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Rural Learning Center on Facebook
July 17th, 2009 by Mike Knutson
I returned to Howard Tuesday evening from a trip to the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship to discover a message on the Howard community sign saying, “RLC on Facebook.”
Yes it’s true. The Rural Learning Center has been exploring the use of Facebook as a way for people with an “interest” in Miner County to “connect.” The effort is only about a month in the making, but it’s been fun to watch it develop.
- To date, 166 people have joined the “Miner County, SD” Facebook page. A quick glance suggests most of the members are under age 21, but there are a few of us oldies. I’ve yet to go through the membership list looking for new “friends,” but I bet there’s a ton of people who have already connected to classmates they haven’t seen in years.
- Morgan Andenas, a summer intern with the RLC, has been posting updates of local happenings and sending out weekly reminders to group members of upcoming events. One of those messages reminded me that Straw Bale Days is coming up in Carthage, which I would have otherwise missed.
- It is easy to upload pictures to Facebook, and a few people have taken advantage with their photos. I think it would be awesome to see that feature continue to grow.
This is a good start. 166 members in such a short time is pretty amazing. But now, it would be fun to see more of the over twenty-one year old crowd join, as well as increased participation (not just belonging) from everyone.
Erin Heidelberger recently spoke about community participation over on her Prairie Roots blog. She provides a great example of how people in Baltimore are contributing their ideas about what they want to have done with vacant buildings in their community. Here are some other examples of communities becoming engaged through social media:
- Main Street Mitchell’s Facebook page
- Renew Newcastle’s Facebook group (Australia)
- Energize Clinton County’s Facbook page and blog/website
Over the next several months, I hope to provide some updates on how the people of Miner County are participating on Facebook and other social media tools. I’d also be very interested in hearing from people with examples of how communities are using social media to increase participation.
Tags: Facebook, miner county sd, on-line participation, social media
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, In the News | Comments (
2 )
July 17th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I think you’re talking Erin Heidelberger…not her mysterious brother-in-law Eric
Also, Downtown Brookings has had a facebook page for a few months, and they’re getting some good discussion about events, what people would like to see downtown, and community involvement as well.
July 18th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Chris, Thanks! Both for catching my egregious mistake (problem corrected) and the Downtown Brookings example. Mike