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Manhattan Beach Fine-Tunes Its Online Presence

Sep 01, 2021 07:30AM ● By Jefferson Graham

Photo via Jefferson Graham

The city of Manhattan Beach is looking to fine-tune its social media and web presence, with a new domain name and social media handles.

The changes come at a time when a city's online presence is more important than ever for communication and awareness.

Manhattan Beach began by changing its website domain address to manhattanbeach.gov, from the old citymb.info.

Next up, the plan is to update its Instagram and Facebook pages to have new addresses as well. The city is planning to use @manhattanbeachcity (instead of the current @cityofmb handle) on Instagram, and "City of Manhattan Beach" on Facebook (instead of the current citymb address). It’s awaiting approval from the two platforms for this, and once that approval comes in, the city also expects to change its YouTube channel to @manhattanbeachcity. 

(Twitter has a character limit, and it won’t be able to fit @manhattanbeachcity, so Manhattan Beach will stick with the current @citymb.)

The city updated its web address for stronger cyber security, and by having the .gov domain,
it “establishes that we are a U.S. based government organization, and brings more
credibility,” to the website, according to Jessica Vincent, Manhattan Beach’s communications and civic engagement manager.

Manhattan Beach has an outsized following on social media, thanks to people’s fascination
with the heavily photographed Manhattan Beach Pier. The city's social media team scours Instagram daily looking for great pier shots to spotlight on Manhattan Beach accounts, said Vincent.

“We are constantly looking for lifestyle photos to use on our different social platforms, and to
offer support to some local photographers,” she said.

Throughout social media, hashtags like #ManhattanBeach or #ManhattanBeachPier help people track and find photos of the city they love. The city will be introducing a new hashtag, #mymanhattanbeach, in the coming weeks to help people track Manhattan Beach pictures, added Vincent.

Meanwhile, more Manhattan Beach pictures can be found in the city's other Instagram accounts, including @MBParksandRec, @ManhattanBeachPD, and @ManhattanBeachFire.

Beyond showing off photos of Manhattan Beach on its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, the city has also developed branded merchandise that features the city's official logo. City staff members operate a Manhattan Beach merchandise store that offers t-shirts, coffee cups, water bottles and the like.

Vincent says most of the sales come from online, but that the city hopes to have pop-ups at more upcoming local events, such the Hometown Fair in October.

Jefferson Graham is a Manhattan Beach writer-photographer, and the host of the travel
photography streaming TV series Photowalks, which can been on the Tubi app.

DigMB Editor Jeanne Fratello is traveling in Italy for her food blog Jolly Tomato. A series of Manhattan Beach guest columnists will be filling in for her until she returns.


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