Behind the scenes of county operations: A Q & A with Oconee County director of communications, Diane Baggett

Diane Baggett, 51, speaks on her role as the Director of Communication on Thursday, February 20th at the new Oconee County Administration Building. In her role, Baggett works with Oconee County employees and citizens to address the needs of the county. (Photo/Megan Brown).

Diane Baggett is the director of communications for Oconee County where she works with the county’s citizens and employees while managing the county website and their new program: SeeClickFix.

Q: How did you get started in communications and what led to your position here in Oconee County?

A: I started working in the communications department was called public affairs at Fulton County Government in 2000. So, I would say my main strength had been writing and so, I got a job there, and really had a fantastic public affairs officer there. He had been doing it forever, he got his start in the army, actually. He taught me like everything I know. He was super awesome. So, worked there for several years, took some time off to have kids. And then, I went to work for Walton County government and started their communications office – they hadn’t had one before. Got all that up and running, which was really kind of super exciting and a great challenge. And then, the county administrator here hired me from Walton County, and wanted to do the same thing – to come here and set up a communications office. 

Q: What role does social media play in your communication efforts?

A: It really plays a huge role. I would say most of our community is on Facebook, and that's a great way to reach people. They share it, you know, with each other, you let your friends know if you think that might be something they're interested in, and then they can follow our page and just stay up to date that way. You know, we're still on Twitter, but that doesn't, is not and has not been a really important channel for us, and now it's just kind of, it's going through it, and then we keep our Instagram channel for, you know, nice pictures and you know, way to highlight different events that we have, and then post some short videos. Then we have a YouTube channel as well, and we post all our departmental videos, like we have a big series from Keep Oconee County Beautiful. And then we also post, which some people are very interested in, you may be interested in, every single one of our Board of Commissioners meetings, and every single one of our planning commission meetings.

Q: How do you measure the effectiveness of your communication strategies?

A: We do, like, keep track of our numbers, and we do our analytics for our Facebook channels and for our website, and SeeClickFix. And then we also have a virtual assistant on our website, which is actually one of my favorite things. We keep a close eye on those numbers and train the heck out of it. Sarah downstairs has ownership of that, and she is truly amazing. So basically, I mean, you know what virtual assistant is, so 24/7 people can get answers, and it cuts down on calls and visits to building, because we have a very like we run a very lean staff, so it saves a lot of time and creates more efficiency, but then people also are more satisfied, because they can get an answer immediately they're looking for. And I would say typically, we have a self service resolution rate of like, 90% or above that, so it's amazing.

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Why I Wrote The Story

From this interview with Director Baggett, I learned many valuable things, but the most important one was how to make a room feel comfortable when doing an interview. This was my first interview of the semester, so I had to learn how to be comfortable talking to a stranger and how to seem approachable, and not awkward, during the interview. As someone seeking to work in PR, this kind of journalistic writing prepared me for covering events in the Q & A format with people such as celebrities, those in government work, etc.