Almost every organization, business and agency in the parish has reached out to local computer users in the past two years.
While browsing social networking pages, parishioners can find local non-profit organizations, parish government agencies and popular shops in their own town.
St. Charles Parish Public Schools reached out to Facebook and Twitter users in 2009 and now have over 1,700 followers on Facebook and 175 followers on Twitter.
Rochelle Cancienne-Touchard, director of public information for the school district, said that the social networking sites are a great way to get prompt information to the public.
“It’s just another way and another opportunity for us to get our messages out there,” she said. “Those two mediums are being used so widespread right now that we were trying to reach every potential stake holder possible.”
She said there is a good mix of parents, teachers and students who “like” the school district on Facebook.
“I think this is where the future is going. Technology is definitely our friend,” Cancienne-Touchard said.
Cancienne-Touchard said that the sites have been most useful during emergency situations, such as the bomb threat at Hahnville High School last year. She said she was able to get timely, accurate information out to parents because of the social media sites.
The parish government utilizes perhaps the highest number of social media Web sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yimeo, Blogger and Friend Feed.
Renee Simpson, public information officer for the parish, said that they first experienced success with social media during the evacuation for Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
“We had a blog and…that was a really good tool to be able to update people on almost a minute-to-minute basis of what was going on,” Simpson said. “I could take pictures and videos of the area so people could see what happened.
“To me, the benefits outweigh any kind of risk for this kind of thing because we want to put everything out there and make sure the residents know exactly what’s going on.”
The parish’s YouTube account now has over 500 videos, its Twitter account has almost 500 followers and its Facebook account has over 2,300 followers.
The German Coast Farmers’ Market launched its Facebook page after having success with its own Web site and digital newsletter.
“It helps to get the word out to as many different people as possible, so we try to use all the different types of media,” said Ann Montgomery, with the market. “We’re trying to reach out to the younger group of people because they seem to be health conscious so we try to get the word out to them about the market.”
Montgomery said that the market’s digital newsletter, sent out every Tuesday and Friday, has also been a big hit with market regulars.
“It keeps them informed of what’s going on with events and which vendors plan to be at the market,” Montgomery said.
Besides reaching out to the younger generation, some local businesses have started using social media sites to advertise and connect with their clients.
Kristi Brocato, owner of The Basketry in Luling, said that she has used Facebook for many years, but recently started using Twitter and YouTube as well.
“Using those three social media outlets in addition to our Web site really gives us another way to reach the customer and let them know what’s going on in the shop,” said Brocato, whose business has over 250 followers on Facebook. “If something exciting comes in the store and I put it on Facebook, within 10 minutes the doors are opening and people are coming in to see it.”
Anytime Fitness in Luling also has a popular Facebook page, with over 580 followers.
Manager Jennifer Perkins said that the page is so popular that people sometimes tell her they are already fans of it when they buy their membership to the gym.
“It definitely helps us reach out to our clients. We ask most of our members to be fans of the page and it’s a great way for us to communicate with them,” Perkins said. The gym also sends out a weekly article on health and wellness for its customers and posts pictures of various events.
Just a few of the other local businesses or organizations with popular Facebook pages are the St. Charles Business Association, St. Charles Women’s Club, St. Charles Parish Library, United Way of St. Charles, St. Charles Relay for Life, St. Charles Parish Hospital, Zydeco’s restaurant, Cajun Ice and Spahr’s Seafood.
On a more somber note, H.C. Alexander Funeral Home in Norco has begun using online resources to comfort grieving families and loved ones.
Funeral home director James Hodges said that it is “unreal” how many families have taken advantage of the online guestbook offered.
“Because of Facebook, families, especially children and grandchildren, automatically send obituary information out to all of their friends and then they can in turn automatically go online through our funeral home Web site and sign the guest book,” Hodges said. “When the service is all over, we take all of the pictures involved in the online guest book as well as all of the messages that are there…and the family gets a book with all of that. It’s a service we provide to our families.”
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