Savvy Citizen
Informed Citizens
Municipal government impacts citizens’ lives on a daily basis yet most residents know little about what’s going on in their community. Municipalities really don’t have a trusted, reliable way to engage residents via a modern communication channel.
Problematic communication
Let’s consider the communication methods many municipalities currently employ:
Municipal website
This is a must have for municipalities and many municipalities do a good job of keeping their website updated with information, calendar events and forms that residents require.
Problem
Most residents don’t frequent their municipal website often and will miss time sensitive information. Some municipalities design and invest in very sophisticated and feature rich websites but unfortunately, if residents don’t frequent them, they’ll never experience the website and all it has to offer.
Newspapers
In many places, municipalities are required by law to post public notices for ordinances changes, public hearings, etc. in local newspapers.
Problem
The public notices are generally buried in the paper were few can find them and newspaper readership has declined every year for the past decade.
Newsletters
Newsletter can be a great source of information for residents. The municipality controls the content and distribution.
Problem
Newsletters cannot be used for real-time communication, are time consuming to produce and are very expensive to mail.
Social Media
Everyone likes to stay in contact with their friends from high school or that third cousin that lives out of state. Social media is also very attractive from a cost perspective as in most cases, it’s free to use. And, sites like Facebook have been adopted by a significant percentage of the U.S. population.
Problem
It's not a guaranteed communication method or a trustworthy source of information.
"Why Social Media Doesn't Work" dives further into this topic.
Savvy Citizen is the solution.
Savvy Citizen is a comprehensive notification system that enables municipalities to engage residents via their smartphones by sending community updates, municipal news, event reminders, alerts and more. Municipalities leverage our website to manage notifications and events.
Calendar Events
Savvy Citizen includes a robust event scheduling engine that informs and reminds residents of important events at the appropriate time so municipalities don’t have to. Recurring events only need to be entered in once and will be placed on the calendar on the correct days and times.
Notifications & Alerts
Municipalities can send notifications and emergency alerts to residents in less than a minute. Emergency alerts go out immediately with top priority. Users may include links to websites that contain additional information.
Check out some actual examples here.
Quick, Convenient
Your information is delivered right to your residents in a way that is convenient to them.
All the details they need, right at their fingertips.
Getting started is easy.
In just a few simple steps, your community will be up and running.
1
Register.
Registration is simple, easy, and free. We simply need a little bit of information to verify you represent your community.
There is no commitment to use the service.
2
Review offer.
Once approved, you'll receive an email letting you know that your account is ready to be setup.
You'll be able to review your official price, payment options, and any discounts.
3
Payment.
Choose your payment plan, and enter your payment method. Your chosen recurring payment will be setup and start immediately.
You can cancel at any time from the website.
4
Blast off.
You will immediately gain access to Savvy Citizen’s administrative features for your community.
Start setting up shop by creating additional users, populating your calendar or sending a notification.
We'll work quickly to let your residents and those of your neighboring communities know they can now follow you on Savvy Citizen.