Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Rural Learning Center launches Engage:SD

July 19th, 2010

When I talk to people about rural communities developing a social media strategy, I often have Miller, SD’s Facebook Page in mind.  Over 1100 people have “liked” their page, and people comment on it regularly.

Although one might not notice, the page is administered by the On Hand Development Corporation. It’s a great example of how a rural, nonprofit organization can use a social media platform, like Facebook, to engage people and create a sense of community.   

We’ve enjoyed spreading the news on ReImagine Rural about how Miller and other rural communities (like Ord, NE, and Clinton County, OH) are using social media.  It’s been a good first step in building awareness about how rural organizations and communities are taking advantage of social media. 

But we’ve also been looking for an opportunity to do more.  Today, the Rural Learning Center is excited to announce Engage:SD.

 

What is Engage:SD?

Engage:SD is a “capacity building” project intended to help South Dakota nonprofits learn how to use social media effectively. Thanks to support from the South Dakota Community Foundation’s Nonprofit Enhancement Project, the program is free to all South Dakota nonprofit organizations. 

Here’s how it will work.

First, nonprofit employees, board members, and volunteers are invited to participate in a series of 8 free webinars (view the list of webinars here.)  Intended as an introduction to social media, participants will learn how to engage their constituents with social media. 

Second, participants will learn the skills necessary to operate specific social media tools like  Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Wordpress, and Delicious at a one-day, “hand-on” workshop.  To make travel easier, we’re offering one workshop in eastern South Dakota, and the other in western South Dakota. Dates and locations are still pending.  Participation in the webinars is not required, but it is encouraged.

And finally, we’re offering an opportunity for five nonprofits in the state to receive in-depth technical assistance in developing a customized social media strategy that works for them.  In addition, these five organizations will receive $2500 grants to develop branding materials with branding extraordinaire Bobbie Gaukel of One8y Creative.  Selections of these organizations will be competitive, and nonprofits will be required to provide a $500 match to be eligible. 

 

Stay connected and learn more

People seeking to learn more are encouraged to check out the details at www.EngageSD.com.  The webinar series will begin July 27, and online registration is required. 

If you’ve got questions, Lindsey and Mike are responding to messages sent to engagesd@rurallearningcenter.org, as well as sharing resources on their Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/engagesd.

It should be a lot of fun, and we’re hoping you will participate.

 

Note:  A special thanks is due the South Dakota Community Foundation and the “South Dakota Nonprofit Enhancement Project” for making Engage:SD possible.

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Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (1)

Another learning opportunity from Minnesota

June 28th, 2010

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the Southwest Initiative Foundation’s Blog.  I was familiar with the SWIF’s good work via their website as well as other sources.  But this was the first time I’d connected with their blog.  I was excited to see it because it gives me a reason to check back on their efforts more often.

Of particular note, I discovered one blog post titled “Social Marketing for Business 101“ featuring Neil Linscheid, Minnesota Extension Educator extraordinaire (you may also remember Neil from my blog post referencing “the stare”).  Neil had partnered with the SWIF to deliver “Social Media 101″ training to thiry-three Luverne, MN business owners.    

We’ve been advocating for quite some time that rural community development leaders figure out how to help local businesses engage in more effective social media strategies, so it’s great to hear about these efforts in rural Minnesota. 

After reading the post, I fired off an e-mail to Neil, asking for further details.  He responded with great information, including an invitation to a second round of training in Ortonville, MN.  There’s a long shot that I will buzz over to the sessions tonight.  If I do, I will report back on the details.  

In case I don’t, however, I’d like to pass along a few thoughts for anyone looking to develop similar training in rural communities. 

1. Make sure you extend a personal invitation to businesses owners. Neil offices out of Marshall, MN. I’m sure he’s got a great network across the region, but nothing can replace the power of a personal invitation from a friend. In the case of the Luverne training, Neil credits “Tammy” the owner of the Coffey Haus, for the great turnout. (I think thirty-seven attendees in a community of 4500 is outstanding.)

2. Develop a system for ongoing support. One of the pit falls of many training programs is that they often involve a one-night session. These sessions are great at building excitement. But excitement wears away quickly when people don’t have any place to go for ongoing support. Neil is currently developing some “coaches” who will fulfill that role.

3. Highlight examples of how local businesses are effectively using social media. Before jumping into anything new like social media, people have to see themselves being able to use the technology. That’s difficult if the only examples of businesses using social media effectively are the size of the Ford Motor company. Neil explained that Tammy, from the Coffey Haus, served that role as well. Leading up to the training, they worked together to develop the Coffey Huas’ plan. (check out the Coffey Haus’ Facebook page.) I’m sure many of the attendees thought, “If Tammy can do it, so can I.”  When I shared this with Neil he responded, “It’s the truth. Before we can make lasting changes we need to believe it’s something we can accomplish.”

Neil hinted at further training opportunities, but I’m not sure if any have been officially planned yet.  If you are interested in training like this coming to your community, I’d encourage you to contact Neil.

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4 Reasons to Interview Entrepreneurs

May 26th, 2010

Have you ever thought about conducting video interviews with entrepreneurs in your rural community and posting them to YouTube?

One organization to do just this is the Prince Edward/Lennox & Addington Community Futures Development Corporation (PELA CFDC).  I recently stumbled across a video interview (embedded below) with the owners of the Prince Edward County Lavender Farm.  It led me to discover a series of interviews with entrepreneurs on the PELA CFDC YouTube channel. 

PELA CFDC is a community based non-profit corporation focused on encouraging entrepreneurship and economic development. 

I’m not sure what goals PELA intended for the videos, but I’d offer the following 4 reasons your rural community should strongly consider interviewing entrepreneurs and uploading them to YouTube. 

1) Entrepreneurs deserve all the attention they can get. Being an entrepreneur is no easy task, and rural communities often forget to celebrate them. This is one easy way for you to help them receive the attention they deserve.

2) Asking their stories will help connect the entrepreneur to your community. Hugh Weber does a nice job of explaining how this works in a post titled “When their story becomes your story.” Hugh tells the story of being interviewed by Mutual of Omaha last summer, and explains how he “developed a fondness” for the company as a result of sharing his story with them. I think enabling entrepreneurs to share their stories will produce similar results. (source: Hugh Weber, “When their story becomes your story: Mutual of Omaha’s AHA moment,’ We Discover Stories, April 28, 2010.)

3) It’s a great way to showcase entrepreneurship as a part of your community’s brand. Many communities try to sell this concept by telling people, “Entrepreneurs love our community because we’re a great place to do business.” I’m seldom convinced. I’d much prefer to hear stories from the entrepreneurs themselves.

4) It’s easier to accomplish than you think. PELA CFDC hired a production company for their project and the videos definitely were well done. If hiring a production company is something you can’t afford, I’d encourage you to produce the videos yourself. Purchase (or borrow) a high resolution video camera, find a computer with free or low-cost video editing software, and teach yourself to produce a video. I’ve learned how to do it myself…and if I can do it, anyone can.

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3 Reasons to include Social Media in your People Attraction strategies

May 20th, 2010

Last summer, I met an individual who had moved from California to rural South Dakota.  She was charged with setting up an office in the region for her employer, but the field of potential communities to locate was pretty open. 

So, how did she choose?  Part of the answer rested with a blog she discovered; she felt the blog helped her connect with people of similar interests and values in one community without having to move there first.  But it also provided a more authentic view of the community than possible through a traditional community-based website.  This isn’t a knock on traditional community-based websites.  It simply acknowledges that even at their best, websites only tell part of the story.  And they don’t usually help you meet people.

Is this an isolated incident or does  it happens more often than we think? I don’t have research to validate an answer, but I believe the latter is more accurate.  So until I find that research, I’d offer the following abbreviated list of reasons why I believe communities should include social media in their people attraction strategies. 

1) Markets are conversations.  I like to think of people attraction strategies as a new form of community marketing. But it’s marketing none-the-less. To be successful, we need to pay attention to marketing principles.  For several years now, I’ve been a huge fan of the Cluetrain Manifesto, which advocates that “markets are conversations.” In a nutshell this concept rests on history: markets developed as places where people came together to exchange products and ideas. Conversations (not advertising) preceded every market transaction.

For a brief time in human history, markets moved away from conversations towards one-way communications highlighted by advertising. The authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto, however, argue that the Internet facilitates virtual markets where open conversations about products emerge.

If this is true, as I believe it is, then we need to base our people attraction efforts on building open conversations about our communities. The use of Social Media is a perfect way to make this happen.

2) People look to the Internet when considering community, but they generally don’t trust traditional community based websites as much as their information from their peers.

First, we know from research conducted by the Center for Applied Rural Innovation at the University of Nebraska that people are using the Internet as a key source of information before moving to a community. (source: Rebecca Vogt, “Engaging your Community to Attract and Retain New Residents, #18 ) This research echoes research conducted by the Segmentation Company on how college-educated young adults find information about cities. (source: Segmentation Company, “Attracting College-Educated, Young Adults to Cities,” slide # 9)

Second, we know that people increasingly distrust advertisers and are turning to peer reviews. (One source suggests only 14% of people trust advertisements, while 78% trust peer recommendations - source: Socialnomics, “Social Media Revolution“).

Maybe it’s a leap to say that people don’t trust information on traditional community based websites. But I think it’s fair to say that community websites would be more effective if people perceived them less as an advertisement and more as a conversation. Social media is a step in that direction.

3) Online Social Networks help build face-to-face community.  Until a couple years ago, I thought of Facebook and MySpace users as geeks who wasted time on the computer. In my mind, spending time on a social network came at the expense of face-to-face interaction.

As I migrated into the world of social media, I began to rethink this assumption. But it wasn’t until I read Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives that my attitude completely flipped.

In the book, the authors cite research conducted in a Toronto suburb in which some residents were given access to high speed internet and early social networking tools while other residents were not. Among its findings, the study concluded that people with access and tools were more likely to: (1) know fellow residents by name and talk to them more; (2) visit their neighbor’s homes more often; and (3) stay connected to individuals who had moved away from the community.

There’s a lot to think about in the study’s findings, but one of my take-aways is that people attraction isn’t just about getting people to move to your community. It’s also about helping them stay connected while they are a part of the community. And should someone move away, the opportunity for them to stay connected and to be an advocate for the community is strengthened through social networking tools.

 

 Photo Credit:  lumierefl - Flickr

 

 

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Lessons Learned: Using Social Media to help Rural Entrepreneurs

May 12th, 2010

Lindsey and I have had a lot of fun this year helping businesses in Miner County, SD establish social media strategies.  On Thursday of this week, we have an opportunity to present what we’ve been doing and what we’ve learned doing it at the Grassroots & Groundwork Conference in Portland, OR. 

The title of our presentation reads “Using Social Media to Support Entrepreneurship in Rural Communities.”  But what does that mean?  What are we talking about?

Regular readers know that we’ve used a three-part process in working with local entrepreneurs:  (1) Skill building training sessions on how to use tools like Facebook and Twitter;  (2) One-on-one technical assistance with interested business owners on developing their strategies;  and (3)  “Social media networking” events where people talk about the problems they are facing and learn from each other. 

We’re not going to give away our presentation — at least not yet. But we want to share a few lessons we have learned from our efforts. 

Lessons learned…

1) Start small. It is tempting to jump into the social media pool with both feet, but we’ve learned that dipping your toes in the water is a more manageable way to get started. Pick one tool, and master it before you try to take on others. Starting small also allows you to better manage the time you’re investing in social media.

2) Social media is not about advertising. It’s about building relationships, building trust, engaging your customer base, and being a resource. This is a paradigm shift that some businesses have struggled to embrace. New ways of doing things take time.

3) The Curse of Knowledge can be a barrier to teaching. Dan & Chip Heath write about this in their book Made to Stick. The more we know about a subject, the more difficult it is for us to communicate the subject effectively with our audience. It’s important to communicate with people at their comfort level.

4) Branding work should come first. Social media is a great tool for building stronger brands, but if your business or organization doesn’t understand it’s brand, social media isn’t going to help,

5) Push through the discomfort. It’s tempting to stop (or never start) using social media when you realize that you are opening yourself up to the world in a new way-”you mean people can write whatever they want on our wall?” But, often rewards await those who push through the discomfort of the unknown. You can always change your settings if you encounter a problem, but in the mean time you may be surprised at the trust that is built with your customer base if you are open and willing to talk about the good and bad sides of your businesses. Where else are you able to hear what people are really thinking? Use it to your advantage to build better products and better service.

Helping businesses in our community with social media strategies has been fun, but it’s been challenging. We’re not social media experts, so we feel like we’ve extended beyond our skill level.   Whenever these inadequacies get me down, I just remind myself; “At least we’re trying!  If we don’t help, who will?”

That’s why sharing opportunities like Grassroots & Groundwork are important.  We’re willing to stick our necks out and share what we know with the hope that others will share with us.  That’s what we mean when we say “building a deeper conversation about rural.”  Whether you attending the conference or not; whether you are a social media expert or novice; whether you work in rural or urban community;  you have valuable information to contribute.  And we hope you’ll take this opportunity to share a bit of what you’ve learned by leaving a comment.

 

Note:  I’ll (@Michael_Knutson) be tweeting from the conference using the hastag #G&G2010.

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Rural Development Online: We’ve come a long ways

May 7th, 2010

(Note: It’s Friday, which means this post is a part of our “I Feel Fridays” project.  Our goal is to share stories from the past week that generated an emotional response.  We encourage readers to respond to the post or to share something from their lives in the past week. To learn more about “I Feel Fridays,” check out this post- and then tell us what you’re feeling.)

This week, I have no single story to share for “I Feel Fridays.”  But I do want to share several experiences that have left me feeling empowered by the realization that there is a growing online community of people committed to rural community development. That’s a new feeling for me.    

When we started ReImagine Rural back in 2008, I felt like I was on an island with a few other “social media crazies.”  I remember asking some of my fellow South Dakotan rural community development practitioners how they used social media tools.  Did they blog? What blogs did they read?  Did they like Facebook ?  etc…. 

Their response generally fit into two camps.  They either responded; “Social what?” or “I don’t have time for that stuff.”  Sort of made me feel like I was a dumb *&^%$ for “wasting” my time blogging.  

My connections this week

This week is a different story.  I’ve connected with a flurry of people with a passion for rural places, and I want share a bit about them. 

First, there was Mike Thomas who produces the Urban Workbench blog.  Mike describes Urban Workbench as the “the intersection between Urban Planning, Design and Civil Engineering.”  He lives and works in rural British Columbia, and writes a lot about community development and environmental sustainability.  One of his older posts was so inspirational that I highlighted it on Wednesday.

Next, I received an e-mail from Janet Naclia who works with ACE Communities in Alberta, Canada.  ACE stands for Active, Creative, Engaged Communities, and Janet described the organization as “a not-for-profit whose goal is to impact the quality of life in rural Alberta.”  Besides loving their name and mission, I was impressed by the host of bloggers associated with ACE who write about rural Alberta.  (You can check them out on the left column of their website.)

My next connection was with John C. Shepard who tweeted about an article I wrote titled “Got Interesting People.”  He also blogs at JC Shepard.  John’s had a gig in economic development for over 20 years, and currently works in Slayton, MN.  I’m actually surprised we haven’t connected before because Slayton is just 98 miles down the highway from Howard.    (I consider anything under 100 miles to be in the neighborhood.)           

My last connection of the week was with Dan Cowling.  To be honest I can’t remember how I stumbled across Dan.  He’s got a Twitter account and a blog titled “New FoundNation,” and I’m not sure which I discovered first.  Dan’s assembled a team of experienced community development professionals in Arkansas who are sharing their thoughts on rural issues.  I appreciate that Dan has recognized a “paradigm shift in community development.” In one of his earlier posts Dan wrote;  “One thing is clear: It’s time for us to realize that yet another industrial park may no longer be the answer to success. A better quality of place and a competitive workforce are the true engines of growth in this century.”  Couldn’t agree more. 

As I started following these people and organizations on Twitter and adding their blogs to my RSS reader, I realized how far the rural community development world has come in recognizing the value of social media.  I’m now worried that I can’t keep up with all the great content everyone is sharing.

 

Photo Credit:  Mykl Roventine - Flickr

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Do you have “mommy bloggers” in your marketing plan?

April 28th, 2010

I’ve been to Galena, IL.  I saw the Ulysses S. Grant home and attended my first wine tasting there.  

It’s been about twelve years, but I remember Galena as a fun place with a lot of tourism potential.  I had heard about the community from some friends who lived in nearby Dubuque, IA. This raises an important question:  “How do rural communities get the word out to tourists?”

 

The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

The old way of marketing a community was to print a brochure, join a tourism association, create a website, and maybe try to attract the attention of some tour operators.  That’s so Web 1.0.

Galena may still be doing those things, but they have also moved on to include Web 2.0 strategies in their tourism efforts They recently invited 8 “mommy bloggers” from the Chicago area to tour their community.  The obvious hope was that these influential bloggers would write about their experience and encourage their readers to discover Galena’s hidden treasures. 

Why mommy bloggers?  According to the blog post where I learned about the event:

Mom bloggers were specifically targeted because when they reviewed who was following their Twitter account they found moms to be the common thread. Plus, families are taking shorter trips closer to home and Galena is a 3 hour drive from Chicago - where many of the women are from.”  (source:  Esther Brady Crawford, “Rural Jo Daviess County Turns To Mom Bloggers For Tourism Boost,” She Posts, April 22, 2010.) 

 

It’s about Trust

Great idea.  Reach the decision maker in the family through a source of information they trust, their favorite mommy blogger. 

Some people may criticize this approach saying that the old way of marketing offers the potential to reach more people.  They are right.  You can print a million brochures and pay to get your community recognized by Google. 

But I’d respond to those critics by asking them to consider how I got to Galena twelve years ago, in the days before social media.  I didn’t Google a website, I didn’t pick up a brochure at visitors center.  A friend told me about it.  Someone who’s opinion I trusted.

Social media has helped us discover new friends, and rural communities need to figure out ways take advantage.   Congratulations Galena.  We look forward to hearing more about the project and what you learned in the process.

 

( Thanks to Becky McCray for sharing the post via Twitter. )

Photo Credits:  Ulysses S. Grant House  (top right)  by Yark64 - Flickr and Galena, IL (bottom left) by Josh Be Me - Flickr

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Tech Trendy South Dakota

April 6th, 2010

Yesterday, Keloland TV in Sioux Falls featured Tea, SD and the Facebook page created for the community by its economic development director, Jenni White.   


 

(Note:  Thanks to Jonathan Garcia  answering the “help request” I posted on Twitter last night.  I initially had to post a link to the Keloland site because their embed code wasn’t working. Jonathan sent me this YouTube file, which I’m able to embed Thanks Jonathan!) 

White says she created the tool as a way to share information with the community’s residents.  Even though it’s only been around for a few months, the page has attracted almost 400 fans.  Nice job Jenni!

But Tea is not the leader in the pack of South Dakota communities using Facebook.  I marvel at how effective Miller, SD has been with their Facebook page.  Any community of approximately 1500 residents that is pushing 1000 Facebook fans is doing a remarkable job.  And there are others. I know of half dozen other communities that are using Facebook pretty effectively, including Lennox, Miner County, Chamberlain, Webster, Deuel County, and Oldham.

But you know what?  Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that so many communities using Facebook.  After all, South Dakota a national leader in our percentage of Facebook users. 

 

Mashable give us the goods

Yes, you heard me right.  Yesterday, I learned about South Dakota’s high adoption rate for Facebook in research posted by Muhammad Saleem on Mashable. 

In short, the research tells us that South Dakota has the highest percentage of its population with Facebook accounts-coming in at 31.1%.  (Get all the goods with the graphics below or at the Mashable article. )

I’m proud of this statistic! It wasn’t all that long ago that I considered South Dakotans as social media/networking laggards.  When we started ReImagine Rural in the fall of 2008, I conducted an informal survey of rural community development leaders asking about their social media usage.  I didn’t find anyone with a Facebook account (myself included), and only 10% said they read blogs with any regularity. 

 

Why should we care?

The Mashable research has me thinking about what this means for South Dakota.  I’m actually perplexed by why our Facebook usage is so high, especially when compared to our neighboring states. Why do you think that is?

But the bottom line is that Facebook is a great tool for South Dakota communities to use as they attempt to “build community.”  In rural communities, we used to have stronger “third places” that helped build this sense of community. 

In their absence, I think Facebook and other social networking tools offer an alternative for getting people together for conversations that helps build trust.  That doesn’t mean face-to-face conversation isn’t important.  Hopefully, communities with Facebook pages like Tea, Miller, and Chamberlain discover ways to use Facebook to generate more offline personal interaction.   

It’s when this starts to happen, that we will really be able to say “South Dakota is Tech Trendy.”

Note:  Thanks to Hugh Weber at Deep Bench for drawing my attention to this info. 

 

 (source:  Muhammad Saleem , “By the Numbers: Facebook vs the United States (Infographic)” Mashable, April 5, 2010).

 

 

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Are you skipping school?

March 17th, 2010

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a college professor who was bemoaning the lack of initiative by students.  If I understood correctly, his main point was that students today lacked the motivation to apply what they were being taught.  I’ve known and respected this professor for a long time, and I value his insights.  But at the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Internet and social media were changing how young people learn and that the problem was an institutional and pedagogical problem, rather than student problem. 

The above conversation was still fresh in my mind this morning when I stumbled across a video production titled “Re-Imaging Learning in the 21st Century”  (thanks for sharing @kristinwolff).  A production of the MacArthur Foundation, the video described some of the key findings the foundation has discovered about education through their Digital Media and Learning Initiative. 

 

By nature, I’m attracted to anything that talks about “reimagining” the future, but I found value in how the video simplified the complex issues surrounding how technology has impacted learning. 

As the video highlights, the Digital Media and Learning Initiative seeks to build a new vision for education based on the following three core principles:

I particularly like this last principle - learning from networks rather than from institutions.  It’s how I learn today.  Rather than attend a place or institution to learn, I reach out to my network - particularly my online network. 

Twitter, Facebook, and the ReImagine Rural blog enable me to connect to people who: share valuable resources with me, help pick me up when I’m down, and offer insights on ideas and projects that I am passionate about.  It makes my lifelong learning more relevant, social, and interesting. 

Like everyone, I sometimes get bogged down in the grind of work, and I feel that I don’t have time to participate in my social networks.  What I’ve come to learn, however, is that it’s sort of like skipping school, and the quality of my work suffers. 

This realization has caused me to wonder: how many other rural community leaders are skipping school by not taking advantage of the opportunities created by networking?

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Youth Engagement: A path to reinventing rural education

March 4th, 2010

We talk a lot about the importance of youth engagement in rural communities. It’s a great way to connect with young people, and make sure they realize how valuable they are to the community.

I recently discovered this great example of youth engagement in rural Perth County, Ontario. 

Under an initiative developed by the Perth County Econoimc Development Offices, MS2 Productions, a local production company, has been offering Social Media Boot Camp training classes to local businesses.  The training involves a 3-hour overview session on social media marketing and hands-on training focused on specific social media tools, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. 

To promote the training, the company produced a video which I’ve embedded below. (It’s so good, I wish Perth County, Ontario was closer so that I could have attended.)

 

Perth County Social Media Boot Camp from MS2 Productions - Your Complete on Vimeo.

But it is what’s happening behind the scenes that sets the training apart. In addition to encouraging businesses within each rural community to work together, they are engaging students as social media consultants.  As Melissa Schenk, Executive Producer of MS2 Productions explained to me via e-mail:

Local Businesses will hire CO-OP students to be their Social Media Marketers… The Baby Boomers learn from students how to use the Social Media Sites, but the students in turn - learn more about local businesses, how to better put these social media sites to good use, and are providing a valuable resource of information in their communities. Not to mention students are engaging more with businesses, that they might never have had the opportunity or an interest in otherwise.”

In short, young people and business owners are learning from each other.  And in the long run, these young people will better appreciate life in their rural communities and be better prepared to recognize business opportunities after completing their education.

Additionally, I think projects like this will lead to the educational reform that Richard Florida has been talking about lately: creativity, technology, and social.  All are 21st Century skills that young people need to be successful.  Come to think of it, those are the same skills rural communities leaders need as well.

Note:  Melissa Schenk  sent me a message correcting my initial post, which did not credit the Perth County Economic Development Office for the project.  My apologies to Bernia Wheaton, Perth County Economic Development Coordinator.  I love this story even more knowing that economic development professionals are leading the charge!

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