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Information technology has become a key instrument for government officials to disseminate relevant, timely information, particularly during a crisis (Lin et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020). At the local level, advances in digital technologies offer new or improved ways for municipal managers to promulgate information. Conventionally, the official city website is still one of the most prominent and commonly adopted digital tools for municipal communication. Websites also provide a platform for a city to create a visualized identity, document its actions and praxis, and communicate its images to targeted audiences (Boisen et al., 2018; Florek et al., 2006; Sadler et al., 2016). Despite the fundamental role a website plays in city-to-public communications, the use of social media is gaining popularity among municipalities in the United States.
Social media channels are becoming an important and popular means for municipal managers to broadcast information and engage the public (Bennett & Manoharan, 2017). Official social media portals, such as Twitter and Facebook, allow constituents and visitors to communicate with government officials through multiple channels. In addition to enhancing city-public interactions, better management and utilization of these online communication tools enhances a city’s brand. The application of targeted communication through digital media contributes to creating a city’s brand values as a tourism destination by cultivating awareness and credibility (Stojanovic et al., 2018). Increasingly, as cities adopt branding techniques to position themselves nationally and internationally (Lucarelli & Berg, 2011; Zavattaro, 2010), digital media is seen as instrumental to the improvement of public relations (Manoharan & Wu, 2021). By branding itself through different media, a city can emphasize the distinct features of its location, making it more attractive and competitive. Effective image promotion through an official online platform could even increase the perceived trust and satisfaction of the citizenry toward local government (Schmidthuber et al., 2019). These phenomena point to the crucial role of digital interactions between the government and the public.
Websites remain essential for digital interaction; however, social media platforms enlarge a user base. YouTube is one of the fastest growing platforms (Ortiz-Ospina, 2019; Pew Research Center, 2019). Although some platforms, such as Snapchat and Instagram, are more popular among younger audiences, YouTube is accessed by diverse age groups (Perrin & Anderson, 2019). It is critical to examine the current state of YouTube’s application among local governments due to its appeal among multiple audiences. This article will investigate the YouTube channels of Tampa, Minneapolis, and Tulsa to analyze communication tactics and use of the platform. The following research question framed the investigation in this exploratory case study: How have Tampa, Minneapolis, and Tulsa adapted YouTube for public communications and public engagement?
We selected these cities as part of a separate study into municipal website digital branding, as conducted by Manoharan et al. (2023). The cities scored high marks according to the City Branding Index that Manoharan et al. (2023) advanced from the framework of Florek et al. (2006). The Manoharan et al. (2023) study scored each city’s brand identity, brand communication, brand engagement, and brand operations on its website. In the current study, we focus our analysis on each city’s official YouTube channels to delineate similarities or differences in their videos as they were updated from January 2020 to August 2020. In particular, we were interested in communication and audience engagement, two aspects related to public relations in public administration. We also investigated the possible variance of how audiences perceived these official YouTube channels.