This week, the results of the November election will be officially certified. Here at California Local, that means we must review all of the information in our government directories. In every county in which we operate, both reelected and newly elected officials will be sworn into office in the coming days, continuing into January. New mayors will be chosen in cities where that position is voted on by the council. New committee assignments will be made, and new appointees selected for commissions. And slowly, local governmental bodies will update their websites. We’ll be following along, working to spruce things up as fast as we can.
Why do we compile these listings? Because we believe that, as Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government.” (To be honest, we thought he said that a well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny…but a search of monticello.org suggests this is just one of many “spurious quotes” attributed to the man). In any case, it’s the “well informed” part that matters—and we’re hoping that in our small way we can be another tool for sharing useful information.
How Do We Measure Impact
But does anyone use our directories? Since California Local launched in August of 2021, we have been growing organically. As we look forward to 2023, Chris Neklason—our co-founder and director of product development—took a deep dive into the metrics of our site to evaluate our mission, strategy and products. And he was particularly pleased to see that many people are clicking on the email links we provide for local elected officials.
Neklason explains in more detail in his most recent blog post. “According to measurements of our inbound traffic, thousands of people are finding us educational and useful,” he writes. “But it’s the measurement of our outbound traffic, the clicks on the thousands of links in our directories and articles, which is more interesting to me because it’s an indicator of our impact.”
CALocal: Making an Impact
A review of our web metrics reveals a lot of growth in site visitors. But we’re happiest to see that we are helping connect people with their communities.
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