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Facebook strictly used to be for college students; MySpace used to be “the place” for teens and 20-somethings to connect with friends. Now, parents and grandparents are using these sites to connect with their past and stay in tune with the present.  Facebook strictly used to be for college students; MySpace used to be “the place” for teens and 20-somethings to connect with friends. Now, parents and grandparents are using these sites to connect with their past and stay in tune with the present.
The social networks have also become a place for businesses and organizations to communicate with a mass audience and reach people. And the best part — their services are free.
Saline County is no exception to this networking trend. Most organizations still rely on older forms of communication, such as the newspaper, to inform and educate the public. But they are also utilizing this popular way to stay in touch.
“Social media, including blogs, Twitter and Facebook, are dramatically affecting how consumers shop, interact with friends and family and consume news and information,” said Rebecca Jones, director of marketing and community relations at Saline Memorial Hospital.
The hospital first created a Facebook page earlier this year to promote its first 5K run/walk fundraiser.
“I spoke to people who attended the race and they said they learned about it through an event invitation on Facebook,” she said. “Now more than ever, people are choosing to get their news and communicate through social media. I believe it’s important to stay current, rethink communication tactics and make the most of opportunities in a changing financial environment.”
Most recently, the hospital created a Facebook page for the upcoming blood drive.
“It’s an easy way to invite your friends and family and encourage them to attend,” Jones said. “It doesn’t take long to create a page and it’s free.”
Jones added that the hospital is reviewing different social media sites to determine which would be most affective for SMH and the community.
“Social media is a trend that’s not going away anytime soon, so it’s important to take advantage of it,” she said. “We will keep track of our efforts and measure the outcomes.”
Civitan Services in Benton has a Facebook page, MySpace page, Wordpress blog and a Twitter page.
Facebook and MySpace are quite similar, only Facebook allows users to change the layout and appearance of their page. Twitter’s niche is simply to allow users to let their friends or “followers” know what they are doing. For example, a typical Twitter page would read: “Jane Doe is watching American Idol.”
Leigha Jones, community development director at Civitan, said she uses the sites to promote Civitan’s events and recruit volunteers, “but also to help get our message out there.”
She said, “It’s amazing how many people still don’t know who we are or what we do and we’ve been here 50 years.”
“I don’t want there to be any kind of mystery about our center or our services,” Jones said. “It’s not a dirty little secret and our clients are really relatable once you get to know them. These sites will let us share those kinds of stories to a generation of people who prefer the safety of the screen between them and the ‘real world.’”
Jones got her ideas for Civitan from the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference this March in New Orleans, she said. “I really liked what I heard and there were lots of success stories from organizations like ours. I talked to them and got tips and a couple books on how to do it best.”
Saline County Library also is no stranger to the social networks.
The library has Twitter, Facebook and MySpace accounts, director Erin Waller said.
“We primarily use those for marketing and outreach,” she said. “I think that those sites are extremely beneficial to non-profit organizations, not just as a free marketing tool, but as a way for the library to utilize technology in a relevant way.”
Most organizations in Saline County also have an account set up on MySaline.com, a networking site for those connected to Saline County.
“All of the sites are sites are an excellent means of brainstorming in general,” said Krista Petty, who handles public relations for the library.
Petty said the library posts “anything we feel would benefit from online publicity. A lot of it is adult programming because that’s the age group that seems to respond best to pages such as MySaline and Twitter. I also like to ask for users’ suggestions for programming and library services.”
The sites’ “popularity proves that they have an impact on society, whether that’s positive or negative depends on the individual or organization using them,” Waller said. “But, I think we would be remiss if we didn’t accept that they are probably here to stay, in some fashion, it’s just the way of technological advancement.”
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