Local Government Social Media Awards, Presented by graduate students in The University of Oregon’s School of Planning, Public Policy and Management
The University of Oregon’s School of PPPM Local Government Social Media Awards (LGSMA) seek to showcase the best of public sector social media. The awards are part of a graduate student project in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon—in the course PPPM 633: Public Management. The students use the awards process as a way to develop skills in evaluation and learn about the best practices in social media for local governments. Unlike other social media awards programs for the public sector, we don’t require membership or fees to enter.
Nominations are accepted from April 1 to April 15 (midnight Pacific). Nominations received after this deadline will not be accepted.
Submit here (starting on April 1): http://bit.ly/localsocialmediaawards
Eligibility of Nominees
- Nominations must be relevant to the selected category.
- Self-nominations are allowed.
- Nominees must have a valid social media account that shares content related to local government and has been active before the start of the awards evaluation.
- Each entity can only be nominated under one category—all entries will eligible for Best Overall.
- Evaluations will be of accounts/posts from the last year (March 2017- March 2018)
- English language accounts only, please.
- Open to all local governments in North America.
Categories
- Best in Group (government size; functional category: public safety; public works; parks & recreation; back-office—human resources, finance, organizational development; community development)
- Best Campaign (set of posts about a single topic, taking place over time)
- Best use of video/live video
- Best use of images
- Most engaging government
- Best use of humor
What constitutes ‘local government’?
Any local jurisdiction (sub-state level government). This would include county, city, township, village, special districts, school districts, or other local/municipal government. The accounts must be run by that local government. We are limiting nominations to accounts that represent a government or department/agency within a government. No nominations will be accepted for accounts representing an individual (‘the mayor’ or ‘city manager’ or an individual police officer, for example).
How to submit an entry
Submissions are accepted through our online form only (no paper or email entries). Nominations will not be accepted prior to April 1.
Please use the following link to submit your nominations: http://bit.ly/localsocialmediaawards
You will need to prepare the following items prior to submission:
- A 500 word or less description explaining why your nominee should win the selected award.
- A selection of screenshots that demonstrate excellence in the nominated category and pertinence to the evaluation criteria.
- Contact information for the nominee and the government and/or agency up for the nomination must also be included in your submission.
Evaluation Criteria
Judges will be evaluating based on the following criteria:
- Relevance: Content is relevant to the award category.
- Creativity & Innovation: Demonstrate creativity in content distribution including the use of images, videos, text etc.
- Quality and originality: High quality, original content.
- Engagement: Government uses the platforms to engage with their constituents on a regular basis. Demonstrates a variety of interactions and responsiveness from followers. Fostering of meaningful conversations. Demonstrates a balance between engaging and information dissemination
Different criteria will be emphasized (more/less) depending on the category, but all criteria will be applied to all award categories.
Note that the size of the nominee’s online community (number of followers, likes, fans, members etc.) will not be considered in the selection of the winners. We seek to have an inclusive award process, thus recognize the vast differences in sizes of constituencies across local government.
Judges decisions are final.
Timing of submission and awards
Nomination period opens on April 1 and closes on April 15
Finalists will be announced on May 15. You can find those finalists listed here on this blog and on our Twitter account (@PPPM_SMA)
Winners in each category will be announced no later than June 7 (announcements will be part of class presentations on June 7).
Awards administration
Members of the judging panel are drawn from students at the University of Oregon’s School of Planning, Public Policy and Management graduate program. Specifically, the judging panel will consist of students in the course PPPM 633: Public Management. The PPPM Social Media Awards (the “Awards”) are administered by Professor Benjamin Clark (bclark2 [at] uoregon [dot] edu). Nominees who have a role in the governance/operations of the University of Oregon, the School of PPPM, and/or the Social Media Awards are not eligible for the awards. Anyone engaged with a local government for pay or are as a volunteer recuse themselves from involvement in evaluating that entity and will not engage in lobbying for/against votes for that entity to receive an award.
There are no monetary awards from this contest. You get bragging rights that your organization is pretty darn awesome and that is it. Being an award winner does not constitute an endorsement on the part of the University of Oregon (UO) or the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management (PPPM). All selections are done by students and therefore only represent the opinions of those judges, not the UO or the State of Oregon.
By submitting your personal information to the Awards, you consent to the collection and use of it and any other information provided to the awards. These data will be used as part of a classroom-based exercises/projects on social media and public management, and in academic research on social media use by governments.
To learn more about our graduate programs in public administration, planning, and non-profit management please visit the School of PPPM’s website.
