By Olivia Hammill, on June 11, 2015

Welcome to week four in GC (Granville County…check out that abbrev)! Today’s topic: website redesign.

Let’s start with some background. First, GC has been using the same website for the last eight or nine years, so there is definitely some room for improvement. A committee of various county officials (including me! #legit) gathered to discuss what we’re looking for in a new site. Thoughts were pretty consistent: people want something that’s easy to use, informative, and attractive.

Since I’m interested in communications, when I think about the website and how it should look and work, I’m thinking about the messaging. What message is the county trying to convey to its citizens? Is it rural? Is it urban? Is it industrial? Are people nice? Then, how does they county convey that message? What’s its brand? Finally, is the website functional? Are people able to access the information they need? All of that can impact how a person feels about a website AND the place or product it represents.

This website meeting, even though it was focused on one topic, actually spawned conversations about lots of things, including my main projects. The conversation about the website led to a conversation about branding. The conversation about branding led to a conversation about social media. The conversation about social media led to a conversation about strategic planning. Everything—even though it might not initially seem like it—in local government is connected.

Next week, I’m attending a day-long strategic planning workshop, so maybe we’ll talk more about branding there? More info on that later!

Local Gov Love,

Olivia