Local Resolutions Part 22 of 29

This is the twenty-second in a series of 29 ways to help your local community online in 2010. If you missed it, you may wish to read the introductory post.

In this post, I suggest that publishing lists online is a great way to help strengthen your community while you’re online. This series has included recent posts about leaving comments on local blogs, reviewing local restaurants and service providers, and shopping local on Etsy.

This post may seem lame.

And yes, while the idea is so obvious as to be banal and the time it takes to say it is brief, it’s also powerful.

Make a list

If you read yesterday’s post, you saw that I ended it with a list of locally-oriented blogs that I recommend. I did the same thing when I wrote earlier in this series about becoming a fan of local Facebook pages.

Those posts got attention and comments. When you’re introducing an idea to others, it’s helpful to break it down, to give examples, and to suggest where to start. The list, that amazing little invention of formatting, is perfectly suited for such tasks.

I’ll also share that the list of Lancaster Twitter users on this site is the most popular piece of content on here. It continues to receive views every day, even when it’s been too long since I’ve updated it (like right now).

There are all kinds of lists

Lists of local things are great ways of giving a shoutout to places and people you like, and they also provide quick value to others in your community.

So today’s resolution for making our local community better through online activities is to write and share lists this year.

You can make a list of nearly anything, in a few styles, including:

Rankings – List, in order, your top ten local beers, sushi restaurants, parks, doctors, art galleries.

Comprehensive – Attempt to create an annotated list of everything. To keep it up-to-date and authoritative, ask others to let you know of additions and corrections.

Examples – Most of the time, it’s ridiculous to expect yourself to have the time to create a comprehensive list, or even to rank items. A simple list of a few examples is still helpful. You can spotlight the ones you missed another time (and, I’ve learned, it’s also best to encourage people to add to the list by leaving a comment).

What comes to mind when you think of a list of things you’d like to share? Where do you already create lists? On Twitter? On your blog? On Amazon?

Local Resolutions Part 21 of 29

This is the twenty-first in a series of 29 ways to help your local community online in 2010. If you missed it, you may wish to read the introductory post.

In this post, I suggest that leaving comments on local blogs is a great way to help strengthen your community while you’re online. This series has included recent posts about reviewing local restaurants and service providers,  shopping local on Etsy, and sharing certain photos.

Today I saw yet another blog post titled “How to Get More Comments on Your Blog.”

Bloggers love them some comments

The post, by Alisa Bowman, mostly contained the usual warmed-over tips (bribe people, say something controversial, go off-topic, ask specific questions), but it was remarkable for her over-the-top description of how much bloggers love getting comments.

Bowman tells of her first post that “generated 23 comments. As the comments flowed in, I danced around my room saying, ‘Who-hoo. People really do read my blog. Who-ho. People love me.’ Let me tell you something. I. Did. Not. Want. To. Come. Down. From. That. 23 Comments. High.”

Yes, she described the sensation of getting blog comments as a “high.”

Preserving local assets

Learning that all it takes is comments to keep your community’s bloggers going is kind of like learning that all it takes is a few cups of water to keep your community’s park green.

Writing comments on blogs you already read is easy. And, by and large, comments are all it takes to preserve the local assets that bloggers are. If you offered me the choice between $50/week to blog or at least five comments on every entry I wrote, there would be no contest. It’s the comments that keep us inspired, on track, and ready to produce more.

Blog recommendations

If you’re not currently following any other Lancaster blog besides this one, here is a selection of what I read that are often specifically relevant to our geographic community and worth your time and attention (and comments!):

• SCORE Lancaster is the local chapter of the Service Corp of Retired Executives
• Matt Groff has a strong personality and good humor
• Brian Allain is almost always funny
• Lo-Fi Tribe is Shawn Anthony’s blog on a different sort of current-day Christianity
• Lancaster PA Real Estate Blog is Jeff Geoghan’s look at the county from a real estate agent’s perspective
• Lancaster from the Inn Side tells stories of tourists and a bed and breakfast
• The Traveling Food Critic is written by the Sunday News‘s Lina Bierker
• Keystone Conservative covers Pennsylvania-wide politics but is edited locally by Ethan Demme
• Capitol Punmanship is also about local, state-wide, and national politics, by Tom Murse
• B.B. Bellezza tells of hand-made jewelry and crafts, by Kimberlie Burkhart
• Sara Bozich writes of things to do in the mid-state
• That’s What I Was Going To Say is Bryan Rutt’s blog on music
• The Mad African is Hiram Ring, musician and world traveler

Bloggers: Do you agree with me that you’d rather get comments than cash?

Readers: What other Lancaster blogs you recommend to others?

Local Resolutions Part 20 of 29

This is the twentieth in a series of 29 ways to help your local community online in 2010. If you missed it, you may wish to read the introductory post.

In this post, I suggest that reviewing local restaurants and businesses is a great way to help strengthen your community while you’re online. This series has included recent posts about shopping local on Etsy, sharing certain photos, and staying in touch with your legislators.

This is probably the most obvious post in this series.

If you want to be of service to others who visit or live in your community, tell them what’s good and what to avoid.

Resolve this year to review businesses, restaurants, and service providers online. This is different from my earlier suggested resolution of playing the critic, because while that was about helping others appreciate works of art, this is about sharing the positives and negatives of your experiences as a customer.

In order, here is my short list of places worth your time writing reviews:

Angie’s List
Businesses don’t pay to support Angie’s List; consumers do. That means that yes, you have to pay to write reviews. It also means that you get really high quality information. When it comes to contractors, service providers, and even health care providers, I’ve yet to find an online service that holds a candle to Angie’s List. By requiring a paid subscription, Angie’s List has not only solved the problem of a review site relying on money from the businesses being reviewed, it has also solved the problem of confirming the identity of reviewers while keeping their reviews anonymous.

Google Local
Around two-thirds of searches online take place on a Google property. Local results are becoming increasingly important, and when it comes to local results, the number of quality of reviews are a huge factor. I like Angie’s list for providers of services where a major expense is involved. I like Google reviews for most other businesses.

Yelp
Yelp is a place full of reviews on places to make everyday purchases–restaurants, bars, salons, boutique stores. It has a couple nice mobile apps.

Urban Spoon
When you need a restaurant idea, Urban Spoon is the place to turn. It’s more complete and accurate in major cities than it is on Lancaster restaurants, but I already see that changing.

I’ll also mention two other review services: CitySearch, which I don’t think much of, and ChowHound, which has selective, subjective, substantive reviews of dining but doesn’t aim to be comprehensive.

Business owners: Where would you most like to see your patrons leaving reviews?

Consumers: Where are your preferred places to share your experiences?