Hi everyone,
This has been an interesting thread, and timely for my new media shop over
here in Parks Canada. Our team is also looking at ways that we could
potentially use social media website presences to reach more people with
messages about Canada’s national heritage places.
As such I’ve been using Facebook and other sites a fair bit, and doing a
lot of research on their demographics and implications associated with
using them - important considerations for us as we are a federal agency and
have many policies and rules to adhere to.
I noticed that with respect to our national parks and historic sites, there
are several groups created by individuals about specific national parks,
almost like national park fan clubs, and they have grown to have around 200
members or so. Generally, most groups for smaller institutions (such as a
park or a museum) will not get the large group sizes we see for the fun
viral groups and competitions on Facebook- unless the museum is
particularly engaging.
For the most part, the dialogue on the groups was pretty basic with very
little that is meaningful to our mandate. For example, discussions about
someone having a drinking party in a campground is not really the kind of
engagement we are looking to have with the public, nor are lists of the
best places to make out on the lake. However I have noticed, especially
now that we are in summer, that people who are interested in these parks
but not too familiar with them have begun discussion threads about
potential canoe and hiking routes and others have posted threads looking
back at how the park has changed over time. The dialogue is getting more
interesting from a public engagement perspective simply because its
spreading the word virally about why our sites are worth protecting and
experiencing- and without any help from us, which makes it more valid I
think in the end. In a sense the Facebook groups are providing a bit of a
comfort zone for urban folk wanting to leave the city behind and explore
nature- but at the same time being a bit intimidated by it and looking for
advice from other users of the park.
I also started a very unofficial group on my own called “I Love Canada’s
National Parks” which is not sponsored by my work, but was created just as
a personal experiment to see what people would do on it and who might join.
As with many very specific interest groups, membership hasn’t grown
rapidly, but I was surprised to find close to 100 members that last time I
checked). But, to my surprise, the majority of members are actually former
Parks Canada employees, and I now receive messages asking if it’s alright
for non Parks Canada people to join. As such, it so far hasn’t reached the
audience I was really expecting, although that is changing. I tried
seeding the site with a few discussion threads, but like most groups on
Facebook, people join but rarely more than a couple leaders get engaged to
any extent. It has however become a place where people share their photos-
this seems to be what people like to do best in some of these groups.
Interestingly, aside from current and alumni staff, most non staff members
are not of the “kids” demographic some people mentioned in the thread so
far- they are more likely to be in their late 20s and 30s, which is the way
Facebook demographics are now seeming to shift since they opened up
membership access to everyone, not just university students. I suspect
that within the year Facebook will become much more like Myspace, where the
largest single age demographic group changed from under 20 to between 25
and 35 over the past year.
On a final note, I am looking into institutions’ experiences using social
media sites as part of a report on the policy implications and important
considerations associated with using social media for my management, so if
anyone has any interesting insights they wish to discuss off-thread, then
please drop me a note. My email is [log in to unmask] (or alternately,
I guess you can just drop me a message from my I love Canada’s National
Parks group on Facebook- I’m the administrator!)
We just had one Facebook experiment here in Canada go in a direction they
weren’t anticipating, with our public broadcasting corporation, the CBC.
The details are in the article link below if anyone is interested and it
underlines how any forays into social media have to be considered
carefully:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070628.wgtcbc28/BNStory/Technology/home
Thanks for the interesting discussion,
Mike White
Michael White
Analyste de la recherche – Nouveaux médias | Research Analyst - New Media
[log in to unmask] | Tél./Tel. (819) 997-6647 | Téléc./Fax (819)
997-5974
Stratégies concernant les nouveaux médias et investissement | New Media
Strategies and Investment
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Direction, Information et éducation du public
Direction générale des relations externes et expériences des visiteurs
Parcs Canada
Public Information and Education Branch
External Relations and Visitor Experience Directorate
Parks Canada
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25 rue Eddy (25-6-T) | 25 Eddy Street (25-6-T)
Gatineau, Québec
K1A 0M5
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