Social Media Tips From Google, KS

By Tarah Heupel | March 23, 2010

Google, KS

For the month of March, Topeka doesn’t exist. The town of 120,000 is now officially named Google, KS. The big question, of course, is why?

Earlier this month Google announced a contest to bring Google Fiber (ultra-high-speed broadband Internet) to one or more trial communities around the country. A Topeka Facebook group urging locals to support the project spread like wildfire, and culminated with the mayor’s proclamation to change the city’s name.

Topeka’s stunt kicked off a marketing feeding frenzy, with hundreds of communities vying for Google’s attention – several in utterly bizarre ways. The mayor of Duluth actually promised that all future first-born children will be named GoogleFiber or Googlette, then jumped in freezing Lake Superior and yelled, “I’ve laid down the gauntlet! You want Google Fiber, you jump in Lake Superior!”

While not all campaigning cities are going to such (ridiculous) extremes, many have wisely turned to social media to bolster support:

• The mayor of Memphis is using Twitter to ask residents to post videos with reasons their town is the best choice for Google’s experiment.
• The ‘Google Fiber for Grand Rapids’ Facebook group has more than 34,000 fans, with user-generated photos and videos.
• Greenville, SC created a YouTube Channel to spread the word about ‘Google on Main,’ a quest to build the world’s first people-powered Google chain (though I’m not exactly sure what a ‘Google chain’ is, somehow it involves glow sticks and a helicopter).

This is how social media can be used to your advantage. These communities are finding creative ways to use social media platforms, both to spread information and engage their residents in conversations. This give-and-take exchange taps into a value the user actually cares about (100x faster internet) and offers it as a potential reward for participating. Everybody wins!

So what about you? How can you use social media to engage your customers?

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Tagged with conversations, interactive marketing, interactive strategy, Public Relations, Social Media, twitter, youtube

Filed under Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Politics

See also:

• Social Media Strategy in South Dakota
• Why Twitter Should Matter to You
• A website is not a guy in a chicken suit

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About the author
Tarah specializes in content development and SEO at RSA. An avid reader of everything from USA Today to the back of her morning cereal box, she has a passion for writing and editing (and an extreme aversion to people who misuse their/they're/there). Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.