Latest / Modern Gov Matters / Modern Gov Matters with Emory Bedenbaugh at #GSMCON2026
Transcript
- Sarah Loyd: Welcome to this special episode of Modern Gov Matters. Recently, Team SND-CivAll went to GSMCON 2026, the Government Social Media Conference, in New Orleans, Louisiana. We had the chance to meet with customers, talk to friends new and old, and share a little bit about CivSocial, our new social media management tool purpose-built for government. We got a lot of great questions and can't wait to show everyone what's coming. I also led a choose your own adventure style session on managing a social media crisis We also spoke to our friend, Emory Bedenbaugh, who shared some of what he learned at GSMCON. Emory Bedenbaugh: Emory, so what excites you most about civic engagement today? I think what excites me the most ⁓ is how municipalities can be personified through social media. to where you can give a government or county or whoever it is, like a brand. And it used to be just businesses who got to have their own personalities. But nowadays, you bring that personal touch a municipality to where residents ⁓ and can engage in a fun instead of just boring. Sarah Loyd: Thanks for joining us for this special GSMCON episode of ModernGovMatters. For more episodes, visit us at moderngovmatters.com and we'll see you in two weeks. Emory Bedenbaugh: Okay, so fill in the blank. Government communicators don't talk enough about blank. Government communicators don't talk enough about campaigns and by that I mean some ⁓ municipalities and how I started was it was just kind of information just happening the within the area and portraying it to its ⁓ residents but then when figured out when we started to ⁓ do events and create an events department. turned into kind of a brand awareness campaigns through whether it be meta ads or Google ads to try and drive ⁓ people who live in the but also outside of the city to see how cool you are and kind of see how fun your events are and how fun your town is. ⁓ And so in return, it's led to economic development and has led to younger families interested in moving to us versus other cities in our area. What's your biggest struggle with ⁓ creating campaigns? I would say the time consumption ⁓ because obviously wear ⁓ like many multiple with being designers and photographers. ⁓ and marketing strategists, whether we like it or not, and videographer and photo editor, video editor. I can go on, etc. But I would say the time consumption. So we're like from for me, like, especially when you kind of first dip your toe into those ad campaign softwares, it can be a lot at first. But from I've seen is that meta especially kind of been there to kind of hold your hand. Just make sure to make sure that you have a radius because one time I did a campaign of an artisan market for us and I got a reply from somebody in Texas saying, I think you reached too far. How has AI affected your work and what are your thoughts overall on AI? I love AI. AI, I have always said, and I will die on this hill, that AI is the best unpaid intern you'll ever have. Will you rely on it to do it by itself? No. just like any interns starting out. But can it give you great ideas can it help kind of lead you to certain and certain ideas? Absolutely. What's been one of the best ways that you've used AI in your job? I have thread on Gemini where I started it and want to say it's now up to me talking to it like 200 plus. ⁓ But the very, very first thing I said, was you are a marketing expert with 15 years of experience. also have 10 years of experience in local government, whether it be through city council or as a city manager, whatever have it. I want you to combine those expertises and help me generate content and help me generate ideas for marketing campaigns for ⁓ my work. And then I always end it with before starting this, ask five to 10 questions before we start. And then it asked me those things and it really specified it to where now I'm on, yeah, again, maybe like thought bubble 200. And it's been very consistent. What's one thing that you heard or saw at GSMCON that you're actually going to try when you get home? Honestly, using Canva in ⁓ a new light, really. When the general keynote session happened and Canva showed up kind of dove especially more into AI portions of it, I realized that what would have taken me 20 minutes, especially creating graphic thread of different dates, but it's the same graphic and now I can just plug and play has been a game changer, which I've heard that SND is going to be converting with Canva soon. I'm just very excited at how just ⁓ social media always changes. just that type of person to where like I like a routine, but I don't like it to be repetitive. ⁓ I how social media is a Rubik's Cube that always reshuffles itself and you get to solve it and then it changes all over And I enjoy it to where I used to work in the business and corporate world of digital marketing. it's just, feels more ⁓ public service now as opposed to revenue building.