Urban Jacksonville

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Dave Stanton will join us on Urban Jacksonville Weekly Monday, December 21st to talk about new media and journalism trends.

Dave recently started working at The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers. Previously, Dave taught new media and journalism courses at University of Florida. I met Dave via his podcast Journalism Now, the rest is history.

We’ll look at how far the newspaper industry has come this year and trends for 2010. Here are some questions we’ll discuss. We’ll also look at some trends for 2010 and let you know whether we’re buying or selling.

• What, if any value, does Facebook have to the newspaper industry, in contrast to Twitter
• Is the social media aspect of the web shifting new consumption more towards individual personalities and away from the institution.
• Has there been a shift from bringing audiences in, to pushing content out? RSS, Email Alerts, Twitter and now placing content on different channels, for instance videos on YouTube.
• When will we see a shift back to more a more investigative form of Journalism or is that gone forever.
• Will Hyperlocal finally step up in 2010? What does it need to do to take the next step?
• Have Twitter and Facebook made news real-time or is there still some ground to make up before we can call it real-time.

Last night the Sulzbacher released a sweet little web app that allows people to sign a digital petition and leave a 140 character message for all to read. Developed by Hampton Catlin, the petition app is an easy way to show your support for the Sulzbacher.

Sign the petition at http://action.sulzbachercenter.org

The second step the petition shows how many people have signed it (I was #54) and allows you to send a pre-written message to all city council members or your friends. See below:

As a supporter of the Sulzbacher Center, I see first hand how the critical services that they provide change the lives of homeless men, women and children. The city funding cuts that are being proposed will result in a significant reduction in services that will impact our entire community. Feeding people who are hungry and housing families is simply too important to consider cutting. Please vote to keep the Sulzbacher Center’s funding intact, even if property taxes are not increased.

This is a great example of a non-profit using, what I assume is the Twitter API in an innovative way.

This is a quick post to let you know Springfield is dedicating the new Confederate Dog Park tonight at 5:30.

Update: the dog park ribbon ceremony has been moved to Friday, June 12 5:30 p.m. There are lots of other things to do on this First Friday of June.

Today would also be a good day to follow me on Twitter and/or the Urban Jacksonville Facebook page. I have really been enjoying Facebook lately. It’s like Twitter with photos and discussion. Come hang out.

NOTE: At 9am I’ll be live Tweeting the Mayors appearance on WJCT’s In Context: Week In Review

Council member Johnny Gaffney along with the Springfield Improvement Association and Women’s Club, Springfield Animal Care and Rescue Club, and the City of Jacksonville’s Department of Recreation and Community Services (JaxParks) for a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of the new Confederate Park Dog Park. All dogs and their owners are invited to attend.

View Larger Map

Friday, June 5 at 5:30 PM
Confederate Park,
956 Hubbard Street
Info: Mercedes Parker at 630-3541 or Mercedes@coj.net.

I’m much more connected to the city lately, thanks to Twitter. I’m not sure what it is about those 140 little characters, but they’re linking us in exciting new ways. I feel like we’re all part of one big system, a hive mind.

Take the case of incoming Council President Richard Clark and a reluctance to publicize his council emails. It all started with this tweet from JaxPolitics at 9:07am:

Sad that Richard Clark, the newly elected Council President, is breaking with the tradition of providing public access to his e-mail.

Four minutes later the assisting managing editor at the Times-Union, Marilyn Young, caught wind and by 10:34 emailed the city:

This issue was resolved in a day and now the public has access to Richard Clark’s emails (right?). I suspect before Twitter, this interaction would have dragged on for a week or more and spanned 10-15 emails. Twitter took this issue and placed it in a pressure cooker.

Twitter-style interaction is the next level of communication, not just a passing fad. While Twitter may evolve, go away, or be swallowed by Google, social-style communication is the way of the future. Those who learn and use this tool now will reap the benefits of unprecedented connection and interaction.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on how Twitter is shaping Jacksonville politics, government, development, and culture. Expect me to report back whenever I see a new trend emerging.

There are two online services you can use to see what people are tweeting about in Jacksonville, Happn.in and JaxTweeter. I also wrote a few tips on using Twitter for those new to the service.

Happn.in

Happn.in is a good daily view of the top 10 topics people are tweeting about in Jacksonville. It’s interesting at times, for example here is what people were talking about on May 23rd: old navy | newbie makes | flip flops | booty call | shuttle atlantis | sneak peek | amazing shot |

happn.in collects and aggregates popular phrases used on Twitter within 20 miles of major cities. The five most popular phrases each hour are posted to this site, and are tweeted three times a day to the happn.in Twitter account for each city.

Follow what’s Happn.in in Jacksonville on Twitter

JaxTweeter

JaxTweeter is a realtime view of what people in Jacksonville are talking about on Twitter. To me, JaxTweeter is much more of a novelty than useful, however, it is interesting to look at.

There is no trending, filtering, or categorization to the tweets, just snapshots in time. If you are intrigued by the JaxTweeter idea, please check out the much more useful JaxReader, a Jacksonville blog aggregator.

Tips on Using Twitter

Many people abandon using Twitter after a month because they don’t understand how to use it and they don’t have any followers. Here are some tips to make it more Twitter more interesting to you and your followers.

Note: These tips are really targeted at a particular member of the Peyton administration who just started tweeting, but they can be applied to anyone or any business interesting in using Twitter.

• Complete your profile with a photo, a well constructed bio and a URL. This will encourage others to follow you.
• Get involved in the conversation. Interact with others by asking questions or responding to their tweets using @replies.
• Install a Twitter desktop client like Tweetie (Mac) or TweetDeck (Mac/PC). Now you won’t have to constantly go to the Twitter website to post and read tweets.
• Be genuine, but also add value. While it’s great that you had frosted mini-wheats for breakfast (i did), it would also be helpful to know what projects you are working on.
• Tweet to get information out quickly. Twitter is faster than a blog post and more powerful than a press release. Use Twitter to broadcast first.
• Reward your followers with inside information and insight. Politicians and celebrities have a unique opportunity to enhance relationships with voters and fans by building a relationship with them online.
• If you are tweeting in a professional capacity, i.e. representing a business or a local city government, people will be interested to learn about that business or local government. Tell them interesting things or offer insight on business or policy decisions they won’t find anywhere else.
• Ask someone for help. If you are new to Twitter and you’re a business owner, politician, reporter, or even my sister, I’d be happy to help you figure out a good Twitter strategy.

These are a few of many strategies that can be used to make your experience on Twitter a fun one for you and your followers. Here are some more: Why People Don’t Follow Back on Twitter.

Tony Allegretti is know for innovative marketing, ArtWalk anyone? The beauty of his marketing is it seems so damn effortless. He probably doesn’t know he struck on a brilliant idea this weekend at the Riverside Arts Market. Then again, maybe he does, and that’s why he was hired to be the Director.

Tony took pictures of booths with his phone and uploaded them to his photoblog O Snap, calling out booth numbers and highlights of the market as he snapped (Note: Tony needs a new phone with a better camera).

This is a great way to highlight and recommend individual vendors. Highlighting one vendor over another is definitely not his style, but you get the idea.

Next he should tie his photoblog to his RAM Director twitter account (I know how to do this by the way…). Snapping photos and posting descriptions and booth numbers directly to Twitter. Anyone following RAMDirector on Twitter would have a director’s eye view of the best and most savory at the market, at least for that particular weekend.

Checking tweets from your phone at the market, hitting up booths you might not have normally ventured to. Who else would you rather get recommendations from than the RAM Director, who’s been there every week and knows what’s new and what should not be missed. It’s a great way to market the market.

Tony, when you need a guest curator for the day, let me know. I’m totally down.

The Social Media Club Jacksonville (SMCJAX) is having their first official TweetUP tonight, Tuesday, April 28, from 6pm till late at Times Grill in the Winn-Dixie Shopping Center at Baymeadows and 9A. The event is open to everyone interested in social media.

The event sponsor, Times Grill, is serving up appetizers and great Happy Hour specials: 2 for 1, Draft Beers (Domestics), Bottle Beers (Domestics) well liquors, and House wine.
Be sure to visit www.timesgrill.com and join the Big Times eClub to thank them for their generous support of our event.

Going to twitter and twitpic during our event? Please use hashtag #smcjax so we can all follow along! Follow SMCJAX on Twitter.

If Tweets aren’t for you, JaxBeard is having a Pub Night at Steamworks in 5points. There will be three $15 bar tabs open for the Best Beard, Best Mustache, and Best Handmade Facial Hair! Girls and clean-shaven guys you still have time to make yourself a fancy beard or mustache.

I also want to make sure that everyone knows that we will have Jacksonville Beardsmith Society T-shirts available for purchase for $10. Many thanks to Burro Bags for getting those done in such short time for us. Starts around 9:00pm. Follow JaxBeard on Twitter.