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Posts Tagged ‘web 2.0’
Chamberlain Sun’s figured out Facebook
February 27th, 2010
On Monday, Lindsey, Becki, and I are meeting with Miner County residents to talk about Facebook Pages for businesses. Actually, we hope to do more than just talk. We’re going to help business owners set up their own pages and talk about the strategies they might employ on Facebook. It’s this last part about strategies that excites me.
Today, however, I noticed some web traffic to Reimagine Rural from the Chamberlain Sun Facebook page. When I traced the links back, I discovered the page was set up by the Chamberlain Sun newspaper to spotlight the Chamberlain/Oacoma, SD community. It’s the first example I’ve witnessed of a small town South Dakota newspaper using Facebook!
Way to go Chamberlain Sun!
I’d like to highlight what I see the newspaper doing (in other words, their strategy) with their Facebook Page because I think they’ve got some good stuff happening. Here’s a bit of it:
- They highlight community events on their wall: Stuff like, “Parents night for Boy’s BB is tonight” and “the wrestler send-off for the state tournament is going to start at….” That’s important because some of these events may not get as much notice in print materials because they are somewhat spontaneous.
- They use the notes feature to highlight some of the stories they are working on for the paper: Actually, I haven’t read the paper version of the Chamberlain Sun, so I’m assuming that stories like “Gymnasts take 6th at State” also make the print edition. I think that’s a good bet, especially since the story also appears on the newspaper’s website.
- They do a bit of advertising: Nothing over the top, just stuff like “here’s our number if you want to place a classified advertisement.”
- They recognize local stories that appear in other online sites: One example here is that they linked to my post about the Original Kimball Popcorn Ball. This is easy to do, and I think it has a huge upside. After all, I’d be much more likely to buy an advertisement if the newspaper promoted my business when there was nothing in it for them. Nice.
- They become fans of local businesses: By becoming fans of other local businesses I can see who’s all on Facebook. This might be very valuable for tourists who are travelling to and through the region.
Very impressive. I could keep going, but readers should be able to learn from and hopefully be inspired by the newspaper’s use of Facebook.
I’m going to add the Chamberlain Sun’s use of Facebook to the list of examples we use on Monday night in our Facebook class. If you know of any other great examples of businesses in small, rural communities who do a great job of using Faceboook, we’d love to be able to share them as well.
Tags: Chamberlain SD, Facebook, South Dakota, web 2.0
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Rural | Comments (4)
Is your community ready for social media?
February 2nd, 2010
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)
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.
Tags: Facebook, Marshall MN, Minnesota, social media, Twitter, web 2.0
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (0)
Collaboration means sharing
June 19th, 2009
This may sound like an oxymoron, but collaboration works best when people are sharing. I bet most people would agree with that simple statement. But if that’s the case does technology make sharing so difficult?
Sending is confusing
In our presentation yesterday, we highlighted the difficulty of using online sending tools like e-mail: One person sends out an e-mail to seven collaborators. If collaborators only respond once, the collaboration is manageable. But when it goes on for days with multiple e-mail engagements, collaborators often spend more time trying to figure out who said what and when than they do working on the project.
Sharing
A better method involves the use of online sharing tools. These tools create a central repository where documents, messages, and/or resources can be housed. This repository is usually on a third-party server, meaning collaborators have access to information from anywhere they have Internet access.
Why’s that less confusing? Collaborators are able to follow the entire conversation without referring back to separate emails. Collaborators are also able to be confident that they have the latest version of a document the group is collaborating on.
The Rural Learning Center began using this principle a couple years before it fully understood the share principle. We’ve been using Basecamp as an on-line project management tool, both internally and with their work in rural communities. (Thanks Joe Bartmann).
Inc. Magazine tells us we’re right about this
Last night, I sat down to read the June issue of Inc. Magazine and discovered an article focusing on the importance of using web-based sharing tools. If I’d only read it one day earlier, I could have included some of its main points in our presentation.
Since I am too late to “share” this information in our presentation, I figured I’d highlight a few key points from the article and hope the conference attendees were bit by the social media bug and find the ReImagine Rural blog.
Titled “How to choose the right collaboration software for your company”, the article made the following points along with a few of my comments in parenthesis:
- E-mail is still king for communication, but more small and mid-sized businesses are taking the time to learn how to use on-line collaboration tools.
- Some of the emerging “low-cost” tools businesses are considering include Basecamp, Box, Huddle, Jive, and Socialtext. (I’ve only used Basecamp, which I like, but
- The best tool(s) for your company are those that match your employees needs. If they are not on-board, it will be a waste of your time and money.
- Organizations should not let a fear of security prevent them from considering tools where company information is stored on someone else’s server. Security for these tools has improved quite a bit.
I really appreciated the article because it cuts right to the chase of why businesses and organizations should strongly consider adopting sharing tools for their collaboration. This is definitely something rural communities need to understand.
Unfortunately, we still have a major barrier: How do encourage the many volunteers that make up our community organizations of the value these tools offer? That’s a question we need to spend more time thinking and talking about.
Tags: Basecamp, collaboration, social media, web 2.0
Posted in Community Engagement, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (0)
Will Social Networking make “place” more important?
May 28th, 2009
Last week I raised the question; Will Gen Y, with their infatuation for on-line social networking tools, ruin how people develop a sense of belonging to a community? Today, I’d like to share a story suggesting that social networking is actually contributing to an increased desire for local.
Titled “Demographic trends now favor downtown,” the article traces the growing demand for retail space in downtown settings and its connection to the “buy local” movement.
Besides offering the economic causes driving people to the downtown setting, the article identifies how on-line computer activities contribute to the importance of place:
Humans are social beings, and all the time we spend at our computers makes us, if anything, even hungrier for real-world interactions. The Internet, paradoxically, is making place even more important. Marrying great online services with appealing real-world presence will be the secret to success for many a company. So pay attention to where you are and to where your community is going.
If we are hungry for face-to-face interaction, and if a sense of place will become more important for businesses, does it not suggest an opportunity for small rural communities? After all, isn’t “being real” inherent in most small rural communities?
But it also begs the question, what are we doing to take advantage of this growing sentiment? If we are not thoughtful and willing to take action, this opportunity may slip through our fingers.
Note: Readers may also be interested in knowing that I discovered this article through the Main Street Mitchell and Beyond’s Facebook page . It pays to be a part of a social network.
Photo Source: Jordan MacDonald/Flickr (photo of facades in downtown Broken Arrow, OK)
Tags: Buy Local, Mitchell SD, retail, sense of place, social networking, web 2.0
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (0)
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:
- “The Developer’s Theory of Third Places” on Scott Hanselman’s ComputerZen.com
- “The Challenge of the Third Place” on WidgetBox
- “Quest For Community: The Digital Transformation of Third Places and Why They Matter for Public Discourse” on Gnovis
- “Third Place in Cyberspace” at ChrisBorgan.com
Tags: coffee shop, Facebook, new york times, technology, third places, web 2.0
Posted in Community Development, Rural | Comments (0)
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.
Tags: Facebook, Get Rural, Kansas, South Dakota, web 2.0
Posted in Rural | Comments (6)
Young Professionals Groups — a People Attraction Strategy
February 19th, 2009
Young Professionals groups have become quite the rage across the country. One formed last summer in Watertown, South Dakota, and I’ve been watching its development ever since.
Called Watertown Lite, the group was initiated by the Chamber of Commerce in response to concerns by some employers that their younger employees were not connecting to people outside of the workplace. They had also been hearing complaints that younger people weren’t “getting involved” in the community, and they hoped this might help change that trend.
The organization is still in its infancy, but it’s off and running.
What’s Watertown Lite all about?
In a nutshell, the purpose of Watertown Liteis to help young people connect within the Watertown community. They target people ages 21-40 but welcome anyone who is young at heart. They also open to people of all occupations.
Creating social events for young people is at the top of the list for the group’s activities. They see this as a major way of connecting young people and overcoming the image that there’s nothing to do. Second, they would like to host some professional development opportunities with such topics as paying off student loans, working with older people, etc…. And finally, they would like to engage in some community service activities.
As one might expect of a Gen Y organization, Watertown Lite is all over social media, connecting with its members via a web page, Facebook,Picaso, and Twitter.
So Why’s this noteworthy?
The simple answer to the question of why this is a noteworthy subject is that all of our communities - rural, urban, and suburban - are in a contest to attract young people. Research suggests engaging people - especially young people - in communities helps increase their emotional attachment to the community. The greater the emotional attachment, the more likely they are to stay in their jobs and stick around the community.
In other words, young professionals groups are created as a part of a people attraction and retention strategy.
Personally, I’m a little conflicted over whether our rural communities need a separate young person’s groups as a strategy to engage Gen Y. After all, I do believe there’s great value in intergenerational activities.
But research tells us that young people (often referred to as Gen Y) are very social, and they want to be around other young people. That’s a challenge when there are not a lot of young people in our rural communities.
And that’s why I’d like to throw out a suggestion. Why don’t we attempt to form regional young professionals groups? These groups could link young people in our small rural communities those in larger communities. I think it would be a win-win for everyone.
To be successful, however, the people in the larger communities would have to be willing to drive to some of our smaller towns occasionally and vice-versa, but I think that would be fun. At the end of the day, I think all of our communities would be more attractive places to live. And that’s something everyone would be happy about.
Note:If you want to learn more on how emotional attachment impact economic development, check out the “Soul of the Community” study.
Tags: Gen Y, people attraction strategy, Watertown Lite, Watertown SD, web 2.0, young professionals group
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Gen Y, Leadership, Rural | Comments (0)
Letting Gen Y be the teachers
February 2nd, 2009
I’ve advocated previously that building personal relationships with members of Gen Y is a strategy rural communities can use to help eliminate the out-migration of our young people. If your community is interested in this strategy, you should consider the approach of this Dutch non-profit, which helps young people teach adults how to get the most out of their cell phones.
Years ago, I taught computer classes in a community education program. Because I had too many adult students enrolled in the class to effectively teach by myself, I invited some of my high school students to server as teacher aids. At the time, I didn’t see the class as an opportunity to connect young people to adults. In retrospect, I wish I would have invested my prep time into training the kids to lead rather than doing it myself.
If your community wants to consider a program of this nature, I’ve got a few more recommendations:
- Consider hosting the training in a coffee house or some other “third place.” A more relaxed setting should help foster the development of personal relationships.
- Make sure the kids are leading, not just helping (remember Gen Y want real responsibility).
- Structure some of the learning around activities that help adults and youth learn about each other. In other words, get them to talk about some non-technical stuff.
- Consider other forms of technology training. For instance, I think a lot of adults who want to understand what social media is all about.
Developing a program like this won’t be quick and easy, but I believe it will pay off years down the road when Gen Y is deciding what community they should call home.
Tags: Gen Y, millennials, outmigration, technology training, third place, web 2.0
Posted in Community Engagement, Gen Y, Rural, Youth | Comments (0)