Fort Saskatchewan “On The Button” With Twitter

From Tweeting local news to helping our Mayor find a lost coat button, it appears local residents, staff, and organizations are certainly “on the button” when it comes to embracing social media in our community.

This holiday season, one of the most interesting social media stories originates with Fort Saskatchewan Mayor Gale Katchur. Keen observers of Mayor Katchur’s fashion may notice that she tends to wear a special red blazer for photos — one that she purchased on a trip to the US South, that is “really a one-of-a-kind,” she said. It wasn’t until doing a video shoot for Shaw TV that she noticed she had somehow lost one of the buttons from the blazer.

Not long after hearing of the missing button, Shell Theatre’s Elizabeth Budd located a possible match, and posted an image of it to Twitter. “The next day on Twitter, a button! And yes, it was mine,” said Katchur. “The absolute best Customer Service goes to the Dow Centennial Centre,” she said via Twitter. “Imagine losing a button, tweeting a photo and the owner gets it back!”

Several council members have embraced Twitter, including Mayor Katchur (@galekatchur), Coun. Stew Hennig (@stewhennig), and Coun Don Westman (@Donwestman). Also on Twitter is Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville MLA (@EdStelmachMLA), and Edmonton-Sherwood Park MP Hon. Tim Uppal (@MinTimUppal).

In terms of City departments and local organizations, Shell Theatre has a very active Twitter account curated by Elizabeth Budd (@Shelltheatre), while local community theatre group Sheeptown Players tweets as well (@SheeptownPlayer). The Fort Saskatchewan Public Library also tweets (@FSaskLib).

Also very active on Twitter is the Fort Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce (@FtSaskChamber), as is their Executive Director and former Fort Saskatchewan Record Editor, Conal Macmillan (@conal_mac). OEP is also quite engaged with social media, with this writer tweeting as well (@rsellin).

A range of local businesses are also engaged with the community via Twitter, including: Broadstreet Properties (@broadstreet_ca), Pots Bar and Grill (@PotsBarAndGrill), Advantage Signs (@AdvantageSigns) and Drayden Insurance (@Catherine_Cake).

http://twitter.com/#!/