Waterloo looks to the web

The City of Waterloo has joined Facebook, Twitter and created its own channel on YouTube. Now Waterloo will go a step further as it opens a blog to the public.

At the beginning of March the Waterloo opened a blog to spread city news and get citizens involved. The blog calls itself “hip” and “current” and Gary Williams, the director of communications for the City of Waterloo, guaranteed that this playful humour is what can be expected of the blog. “[It’s something] more down to earth, more conversational, straight to the point really,” Williams said.

Unlike the “Mayor’s Blog” that never took off and eventually shut itself down, the City of Waterloo blog will work harder to be available to everyone in the city.

Already the blog features a subscription option that will give people the chance to have news sent directly to them.

“We already have over forty followers and we just started,” said Williams. The subscription feature, along with Facebook advertisements and tweets about the city’s new media outlet are quickly spreading the word about the blog.

The blog will focus on the news while trying to stay interactive, “The main goal of this blog [is to engage] the community and [tell them] what they want to hear,” Williams explained.

It will have occasional surveys and will always be open to comments from businesses and local citizens.

The blog will feature special guests as time goes on including posts from Mayor Brenda Halloran and her council, department members around the city and “down the road, [maybe] getting some guest bloggers from the university,” Williams suggested.

The city’s blog looks to “drop the corporate lingo” and work to get the news out without adding unnecessary commentary.

“This will be information that everyone will want to tap into,” Williams pointed out.

The blog will cover city news, upcoming events and everything else the community wants to hear.