Looking for examples of how to use social media to engage and collaborate with your customers and other target audiences? PBS FRONTLINE’s Digital Nation project provides a great example of how organizations can get people involved and create meaningful user experiences that contribute to the growth and recognition of a brand.
Digital Nation is a multi-platform initiative that explores how the Web and digital media are impacting the way we think, learn and interact. FRONTLINE’s year-long project will unfold through a series of online video reports and user-submitted stories that will springboard to a nationally televised documentary scheduled to air in winter 2010. Unlike the typical documentary process, in which producers and directors work behind the scenes, unveil the finished product, and invite comments and participation only after its release, FRONTLINE and the Digital Nation team are seeking contributions during the entire production cycle. Central to the project is a mosaic of user-generated videos, audio, photos, comments, and posts that provides key elements of the project’s reports.
For the chapter on educational technology, “Education in the Digital Age,” FRONTLINE and the Digital Nation team are asking educators to collaborate by submitting stories and comments on how technology impacts their classrooms, their work, and their lives. Attendees at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Washington, D.C., can contribute to Digital Nation during the trade show. Educators will see first-hand how Digital Nation goes “real-time” with their personal video stories.
Along with PBS Teachers, PBS TeacherLine and other PBS programs, FRONTLINE Digital Nation is exhibiting in the interactive PBS Neighborhood booth (#1904) during NECC from June 29 to July 2. Digital Nation producer/director Rachel Dretzin will be at the booth to speak with educators and capture their personal stories. Rachel recently chatted with educators about the project in a Future of Education webinar hosted and moderated by Steve Hargadon, which is archived here.
Educators not attending NECC, or anyone else who wants to share a story about living in the digital age, can participate. Create a submission using video, photo collage, audio, and/or animation, and upload it to YouTube, where it will be shared through the Digital Nation site. For instructions and tips on submitting, visit http://www.pbs.org/frontline/digitalnation/participate.
What an amazing way to break from the traditional methods of doing business by harnessing the “wisdom of the crowd” to create media experiences that build strong relationships and strong brands.