Social Media and Local Governments: Navigating the New Public Square, Second Edition

The new edition of Social Media and Local Governments: Navigating the New Public Square updates the guide to cover the many changes to social media platforms and terminology from the intervening years; years in which social media use by governments, government officials, and employees has been growing rapidly. In addition, much has changed in the legal landscape, with the United States Supreme Court and other courts weighing in on many thorny legal issues the first edition could only speculate about.

Social Media and Local Governments: Navigating the New Public Square, Second Edition provides practical information to government attorneys, officials, and employees in their use of social media in the government setting. Topics include:

• What social media is and who uses it.
• How local governments can benefit from use of social media
• How communities across the country implement social media in their communication activities
• First Amendment implications with government social media usage.
• Sunshine laws, disability protections, copyright and artificial intelligence, and privacy concerns
• Government official and employee use of social media, whether at the workplace or on their own time, and the various legal issues they can encounter.
• Ethical issues faced by public officials in the social media context, including members of quasi-judicial boards and commissions and government attorneys.
• And more!

Julie A. Tappendorf is an equity partner with Ancel Glink, P.C., in Chicago, Illinois, and focuses her practice on local government and social media law. She is one of the coauthors of the first edition of Social Media and Local Governments: Navigating the New Public Square (ABA, 2013) and has authored a number of other books, chapters, and articles on local government and social media–related topics. Tappendorf is a frequent speaker at national and local conferences on local government issues, including participating annually in the Government Social Media Conference (GSMCON), and has trained thousands of local government officials and employees on best practices in their use of social media. She is also the author of a blog about local government legal issues, Municipal Minute, available at http://municipalminute.ancelglink.com. In addition, she has drafted and reviewed numerous social media policies for the firm’s government clients. Tappendorf is grateful to Ancel Glink associate Erin Monforti for her research and assistance on this second edition and is thankful for Patty Salkin’s invaluable work on the first edition of this book.