Communications in Ottawa County

Scott Vanderburg is one of several communications specialists who work for Ottawa County. He is from West Michigan and received a Photography and Film degree from GVSU. His main job requirement is to help the politicians make connections with the voters. This requires the following.

• Information - What? This is judged by accuracy.
• Motivation - Why? This is judged by emotional content that spurs action.
• Transparentation (made-up word) - Trust? Accessibility of information to citizens.
• Presentation - Who? Judged by relatability to government officials.
• Entertation (another made-up word) - Competition for attention. This is judged by engagement.

Without good communication from government, you can get caught in a doom loop.

→ distrust → disengagement |

^negative experiences ← poorly informed decisions

Scott tries to break this loop by crafting messages that lead to the intended action, tailored to the audience and in an appropriate format.

The strategy is to: reach a diverse audience, make good content, show the people behind the work, and explain complex issues.

The county has 22,000 followers on Facebook and 5,000 viewers on TikTok (which they have only been using for a year).