This North Texas city says it is unplugging from social media to better serve residents
Rhome’s city administrator Amanda DeGan said she often works from home in order to respond to comments and answer questions on the city’s Facebook page on topics including boil notices and upcoming events.
DeGan said Rhome is saying goodbye to Facebook and will use an app called GoGov to communicate important information directly to residents.
The change should take place during the next two or three months, she said.
The Gogov app allows cities to send notifications and post meeting agendas and other types of information, she said.
Rhome hasn’t officially announced the change, but signs with QR codes for the new app will be posted around the city.
DeGan said she learned that many citizens don’t use Facebook to get their information, and the social media platform’s algorithms mean that some see information from Rhome and others don’t.
“We have limited staff, and we don’t have a dedicated communications department,” DeGan said.
She added that Rhome is not on other social media platforms such as X.
“We just don’t have the bandwidth,” she said.
A post that generated a lot of comments and questions was about a boil water notice affecting the city after a main broke in early September, DeGan said.
The post garnered 112 comments.
DeGan said she hasn’t heard of other cities cutting ties with social media platforms.
”People are looking at us and trying to determine how that willl work,” she said.