Here’s an interesting concept I heard about the other day that I’d love to see become a best practice.

You guys know I don’t like to talk about work, but something came up that was just too good not to share. During a recent citywide social media meeting (Wait, your city doesn’t have them? Maybe that should be today’s best practice.), we discussed a weekend when our social-media-loving Mayor didn’t have anything on his calendar, so he decided to personally respond to everyone who reached out to him on Twitter. (Look around your office. If anyone who works in Communications' jaw is on the floor, they’re probably reading this right now.) Everyone. In most places this would be a great thing (and I think it was a great thing here, too), but in a city of 1.5 million generally cranky and sometimes contentious residents, it can get a bit hinky. Rest assured, we as a government survived. But we, thanks to our Mayor, also learned a valuable lesson: he doesn’t know everything that’s happening in our city.

For a Mayor like ours, who likes to be hands-on and give the right answer the first time, you can understand how frustrating this must’ve been. So, we came up with a plan to have all of us in each of the Departments check in on the tweets directed at our Mayor. If there was something that fell under our purview (Health for me, Parks for another fellow, Licenses and Inspections yet another, etc.) that the Mayor didn’t already address, we were given carte blanche to answer the question. No approval needed, no coordination through myriad channels necessary. If you’ve got the answer, give it. We weren’t provided with schedules, no assignments given; just check in when you get a chance. True social media spirit.

This is an important tactic for a variety of reasons. First, and maybe most importantly, it takes the burden of being the City’s everything off of the Mayor. He is high visibility, so everyone knows his Twitter account and reaches out to him first. Then he’s presented with the choice of ignoring constituents or repeating his “Ask Me Anything” weekend. No good choice there. Maybe just as important, though, is that allows the public to see that our City government is more than just a Mayor and his handlers. It’s real-life experts who spend all day thinking about that question you just asked. It’s real customer service. (Key point: serving the customer/constituent in the format and fashion that they request—huge.) And in today’s economy, proving that your job is important and necessary is a big bonus. Finally, by actively participating in the Mayors' very popular feed, those smaller, more specific Twitter accounts and users get the kind of visibility they can’t pay for. Win, win, win!

(And as for those trite downsides: speaking for the Mayor and the lack of approvals? Every person on an official City Twitter account is speaking for the Mayor all day long already. He’s the one responsible at the end of the day, so why not let him benefit from that relationship by relieving some of the burden? And unless your Mayor already approves each tweet now… Well, you’ve got bigger problems if that’s the case.)