Officials turn to Facebook for communications

Communication is an important tool in many aspects of life, which is why Franklin County officials are making it even easier to communicate with residents throughout the community.
Franklin County now has an official Facebook page and Twitter account for the sole purpose of communicating more effectively with people in the area.
Franklin County GIS manager Michael Hughes has also taken on the title of social media coordinator for the county and he said the county’s move to keep up with the times would be a big asset everyone locally.
“This will really help us get information out to the people about different things that are going on,” Hughes said. “I’ve already been in contact with the county’s department heads to let them know that this is a viable communication tool that they can start using.
“We can let people know about road work, highway projects, power outages, severe weather and emergency situations. Anything people need to know about that would affect someone here in this county will be able to be distributed.”
Hughes said branching out into the social media world was actually the idea of Franklin County Emergency Management Agency director Roy Gober, who saw the benefits of such communication during the April 27, 2011, tornado disaster.
“When the tornados came through, people had so much trouble communicating because the phone lines had been knocked down and cell service was unreliable,” Hughes said. “People were trying to figure out if their friends and relatives were ok and some people were panicking because they couldn’t find out anything.
“Roy figured out that a lot of people were still able to communicate through Facebook during that time and if we would have had something like that set up, it would have made things easier.”
Gober said he also saw other counties using their sites to let people know how they could help, what items were needed for relief, where they needed volunteers and a lot of other useful tips and information.
“I hope we don’t ever have another disaster like that again in Franklin County, but in the event that there is an emergency situation, hopefully we’ll be able to communicate with the public better,” he said. “If you don’t learn from these situations and figure out a better way to do things in the future, then you’re just falling behind.”
Probate Judge Barry Moore said he has supported the idea of a county-wide Facebook and Twitter page since Gober first brought it up.
“With the technology we have these days, it would be a shame not to utilize it to improve our communications with our residents so they could be more informed about emergencies or other things taking place here,” Moore said. “It’s always our goal to find any way we can to better serve the people and I think this is a great way to do that.”
Franklin County’s social media pages can be found at www.facebook.com/franklincountyal on Facebook and @Franklin_Co_AL on Twitter.