Social Media is a perfect fit for rural business. North Dakota’s Governor’s Rural Summit was getting social in 2010. Photo by Becky McCray.
I’m thrilled to see Extension talking about rural businesses using social media. They’re hosting a webinar this Thursday, April 17 at 1:30pm Central. (Keep reading for the link to the recording.) You don’t even have to register. Here are the details:
- Rural Social Media Champions: Development of Models of Diffusion & Best Business Practices
“This webinar focuses on innovative rural entrepreneurs who use social media in highly effective ways to manage, promote, and grow their businesses. These entrepreneurs, called social media champions, also serve as exemplars and facilitate the diffusion of social media technologies for small rural businesses and communities in need of competitive options. This webinar presents findings from a three-state study that examined how small firms innovate and develop new capabilities through social media to address challenges faced in rural markets. Webinar content specifically focuses on:
- Identification of rural business owners who are social media champions,
- assessing factors that facilitated knowledge, diffusion, and adoption of social media in rural communities based on established models (Rogers Diffusion of Innovations and TAM), and
- profiling of social media champions’ best practices with implications for researchers, Extension specialists, business consultants, and practitioners.”
About the Speakers:
Linda Niehm is an associate professor at Iowa State University in the Department of Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management. Her research interests include retailer competitive strategies, rural retailing, consumer-retailer relationships, entrepreneurship, and family business.
Barbara Frazier is a Professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Western Michigan University. Her research interests include rural community business development, and social processes and entrepreneurial activity of rural retailers.
Leslie Stoel is a Professor in the Department of Human Sciences at The Ohio State University. Research interests include competitive behaviors of retailers, consumer responses to various retail environments, technology acceptance in the retail context, and the role of retailers in their communities.
Watch the recording here:
Recorded presentation: Rural Social Media Champions
PowerPoint PDF
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This is such an interesting topic. The webinar could have been a seminar for as much as there is to talk about in regard to rural social media strategies. I am waiting for the recorded version so I can promote it on some social channels. I had also written about some of the reasons that those of us who live in rural areas might fear social media (and why we should still embrace it) on my blog so this was perfect timing.