Town adds Twitter to communications arsenal

Mass Innovations, From The Beacon, September 2010

In August, the town of Dudley began using the social networking service Twitter as a means of communicating with residents.

Twitter, which has seen its use grow enormously over the past three years, is a free service that limits each message, or “tweet,” to 140 characters.

Dudley, which has a population of about 11,000, is using the service for assorted purposes, including to notify residents of emergencies or unexpected problems. A tweet posted in the late afternoon of Aug. 19 announced: “Water main break up on Healy Road. May cause water pressure issues on Center Road and Healy Road until repaired. Crew is working on it.” A posting on Sept. 1 included a note about Hurricane Earl and pointed readers to storm-related resources available on the town website.

More recent tweets have encouraged residents to volunteer for Dudley boards and committees and helped the town dog pound find a home for a black Labrador-mix puppy.

In addition to viewing messages about Dudley on the Twitter website (http://twitter.com/townofdudley), users can arrange to have postings sent as e-mail or text messages to their mobile phones.

Jonathan Ruda, the Dudley selectman who proposed the use of Twitter, said the service can complement other technologies, such as Reverse 9-1-1 automated phone calls and Dudley’s local cable-access channel. But Ruda said he also sees potential for using Twitter to help inform residents about the town’s budget process.

While the annual town report includes a wealth of data and analysis, Ruda said, residents rarely have the time or inclination to absorb the information. Twitter, he said, can be used to keep people informed throughout the year about budget-related developments and perhaps make it easier to achieve a quorum at Town Meeting.

“If we hit an important benchmark, we’ll send it out as a notification when it happens,” Ruda said.

The Board of Selectmen approved the use of Twitter in August. As of late September, about a dozen messages had been posted on Dudley’s Twitter page, and 60 people had signed up as “followers” of the tweets. Ruda said that those numbers should rise significantly as Dudley officials become more comfortable using Twitter and residents become more aware of the service through the town’s promotional campaign.

For more information, contact Jonathan Ruda at (774) 275-1923.