City Of Las Vegas Finalist In Social Media Award For Rapid Response and Accurate Information Delivery Related To October 1 Tragedy

The city of Las Vegas has been selected as a finalist for a Government Social Media Golden Post Award in the category of “Social Media Crisis Communications” for how it shared accurate and timely information with the public during the Oct. 1, 2017 tragedy. The fourth annual Golden Post Awards is exclusively designed to honor outstanding use of social media by local and state government agencies in the United States. Winners are revealed during the Government Social Media Conference awards ceremony on Wednesday, April 25, Denver, Colorado.

According to Scott Adams Las Vegas City Manager, it’s an honor to be nominated for this award. “Our social media presence is a strong force for information in this community. We use it primarily to respond to the concerns and inquiries of our citizens and to deliver pertinent information to them,” said Adams. “In the case of an emergency, cultivating this virtual community becomes even more important as it is a built in mechanism for important public safety information. I am proud of our team and the work they have done to build and support this network.”

During the Oct. 1, 2017 tragedy on the Strip, the city of Las Vegas’ social media accounts were one of the primary places people visited for information about the incident. The city of Las Vegas saw an unprecedented level of messages and comments to its social network during the first two weeks in October. During a time where misinformation was everywhere, the city of Las Vegas social network became one of the verified places where people could turn for accurate and timely information. In fact, an image about how to help and find loved ones was shared 36,000 times on Twitter and 32,000 times on Facebook.

The city’s Twitter profile received 527,000 visits in the few days following the shooting, 13,000 Facebook messages and 12,000 direct messages on Twitter.

News conferences held by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and including Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman and members of the City Council were streamed live on the city’s social media pages resulting in hundreds of thousands of views.

Amid the devastation, city leaders came together to build a community healing garden. The garden was built in just four days. A video created by KCLV Channel 2, the city’s TV station was viewed 1.4 million times on Facebook and was shared 37,000 times with 1,200 comments.

You can follow the city of Las Vegas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @ cityoflasvegas.