The use of such social media networking tools as Facebook and Twitter surfaced late in our cycle of New Voices grantees. Results, however, were dramatic for those sites that used their founders’ and contributors’ social networks to push out content, generate buzz, and recruit new readers.
All signs point to social media as ushering in a New Age for Community News.
All signs point to social media as ushering in a New Age for Community News, building phenomenal capacity for recruiting readers and writers, for marketing the projects, and developing partnership and funding opportunities. In some cases, it has become their primary form of distribution.
NewEraNews, the political and cultural blog by young Coloradans, launched in April 2010 and quickly recruited more than 25 contributors, including interest groups, state legislators and members of Congress. They produced 200 stories in just the first two months with many picked up by national blog sites.
Oakland Local’s strategic use of social media instantly put the site on the national map and its content is now being indexed by Yahoo! and Google News. (See Oakland Local: Sustaining Momentum.)
Meanwhile, older New Voices sites are ramping up their use of social media, incorporating tools into their existing sites, and in some cases developing new sites to take more advantage of them.