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I just returned from two exciting days at the Alliance for Community Media Northeast Region conference in Burlington, VT, where I had the opportunity to talk (pictured above), and learn from others, about how community television stations are using social media to engage more with their local communities and beyond.

The social media aggregator for the conference at http://acmne.net/09/ was a great success! Thanks to the good folks at Found Line for building it and everyone who tagged their media with acmne09. It was a great tool for attendees to connect with each other during the conference. My hope is that it will serve as a useful archive moving forward, particularly for those who couldn’t be there.

Thanks also to VCAM in Burlington who worked around the clock to record and post video from the conference online.

During the conference, I made two recommendations to community media centers interested in using social media:

1. Ask your members to tell you which social media tools they are using
2. Create a social media strategy based on their social media use

In other words, your community (members, supporters, those you want to attract, etc.) should determine your organizations’ social media use.

Thanks again to Liz Schlegel of Found Line for moderating the panel and Christine Major at Perkette Public Relations and Found Line’s Bradley Holt for sharing their expertise. You can hear more from all of the panelists in the video available online.

There’s lots more video to watch from all of the panels and workshops. Visit the Alliance for Community Media Northeast on Blip.tv for more.