Web 2.0 and Social Media Growth in Planning Practice: A Longitudinal Study

This paper looks at the growth of web-based communication for planning practice in local government over a three-year period. Despite communication with the community being an integral part of local government functions, the types of communication being used are rarely monitored or analysed. This paper provides a longitudinal comparison of the types of web-based communication, including social media and smartphone applications being employed by local government in New South Wales, Australia, and investigates the activity and sentiment of Twitter accounts for a sample of local government agencies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the growth of social media.