"Twitter's weird," one of our clients said the other day, and it wasn't the first time we've heard it. Many people love it but others don't see the benefits or like it very much at all. But however you feel about the little blue bird, your parks and recreation agency can use it to its advantage. With millions of users following accounts they want to receive information from, Twitter offers another way to distribute information to your customers for free.The following 50 city and county park and recreation agencies use Twitter to connect with customers, answer questions, make announcements, discuss fitness and health, release registration dates and more. As a recreation professional, consider following these accounts as templates for what your agency could tweet about. (The list was compiled based on number of followers, content provided, number of tweets, interactions with followers, recent activity and overall use of Twitter to connect with customers. From there, the list was ordered from most followers to least followers.)
- NYC Parks & Rec (@NYCParks): 35,560 followers
- Cleveland Metroparks (@clevemetroparks): 10,766 followers
- Chicago Parks District (@ChicagoParks): 9,401 followers
- Seattle Parks (@SeattleParks): 7,421 followers
- East Bay Regional Parks (@ebrpd): 5,602 followers
- Philadelphia Park and Rec (@PhilaParkandRec): 4,296 followers
- San Francisco Recreation and Park (@RecParkSF): 3,223 followers
- Louisville, KY Metro Parks (@loumetroparks): 4,050 followers
- Raleigh Parks and Recreation (@raleighparks): 3,822 followers
- DC Parks and Recreation (@DCDPR) : 3,538 followers
- OKC Parks (@okcparks): 3,170 followers
- Ann Arbor Parks & Recreation (@A2Parks): 2,820 followers
- Boise Parks & Recreation (@boiseparks): 2,496 followers
- Portland Parks & Recreation (@PDXParksandRec): 2,320 followers
- Boulder Parks and Recreation (@boulderparksrec): 2,234 followers
- Northbrook, IL Park Districk (@NBparkdistrict): 2,328 followers
- Indianapolis Parks & Recreation (@IndyParksandRec): 2,278 followers
- Milwaukee County Parks (@CountyParks): 2,143 followers
- Phoenix Parks & Recreation (@PhoenixParks): 2,063 followers
- Spokane Parks & Recreation (@SpokaneRec): 1,936 followers
- City of Henderson (@COHParksandRec): 1,824 followers
- Metro Parks - Summit (@metro_parks): 1,735 followers
- Fayetteville, AR Parks and Recreation (@FayParksAndRec): 1,701 followers
- Ramsey County Parks & Rec (@RamseyCtyParks): 1,695 followers
- Baltimore City Recreation & Parks (@BCRP): 1,626 followers
- Fredericton Recreation & Leisure (@CityFredRec): 1,570 followers
- Naperville Park District (@NaperParks): 1,560 followers
- Play Madison Parks (@playmadison): 1,549 followers
- Springfield-Green County Park Board (@TheParkBoard): 1,543 followers
- Foothills Park & Rec (@FHPRDnews): 1,496 followers
- Chandler, AZ Recreation (@ChandlerRec): 1,490 followers
- Chattanooga Parks and Recreation (@ChattParkRec): 1,439 followers
- St. Petersburg, FL Parks & Recreation (@StPeteParkRec): 1,381 followers
- Lake County, OH Metro Parks (@Lake_Metroparks): 1,347 followers
- Roanoke County Parks (@Recreation): 1,322 followers
- Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation (@lacountyparks): 1,313 followers
- Bend Parks & Rec (@bendparksandrec): 1,234 followers
- Denver Parks and Recreation (@denverparksrec): 1,217 followers
- Saint Paul Parks and Recreation (@SaintPaulParks): 1,216 followers
- Kane County Forest Preserve (@ForestReserve): 1,214 followers
- Penticton, BC Recreation (@pentictonrec): 1,209 followers
- JaxParks (@JaxParks): 1,186 followers
- Deerfield Park District (@Deerfield_Parks): 1,180 followers
- Minneapolis Park & Rec (@MplsParkBoard): 1,174 followers
- Boston Parks Department (@BostonParksDept): 1,154 followers
- Northvanrec (@northvanrec): 1,100 followers
- City of Mississauga, ON Recreation (@MississaugaRP): 1,081 followers
- Plano, TX Parks & Recreation: (@PlanoParksRec): 1,087 followers
- Anchorage Parks & Recreation (@ANCgreenparks): 966 followers
- Roanoke Parks (@PLAYRoanoke): 966 followers
- Carlsbad Parks & Recreation (@carlsbadparkrec): 856 followers
- Saanich, BC Parks & Rec (@SaanichParksRec): 849 followers
- Canton, MI Leisure Services (@cantonfun): 815 followers
- Eugene Recreation (@EugRec): 810 followers
- Tupelo, MS Parks and Recreation (@tupeloparkrec): 796 followers
- Fort Collins, CO Recreation (@FCRecreator): 752 followers
- Aspen Parks & Recreation (@APRTweets): 744 followers
- Annapolis Recreation & Parks (@AnnapolisRec): 724 followers
- Park DIstrict of Oak Park (@ParkDistOakPark): 720 followers
- Schaumburg, IL Park District (@SchaumburgParks): 707 followers
- Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine (@LongBeachParks): 652 followers
Now what?
- Did we miss a P&R agency? Let us know in the comments.
- Follow the complete list on Twitter with one click here.
*Follower numbers as of: February 19, 2013