Heritage at the Crossroads: Pros and cons of the top web services for social media newcomers

My name is Jeffery Guin, a few months ago I was asked to comment on a discussion a heritage organization was having on updating its listserve. It’s a common conversation now. Younger professionals are seeking communications tools that are relevant to their lifestyles. Meanwhile, the older crew wonders why the next evolution of web tools needs to replace elegant simplicity with “in your face” whiz-bang multimedia functionality.

The evolution has become a revolution it seems–especially for the folks that work to preserve heritage resources. When a group values the past so much, it can sometimes be hard to embrace the future. Yet it’s coming, and the future of the resources we strive to protect depends on our ability to communicate their worth in a culturally relevant way.

As someone who’s worked with social media since 2006, I’ve watched hundreds of these tools come and go. Some have stuck around to become highly useful and relevant. If you’re at the crossroads of making a decision on where to go next with your group’s communications schema, here are a few entry points to help you get your bearings in the social landscape.

Facebook

Pros:

• It’s now the largest social network and expected to double in size over the next year. Its demographic has aged considerably over the past two years, making it a credible social network for professional audiences.
• Flexibility in establishing a page. You can create a standalone group page (more involved) or someone from your group could create a fan page from their own account (easier/not as feature-rich).
• You will surely get a number of “stumblers” who run across your page by mistake, giving you the opportunity to educate the public.
• Given Facebook’s size, you’re probably going to be goaded into creating a page for your organization anyway. Plus, you can take advantage of the “Notes” feature to automatically update your page with content from your main site.

Cons:

• There’s still a bit of the residual misconception about the network being a service for college students.
• Must be a Facebook member to interact within this “walled garden.”
• Limited in the look/feel department. In my opinion, their latest redesign was a mistake. Like it or not though, you’re along for the ride anytime they decide to make a change.
• Can become time-intensive as everyone from your Mom to your third-grade arch-nemesis wants to be your “friend.”

Ning

Pros:

• You have an instant social network with a lot of the functionality of Facebook and your own brand
• It’s customizable with colors, graphics and typefaces
• There are a variety of privacy options for the site and for individual users
• Feature set is continually improved.
• Ability to track your web statistics through Google Analytics

Cons:

• Once the information is in Ning, you can’t readily export it to another platform (like a blog).
• There are hundreds of social sites out there and many folks are fatigued with signing up for them.
• While Ning is improving, there will still be some instances (like getting a photo to show up in a post) where a rudimentary knowledge of HTML code is helpful.
• Requires intensive “community management” to keep people coming to the site and participating. Even if the site is highly relevant, many never will.
• It’s also your responsibility to deal with spambots and members behaving badly.

WordPress.com (free blog)

For my money (or lack of it) WordPress can’t be beat for functionality and ease of use. There are two flavors of WordPress. The first, which can be found at WordPress.com, allows you to sign up for a free account and start blogging right away.

Pros

• Extremely easy to use. If you’ve figured out Microsoft Word, you’ve got more than enough skills.
• Stable, safe and protected from spam.
• Built-in analytics to track your visitorship
• Site information can be exported if you decide to upgrade to a hosted website somewhere else.

Cons

• Design options are limited to the few dozen templates on WordPress.com. But it’s all about the content anyway, right?
• No option to embed media using the standard code most social media sites provide. A simplified WordPress.com code is provided by major social sites.

WordPress.org (self-hosted)

The second flavor of WordPress can be found at WordPress.org. This basically gives you the WordPress software to host on your own, allowing much more flexibility. My own site, Voices of the Past is on a self-hosted WordPress site, as is the organization I work for: the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training.

Pros

• Extreme versatility. Plug-ins and widgets have been created by the community to automate most everything you could imagine.
• Can function as a website, blog or both.
• You can use desktop applications (Windows LiveWriter, MarsEdit, WordPress iPhone app) to publish without logging into a website.
• Robust privacy settings
• Hundreds of WordPress themes (including ones you can buy) let you radically change the look and feel of your site with the click of a mouse

Cons

• Not a social network by nature, though it supports discussion boards
• More complicated in its initial set-up and you are responsible for updates (though these are generally one-click affairs)
• Requires buying a hosting plan and domain name (less than $100/yr. total)

Keep the Big Picture in mind
Of course, there are many more sites out there. The first thing to consider is “why are you doing this?” If a listserve suits all your needs, keep it around while you experiment with other services. Using a service like Posterous (which allows e-mail posting to a blog) you can even have the best of both worlds.

As someone who’s values are intensely rooted in heritage values, but not trained as a “preservation professional,” the biggest problem I see the heritage community having in the new media landscape is bridging the gap between the super-participatory nature of social media and the more insular nature of some groups. To put a point on it, if you’re going to create any of these sites and completely close them to public participation, you won’t reap the karmic (for lack of a better word) benefits of social media.

With any of these services you may find participation can be hard to come by. Posting or commenting on a website can be intimidating because its seems so … permanent. And nothing posted on the web is truly private. The point is facilitating productive discussion in the most efficient way. It can be a bit messy, but it can also be rewarding in the extreme.