I don't know if this the same SOMa Lounge that's hub of all information for South Orange and Maplewood, but this SOMa Lounge only has 951 members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/203721783065917/
If this is only the business side of SOMa Lounge, how many non-business-owning residents are members?
46 states have sued Facebook for anti-trust violations. It's odd that local governments are relying on it to disseminate public information.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/update-facebook-antitrust-lawsuit/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SOMabusinessfriends/
It has 17.3 thousand members.
But not me. (I feel that sometime in the future Facebook members are going to wish they hadn't joined.) Maplewood twp needs to review their information diseminating method, because they effectively exclude me and many others.
Maplewood is still using email blasts as their primary means of communication. This works if everyone you are trying to reach (1) uses email, (2) knows about the email blasts, and (3) has the knowledge and patience to sign up individually for all of the myriad subscriptions available.
The information available on Facebook is of different sorts. Some official pages and groups are run by town departments, boards, and committees. They have the advantage of allowing dialog that can be helpful at times.
Most information regarding town services on Facebook is of the unofficial sort that begin with someone either asking a question about a town service that could best be handled by calling or visiting the appropriate town office; or with someone making a complaint about something the town has or has not done. The latter quickly result in a lot of posts containing incorrect information that later posters assume is correct. These can often prove dangerous if readers interpret helpful input by neighbors as accurate information when it most often is not.
Part of the reason for the unofficial posts is that communication with the town has become increasingly difficult. The phone is most often answered by a voice messaging service that goes to a specific town employee who may or may not be on vacation. This is not helpful if you need an immediate answer to your question. The town website contains very little information of substance on specific programs and services. Report a problem requires signing up ( and knowing how to do so). Even then it is poorly monitored, with little follow up. An interactive or even an extensive FAQ section is sorely needed.
mrmaplewood said:
But not me. (I feel that sometime in the future Facebook members are going to wish they hadn't joined.) Maplewood twp needs to review their information diseminating method, because they effectively exclude me and many others.
What do you suggest?
tpb said:
max_weisenfeld said:
Because the vast majority of residents get their local information there
and “a million flies can’t be wrong”
Whatever your personal appraisal, a fundamental principle of marketing is that you meet the customer where they are, not where you would like them to be in some sort of fantasy world of your own construction
max_weisenfeld said:
Whatever your personal appraisal, a fundamental principle of marketing is that you meet the customer where they are, not where you would like them to be in some sort of fantasy world of your own construction
I’m curious where you get your “vast majority” statistic from. I saw the 17K number that are subscribed to the one SOMA group. That is less than half the population of the two towns and doesn’t account for people who may have more than one account or who have moved away and not unsubscribed.
A better maintained public website would be far more equitable, but even that would exclude some residents who don’t have good internet access. And for the person who recommended just going to the library for internet access, I suggest you get your head out of your privileged arse. There are people in this town for whom a trip to the library during operating hours is difficult if not impossible.
Do you think Facebook is a neutral entity that is completely harmless to the user? I have serious concerns about their use of data that people just freely give them.
One example of my recent frustration is the South Orange Sunmer Nights page on the South Orange website. They list the dates but as of Wednesday (while the first event was transpiring) they still didn’t have a list of the performers. I tried looking at the Facebook page for South Orange where I could see the logo for the Sunmer Nights program but I was unable to actually look at any details because I don’t have a Facebook account.
I also take issue with your description of residents as “customers”. We’re residents and taxpayers. Easy access to township information should not require registering with a data harvesting company.
mrincredible said:
A better maintained public website would be far more equitable, but even that would exclude some residents who don’t have good internet access.
I was going to mention closer curation of the Township News page on the Maplewood website, too, in reply to Max’s question. (The July 1 Weekly Update was posted last Friday, for instance, but now it’s “expired” and there’s no Weekly Update for the coming week, at least not yet. Also, the Farmers Market page still says “in progress” under Vendors, akin to your experience with the South Orange Summer Nights lineup.)
In addition to the exclusion of some residents without good internet access, as you mention, there’s the time it takes to keep a site updated and accurate day in and day out. And time is money.
After the disaster of the web hack last year, a company was hired to revamp the Township's website. There've been a lot of glitches along the way. I don't know who's maintaining the new website, but it's problematic. The township minutes are missing as far as I can tell. I can't find them anywhere on the site. News about the latest measure with regard to the gutters that flooded during Ida, leading to a resident's death, was posted on Village Green, but I can't find it on the Township website. We shouldn't have to pay $55/year to get official news or join Facebook.
and “a million flies can’t be wrong”