Emerge Inc. Blog

The following originally appeared on May 2, 2010 on LorainCounty.com

For last 2 years, we (the team that provides development support for LorainCounty.com) have debated the best way to connect LorainCounty.com to the social media wave that is rolling throughout the Internet.

While discussing the many different options, there were always 2 things we agreed upon:

1) LorainCounty.com shouldn’t try to be a social network (the site’s focus is geographically bound, whereas your social relationships are not)
2) LorainCounty.com shouldn’t spam facebook and twitter with every headline

Two weeks ago, Facebook provided an exciting opportunity to connect LorainCounty.com to social media.

The new ‘Like’ and ‘Recommend’ buttons on LorainCounty.com work like this:

1) View an article, event, business or political candidate on LorainCounty.com
2) If you like it, you can click the Facebook button (you’ll need to be logged in to Facebook first)
3) Your Facebook wall is updated with a phrase similar to “Ed recommends Bill and Bonnie Cutcher Present the History of Aviation in Lorain County on LorainCounty.com.”

As to the two items we agreed LorainCounty.com shouldn’t be, the Facebook buttons address these perfectly:

1) LorainCounty.com becomes instantly personal without having to create a social network infrastructure and ask you who are your friends
2) You won’t see every LorainCounty.com headline in Facebook, you’ll only see the one’s your friends decide have enough value to share

The exciting part of this is that LorainCounty.com users decide what is of value and worth sharing with their friends. Some of the things you might share include:

• Your favorite pizza shop
• The non-profit you support
• The candidate for County Commissioner you support
• An article on a business expanding in the County
• A festival or event you plan to attend
• Your companies profile in the Community Directory

What are your thoughts on connecting LorainCounty.com to the social media wave?