There’s something special happening in Baltimore right now. Something almost indescribable.
The best way to explain it is to say that there’s a social media revolution happening in and around the city of Baltimore. That’s right - a social media revolution. And if you’re reading this, you’re about to watch a beautiful (and somewhat nerdy) flower blossom.
Each and every day, we witness a whole new flock of businesses and consumers joining the many social sites that we’ve been following for a quite some time now. They’ve heard the buzz about these new communication tools, and they want in. They’re expanding their personal networks, but also fueling a growing machine that’ll eventually connect each and every individual in and around the city of Baltimore.
On top of that, local web developers and marketing teams are developing ideas, sites and tools that are positioning the city as a major player in the social media realm. Here are a few examples of what’s happening (if you haven’t already heard):
Developed by FastSpot for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, this reincarnation of a previous video-sharing site serves as an aggregator for all things Baltimore on the web. Driven by three primary content areas - Watch, Look, and Listen - the site pulls in videos, pictures, and ‘tweets’ from the user’s accounts on the major social sites (YouTube, Twitter, Flickr). The site’s users utilize this constantly updated content to define local attractions, events, restaurants, etc. The site is years ahead of its time, and will undoubtedly be “mimicked” by other destinations.
*Disclaimer* The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association is a client of MGH. The site is still awesome though.
There are an endless number of consumer review sites floating around the web right now, but 600Block.com is the one that finally got it right. Local reviews of restaurants, attractions, and stores written by those who know them best are what make 600Block special. Users create their “scene” in order to receive updates about the city’s newest dining options to the drink specials that can be found in town on a random Tuesday night (you have no idea how handy this can be). Rumor has it that there’s also an iPhone application in development. Okay…it’s not a rumor. I saw it, and it’s awesome.
What do you get when you shove a bunch of developers, designers, and entrepreneurs into a room? Most of the time, a lot of arguing and bickering. But that’s not the case for Beehive Baltimore. Beehive’s mission is to provide a common workspace for Baltimore’s creative professionals, hoping that ideas will be “cross-pollinated” (get it?) and that the business community will be better off because of them. For a minimal fee, anyone can spend the day at Beehive and bounce ideas back and forth between the center’s attendees. It’s a new way of doing business, and one that’s sure to produce results that will benefit the city as a whole.
It’s been said that Baltimore would be more aptly named “Smalltimore”. Cliché, yes. But as these connectivity tools continue to develop and become populated by the city’s residents, we might need to request that name change.
Image c/o Grufnik (Flickr) http://www.flickr.com/photos/grufnik/
Written by Ryan Goff (@ryanatmghwom)
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Baltimore is an amazing town.
Social media provides an opportunity for us to combine our efforts to make it an even better place to do business, live, and play.
Balmor iz da bes town in da world Hon!!
@CaptainDundalk is all about savin my Hon’s
Its bout givin back!!
I completely agree with your calling it a revolution. All business advantages (of which there are many) aside, I’m finding tons of people around the city who share my interests on things like technology, sports, music, and beer. Also finding places and events I would’ve otherwise missed. Definitely adds to the all-around enjoyment of a city and community. Viva la revolución!
Baltimore has *always* been a very social town, and we have plenty of technology-oriented individuals, so it seems natural to me that things like Twitter and FB and the “social media” technologies are popular here.
In some sense, yes, Baltimore is “Smaltimore” - The Biggest Small Town in the World(tm). Some folks may mean that in a bad way, but I think it emphasizes that even in an area as large as Metro Baltimore, people (and businesses) interact with one another very well and on a very personal level. That extends outside of the area as well - I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a Raven’s hat in another city or country, then talked to the person only to find out they were local and that we had 3 mutual friends !
One of the funniest “Smaltimore” moments that I witnessed was on one of those network morning shows a few years ago. They had a chef visiting Sandy Point, making crab cakes. He mentioned he was actually *from* Baltimore, and Mark McCuen started a side conversation with him live on the air… it was like the show stopped so that they chat a while.
The other hosts just looked on in wonder while Mark M. and the chef went into that inevitable Baltimore convo, “What area are you from… Really ? What high school did you go to… Oh ! Do you know the Hanson brothers, or the Pattersons?.. Yeah, he and my brother one time…” < That’s not an exact quote, but almost, and it is exactly how the conversation went… in the middle of a cooking segment… on live national TV
Baltimore people are social in any media or situation. I think that technologies like Twitter are not the cause for the “Revolution” but I can see why they are so popular here. There is a Social Media Revoltion, but in a way, it’s just Baltimore being Baltimore !
We’ve noticed also an upswing in Baltimore nonprofits and other “groups” using Twitter, not necessarily for commercial purposes, but to get information into the hands of more people than would be possible through traditional media. We’ve been able to connect with people in other cities, some of them simply with one tweet — boom, someone in NYC has the same problem, so they follow us. Someone in Milwaukee has a solution, we follow them, and so on.
Twitter has been an amazing experience for us, and you’re definitely right about Baltimore experiencing a Social Media Revolution (or should that be #socialmediarevolution ?)
Thanks for being a part of it — with your blog and your tweets. You rock!
Interesting and useful info - thanks for informing everyone. Matt
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Can you please give a little more information on this?
I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my site? Thank you in advance.
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Interesting article. Were did you got all the information from? Did you type it yourself or you copy it from elsewhere?
very helpful post, you should post more stuff related to this.
I love the VisitMyBaltimore site. They’ve really done a great job with the design.
useful information you got up there, I’m here to give you a…. *thumbs up* Check back with me
Hello! can’t find your contact, so I thought I will use this, anyway, we got a private webmaster forum ready to roll in a weeks time, pm me if you’re interested.
Interesting article. Were did you got all the information from? Did you type it yourself or you copy it from elsewhere?
This reminds me of something funny that my dad always said…
Of course it’s totally not appropriate right now…
wow, great, I was wondering
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