Monday, June 21, 2010
Samantha Reinblatt joined the Facebook group so she could keep herself busy this summer, when fewer of her friends and other students are in town. The group, called Lawrence Summer 2010, was created to keep students who are staying in Lawrence in the loop. Local businesses are also employing the same idea when it comes to social media this summer.
Members of the Lawrence Summer 2010 group can invite the other 200 members, who they might not have previously known, to parties and events around town.
“I’m surprised to find out how many fun activities go on during the summer in this college town,” Reinblatt, a graduate secretary for the mathematics department and a 2006 graduate from Montreal, said. “I’m involved in tango, belly dancing, piano, summer barbecues and potluck dinners, camping and concerts.”
The group’s creator, Thomas Sinn, a senior from Stuttgart, Germany, wrote on the information page that he made the group to find out who would be in Lawrence this summer.
“This group serves the purpose to inform everyone who is still here of concerts, events, parties,” he wrote. “If you know other people that staying here this summer, just invite them — the more people, the more events we know of.”
She said the reason there are fun activities around town is because the University caters to so many people from different cultural backgrounds — and that going to the events is a great way to meet new people.
“Every time I go to an event, I always meet new people,” Reinblatt said. “Everyone in Lawrence that I’ve met so far is very friendly and just want to go out to have fun.”
Reinblatt, who was invited by Sinn to the group, said she likes to get together with other members of the group to enjoy outside activities, because she wants to take advantage of the warm weather while it lasts.
Sinn wrote that he wanted to make this summer a great one — and local businesses are also taking advantage of Facebook’s ability to increase popularity during the summer.
“We have a Facebook page, which is pretty much the quintessential,” Rob Schulte, marketing manager at The Granada, said. “Last week, I put an announcement up on our Facebook page, and within minutes, 25 people had commented back.”
Schulte said a lot of The Granada’s business came from handbills, but social media helped people to come in, also — it’s Facebook page has 2,734 followers.
“I would say slowly over the past year, the social media has really been helping our business,” he said.
Schulte said Facebook began helping business the most when it made changes to its news feed and he could gear events toward specific interests.
Brady Lewis, a bartender at Dempsey’s, said Facebook had allowed the bar to let people know about its new chef coming in July.
“Business is good,” he said. “The World Cup helps a lot.”
Dempsey’s also uses Twitter to let people know about its beer specials. On Friday, June 18, the bar opened at 9 a.m. and tweeted that it would be selling Budweiser family bottles for $1.
“We had 25 people drinking,"Brady said, "and I don’t know if they would have been in otherwise."
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