As social networking becomes more prevalent in the lives of many residents, Wythe County has jumped into the new media age to a booming response. The county’s presence on Facebook is part of a larger effort to connect with the residents of Wythe County and help better communicate information.

The Wythe County Facebook account officially launched on Oct. 29, 2011. In the month of its existence, the account has been accepting and adding friends by the hundreds, with a current friend count of almost 1,300.

By “friending” the account, users can view status updates that contain information about Wythe County meetings, news and public information. In addition, users can view press releases in the “notes” section of the page and view photographs of events from around the area.

“Social media is an important tool to keep the public informed,” said Jenna Coleman, Public Information Officer for Wythe County. “During my interviews for this position, it was evident that the personal committee, Mr. Dalton and the entire Board of Supervisors wanted to make a conscious effort to reach the residents of Wythe County and who ever was hired would have social media as a key responsibility.”

At the beginning of the launch, the Facebook account was adding 80 to 100 users per day to its friend list. Today, the average daily friend count is about 30 users. The decline in daily user adds is not considered a negative attribute, however, it is a sense of stability.

“The hundreds of users a day in the beginning shows that in the first few weeks we really reaching those online county residents that were waiting for the chance to connect through social media,” explained Coleman. “The fact that we have a stable number of users requesting the account daily is a sign of success in itself.”

Coleman added, “With the more than 800 million users on Facebook sending out an average of only eight friend requests each per month, it really is a remarkable thing to have almost three times that daily.”

In addition to the Facebook account, Wythe County has “pages” that users can “like” for specialized up dates. There is a general Wythe County page to accompany the account, which Coleman hopes will give added communication venues.

“It’s a known fact in the social media world that users will accept a friend request or send a friend request faster than they will like a page, which is why we created the account first,” said Coleman. “Now that we have a stable base, we are branching off into pages to give more specific information that a user might need. We hope the additional county page will get messages out there faster and prevent an important update from getting lost in newsfeeds.”

Other pages include the Wythe County Parks and Recreation page where users can find updates about classes, events and announcements from the Wythe County Parks and Recreation Department. Also, a Wythe County Tourism page has been created to help promote the industry of Wythe County. Other pages including one for a recycling initiative will be launching soon.

Coleman added the “like pages” are just beginning to grow and every resident should be aware of the county’s presents online. In addition to Facebook, Wythe County recently launched a Twitter account hoping to relay information though “tweets” to users who use Twitter both online and via cell phones.

Other social media account will be launched soon including those on LinkedIn and Google Plus.

At the Nov. 22, 2011 Board of Supervisors meeting, a social media policy was adopted that established guidelines for the county’s social media use. The policy can be found on the county Website.

A link to the Wythe County Facebook account can be found on the homepage of the county Website or by visiting www.facebook.com/wythecounty. Links to Wythe County pages and the comment policy can be found in the account’s information section.