What you say about your place is marketing. What people think about your place is branding. When I see a city manager’s business card produced in house and printed on donated paper at the least expensive price point possible, with a “logo” that consists of a divided shape of some sort with each quadrant filled by some hallmark of place history, I shudder. Again. What is the promise?
But beyond the practical… Twitter me this, Batman… why do we try to use Twitter as a giant echo chamber?
I’ve been thinking… perhaps Florida’s definition of “place” is too narrow, though, to apply to today’s socially-connected world. Perhaps the new organizing unit is knowledge…. where it lives, how its found and accessed, and then how it can be acted upon. Maybe now it’s all about what you can do in a SPACE rather than in a PLACE. Today’s spaces are not defined so much by walls or physical boundaries as they are self-sorted, self-elected affinities. I am part of several “spaces” online and also offline, nearly all of which I’ve chosen belonging
Passion drives the desire to learn, to be excellent and to grow in a field. Becoming an expert at anything is predicated on these things. Passion also means viewpoints will be strongly held, opinions may be forcefully expressed…
FIRST: Forget the debate over whether Social Media is a strategy or a tactic. We (practioners) tend to spend a lot of time arguing this point. Why? If the answer to this question changes the implementation, then it matters. If it doesn’t, well, then it doesn’t.
