Here in the heart of Michigan it’s eye-opening to see the number of local businesses, churches, politicians and other groups on Facebook. They have FB pages, groups and fan pages. Why? Check these stats from Steve Rubel on his blog, The Steve Rubel Stream:
All at once, businesses large and small are increasingly recognizing that they need to go where the people are.
And with 100 million Facebook users in the US who spend an average seven hours on the site each month (Nielsen), it’s surely a no-brainer.
When your local pizzeria is promoting their Facebook page at the register, as mine does, then you know that marketing has changed. The same applies to Twitter and YouTube.
Facebook is where large numbers of people hangout online in all geographic areas and by a wide-range of demographic groups.
Do you have any examples of locals trying to use Facebook to help build their business relationships? Share the links. Leave a comment.
I’m putting this link here so I don’t forget to read it. It’s about how Facebook can be used to help local governments better serve their constituents. It has links to many examples where this is being done. I’m anxious to read it. Does anybody have other examples? The link is from the blog Inside Facebook.
With the demise of most news media coverage of state legislative activity, it’s heartening to see that the Utah State Senate uses Twitter to keep followers informed about that body’s activities.
I’ve only scanned a couple handfuls of its Tweets, but the information being Twittered seems to have usefulness, including links and alerts to upcoming actions. Kudos to Utah.
What other state legislatures use Twitter to keep voters and others informed? I’ve not seen evidence yet of Twitter use here in the Michigan House of Representatives or Senate.
UPDATE #1: The Michigan Senate Democrats use Twitter at http://twitter.com/MISenDems They have only 91 followers. MSNBC recently did a story about the MI Senate Dems using Twitter and Facebook.
UPDATE #2: The Michigan House Republicans have just started using Twitter. They can be followed at- http://twitter.com/MIHouseGOP
UPDATE #3: Michigan House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer has started with Twitter at http://twitter.com/TeamKevin
