Why Social Media?

One week ago we set up this blog for A Beloved Community, along with a new Facebook page and Meetup service. Today we sent out our first email to 31 subscribers through MailChimp service.

A few are asking "Why do we need all this and why can't we just use the telephone, printed flyers and email with Reply All?"

The simple answer is that we hope to grow too large for just those forms of communication. Secondly, we are no longer living in a mass-market, broadcast, push-marketing world and therefore are making a conscious effort to reach out to younger generations, who are more digital-native that some of us. Smartphones and tablets are changing everything. Much communication is now done on the fly in real time.

The longer answer is that the very substance of A Beloved Community is about community building that is transparent, open source, interactive, engaging and fun. New organizations are more organic and fluid; the are more participatory and less hierarchical. Everyone's voice is important.

Although it is not always optimally used, social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other digital services) are potentially great tools for networked collaboration. Everyone can participate and add their voice and unique contribution. Good ideas can quickly become "viral", catch on and spread fast. I read one today from Aaron Hatch about "offering a student loan forgiveness program to entice college-grads to move back to Redding to spend time helping to solve some of the areas most pressing problems" - brilliant! Spread this.

A good website is no longer a static "billboard" to push something. Blogspot is a free service and also has the benefit of enabling easy reader comments to start a conversation. Hopefully we will not have to moderate or block commenters who don't understand our ethos of positive, respectful dialogue - we don't want nasty controversy like the Record Searchlight has to deal with.

Be sure to add your comment to this website whenever you agree or have something to add for the benefit of the common good. Open the underlined links in a post and in your comments on this blog include those good links you find too.

In one week our Facebook page already has 43 "Friends" and 28 are "talking about it." Likes, Comments and Shares help spread the word to friends of friends of friends and thus awareness and support grows geometrically. The key is for everyone to do their part and be engaged rather than just a passive reader.

Facebook also had events and groups, which we have not fully used. But we believe that the potential for A Beloved Community is beyond events, marches and giving support by showing up - important as they are.

When we use social media, most of us don't listen enough - we think it is all about broadcasting posts. To use the LACE acronym of Elisabeth Drescher, "appropriate practices of Listening, Attending and Connecting ground meaningful Engagement in social media..."

The RSVP function of Meetup helps in our planning. In addition to benefits such as reminders and follow-up feedback opportunities, Meetup also helps us get to know one another better and put a face with the name of someone we just met. People from other Redding Meetups may decide to join us or we may see an area where we can collaborate with their Meetup group.

MailChimp is a opt-in email service similar to Constant Contact, Vertical Response and others. It helps solve a future problem of "email fatigue" that results when too many people click the "reply all" button and we become so inundated that we stop paying attention. Nobody wants more emails in their inbox! MailChimp will allow us to easily sort emails to go just to specific groups of people.

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