If you’re still not sure what all the fuss is about related to social networking, and think that tweets are just for the birds, you may want to participate in an upcoming webinar hosted by the Northeast Waste Management Officials Association (NEWMOA), entitled How P2 Assistance Providers Can Effectively Use Social Media. NEWMOA, like the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR), is one of eight regional pollution prevention information centers throughout the U.S. that collectively comprise the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx).
The webinar, scheduled for this Thursday, September 15 at 1 PM Central, will explain how the use of social media and web 2.0 technologies can bring value to pollution prevention and assistance programs. The presenters will also discuss their experiences using different social media applications to reach a variety of audiences, and share tips on what has been successful. One of the presenters will be GLRPPR’s own Laura Barnes, who will discuss “How to Get Started Using Social Media.” Other speakers include Andy Bray of NEWMOA and Sarah Haas from the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program (MnTAP).
Social media can be a powerful tool for staying informed, networking (especially in these days of limited budgets and frowned upon travel requests), and spreading the word about your products and services without spending a great deal of money. After participating in the webinar, I encourage you to make use of GLRPPR’s Twitter and Facebook pages. These pages incorporate items from various GLRPPR RSS feeds, such as news items, new additions to our Sector Resources, and blog posts (like this one!), so they can be a great way to catch the best highlights from many of our services in one place. These pages also feature items re-posted (“re-tweeted”) by myself and Laura from the various other Twitter, Facebook and news sources that we monitor — our recommendations for content that you would find interesting and useful. They also offer an opportunity to comment on posts (Facebook) or use direct messages and “mentions” (Twitter), thus providing an online forum for discussion of resources. And through the use of conventions (like Twitter’s #FollowFriday and #EcoMonday) and lists of friends and followers, you can learn about other people and organizations engaged in work and interests similar to yours.
So be sure to register for the webinar on NEWMOA’s web site. We’d love for you to be one of our tweeps!