In keeping with the surge of social media popularity, a “Twitter town hall” took place Monday night to encourage discussion between students, residents and officials on ways to improve Starkville.
The online event took place from 8 to 10 p.m. and was open to anyone who wanted to join the conversation using the trending topic #Starkville2012. The chat included representatives from local businesses, organizations and Mississippi State University, as well as any Twitter user who had an interest in voicing opinions about the college town.
Haley Montgomery, social media consultant for Greater Starkville Development Partnership, said the virtual town hall meeting was sponsored by Starkville Main Street, Starkville Convention & Visitors Bureau and Greater Starkville Partnership. The idea for the event came from a side comment casually made after conversations on Twitter regarding the city got heated.
“We just wanted to start a conversation and get people talking,” she said. “We were really interested in getting information on the perception of Starkville. We definitely needed to moderate it with a set of questions to start it with questions framed from conversations (on Twitter) the week before.”
Montgomery said some of the questions were geared toward promoting the downtown area, but the idea was to receive feedback on how the city can be improved so changes can be made to continue to enhance Starkville.
“Our job is to know and communicate how great Starkville is,” she said. “There are a lot of people who love Starkville and want to see it improve. We have to hear the negative in order to fix it.”
Montgomery said the feedback was hard to qualify as positive or negative with a lot of people voicing their opinions on changing certain things in order to improve Starkville. She said she was pleasantly surprised at how many people joined the conversation with early numbers estimating approximately 2,100 tweets and around 400 Twitter users making their voices heard.
“We’re still getting feedback, which is a byproduct (of the chat), and we’re pleased,” she said. “Continued dialogue is good.”
Montgomery said they are currently working to use transcripts of the conversation to form a concise report to present to the Board of Aldermen, Student Association, Main Street members and other bodies of power in the community. She said they are open to the idea of hosting Twitter town halls in the future but will likely base them on single topics rather than such a wide array of thoughts and ideas.
Jeremiah Dumas, Board of Aldermen member, said in an email he believed the event was great, especially since it served the purpose of giving specific age groups, and demographics a platform to voice their opinions.
“Social media is a great tool that is being used more and more by all age groups, and we the city need to do a better job of utilizing technology to educate and receive feedback on city government,” he said.
Shannon Stoker, Deep South Pout owner, said she was excited her business was able to participate in the virtual town hall meeting as it allowed for transparency between businesses and their customers.
“It allowed local businesses to get honest and speak to one another, which makes everyone stronger, and get real-time feedback,” she said. 
She said people outside of the community were also able to give feedback, which helps to build a better Starkville.
Stoker said events such as the Twitter town hall help to bring together the entire community with one goal in mind, which is to make Starkville become a thriving and self-sufficient community.
“It’s not just where we do business, but it’s home,” she said.
Rhett Hobart, Student Association president, said he agreed the event was definitely a positive step forward for the community.
“The Twitter town hall was a great step for the city of Starkville in gaining feedback of students, residents and alumni about their vision for the city’s future,” he said. “It is a true testament to the progressive leadership we have in place who are determined to make Starkville the best it can possibly be.”