The Town of Oak Island maintains accounts on a variety of social media platforms. These outlets are used for fast distribution of Public Notification and Public Engagement; and serve to compliment the OKInformation system, which is the primary notification tool for the Town.
PLEASE NOTE: There are several social media accounts that have similar names, or appear to represent the Town of Oak Island. Only the accounts listed below are the OFFICIAL accounts authorized and maintained by the Town. Although any outlet may share / repost content from their pages, only these accounts should be regarded as an official source of information.
COMMENTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The Town of Oak Island publishes social media posts in TWO different forms: for Public Notice and for Public Engagement. As a general rule:
- Public Notices provide information on critical safety concerns, new actions being taken by the Town, or public actions needed. As such, these posts DO NOT have commenting enabled. This is to minimize the negative impacts of confusion or misinformation, and allow staff to perform other critical duties, instead of having to monitor comments.
- EXAMPLE: "A Voluntary Evacuation Order has been issued - details in the link provided."
- Public Engagement posts provide information on "non-critical" items, and are meant to provide a "public forum" where feedback from the community is welcomed and open discussion encouraged. As such, these posts DO have comments enabled, which are monitored by staff to ensure timely responses are provided, spam / scams attempts are reported and hidden, and that users maintain a respectful atmosphere.
- EXAMPLE: "Summer Concerts begin this Friday, comment below with your favorite bands on this year's schedule!"
"Why does the Town limit public commenting?" This is a good, and commonly received question. Just like an ad in the newspaper, or media release sent to local TV news outlets, Public Notices are meant to be a "one-way" communication, which provide basic, factual information directly to those affected.
These are not topics which are open for discussion, and are usually of a time-sensitive nature, like response to a natural disaster or other emergency event. In these cases, the multitude of different questions, opinions, or even misinformation shared through commenting, can prevent a post from achieving the main goal of informing the public on critical safety concerns.
Even through commenting is turned off, Public Notices STILL provide resources on how to ask questions directly to Town staff. Additionally, they also allow for sharing on private social media pages, where personal opinions can be voiced.
For any questions, or to provide concerns on the Social Media Commenting Policy, please contact the Communications Office at info@oakislandnc.gov.
Please use the following links provided to access official Town social media accounts:
Facebook
Town of Oak Island (main account)
Oak Island Fire Department
Oak Island Police Department
Oak Island Recreation Department
OKI Pier and Pier House
801 Ocean OKI
Oak Island Par 3
X (formerly Twitter)
Town of Oak Island
Instagram
Town of Oak Island
Town of Oak Island Recreation Department
YouTube
Town of Oak Island
