz.

HHJ News