KPBS wanted to take the value of public media in fostering community and apply it to social media. Our station produced 20 videos specifically for our social media platforms that profiled communities and their diverse voices.
We highlighted five communities in San Diego County and the Imperial Valley and created two-minute videos around themes pertaining to each community, including diversity, housing concerns, immigration, and misconceptions about that community.
We posted one video a week on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter channels as a way to shed light on each community and start a conversation on social media around the themes in the videos.
The “Where I Come From” project had an enormous impact on KPBS’ social media presence in San Diego. Since the project started, we’ve gained more than 9,000 new followers. In total, the videos have amassed roughly 1.5 million views. In the communities we profiled, we’ve seen the impact in community members sharing the videos with their friends on social media. As they share the posts, they comment about how living in a community has shaped them as a person. Our videos have been shared on Facebook more than 22,000 times.