In talking with people in the Orcas community about their online needs over the past week, there’s a few general trends that come up.
Facebook is the #1 corporate social media network in use here, followed by Instagram. I’ve even see people add each other on Instagram in lieu of exchanging numbers.
While many have a desire to be away from Facebook and corporate social media few see any solutions or potential paths to get out. Almost everyone says that social media is hurting our community. Many people only have accounts because they’re required to be connected to the community.
The main uses on the island corporate social media are buy sell trade, getting updates and news about businesses, events, and groups.
There’s also a huge unmet need on the island for some kind of island-wide event calendar. There’s loads of calendars and information about events in hundreds of different places, some of which are out of date, most of which don’t easily come up in search.
| The other day we were trying to figure out if the bi-weekly rollerskating was happening at the gym and couldn’t find it on search so we had someone in town swing by the gym to see if the poster was up (editor’s note: it was; much fun skating happened). |
There’s also non-profit, business and local government use of corporate social media which I’ll tackle in another post.
People’s biggest worries about getting off corporate social media are mainly around “having and managing yet another thing.” Diving deeper, some say the hurdle is learning a new thing, others complain about multiple accounts, and many indicate just having to keep another app in their minds feels like a lot.
When pressed, nearly everyone I speak to would be willing to try something new if they really felt it could offer an alternative from corporate social media, assuming enough other people were using it to bring value.
Note: A gap in my exploration so far is that I haven’t sat down with under-threat individuals within the LGBTQ+, people of color or immigrant communities to speak about their specific social media experiences. It’s also worth noting that understanding what types of local issues or harassment may occur online locally for women is also important. Having these conversations explicitly, including the inclusion of people from these groups in any kind of steering committee, would be vital before any serious tool selection or product design began.
