Online/Offline Media : Charleston
Parks Conservancy
The Charleston Parks Conservancy is
a non-profit company that provides amazing sustainability driven services to
the local community through educational classes, park restoration and community
gardening. The group's educational
classes cover gardening, organic foods, fitness and more. They have amazing resources online as well as
blogs that offer various topics such as plants, gardening, community activities
and more. With both a strong presence online as well as offline, this company
has found a balanced connection with community members both local and afar.
Getting community members involved
in the group’s garden projects and becoming active in the local community and
contributing to the improvements of that local community is how this group
engages users in specific offline activities.
The primary purpose of this group is to interact in offline activities,
engaging in community connectivity and becoming an active presence in the local
area. This group even provides classes
in art, music, drama, gardening, history, nature, fitness and more. While they have a presence online, it’s simply
to keep members and users interacting and up-to-date with the groups events and
projects.
However, gaining an online presence
can greatly benefit the group's engagement with users and members, interacting
with each on a daily basis. Getting community members to donate their money and
time online in order to promote the Charleston Parks Conservancy is part of the
activities that engages users online.
Members can share stories, news, ideas and more through the group’s
blogs and interactive blog comments and discussions. One social media tool that isn’t available
through their online activities is an open discussion board that can allow
users and members to suggest topics and discuss openly in an interactive forum. They do have a forum available but its only
interaction is that of the group and not the members, but they haven’t promoted
that forum enough for it to be successful. This is a prime opportunity to
engage users directly, and interact on a more intimate level.
The Charleston Parks Conservancy website
and social media has tools that are available online, to help bring awareness
about the group’s mission, and community activities. Their website allows the group to get their
name out to the world, bring awareness about their mission and projects and
hopefully receive donations to keep their projects going. However, one of the greatest successes the
group has had with the website is their ability to connect with their users and
members, keeping them updated on upcoming events to attend and be a part of
upcoming projects. The group has also
had success connecting with its members through connecting platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and more.
Getting each of them involved with the group and each other, will help
sustain the group and help introduce new users to the projects this group is
trying to accomplish.
As I mentioned previously, one
drawback in the group’s website, is the inclusion of an interactive discussion
board that allows users and members to openly discuss topics of their choosing. Though they do have a small forum available
for users, it greatly lacks the group’s involvement to engage users and
members. If they were to include that
feature more proactively into their interactive website, then users would be
more likely to interact with one another, as well as even offer new ideas to
the group itself. They say never
underestimate the power of the people, and if they were to give their users the
opportunity to offer new project ideas and even fund raising ideas to the group
itself, then the online community involvement could drastically increase. This would provide the prime opportunity for
users to become truly involved in the local and even worldwide community. More emphasis
needs to be focused on opening that communication pathway and not only would
this provide users the opportunity for a voice, but may aid in the groups
networking with other groups as well.
The Charleston Parks Conservancy utilizes
social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and a lesser
known platform called Foursquare. Each
one of these platforms provides exposure of the group and its mission to a
wider population base, bringing in new members and users every day. Each platform also allows users to interact
with each other on a more one on one basis, similar to discussion board. These social media tools allow users to share
ideas and stories in a more personal setting and an informal environment.
Their social media platforms have
been fairly successful on several fronts.
Not only has it given users the opportunity to share stories and
interactive with each other, but it has allowed the group to network with other
non-profit groups across the country with similar interests. They also give the group an opportunity to
promote and advertise for free, which can be a win win situation, bringing in
new users, members, and volunteers, and not spending a dime on bringing them
in.
All three campaigns had a few
things in common, one major one being their level of advertising on the web and
in the level of engagement between the groups and the users. They all offer opportunities for their users
to contribute to the topics of conversations on a one on one basis. They each provide blogs that include a wide
variety of topics that not only educate their users but offer suggestions to
other users on how to apply that knowledge to their daily lives, such as the
classes offered by Charleston. The main
lesson that should be translated into other social media is the informative but
relaxed atmosphere that is offered by all three groups. Each group is very aware of the power of
social media and the importance of members being active within the group
itself. Then, as the community base
builds, they translate that community to a group that gathers to accomplish a
specific task such as building a community garden, participate in an amusement
park focus and discussion groups, or discussing and selling books.
Resources
Step Ahead – Case Study: Foursquare - http://www.stepaheadinc.com/case-studies/case-study-foursquare/
Charleston Parks - http://www.charlestonparksconservancy.org/home/
Randomhouse Buzzers - http://www.randombuzzers.com/
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