TAKING NEW MEDIA OFFLINE:For Neighborhood and Cultural Organizations

Kristen Jefferswww.kristenejeffers.com

Yes, Your Community Needs New/Social Media. Why?

Social media is the online front porch. More people have smartphones than home internet connections They often access these phones when they are in the presence of other people, such as your annual community festival and post information to these sites while they are there. The status messages and pictures they post then reach millions of people, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week across the world. Plus, it is FREE PUBLICITY for what you are doing in your neighborhood or community.

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What New Media Should Every

Neighborhood Use?

FacebookTwitterMeetupYouTubeFlickrInstagramSoundCloudWordpressTumblrMailChimp

MeetupMeetup is a site where people can sign up for different groups based on interests, then set up times to meet in person. To take Meetup offline, use Facebook and Twitter handles to sign up and find a place to meet. Take address, time and date, print it on half-sheets and put it on doors and mailboxes to engage non-connected neighbors.

Flickr and Instagram

Flickr is the premiere photo-based social network. To take it offline you can start a group/community photo album, then email or print photos from the site, either to a regular printer or to a photo processing website or kiosk. You can also access photos to make t-shirts, mugs and other objects using online stores or in-store photo kiosks.

Instagram is a phone-based photo-sharing site. More on using it when we talk about Tumblr.

Soundcloud

Soundcloud is great for posting audio recordings of music,oral histories and even interviews of attendees. You can set the files to stream or download these recordings so people who want to hear them again or hear them for the first time can.

Wordpress/ MailChimp

Wordpress is what powers your website and MailChimp is your newsletterYou can update or send both at your leisure, but make sure people know that it has been updated. This is homebase for where you will point people to offline activities, online recaps, and other information on other social networks. You can also take the information, print it out and put it in mailboxes, especially what’s included in the email newsletter.

Facebook,Twitter,YouTube(A.K.A. The Big Three)

Facebook: Use the group function(which can be privatized) to connect your neighborhood or cultural organization. Use the events function to publicize your event. Facebook is also the most popular and most used network of the three.Twitter: recycle status messages, send links to news articles about or relevant to the communityYouTube: Post videos of performances, parades and oral histories, as well as video slideshows.

TumblrTumblr blends together all the elements listed above. It either houses within the main site or with the help of a site called IFTTT, the ability to post text, music, or images to multiple social networks at once. You may want to set up profiles on Twittter, Facebook, Instagram and Wordpress, but then use IFTTT to automate their postings. You can then make Tumblr the only social network you update, cutting down on time spent online sharing offline activities. You will still need to do maintenance on the Wordpress site and use MailChimp for newsletters.

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Tips and Tricks

• Start with one to three networks, work to make them the strongest by using all the features. Once again, see last slide on automating social posting tasks.

• Don’t be afraid to switch networks. If you are concerned about incriminating information, talk to the local library or university about absorbing your information as a neighborhood record or history

• Don’t assume youth know all about the networks and the elderly are incapable of learning

• Listen to community feedback and send out information at a comfortable pace

• Remember, they are all FREE

Resources and Websites Mentioned

www.meetup.comwww.bandcamp.comwww.soundcloud.comwww.facebook.com

www.flickr.comwww.twitter.com

www.mailchimp.comwww.wordpress.com

www.tumblr.comwww.instagram.com

www.ifttt.com

Need More Help?

I can help you build a social media plan for your community or community organization, as well as maintain it for you. Contact me at kjeffers2@gmail.com to find out how.