Fairfax County Government earned Nextdoor’s “Neighborly Award” during a recent national government social media conference.

The award, part of the 2024 Golden Post Awards at the annual Government Social Media Conference in Palm Springs, California, honored the county for its long-time, successful use of Nextdoor.

Nextdoor chose Fairfax County out of thousands of other governments across the country using the neighborhood social media platform for several reasons, including:

• Engaging posts with large numbers of quality posts driving real value to their neighbors.
• By consistently polling neighborhoods on the value residents are getting out of posts, the county can adapt their Nextdoor content to be meaningful for residents.
• Staff from multiple departments actively post and use their department name and their real name.
• Following best practices and defining new best practices use of Nextdoor during crises (such as alerts for select weather events, public safety issues and health incidents).

Fairfax County features several departments and offices sharing information on Nextdoor either countywide, to defined districts and/or with just a few neighborhoods:

• County Government
• Police
• Fire and Rescue
• Health Department
• Planning and Development
• Board of Supervisors

More than 425,000 county residents have signed up on Nextdoor across more than 1,100 distinct neighborhoods. Nextdoor provides its platform to governments to reach verified residents without needing to attract account followers like other social media platforms. Fairfax County first joined Nextdoor in 2016 when the Police Department began its presence with crime prevention officers from each district station sharing key information and engaging neighbors, which continues today.

The Office of Public Affairs, which leads the county’s main account, has surveyed Nextdoor residents each year since 2020 to gauge satisfaction and content preferences. In the 2024 survey, 81 percent of respondents expressed positive satisfaction with the county’s use of Nextdoor, while 82 percent agreed they’ve learned more about their local government, programs and services through county posts.

“Our use of Nextdoor has been a reliable way to connect with verified county residents about many issues, especially during emergencies and emerging incidents,” says Tony Castrilli, director of public affairs. “What our collective county team has achieved through the years with this recognition is remarkable given the changing nature of social media today.”

Since 2020, Fairfax County has served on Nextdoor’s Public Agency Advisory Council, with Greg Licamele, the county’s digital content director, directly advocating Nextdoor’s leadership on behalf of county residents to enhance the user experience related to county government information. Police Department personnel have also assisted Nextdoor in creating public safety content templates for communities across the country.

The county’s use of Nextdoor aligns with the Countywide Strategic Plan for Effective and Efficient Government, specifically gauging customer satisfaction, community engagement, and enhancing communication to the community by using all available methods and tailoring messaging to individual needs (in Nextdoor’s case, by geography and neighborhood).