We’ve noticed an interesting trend here at OnlyinPgh over the past few months: our content has been generating less and less web traffic, but our social media presence has been growing faster and faster.

What’s up with that?

We have a theory, and we’re going to spend the next few months putting it to the test. Our theory is this: social media is the future of local online content.

The reason is that when it comes down to it, social media is just a digital version of word-of-mouth, and word-of-mouth is what has been driving community since…ever. Taking word-of-mouth online makes it easier to spread to the word farther and wider, making it even more powerful and useful.

But one issue with word-of-mouth, even online versions of it, is that it’s very disorganized. Just because nearly everyone has an individual social media presence doesn’t mean that all of the people in one community or area are connected to each other. In fact, now it’s much easier to keep up with acquaintances we met briefly years ago in different cities than it is to keep up with people down the street from us.

That’s not really beneficial to building local community, which is really the goal of any locally focused website. So, we’re trying out some new features and we’ll see how they go:

• #OnlyinPgh Twitter Stream: On the left side of the front page is a stream and twitter chat of the #onlyinpgh hashtag (for more info on hashtags, head here). Use it to share your OnlyinPgh moments, events, news, articles…whatever it is that you think is “only in Pittsburgh.”
• Facebook Wall Feed: On the right side of the front page is a feed of the OnlyinPgh Facebook Page. Post your events, pictures, links on it to share with others in Pittsburgh.
• Pinterest Photo Page: We changed our photo page to run on Pinterest! The page contains a feed of our most recent pins for your enjoyment, or you can head directly to our Pinterest page to see all the goodies. Have a photo you’d like to share? If you’re on Pinterest, mention us (@onlyinpgh) and we’ll repin. If not, post it to our Facebook page and we’ll pin it for you!

That’s it! As always, feel free to use the Feedback tab to tell us what you think!

(Photo taken in Shadyside by jmobley)