Local Resolutions Part 12 of 29
This is the twelfth 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 bookmarking the content of your friends and neighbors is a great way to help others from behind the comfort of your keyboard. This series has included recent posts about cataloging your community on FourSquare, following local Amber Alerts on Twitter, and becoming a fan of local pages on Facebook.
Take your pick:
Reddit…and get bookmarking.
If you don’t know how to choose, I recommend going with Reddit. It’s not colorful and flashy, but it works, and it’s a bit more serious than Digg. I’ve been using Delicious for years, and this year I’m resolving to focus more on Reddit.
Social news and social bookmarking sites like these serve to allow the masses (read: you and me) to lift up good online content (read: written stuff, photos, videos, podcasts). For the first time in history, the populous, instead of just an editorial elite, has the power to decide what’s worthy of attention.
There is an active community of Twitter users here in Lancaster who frequently retweet each others’ messages and links when they’re especially good. I would love to see a similar community rise up on Reddit.
If you’re familiar with Bit.ly or another URL shortener, adding a Reddit bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar is just as easy. There’s also a Reddit Firefox plugin and iPhone app.
Why?
People who live in our local community work hard to produce valuable blogs (please bug me if you’re not on my blog roll but should be), photo galleries, podcasts, and videos. They deserve attention and recognition from Internet users all over.
In other words, use a service like Reddit for the same reasons you retweet on Twitter, “like” on Facebook, or forward an e-mail.
I hope you’ll consider taking me up on this resolution.
And, you guessed it, extra credit for connecting with me on Reddit.
