Case Study:
Sedona, Arizona, is a small city of 10,000 people that is surrounded by Coconino National Forest. At an elevation of 4,500 feet, it is considerably higher than the valley cities of Phoenix and Tucson, but 2,000 feet below the altitude of Flagstaff. This middle elevation provides a moderate climate that is neither too hot in the summer nor too cold in the winter. Sedona is surrounded by gorgeous sandstone red/orange rocks and stunning red rock canyons. This beautiful city was the location for more than 60 movies, most of them westerns, between the 1930s and the 1950s. If you’ve ever watched an old black-and-white western, it was likely situated in Sedona. Among the well-known movies located in Sedona are Stagecoach, Johnny Guitar, Angel and the Badman, and 3:10 to Yuma. Many who visit Sedona believe there is something peaceful yet energizing about the area, especially in certain locations known as vortices, according to VisitSedona.com. “Vortex sites are enhanced energy locations that facilitate prayer, meditation, mind/body healing, and exploring your relationship with your Soul and the divine. They are neither electric nor magnetic.”18 Tests with scientific instruments have failed to identify any unusual readings of known energy types, and yet many people, of all religions and religious persuasions, believe there is something about Sedona that facilitates spiritual practice. For a city of its size, Sedona has many more churches than one might expect, including the Catholic Chapel of the Holy Cross (Figure 8-11), Protestant churches of many dominations, the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church, the local synagogue, and the new-age Sedona Creative Life Center. Because it is situated in the middle of a national forest, Sedona is surrounded by hundreds of miles of hiking trails; it is possible to hike every day for a year and not use all the trails. The area was home to Native Americans in the 12th and 13th centuries, and there are numerous cliff dwellings and other native sites nearby. As a relatively young modern city, Sedona does not have the cultural history of Santa Fe or Taos, New Mexico. Nonetheless, there is a burgeoning arts community centered around Tlaquepaque, a 1980s-built shopping area modeled on a Mexican city of the same name. As with many tourist destinations, there are tensions. Pink Jeep Tours runs daily trips of raucous tourists past vortices occupied by meditating spiritual practitioners. With its Hollywood past, Sedona is home to many Los Angeles expatriates, and at the local health food store it’s possible to see 50-something blond women wearing tight pants and jewel-studded, fresh-from-Rodeo-Drive sandals fighting for the last pound of organic asparagus with aging male hippies shaking their white-gray ponytails off the shoulders of their tie-dyed shirts. he emerging arts community wants to be serious; the uptown Jeep-riding tourists (see Figure 8-12) want to have fun with four-wheel thrills and margaritas (we hope in that sequence). Hikers want to visit petroglyphs, while nature preservers don’t want the locations of those sites to be known. Those seeking spiritual guidance want enlightenment in silence, while the locals want to shut out everyone, just as long, that is, as their property values increase at a steady pace, year by year. Meanwhile, the Lear Jets and Citations fly in and out carrying who-knowswho Hollywood celebrity from her home behind the walls of Seven Canyons Resort. And businesses in town want to have reliable, year-round revenue and not too much competition. Given all that, let’s suppose that the Sedona Chamber of Commerce has just hired you as its first-ever manager of community social media. They want you to provide advice and assistance to local businesses in the development of their social media sites, and they want you to manage their own social media presence as well
Q1. Search Facebook for Sedona, Arizona. Examine a variety of Sedona-area pages that you find. Using the knowledge and your personal social media experience, evaluate these pages and list several positive and negative features of each. Make suggestions on ways that they could be improved.
Q2. Repeat question 1 for another social media provider. As of this writing, possibilities are Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, but choose another social media provider if you wish.
Q3. The purpose of a Chamber of Commerce is to foster a healthy business climate for all of the businesses in the community. Given that purpose, your answers to questions 1 and 2, and the knowledge of this chapter, develop a set of 7 to 10 guidelines for local businesses to consider when developing their social media presence.
Q4. Sedona has quite a number of potentially conflicting community groups. Explain three ways that the Chamber of Commerce can use social media to help manage conflict so as to maintain a healthy business environment.
Q5. Examine Q3 and state how the focus of each of the primary value chain activities pertains to the Chamber of Commerce. If one does not pertain, explain why. In your answer, be clear about who the Chamber’s customers are.
Q6. Given your answer to question 5 and considering your responsibility to manage the Chamber’s social media presences, state how each applicable row of guides the social media sites you will create.
Q7. Using your answers to these questions, write a job description for yourself.
Q8. Write a two-paragraph summary of this exercise that you could use to demonstrate your knowledge of the role of social media in commerce in a future job interview.
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format.