Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Economic Development - It happens in Rural Communities too!

November 11th, 2009

Prairie Business Magazine just released a story touting recent job creation activities in small, rural communities of the Upper Midwest.  The article’s message: small, rural communities can enjoy job growth if they are focused and work at it. 

There’s a lot of good advice for communities in the article.  What caught my attention, however, was how Marshall, MN is using the web and social media as a part of their economic development plan.  Mark Hanson, economic development director with the City of Marshall, MN is quoted in the article saying:

“Cities like Marshall don’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing and advertising.  We have to find the best ways to spend what we have. We have decided to stop printing brochures. The website is less expensive and we can continuously update it.”

Brochures, no! Website, yes…and Facebook and Twitter too!

When I took a quick a quick peek at Marshall’s Facebook  and Twitter accounts, I was impressed: mostly updates on events and news articles, with a few video’s added for extra flavor.  Through it we get a more authentic look at Marshall than if we were looking at a flashy brochure.  

We’ve previously listed other communities that have created Facebook Pages (Energize Clinton County (OH), Webster, SD and Miller, SD) as a part of their economic development strategies.  We definitely think it’s a move in the right direction.

As more and more communities embrace this strategy, however, we need to start asking:  How has creating a Facebook page made an impact on your community?  What is the measurable impact?  Any new businesses come to town?  Do you see community problems getting solved on-line?  What’s actually happening?  If you have some answers, we hope you will share. 

Note:  Congratulations to the South Dakota communities of Milbank, Watertown, Arlington, Eureka, Britton, and Roslyn on the recent opening of Link It Software offices.

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Can Facebook be used for serious conversation?

October 21st, 2009

Lately, I’ve held up the Miller, SD Facebook Fan Page as a good example of how rural communities can use Facebook.  Because of the spiffy photos, engaging questions, and interesting responses that have been posted on the page, I feel like I’ve gotten to know Miller a lot better.  And you know what?  I like it!    I think it is safe to say, the community of Miller should be proud of how community leaders are using Facebook. 

But a recent article in the Everyday Democracy newsletter has caused me to wonder if Facebook (and other social media tools) could also be used to develop deeper conversations around the more complex, challenging issues. You know, the type of questions that make the mayor’s job tough.     

That’s what residents of York, Maine (pop. 12,854) are attempting to do on a Facebook Fan Page titled “York Community Dialogue.” 


York Community Dialogue - What’s important to you?

“Have you ever wondered,” the group asks on their page, “what sort of conversations communities might have if public meeting agendas were set by citizens rather than by governments?”

With that in mind, one of the first questions they asked was “What about York matters to you?”

That question, in and of itself, is a deeper question than anything I’ve seen on the Miller page.  And it points to the desire of some community members to dig in and shape the future of the community. 

Interestingly, residents in Howard, SD sought the same outcome back in 1997 when they developed a community dialogue process they termed “Community Vision Meetings.”  As Lindsey explained last week to the folks in Pepin, WI, this process revolved around high school students leading small group discussions, which took place in individuals’ homes. 

While I feel the York model is commendable, I haven’t made up my mind whether or not I think Facebook is a good place for the type of conversation the group seeks.   I suspect two shortcomings.   First, the way Facebook is structured makes it difficult for complex thoughts to be expressed.  Experience suggests to me that a blog is a better medium. (Perhaps this is why leaders intend to create “study circles” in the future.)

 Second, the biggest challenge in holding this type of conversation on-line is that it often degenerates into baseless name calling.  (One advantage of Facebook is that residents have to own up their comments with their name, unlike many blogs and newspaper forums.)

Those questions aside, however, I applaud community leaders for taking on this challenge.  Rural communities need dialogue of this nature, and I look forward to watching the York model in action. 

(And if you are aware of other communities holding conversations like this on-line, I hope you will share.)


Photo credit - Bucklava - Flickr (the Nubble Light House is just up the Maine coast at York Beach)

 

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Facebook: Friend and Fan policies

October 16th, 2009

On Wednesday, Lindsey and I talked to SDSU Extension Educators about the use of social media in their work.  There were a lot of good questions about Facebook, most of which revolved around “managing the process” of its use.   Questions like:

Invariably my responses connected to the idea that individuals should develop a “friend policy” that connects to their purpose for being on Facebook — and that it’s ok not to “friend” everyone.  (I explained that I had created my Facebook page to connect with family, personal friends, and lost friends (i.e. - high school classmates), and that I wasn’t really interested in having other’s be a part of my friend group.)

Throughout the morning we also talked about using Facebook Fan Pages, which were developed for businesses and organizations.  But after reading this blog post, however, I realized that I was not making a distinction between a “personal friend policy” and a “professional friend policy.” 

Here’s a short overview of how this expert manages his friend policy.  (Keep in mind he uses his Facebook “Profile” for personal use and a Facebook “Fan Page” for professional use.)

  1. First, he created a Facebook Profile for personal use, and a Fan Page for professional contacts.
  2. When he receives a friend request (on his personal account), he determines which group they fit into.
  3. If the person meets his “friend definition,” he friends them.
  4. If not, he sends a message, recommending that they become a fan of his Facebook Page. (This means he no longer clicks the “ignore” button for those friend requests he doesn’t want.)

I love it, and would highly encourage anyone wanting to use Facebook for professional purposes to follow this practice. But there is one down-side:  it does require that you be willing to create another presence (i.e. - a Fan page) on Facebook and manage it.  And that leads to another issue:  How do people manage their time effectively?

Other resources

 

Photo Credit:  HikingArtist.com - Flickr

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Miller, SD has got Facebook figured out

October 13th, 2009

I’m always on the lookout for rural communities that are using social media to build conversations.  Recently, I found a great example with Miller, SD. 

Joe Fiala and Amy Howard of On Hand Development Corp. launched the Miller, SD Facebook page on Sept. 24, 2009.  Within weeks they built over 500 fans, which is very impressive in a community with a population of approximately 1530 people. 

Amy Howard and Joe Fiala, On Hand Dev. Corp.

What has impressed me more than the number of fans is how people are interacting on the page.  Lots of people start Facebook pages, but not many do a good job of generating conversations with their fan base. 

Joe and Amy do.  They even have people who have moved away from the community saying how much they miss the community.  Impressive.

With that in mind, I contacted Joe to find out what’s the secret sauce in his recipe.  The following interview  with Joe is the result. 

 

Why did you create a Facebook page for the community of Miller?  Does it connect to your organization’s goals? 

We were looking for ways to engage our community utilizing the internet beyond our “regular” website. Facebook is a way to easily interact with people living in Miller, people that used to live in here, and people that had visited our town.

Using Facebook helps us reach our goals as a business development organization because we can showcase our community and lifestyle. It allows us to communicate more effectively with the young adults that will be the next generation of business owners in town.

 

One of the things that impresses me about your page is number of people commenting.  What have you done to try to create “conversations” on your Facebook page?

We have made a conscious effort to create posts that garner comments from the fans. We’ve tried to post items that people will find interesting, but we also ask questions within the post.

Our partnership with our local newspaper, the Miller Press, has been effective too. They have a “Talk on Main Street” question each week in the paper. We asked if we could address that same question on the Facebook page and they agreed.

 

Any future plans for your page? 

As we have events in Miller like the opening weekend of pheasant season, the Christmas on the Prairie celebration, and the 4th of July festivities, we will post pictures of the events.

We will also listen to our fans to see what items they would like us to post.  Our page is set up so that fans can post items and we are hoping that they will take advantage of this and add to our content.

 

We constantly hear how social media tools are sucking up work time and decreasing productivity.  How much time do you spend each week using Facebook? 

Our goal is to post an item on every work day, whether it is an announcement, a picture, or a question. So far, we probably average about 10 minutes per day.

This is not much time and we are reaching an audience of over 500 people that have already shown interest in being involved in our conversation. For a small town, that is an amazing amount of publicity for so little time involved.

 

Why did you choose Facebook as a social networking tool over others tools like blogging, Twitter, MySpace, etc…?

Facebook lends itself very well to holding a community conversation. It allows short posts, pictures, and comments. All of these actions are very easy to do.

However, the deciding factor was that a large majority of young adults and high school students use Facebook.

We are planning to incorporate a blog as part of our website communication tools. This will allow us to post articles that are too long for Facebook to handle efficiently.

 

Note:  Wow!  Working with the local newspaper is a great idea.  And if you go to their page you will see that they do a nice job of asking questions that engage their fans.  (You don’t have to join Facebook to view the Miller, SD Facebook Page.  Check it out by clicking here. )

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Energize Clinton County - Green and Social

July 28th, 2009

Later this afternoon, I’m going to be on the phone with Mark Rembert of Energize Clinton County.  Their mission is to transform the economy of Wilmington, Ohio (and surrounding Clinton County) through the development of a Green Enterprise Zone.  This initiative comes in the wake of economic decline brought on by our country’s recent economic crisis.  The following video captures the human side of the struggles the community is going through.

 

 Watching the video can be heartbreaking.  Real people are facing real problems.  There are no easy answers, and sadly I don’t see a quick fix on the horizon.

The efforts of Energize Clinton County, however, are impressive on two accounts.  First, they have developed an innovative plan based on the development of a Green Enterprise Zone designation.  Second, they seek to engage their community through social media. (They have a blog and Facebook page.)

I’m interested in both, but especially their social media strategy.  The conversation should be a lot of fun.

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Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (0)

Rural Learning Center on Facebook

July 17th, 2009

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. 

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: 

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.

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Third Places, the workplace, Facebook, and Starbucks

May 19th, 2009

Catherine Bergart gets the value of value of third places.  In an excellent piece written for the New York Times titled “Losing the Income, and the Camaraderie“, Bergart walks the reader through the tribulations of losing her job at a place she considered her third place.  (Read more about third places here.)

While losing her source of income was traumatic, she considers the loss of the camaraderie at her former third place as the real tragedy of her job loss.  Try as she might, Facebook and Starbucks, couldn’t provide the “social nourishment” she craves.

Bergart writes about third places from the perspective of an individual, while much of our writing about third places (at ReImagine Rural) has focused on its community development implications.  What I find relevant to rural communities, however, is that she discerns the weakness of pseudo-third places like Facebook and Starbucks.    Neither offers the richness of the social interaction between people of disparate backgrounds that that a true third place delivers.

And that’s why I’m both excited and skeptical about social media at the same time.  While I firmly believe rural communities need to develop a social media strategy to connect to people — especially to those people whose lives have taken them outside of the community - I’m not convinced that it can generate the deep relationships that will move our rural communities towards the transformation they need.   

But maybe that’s ok.  We probably shouldn’t think of Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook as the end-all tool.  Like physical third places, they are probably just one piece of the complex puzzle to creating vibrant rural communities.

Other Resources:

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Will Gen Y ruin local community?

May 15th, 2009

Go to any meeting in a rural community and it is easy to recognize that Gen Yers (and Gen Xers as well) are not engaged in community activities.  At least this is true if we are talking about traditional community activities like a community club, chamber of commerce committee, or church committee. 

Obviously, part of the problem is that we have an older population in many rural communities, but it’s also true that Gen Y just doesn’t get involved like young people may have in past generations.

Today, I stumbled across a post by a Gen Yer (Rebecca Thorman) who asks:  “Will Gen Y ruin local community?”  At the heart of her question is the acknowledgement that although Gen Yers have “the best of intentions to be a part of the communities” they call home, there are “a number of conflicting events that contribute to a lack of involvement in local community.” 

The post lists the following as some of those factors:

Interesting stuff.  And it generated some interesting comments as well. 

 

What’s going on here?

I heartily agree that Gen Y is not engaged in traditional community activities like older generations.  If we (all of us old people) attempt to meet them in the world where they feel comfortable-the online world-I think we have a better shot at engaging them.

Research tells us that Gen Yers look at technology as an extension of themselves.  That’s a tough concept for many of us to understand, but what it means is that Gen Yers see technology tools like texting, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. as the extension that enables them to talk to their friends. So, while Gen Y may refuse to attend a community meeting, that doesn’t mean they cannot “be there” via an on-line tools. 

 

So why hold a meeting?

And let’s be honest for a minute.  While older generations think that face-to-face conversations at meetings are necessary to “get things done,” they don’t always allow for everyone to be a part of the conversation.  You know what I mean.  You’ve been to that meeting where you really want to contribute your ideas, but get locked out of the conversation by one or two individuals with dominant personalities who control the conversation. 

 

For some time now, I’ve been captivated by the Renew Newcastle movement because it began as an on-line conversation through Facebook.  People in the community were interested in revitalizing the central business district, and Facebook became the forum that facilitated the discussion.  The movement has grown into an organized effort with its own website, but the community still exists on Facebook. (Read more about Newcastle here.) 

The point is that older generations feel we need face-to-face community meetings, but those meetings have strengths and weaknesses.  If we want Gen Y to be involved, we may need to engage them via social networking tools.

 

Will Gen Y ruin local community?

I don’t believe Gen Y will “ruin” local community.  But there’s no doubt in my mind that Gen Y will change how we experience it. In the years to come, we will do more and more community work on-line; and that’s not all bad because life is all about change. Who knows, maybe we’ll even accomplish more doing it that way.   

 A more important question to me, however, is:  Will our rural communities be willing to encourage Gen Y’s involvement. 

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Do you “get” rural?

April 7th, 2009

Many of my high school and college friends who have moved away from South Dakota don’t “get” why I love South Dakota, let alone why I love rural South Dakota.  This became painfully obvious recently as several “why would you still live there” comments appeared on the Facebook pages of friends in my network. 

Most of the comments were made in fun, and came in response to our complaints from resident South Dakotans concerning recent late spring snow storms.  As I reflect on the comments, however, I can’t help but think these out-of-state friends really don’t understand what those of us who live in South Dakota love about this place.   In a way, it saddens me, but then again, what’s a guy going to do to change their minds?

Taking a proactive approach, the Kansas Sampler Foundation created a blog “to help people understand or ‘get’ rural Kansas.”  It introduces readers to people and places around rural Kansas, providing a glimpse into the daily life of the state’s rural residents. 

It is hard to imagine that we need a blog to help people understand what’s special about rural places.  On the other hand, what a great way to share stories that never make the cut via traditional media outlets. 

Discovering the blog also caused me to wonder if other efforts like that of the Kansas Sampler Foundation blog exist.  If you are aware of any, please share.

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