Can Social Media Save a Neighborhood Organization?

Can Social Media Save a

Neighborhood Organization?

Outline



Purpose



Neighborhood



ICTs & “place”



The case



Methods



Findings

Neighborhood & Neighborhood

Organizing



Sense of Community



Defining

“neighborhood”



Why neighborhood

organizations succeed



Why neighborhood

organizations fail

ICTs & “Place”



Information

Grounds



Connections



News, Issues



Use

The Case – Indian Hills

Neighborhood Association

MyOnlineMaps.com

geology.com

Indian Hills

Photos – Reza Shams

City of Lawrence, Planning Dept.

Luminaria

Event

Let’s Give Social

Media a Try

Methods



212 out of 570

surveys returned

(37%)



Regression



Coding of open

ended question

Regression – My neighborhood should

have a neighborhood association.

Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients B Std. Error Beta t Constant -.198 .508 -.698 Time Future Residency -.027 .079 -.024 -.346 Environment Neighborhood Boundaries .026 .055 .032 .470 Trust City of Lawrence .043 .056 .053 .771 Issues -.039 .061 -.044 -.642 Neighborhood Efficacy .226** .087 .195 2.592 Person Trust IHNA .193** .076 .174 2.533 Neighborhood Does Well .528*** .091 .412 5.791 Neighborly Relationships .005 .055 .007 .099 Income .071 .050 .099 1.415 R2 _{= .38 F = 9.89 Sig. = .00 n = 158} ***p<0.001, **p<0.05

Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients B Std. Error Beta t Constant .012 .357 .034 Environment Neighborhood Efficacy .220*** .068 .194 3.25 Person Trust IHNA .327*** .062 .309 5.249 Neighborhood Does Well .421*** .076 .331 5.516 Social Media .321** .122 .150 2.623 R2 _{= .38 F = 29.84 Sig. = .00 n = 196} ***p≤0.001, **p<0.05

Social Media

Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients B Std. Error Beta t Constant .098 .364 .268 Environment Neighborhood Efficacy .227*** .068 .201 3.329 Person Trust IHNA .318*** .063 .300 5.061 Neighborhood Does Well .436*** .077 .343 5.660 Mail -.21* .117 -.103 -1.789 R2 _{= .37 F = 28.40 Sig. = .00 n = 196} ***p≤0.001, **p<0.05, p=0.075

Mail

Open-ended question – Do you think

Facebook and/or Twitter are good

ways to communicate with the

neighborhood? Why/why not?



Mismatch between “friends” and

“neighbors”



Inclusiveness

Advice



Timely for leaders and neighbors – but don’t

waste their time.



Being representative.



Don’t wait too late.



Link to offline events.



Social media people may be who you want – try

for “small wins”.



Get social media people to “invest” online.



Get those social ties & then doorhangers, event

planning and so on.



Accommodate the kids and work.



Mail is expensive and may not reach those

interested.

Hope? – Message on Facebook

 “Will there by a neighborhood garage sale this year? If so,

when is it planned?



“Good Question! It is about that time of year. If we have it, it

would probably be in mid-June but what do you think? Can

we muster people to get doorhangers out? Or some other way

to let people know?

 “Thank you for replying to me. I am fairly new to the

neighborhood and thought it happened in May. . . .



“We’ve done May and we’ve done June in the past. I’ll do

some checking to see if our usual organizers are up for it this

year and get back with you. Thanks!

 “OK thanks. I will try to help out if possible .”

Contacts:

Bonnie J. Johnson, Urban Planning,

bojojohn@ku.edu

Germain R. Halegoua, Film & Media Studies,

grhalegoua@ku.edu