This is part of my series where I invite guest bloggers to post on a topic of their choosing related to social media. Not only does it give me a break, but it allows for some fresh ideas. The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Inkling Media.
Today’s guest blogger is my friend Jeff McCloud. Jeff is in the middle of his first term as a member of Elizabethtown Borough Council. A former newspaper reporter and editor, he is the marketing and public relations manager for Housing Development Corp. in Lancaster. He and his wife have two elementary age sons. Interestingly enough, Jeff and I first met nearly 15 years ago via social media, when we were both members of an online community focusing on our shared interest in music.
In the rough and tumble world that is newspaper journalism, especially community journalism in small towns such as Elizabethtown, Pa., finding a publication that has remained in business into 2009 is next to impossible. Such was the case when the Elizabethtown Chronicle, a small weekly newspaper that I oversaw as the editor at one time 10 years ago, folded into oblivion. It really was a sad day for the community because, while the paper took its fair share of criticism, no other newspaper covered the nitty-gritty stuff that makes up a community.
When that happened, I was 15 or 16 months into my first term as a member of Elizabethtown Borough Council. With a large hole for getting news out to the E-town community, and my background and experience as a newspaper reporter and editor, I started Chronicling Elizabethtown, a blog that would get borough news out from my perspective as a borough councilman. I write with a journalistic style, and I’m also a cheerleader for the community because that’s what I need to do as an elected offiicial. It’s a line I walk, and I think I’m doing it pretty well.
That’s why you’ll see newsy kinds of posts about how Elizabethtown received federal stimulus money to renovate its Amtrak train station and one supporting a new coffee shop and how it will help stimulate economic development downtown.
Now and then, I feel the need to use my blog as a community service. In August, when E-town had the boil-water advisory, the number of visitors to my blog skyrocketed because the water authority didn’t do a good job communicating to the public. Prior to the advisory, I was getting no more than a handful of visitors a day and had just 206 total visitors by the end of July. In the three or four days of the advisory in August, visits went through the roof, according to the analytics, and by the end of August I had 951 visits and more than 1,500 page views. I’ve had a number of people thank me in person for posting information during the event. Although I didn’t sustain the large numbers over time, I had six or seven new subscribers to my blog in the days following the advisory, and the average number of daily visitors doubled from five to 10.
The numbers are one thing, and influence is another. The train station project has received a fair amount of media attention — and because I’ve blogged about it frequently, two local television reporters contacted me because they read the blog. Meredith Jorgensen of WGAL was one and did an interview with my speaking on behalf of the borough. I also did an interview with Swedish national radio’s Washington correspondent, who traveled to E-town (ironically driving there and not taking the train!) to do a story about the federal stimulus money. He contacted me after finding my blog.
Based on the analytics, I know that people all over are reading these posts, with a concentration in Central Pennsylvania. This includes powerbrokers in Harrisburg. In fact, the Borough Manager told me that officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which is administering the stimulus funds for the train station project, were furious after reporters read a post about why the train station project was being held up during the budget crisis. I reported what Borough Council was told, which was the truth.
Although I can’t claim thousands of visitors, my blog is having a big impact in my small niche and world of E-town municipal government.
Any thoughts on Jeff’s post and how he utilizes blogging as a form of public service?
