“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.) 

1. NYC Parks & Rec (@NYCParks): 35,560 followers
2. Cleveland Metroparks (@clevemetroparks): 10,766 followers
3. Chicago Parks District (@ChicagoParks): 9,401 followers
4. Seattle Parks (@SeattleParks): 7,421 followers
5. East Bay Regional Parks (@ebrpd): 5,602 followers
6. Philadelphia Park and Rec (@PhilaParkandRec): 4,296 followers
7. San Francisco Recreation and Park (@RecParkSF): 3,223 followers
8. Louisville, KY Metro Parks (@loumetroparks): 4,050 followers
9. Raleigh Parks and Recreation (@raleighparks): 3,822 followers
10. DC Parks and Recreation (@DCDPR) : 3,538 followers
11. OKC Parks (@okcparks): 3,170 followers
12. Ann Arbor Parks & Recreation (@A2Parks): 2,820 followers
13. Boise Parks & Recreation (@boiseparks): 2,496 followers
14. Portland Parks & Recreation (@PDXParksandRec): 2,320 followers
15. Boulder Parks and Recreation (@boulderparksrec): 2,234 followers
16. Northbrook, IL Park Districk (@NBparkdistrict): 2,328 followers
17. Indianapolis Parks & Recreation (@IndyParksandRec): 2,278 followers
18. Milwaukee County Parks (@CountyParks): 2,143 followers
19. Phoenix Parks & Recreation (@PhoenixParks): 2,063 followers
20. Spokane Parks & Recreation (@SpokaneRec): 1,936 followers
21. City of Henderson (@COHParksandRec): 1,824 followers
22. Metro Parks – Summit (@metro_parks): 1,735 followers
23. Fayetteville, AR Parks and Recreation (@FayParksAndRec): 1,701 followers
24. Ramsey County Parks & Rec (@RamseyCtyParks): 1,695 followers
25. Baltimore City Recreation & Parks (@BCRP): 1,626 followers
26. Fredericton Recreation & Leisure (@CityFredRec): 1,570 followers
27. Naperville Park District (@NaperParks): 1,560 followers
28. Play Madison Parks (@playmadison): 1,549 followers
29. Springfield-Green County Park Board (@TheParkBoard): 1,543 followers
30. Foothills Park & Rec (@FHPRDnews): 1,496 followers
31. Chandler, AZ Recreation (@ChandlerRec): 1,490 followers
32. Chattanooga Parks and Recreation (@ChattParkRec): 1,439 followers
33. St. Petersburg, FL Parks & Recreation (@StPeteParkRec): 1,381 followers
34. Lake County, OH Metro Parks (@Lake_Metroparks): 1,347 followers
35. Roanoke County Parks (@Recreation): 1,322 followers
36. Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation (@lacountyparks): 1,313 followers
37. Bend Parks & Rec (@bendparksandrec): 1,234 followers
38. Denver Parks and Recreation (@denverparksrec): 1,217 followers
39. Saint Paul Parks and Recreation (@SaintPaulParks): 1,216 followers
40. Kane County Forest Preserve (@ForestReserve): 1,214 followers
41. Penticton, BC Recreation (@pentictonrec): 1,209 followers
42. JaxParks (@JaxParks): 1,186 followers
43. Deerfield Park District (@Deerfield_Parks): 1,180 followers
44. Minneapolis Park & Rec (@MplsParkBoard): 1,174 followers
45. Boston Parks Department (@BostonParksDept): 1,154 followers
46. Northvanrec (@northvanrec): 1,100 followers
47. City of Mississauga, ON Recreation (@MississaugaRP): 1,081 followers
48. Plano, TX Parks & Recreation: (@PlanoParksRec): 1,087 followers
49. Anchorage Parks & Recreation (@ANCgreenparks): 966 followers
50. Roanoke Parks (@PLAYRoanoke): 966 followers
51. Carlsbad Parks & Recreation (@carlsbadparkrec): 856 followers
52. Saanich, BC Parks & Rec (@SaanichParksRec): 849 followers
53. Canton, MI Leisure Services (@cantonfun): 815 followers
54. Eugene Recreation (@EugRec): 810 followers
55. Tupelo, MS Parks and Recreation (@tupeloparkrec): 796 followers
56. Fort Collins, CO Recreation (@FCRecreator): 752 followers
57. Aspen Parks & Recreation (@APRTweets): 744 followers
58. Annapolis Recreation & Parks (@AnnapolisRec): 724 followers
59. Park DIstrict of Oak Park (@ParkDistOakPark): 720 followers
60. Schaumburg, IL Park District (@SchaumburgParks): 707 followers
61. Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine (@LongBeachParks): 652 followers

Now what?

• Did we miss a P&R agency? Tweet at @activecommunity to get your P&R agency’s Twitter account listed. (*Editor’s Note: The list will continue to grow beyond 50 as more Twitter accounts are submitted.)
• Follow the complete list on Twitter with one click here (This is a Twitter list that tracks the activity from the users listed above).
• Follow us on Twitter for more P&R trends and marketing/tech tips:

Follow @ACTIVEcommunity

*Follower numbers, last updated: February 19, 2013