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Is your community ready for social media?
February 2nd, 2010 by Mike Knutson
Last night Lindsey and I engaged in a little social media training for residents in Miner County, SD. During our session, we noted the changing landscape of advertising, and cited Pepsi’s withdrawal from its traditional advertising during the Super Bowl in favor of sponsoring a community grant program called the Pepsi Refresh Project as an example. Marketing and advertising is definitely going “social.”
This morning, I hopped onto Facebook to find an update from Mark Rembert at Energize Clinton County who recommended people support a project in the Pepsi Refresh grant contest called Studio H. Learning of the project has inspired me to include the video explaining the project below.
Combine design thinking, vocational trade training, and community citizenship in a youth engagement project — all within a high school setting. The image of design:SD on steroids comes to mind. If you agree, I hope you will vote for the project on the Pepsi Refresh page.
Reflecting on this project has created a couple thoughts that I’d like to share.
First, I hope rural communities are inspired by the Studio H project to develop their own youth engagement projects. I love the idea of combining design and construction training in a community project. But each community is different, and youth engagement projects need to meet the needs of both young people and the community.
Second, I hope the Pepsi Refresh Project helps people see how marketing is becoming “social.” The idea of taking money that previously directed at advertising and using it to engage your customer base is a great way to build a stronger brand. It’s caused me to think more about how small, rural communities might use online contests as a part of their branding efforts. (Note: There are issues with “crowdsourced” contests of this nature, as is highlighted here.)
And finally, I hope that the Pepsi Refresh Project helps rural residents and community development practitioners understand the importance of delivering social media training to people in rural communities. I loved the idea advance by David Becker at the Friend of the Farmer blog to develop a social media training program for rural farmers. (I shared my thoughts in greater detail in this post.) The idea, along with support from local extension educator Jim Krantz, caused Lindsey and I share the presentation (which I’ve embedded below) with Miner County residents last night.
Our presentation is intended as an overview of social media. Beginning February 15th and continuing each Monday through March, we will offer hands on training for specific tools like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. If you are a Miner County resident and are interested in this training, I’d encourage you to contact the Miner County Extension office.
If you are a rural community outside Miner County, I’d encourage you to answer the question: Are people in our rural community interested in using social media? If the answer is “yes,” I hope you find a way to bring training to your community.
Tags: crowdsourcing, Design SD, entrepreneurship, marketing, social media, web 2.0
Posted in Rural, Training and Events, education | Comments (
6 )
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hey Mike, It was good to visit with you in November. Reimagine Rural continues to be great.
I’m sure you’re probably aware, but some of the folks in this area are putting on a social media conference in Sioux Falls called the OTA Sessions. More details can be found at http://otasessions.com. One of its focuses is to “Deny the Lie” that the so-called flyover states don’t have the same creative, successful folks as the coasts. Another plus is that they’re bringing in both Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of Trust Agents, as featured in your presentation.
It might be something to share, or at least of which to be aware if you weren’t.
Hope all is well,
Chris
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Chris,
Four gold stars for you! I did not know about it, but Lindsey and I rushed to sign up. We definitely want to be a part of any movement that shows the creativity that exists in South Dakota. My only question, however, is how does “showing up” for the conference prove that “brain drain” does not exist?
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:02 pm
From all of us at Project H /Studio H, thanks for the shout out!!
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:36 pm
I don’t think that simply showing up will do the trick. I do think that it provides a great opportunity for those of us in the “ota” states to get together and think big. And we don’t have to drive to the coasts to do it.
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Emily, Thanks for all you do. Your project looks incredible. If you ever make it out to rural South Dakota, I hope you will look us up.
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Chris,
Just “showing up” doesn’t do any one any good, does it. My guess is that Emily @ Project H doesn’t just “show up” when Project H goes out on the road. I’d also bet that Studio H (should it get funded) will increase the number of creative young people in rural NC. That’s the type of type of investment in education that rural SD communities could really use.