With community events for Google’s fiber initiative beginning on March 19th and the growing level of online community involvement that’s building here in Grand Rapids, we put together the first in a series of reports measuring the digital conversations and online efforts surrounding the participating cities looking to have Google’s hyper-speed fiber communications lines installed, creating a rank of the top 10 candidate cities by share of the total conversation happening around the initiative online.
This first report ranks the aspiring cities by share of total number of mentions in conversations happening between February 15 to March 17 on digital media channels, and we’ll continue to publish reports weekly showing the collected digital efforts and rankings of the top 10 cities until Google makes its final choice.
Google has multiple factors in their decision making process, including how interested a community is in working with Google, community support, local activities, needs and resources, approved construction methods, local regulatory issues and area broadband speeds. Most participating cities assert that online interaction in their campaigns will increase the chances of favorability in their selection by Google, and we’ll be presenting the data and insights that will ultimately show how important a factor online share of voice is in the process.
The first report is available for download here. Just click on the image below. And stay tuned for additional reports in the coming weeks.
UPDATE: As we continue our research and measurement for our next report, we’ve noticed that some cities’ online efforts are being conducted around nicknames relevant to their campaigns or local communities, rather than the direct name of the city (Ann Arbor and Sarasota, we’re looking at you!). Based on this, we’re filtering at more detailed levels to make sure we’re capturing that information and reporting accurately. We invite any city involved in the initiative NOT directly using their name for their online efforts to reach out to us (either through a comment below or through our Twitter feed – @steketeegreiner) with any specific search terms to make sure that we have your city represented properly.
Thanks! David
Thanks for posting this report, David!
I’m very proud that Topeka is a top contender, it’s been great seeing the community rally together for the #1G4Topeka movement!
I look forward to your future reports and tracking everyone’s progress!
@AlissaSheley
Our pleasure, Alissa. Best of luck to you and Topeka!
Great Article ; and not to disagree with Mr. topeka, but Grand Rapids, Mi is leading with 30,000 plus Facebook fans, a website, an event planed for the 19th of March as a mass gathering in our Downtown.
We are the country’s leader in this effort and we would love to see Google come to our Growing and thriving City!
[...] Although Grand Rapids leads the nation in the number of Facebook fans vying for Google’s ultra high-speed fiber-optic network, it ranks third in “share of the total conversation happening around the initiative online,” according to a new report, “Google Fiber: Share of Voice Report.” [...]
[...] is going strong! Here is a report of the top cities in this and Topeka is in the top 3!! The Age of Open Conversation | Steketee Greiner and Company | 3.0 Communications Grand Rapids, MI There is a pdf at the end of the article. Here is a screenshot of the Digital graph, we're #2 in [...]
Please don’t miss Kalamazoo, MI has adopted the campaign slogan/nick-name Kalamazoogle.
No offense, but that is the silliest report for the simple reason it does not take population into account. I’m not surprised those communities with the larger populations have more people using online media channels, and thus are trending higher.
Newburyport, Massachusetts has as much a shot as anyone else but we’re apparently slighted in your report because of our 17,000 population.
I think you need to be more diligent in collecting your data. You have 901 Facebook fans for Greensboro, NC. That is off by by about 4,400.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=297271936497
Ari, Google themselfs said they are looking for City’s with 50,000+ people. You are unlikely to qualify.
Look for a capitol effort by Google Fiber for Lansing and East Lansing!
Google says they want to serve 50,000 to 500,000 people, perhaps in multiple locations; they could get there by including Newburyport.
If you’re going to run a report like this you should try to gather better information.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=311726201442
Peoria IL 5772 Facebook Fans as of 3/19
[...] Your Pick to Win? Don’t know? Well, you can check out how the candidates are faring in the digital space by checking out the PDF “Google Fiber Share of Voice Report”–awesome maps and [...]
David, your graphs, maps, and charts have got me drooling; awesome job you guys have done over there!
I’m fascinated by Google’s project and have been compiling a (fairly extensive) list of cities interested in getting Google’s fiber over the past couple of weeks. It may help you with your campaign-codename filter to check it out… though from my research your Top Ten seemed pretty on. (I was surprised not to see Seattle or Philly on there…)
Thanks for the great reporting!
Martin, thanks for the kudos and the excellent information! We’ll be certain to reference your list in the coming week!
David
Such a nice report – thanks for pulling all that together.
Asheville’s Google fiber bid tracking:
Our twitter hash: #googleavl
Our home page: googleavl.com
Our facebook: http://www.facebook.com
/googlefiber#!/group.php?gid=302144763214
Our theme song: http://blogasheville.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-fiber-hava-nagila-siriusb.html
Hi guys – didn’t get a chance to say anything before now but this is a pretty interesting report you put together – thanks for publishing it.
Madison’s approach has been to say to everyone: step up, just do stuff and tell us about it and we’ll build a coherent presence around it. The group I’m spokesmodeling for is the Madfiber cabal and we’ve ended up in the center of it – if you want to be sure to track everything it is all linked to from http://madfiber.net – and we are the “Official” site for Madison’s community response supplementing the city response which we are also helping the city author.
The formal RFI response has mostly been coordinated through email channels, but I’ll work to get that visible next week – all about getting the process exposed and getting as many people’s input as possible. For Madison, as I said to the city last week, success is about the community recognizing what is possible, what our assets are, and what we want. Having done that we win something worth having – regardless of where Google puts their fiber
Thanks for the update. I agree with your thought that no matter how it all turns out, true community involvement is the real key here. The most important take away from our report is that there are bunch of great communication tools out there these days and even more data that’s generated from the efforts put into using them. Companies, communities and individuals need to know what their priorities are, and they need to create strategies and generate metrics and insights that will help them hit their goals. Here’s hoping it all goes to plan for you in Madison!
We fear not, the madfiber cabal. Memphis has the Middle Mile.
[...] I am not a super technophile. But I do know that in the race for Google Fiber between several communities, Greensboro is in the top 10 according to one blog. [...]
MEMPHIS, TN: on Facebook alone there are two main groups representing Memphis: one with 4300 members as of 3/22: http://bit.ly/c8M7S6 and one with 1445 members as of 3/22: http://bit.ly/9wO4Tc
Greenville SC used names that did not include “Greenville” in them
Website is http://www.wearefeelinglucky.com
Twitter hashtags: #LuckyGVL and #GoogleonMain
Facebook: We Are Feeling Lucky- Greenville, SC For Google Fiber