On July 18th, 2008 I embarked on a social media experiment: The Embodiment and Anthropomorphication of a Public Space. This three week experiment had some ups and downs, garnered a bit of attention, and prompted a new type of tweeting. Here's a bit of backstory... 
Photo by Michael C. W. Murphy
Snuggled tight in the center of Philadelphia is Rittenhouse Square. It's a public park, one city block in size and is easily the most visited of the city's green spaces.
On a recent visit, I started paying attention to the large percentage of people by themselves. While some of these park dwellers were just passing through, a large percentage were reading, eating, or playing music solo. Thinking about this made the park seem less of a hub for community... Instead it started to feel transient; filled yet empty.
As usual, I was about to Twitter [?] my location... I wanted to write that I was @rittenhouse, but realized this profile didn't exist. Quickly the pieces seemed to fall into place.
After a few brief discussions with some close friends over the parameters of this project, I set up the Rittenhouse Twitter. And sent out my first few messages:
Photo Credit: Philebrity.comAfter following a few locals, my numbers started to grow. Within the first week nearly 300 people started following and interacting with "Ritt."
Concerned with the limited scope Twitter might be able to attract considering how new it is, I set up a Facebook page for the park. This too took off very quickly, and attracted many users not on twitter. Thanks to the social graph, the page continues to grow, with nearly 20 new members each day. 
Analytics of New Fans to the Rittenhouse Facebook Page
Setting Goals
One primary goal was to fight that adage shared by grandmothers all over... the internet (and technology) isolates and separates. So, step one was to see how this sort of technology, combined with the brand recognition of Rittenhouse Square could help to bring people together. First, I asked people to fill "me" with photos. Even with the limited number of people at that time, I found that there were roughly 25 photos uploaded to the Facebook page, a fairly high participation rate I think given the infancy of this project.
Next, and perhaps more difficult: I wanted to actually bring people together. I figured one of the most efficient ways to do this was through a gathering in the park. A potluck seemed to be a great way to do so. So, I set the date and started to tweet. It was time to push hard to try and garner more attention.
The Media
Shortly after my first tweet, Philadelphia's satirical news blog
Philebrity picked up the
story. Soon after I was contacted by the Philadelphia Inquirer who too wrote about this experiment, publishing a
story in the Sunday Inquirer. Major boosts in participation was seen around the release of these articles.
The Potluck
Photo Credit: J Tannenwald from Flickr
The number of people that attended translates to approximately 1 in every 30 followers / fans. And while I would have loved 100% participation, I'm quite happy with the outcome given the project was only two weeks old and creepily anonymous.
In Conclusion / What's Next
Overall I think that the Rittenhouse Facebook / Twitter experiment went well. Given the scope, time, and money ($0) it attracted a good amount of attention, and hopefully made some feel more connected.
To me, this just goes to show that when when you converse rather than just broadcast, and when your service is interesting or valuable to your audience, they will participate. Sure, we only tapped into a TINY percentage of those in the park, but there's still room for growth, and as we've discussed... participation is on the rise! So, who knows where this will be next year.
What's next for @rittenhouse? Well, being anonymous was always a concern with this project. I'm all for transparency on the net, but no one wants to know there's a short guy in the Mickey Mouse suit. So, I worked to keep my involvement fairly hush hush, accordingly I'll be passing the account over to a new anonymous author in the next few days as I desperately want to go back to just being @danieldelaney. Interested? Let me know.
Variations on a Theme
It's been great to see how the community embraced the Rittenhouse twitter. But what's even more exciting is to see how others are using this service to embody and draw attention to new places. Since twittering I saw a @southphilly, @clarkpark, and @philachinatown spring up, plus a number of local businesses have used (or were using) it such as @natmechanics and @pumpkinmarket.
So, what do you think? How could you make this project better? What should the future hold for @rittenhouse and what do you think about this new type of anthropomorphic micro-blogging? Also, have a public space that you love? Why not try and give it an online persona! If you're successful, tell us how and why!
-Ritt
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