1. March 11, 2012
Peter Fleck
pfhyper@gmail.com
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Intro
I manage online communication in Seward Neighborhood in Minneapolis - present on
social media via Great Streets to groups and one-on-one
Link Page: http://pfhyper.com/greatstreets
Agenda slide
Today
What I’m doing in Seward in terms of a communication infrastructure.
How your organizations can help to foster online engagement
including Things your businesses should be doing
My seward network
● Blog: Seward Profile
● Twitter: @SewardTweets
● Calendar at Google
● Facebook: /sewardneighborhood
● Official Neighborhood sites: SCCA, SNG, Redesign
● E-Democracy Neighbors Forum
Merwyn the river monster is a mascot and a kid-oriented sculpture in Triangle Park on
Franklin Avenue.
These are various ways to access information about Seward
Some are almost exclusively for residents and others are more outward facing
There is great potential for business within this
Take a look at them
Profile
My mission with the Profile site is to provide a neighborhood repository for event
& meeting announcements, police community reports, information on issues like
redistricting and storage for meeting minutes and agendas. It’s not a news site per se

2. but I welcome news stories and reflections on the neighborhood.
I would like to see more from businesses in telling us what they do, how long in the
neighborhood, etc. Something to work on for this year.
It provides a nice link to things.
Twitter
Posts that go to Seward Profile get tweeted along with announcements or interesting
tidbits (the suicide tweet).
Twitter has a list feature. I maintain a Twitter list of seward-related tweeters and
then retweet those. Many on the list are local businesses.
Outward facing
Attracts many organizations
For Seward, don’t see as main engagement tool
380 followers, and only following one (me)
Calendar
People need an easy way to know what’s going on in the neighborhood.
Events that they can walk to.
Created a google calendar and gave access to organizations so they could directly post.
Seward Co-op
Playwright’s
Articulture
Boneshaker
I post for other groups and also have 3 or 4 volunteers with access.
Facebook
SNG page
Feed in the posts to the Profile site and most tweets also go to Facebook
Kerry our community organizer also posts to facebook
used for events
Neighborhood Sites
SCCA
Seward Neighborhood Group
Redesign - Community Development Corporation
These are official. I consult as volunteer and help with them, mainly SNG site here and
there and may be moving it to a new framework in the near future incorporating some of
the other sites I’m managing.

3. We are actively working on our communication structure for Seward.
E-Dem Neighbors Forum
Email
It’s still the easiest way to reach many folks especially people relatively new to the
Internet and low on tech literacy. That’s the premise behind the E-Democracy Forums.
Seward forum is approaching 700 subscribers which is 10% of our households. It was
established in 2007. I’ve been one of the managers since the beginning
E-Dem has forums all over the cities and also forums for the cities themselves,
Minneapolis, St. Paul
topics
wildlife
job openings
lost pets
give aways
meeting notices
plumber/handyperson/roofer/sider/builder referrals
CM Cam Gordon is very active
Rep Jim Davnie posts
Crime & Safety
Businesses welcome to ID themselves and ‘tell their story’.
Fostering online engagement
What can you do as an organization
BASICS
Foster basic best practices with your businesses
● email
○ Make sure to respond to email in a timely manner - 48 hours at max
● web site
○ find a place on the web to call your own
○ There are many free & low-cost services to get a business started
○ Consultants can help (I do)
○
WordPress.com I like this one!
Blogger
Tumblr
Squarespace
Posterous Issue

4. ○ Most of these sites, will autopost to the social media monsters Facebook
& Twitter and allow people to subscribe via email and other means
● Location Services
○ Where are you?
○ Tell people where you are in the physical world
Google places
Yahoo
Bing
Yelp
Google Latitude
public location badge
Foursquare
Facebook place
● Google places & bing maybe most important
○ You can check online to see if people are leaving reviews of your site
or checking in on Foursquare
○ Your organization should gain expertise in this and tell your
businesses how to do it
○ Here’s a sample listing from google
■ you can click through to see reviews etc.
○ Sample from yelp
● Maintain a Twitter list
○ find out who is on Twitter and create a list and let your businesses
know
● Experiment with Twitter coupons
○ Forget Groupon/Crowdcut! Why not a simple twitter coupon with a
code good for a limited time.
● Provide information online or offline
○ provide online tutorials (and/or PAPER) to tell businesses how to
take care of the basics
○ consider a short tech tutorial at the beginning of your meetings with
a handout
● Create and maintain a calendar for the neighborhood
○ Engage community in posting to it.
● Support your Neighborhood Forum

5. ○ or start one
○ or make sure events have sign-up sheets
○ and post to the forums
These recommendations are meant to foster a digitally savvy neighborhood