How do you learn about local news? You know …. news or content that’s particularly relevant to you in a specific geographic area? Perhaps about an event that has taken place or one yet to happen or maybe a local store grand opening.
Would a Google alert work? Might your personal network of friends, colleagues, and family connect you with the news? Would local news …. print or broadcast …. push it out to you? Twitter might, or not, depending on where local is and whether you follow the right source and #keyword. A humble flyer might, depending on whether it describes what’s relevant to you.
When you step back and assess the task, isn’t it impressive how disparate, separate and isolated the actual options are? Think how many of these sources …. ones we depend on to regulate our lives and connect us with a community …. are unrelated and unreliable. On top of that, think how few preserve information, enable interaction with readers, or even make the information equally available.
Consider these examples.
I have a 7.5 year old daughter in first grade. This is our first year in the public school system, and …. we’ve discovered …. our first year truly plugged into the local information conduit. We receive flyers in her backpack [of course, to get them I need to check through the backpack]; four class moms communicate with us via email and phone; the school system has an email and text information system.
Apart from these communication tools, we rely on our library and borough hall to post announcements onto 2 signs fronting both buildings. These are brief messages, sometimes cryptic, visible in one direction [each direction will have different messages] and not at all for those on the other side of town. The library …. essentially our community center …. also mails out to residents a quarterly booklet and posts announcements of upcoming events on its website. You need to remember to check, though, and I haven’t found the information consistently searchable through Google.
We have no local town paper. The next best option – Suburban Trends and its free sister publication Argus – covers several towns and offers incomplete local news. Not all stories appear online either.
Suburban Trends has a Twitter account, inconsistently used, and a weekly email snapshot of the most salacious local headlines, linking to online articles. I look forward to these updates as they help me feel plugged in. I understand why traffic came to a standstill on a certain day and why mama bear only has two cubs when she had three a few weeks ago [one got hit by a car]. These headlines, though, don’t create a sense of local community.
Our high school covers some hyper local news via its public access cable news reporting program. Do you know, though, that none of these stories is digitally searchable nor visibly retained, and no programming schedule readily available? If you miss the relevant broadcast [which you may find out about via a school text/email announcement], it is gone into oblivion! And so is the effort.
Finally, you’ll notice outdoor placards and posters placed at high traffic locations to remind residents of upcoming events like the pancake breakfast or the high school musical.
In this audit of available local community communication tools, I’ve touched on the mail, the school system, the newspaper, the library and borough hall and their websites and outdoor signage. Some sources overlap, but few are fully accessible online where many – if not most of us – start researching.
How to find relevant, local information then? How to bridge or integrate all of those systems into the equivalent of the old party line telephone operator who knew everything about the community and could direct you to the best source for more information? Today, the equivalent is known as Google. But, how do we put that information into a form Google knows about?
The best solution I’ve discovered is via an online self-publishing platform …. i.e., a blog …. a humble yet powerful social media tool that represents an umbrella aggregator, distributor and focal point for relevant and related information. In fact, I’ve been experimenting with a hyper local blog [somewhat similar to the New York Times' The Local, except mine predates it], capturing local history and anecdotes only available through word-of-mouth or from unpublished or out of print sources; documenting local traditions [e.g., Santa arriving via helicopter] and happenings [the first ever Local Business Fair]; adding dimension to events our library sponsors; sharing information on our unique local resources [e.g., hiking trails, German style wheat beer brewery and how to use the online New Jersey library search tool], and adding links to any relevant source that I find.
What I’ve learned in the process is that, as small a community as we have with approximately 10,000 residents, different groups don’t communicate. Not out of spite. Rather because we are all busy and not necessarily thinking about the relevance of information to those outside our narrow group. The existence of the blog means that we now have a platform for capturing and sharing all of that information. However, until residents become educated about trusting the blog for information, I use traditional means to get the word out by talking to people, getting mentioned in community newsletters and Suburban Trends, being visible covering stories, and ensuring that stories relevant to the community appear on the blog.
I’ve discovered that a majority of our local activities and businesses cannot be found online. Many businesses don’t have websites and their owners haven’t created an online presence. Sadly, even when information has been captured digitally it isn’t consistently ‘findable’ …. it’s too deeply embedded and buried in a website. With the blog, I’ve created a first-ever digital trace for local businesses and improved the digital visibility of our local events, as well as an archive for our traditions.
As with all of the social media based experiments I’m involved in, the build is slow. It takes time to demonstrate credibility and relevance online through the stories I publish, and then in person as I meet subscribers [in one case, a reader rescued me from getting temporarily lost in the woods] and those who ‘find’ the blog via Google. I welcome contributors and have luckily identified fellow enthusiasts in the children’s library. I need more, though.
What is true here, as with other experiments, is that the sharing of knowledge …. in this case about my community …. generates conversation. Through this conversation, I’ve uncovered more knowledge that I can’t wait to share.
There’s also the realization that this relatively simple tool called ‘blog’ is a powerful aggregating marvel: available 24/7 and when convenient for readers, searchers, customers and residents. If attended to, the information is current and relevant. And, if current and relevant, those interested will subscribe. Continued relevance comes from continued feedback and interaction, building on itself and reinforcing the sense of connection and community.
This humble social media tool, then, represents an optimal means for small towns …. as it does for businesses of all sizes …. to capture local flavor, tradition, history and events to generate conversation and demonstrate value. It solidifies a sense of community and commonality. To work, it requires that all of those separate sources of information and bits of paper …. about school closings, roadwork, pancake breakfasts, changes in library hours and department of recreation registration …. feed into the common platform. Not impossible, but different and yet infinitely more effective for connecting residents with the relevant local information that they seek.
Think of the benefits: relevance, connection, efficiency and community.
What do you think?
I think it’s awesome what you’re doing for your local community. Creating a homebase where people can find all of their town information vs. the very sporadic postings from the library to school fliers.
The trick for you is to get the town’s buy-in on this new means of communication and information. A great thing you’re doing to help in this is getting other community members on board. Creating evangelists. Other enthusiasts who understand the value and are willing to be a part of it. The more they get into the mix, the more the community will see this and start seeing it as a reliable local source of information.
Kudos to you for doing this – your town will definitely be grateful!
Good work, Christine.
We have similar communications problems in the small city where I live, in suburban Westchester, NY. The local Gannett daily does a mediocre job of covering community news, and there’s really no local radio station. Cable News12 covers the entire county, so local coverage is spotty — only the big news of crime and scandal seems to get coverage.
The city has set up a site, and they also do frequest email updates with community news. A few local individuals are doing what you’ve done — started blogs and Facebook pages.
Self-publishing with all the new tools we have at hand is becoming the new town bulletin board, reaching us directly at home, at work or on the road.
You are correct, Christine.
When information was few, and populations were small, even low priority information types were easily found and quickly disseminated. Unfortunately, today’s unprecedented deluge of global information limits what an individual can process. To David’s point, only the most shocking stories can get modest attention these days.
For now, each population will need to determine what new congregation point makes sense and post their information there (Twitter/Facebook/Blog/etc). Of course, it is still up to the individual to subscribe to that content, and no solution will be ideal for everyone.
In the end, this localized condensation of information a stop gap. As the volume of information continues to exponentially compound we will need tools to intelligently decide which news/data has a high probability of relevance for each individual and present that information in whatever format is easiest to digest. Essentially, we will need to create our own personal (more effective) congregation points.
But until that day, I will continue to comb through my RSS Reader and the teacher notes taped to the back of my 2 year old.
Sonny, it certainly is fascinating watching interest develop over time and content. And, you’re absolutely right about obtaining official buy-in at some point. Meanwhile, I’m working on getting more guest contibutions. Thanks very much for your encouragement. CB
David, it sounds like your town is farther down the road in establishing community channels. In some ways, I’m not surprised that our NYC bedroom towns haven’t established a strong community core given the proximity of NYC for everything. However, with more people decentralizing for work and the onslaught of info, as John reminds us, it becomes more critical and also powerful to have a core aggregator of relevance. Long live that self-published bulletin board that can reach us wherever we are! Thanks for contributing! CB
John, I love the image of you keeping up with school info via notes taped to your daughter. That is priceless!
I’m really intrigued with the evolution of these tools and that personal congregation creator you describe.
Exciting times! Thanks for adding to this discussion. CB
I’m sorry but I think this article took too long to get to the point. I’m reasonably intelligent but I’m not sure exactly what the point was…is it that small towns should be blogging more…?
I guess my style/attention span is just different. Thanks for posting though!
Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it.
Great comments.
Wow, this was a read. I think this local trend is growing fast.
Cap’n, relevant information leads to a sense of community – something missing from many small towns. New social media tools – like blogs – offer a means for gathering all of that common relevant information, making it readily available to residents, thereby nurturing a true sense of commonality and community.
Does that make the point more effectively? Thanks for the feedback.
led panel – thank you.
KJ Rodgers, I think you’re right and local is growing fast. I’m really intrigued with what the New York Times has creates with ‘The Local.’ It’s part of a transformation in how we think, absorb information, interpret it, and use it to connect with others around us. It’s definitely a work in progress!
Thanks for contributing.
Hitwise released some local data for Liverpool – http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2009/06/local_internet_data_liverpool.html
I think that the more localised services can be made, the more useful they will be so the more people will use them.
I’m wondering if a wiki would be a good vehicle for adding information about a local region… especially for permanent information such as local attractions. Current news could have a page that is in flux daily or weekly. Another option is a regional website, maintained by a Chamber of Commerce or any interested party. Here’s an example from Lake Sunapee, NH: http://www.lake-sunapee-living.com/
The organization I work for has spent the last several years addressing exactly this issue. Please visit http://www.newspapernext.org for all kinds of free (and one small paid) resources.
I also direct you to an actual newspaper that’s becoming its community’s Complete Community Connection (which they refer to as C3): The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, IA. Their change agent’s critical blog: http://www.stevebuttry.wordpress.com. Look for his Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection.
Matt, thanks for the hitwise info for Liverpool. Very interesting to observe that level of localised information.
Sharon, thanks for these two ideas.
The wiki one is particularly intriguing as it facilitates collaboration. I can see it working effectively with greater participation.
The regional website maintained by a larger interested entity [like a c of c] is interesting, too. Thanks for the Lake Sunapee example.
Elaine, wonderful examples! Very interesting to witness successful reinvention of news delivery and integration into the fabric of a community. I believe there is tremendous potential with these concepts. Thank you.
Thanks for a very interesting article. I’ve had local sites of my own for many years.
Christine,
I just began a hyper local blog for my city, hoping to involve more local folks to exchange information locally, and your article was at great timing. Only one out of 4 to 5 local publications I read offers RSS updates and others still have old MS Frontpage websites. I wanted to be connected more locally and thought I’d have to write a blog, urging others to embrace local search concepts.