Social Media 101

Twitter and other forms of social media continue to penetrate the psyche of Edmontonians. One indication is the kind thank you I received from Jason Darrah, communications business advisor for City of Edmonton within the deputy city manager’s office. He’s responsible for managing the @CityofEdmonton Twitter account (mentioned here last month). and as I found out there’s change in the wind. I asked Darrah what the City hoped to achieve through its early use of social media: Twitter, Youtube and Facebook. He gave several answers around the common theme of “listening to Edmontonians” and indicated that there is strong support to “connect better, be more open and responsive to Edmontonians.” With increased nimbleness, Darrah feels that the City will be in a better position to “engage citizens.” I must admit this was music to my social media ears but, before I get all misty, let’s back it up and talk about how the @CityofEdmonton Twitter account came to be. Of course, it’s not as simple as registering—ideally, it includes debate, planning and discussion. Darrah briefly explained that this entire social media effort is a collaborative multi-department exercise… to be sure, this hasn’t happened overnight. “The number one place we started was with a sound strategy…

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A Start-Up Business YouTube?

It seems that in the state of the current economy more and more cities like Edmonton are seeking new ways to promote their young entrepreneurs and technology sectors. Just recently we discovered some striking similarities between the technology sectors of Edmonton and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It seems that young entrepreneurs are beginning to find success in promoting and raising awareness of start-up businesses in areas that are not technically considered hubs of entrepreneurship.

Case in point, ActionsTalk.com promotes start-up businesses in the Milwaukee area and the country. The owners, Ryan Graves and Blake Samic share between themselves a wealth of information technology experience that could launch their website into the next “YouTube” for start-up businesses. In a sense, their site could become a popular source for young entrepreneurs and investors to gather and share information through the use of video and other sources of technology. But will they succeed?

When Bruce Johnson released Semanti, a brilliant search technology that sets on top of Google to personalize the searching experience, he probably never would have guessed the level of the technology’s current success. Though Graves and Samic do have a long way to go before they can consider themselves as being the next start-up YouTube or even as successful as Bruce Johnson, the potential is definitely there, and just as Semanti’s potential was recognized and marketed, so too will the idea of these two young entrepreneurs.

It serves as a reminder to all social networkers, young entrepreneurs and investors alike that we’re just scratching the surface when it comes to ideas. New ideas are developing and will continue to develop in our current economic crisis, and as Edmontonians Visionaries often discovers, technology is always at the heart of those developments.