Social media fails to beat traditional media when it comes to local community engagement - Gordon Young's draft Leader
There is no doubt the marketing business is developing at break-neck pace. Every day new innovations, ideas and concepts whip the Twitterati into a tizzy and the Bloggersphere into a frenzy.
Models are melting down, old-conventions are being challenged and even our language is changing. But are communicators rapidly separating from the people they are meant to be communicating with?
Recently, I have been involved in a grass-roots, community campaign to save my Conservation-status village being blighted by a vile Lego-like housing scheme. The people behind this campaign managed to persuade 30% of the adult population of the village to object to the plans – a fantastic achievement.
But I was disappointed at how useful social media was in aiding this protest. Regular readers will know, because I wrote about it last month, that my suggestion to run things through a Facebook page was greeted with some hostility.
Unperturbed I set up a Twitter account. It has three followers. And a new Wordpress blog – attracted around 50 viewers at its peak.
By miles the most effective elements of the campaign was printing an old fashioned newsletter and putting it though every letter box in town. And then recruiting 20 volunteers to knock on doors, explain our position and ask for support.
What does this tell us? The internet is great if you want to build an online community of geographically disparate individuals with similar interests from the same socio-economic backgrounds. But in terms of gaining real critical mass, in a tightly defined area, with a full range of demographics, my experience suggests it has uses, but it is not that useful.
Another insight is that people are no longer getting the local news they need to properly hold their elected representatives to account. Few of the people in our village had any idea of what was being planned on their behalf. And when they found out they were shocked.
Perhaps this is because many local newspapers – faced with the online threat – seem to be giving up. Our local newspaper for example doesn't even have a dedicated editor. People are no longer getting the news they need offline, and online is not successfully making up the deficit.
The main conclusion from my grass-roots experience? Online has a role. But if I really want to make a difference in my home town I need to help them set up a traditional community newspaper.