{"id":4099,"date":"2017-03-15T11:37:39","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T11:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/facebooks-new-town-hall-feature-helps-you-find-and-contact-your-government-reps-2.html"},"modified":"2017-03-15T11:37:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T11:37:39","slug":"facebooks-new-town-hall-feature-helps-you-find-and-contact-your-government-reps-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/facebooks-new-town-hall-feature-helps-you-find-and-contact-your-government-reps-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Facebook\u2019s new \u201cTown Hall\u201d feature helps you find and contact your government reps"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s nearly 6,000-word manifesto<\/a> published last month, he laid out a number of\u00a0global ambitions<\/a> he had for the social network in the days ahead \u2013 including one where its users became\u00a0more \u201ccivically-engaged\u201d and voted more often. Now, it seems Facebook has taken its first steps toward making that possible, through a new feature it\u2019s calling \u201cTown Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

This latest addition has just popped up on the \u201cMore\u201d menu in Facebook\u2019s mobile app, and offers a simple way for users to find and connect with their government representatives on a local, state and federal level.<\/p>\n

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To use Town Hall, you only have to enter in your address \u2013 which Facebook says is not displayed or shared (though it doesn\u2019t say it\u2019s not \u201csaved,\u201d so be advised).<\/p>\n

This will information will help to\u00a0populate the following\u00a0screen with a list of your representatives, all of whom you can follow with just a click of a button. The\u00a0list includes not just those representing you in the U.S. House and Senate, but also your state legislature and your governor, local council members and your\u00a0mayor, as well as those in other federal positions, like VP Mike Pence and President Trump.<\/p>\n

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The list you\u2019ll see will be based on your location, which means you might not have local reps appear \u2013 for example, if you live in a smaller town where local officials don\u2019t maintain a Facebook presence.<\/p>\n

In addition to being able to follow their Facebook Pages in order to receive their updates in your News Feed, each representative also has a \u201cContact\u201d button next to their name.<\/p>\n

When tapped, you have the option to \u201cMessage\u201d them, \u201cEmail\u201d them, or visit their Facebook Page. Of course, not all representatives are as available as others. In many\u00a0cases, there may be no means of contact beyond visiting a\u00a0Facebook Page.<\/p>\n

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On their Page, you may be able to dig around to find a phone number or mailing address, if it happens to be published. However, this is definitely\u00a0not as handy as some of the independent websites that provide this information to you with just a few clicks, including the newer resistance-focused services\u00a0like Call to Action<\/a> or 5 Calls,<\/a> for instance, or even other\u00a0mobile apps, like Countable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It would be great to see Facebook enhance its Town Hall\u00a0resource with the full contact details\u00a0for all officials going forward, especially given that this is public information and fairly easy to find<\/a> even on official government websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beyond following your reps and getting in touch, the Town Hall feature applies a bit of peer pressure to get you involved by noting how many of your friends have connected with a government rep via Facebook. This isn\u2019t all that useful beyond the potential\u00a0psychological impact it has on users, by making them not want to be\u00a0left out.<\/p>\n

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At the bottom of the page, you can also toggle voting reminders off or on, so you\u2019ll be alerted when there\u2019s an upcoming election in your area.<\/p>\n

Town Hall is hardly Facebook\u2019s first foray into politics. The social network has regularly prompted users to register and to vote through a number of means, including push notifications, banners in its\u00a0News Feed, Messenger integrations, maps to polls, social sharing features\u00a0(like \u201cI voted\u201d), and more \u2013 including, in this past Presidential Election, an \u201cElection 2016\u201d shortcut<\/a> in users\u2019 Favorites section on both web and mobile. It also published a voter guide<\/a>, which included down-ballot propositions and local races.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve asked Facebook for more details as to the status of the Town Hall feature\u2019s rollout, and will update if the company responds.<\/p>\n

The feature\u2019s arrival follows several other recent additions to Facebook\u2019s sidebar in recent months, including\u00a0its new City Guides<\/a>,\u00a0Wi-Fi Finder,<\/a> Discover People<\/a>\u00a0section, and\u00a0Weather<\/a>\u00a0guide.<\/p>\n

Image credit, top: Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger) (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>; other images: Facebook; H\/T: Jose Gutierrez<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/ZEx8uSChtnA\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s nearly 6,000-word manifesto published last month, he laid out a number of\u00a0global ambitions he had for the social network in the days ahead \u2013 including <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-4099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t