This year, the farmers market, downtown received quite a bit of social media chatter early on in the year for having a larger variety of vendors.

Last month, one of those vendors was asked to leave based on the product that they sold.  The reasons that they were asked to leave in many people’s eyes were not valid reasons based out of perhaps ignorance for the products.

The owner, who had established a local e-mail database, sent out a notice regarding their situation, ending it with a call to action asking GAGE to do something about it. 

That chatter quickly changed and suddenly the downtown farmers market exploded all over social media. I saw several blogs regarding the situation. One in particular was written by a newcomer to Evansville who utilizes her blog, twitter and Facebook very effectively. Through the power of social media, the particulars surrounding the circumstance of this farm being removed from the farmers market became known to a large number of people. Those people started talking, and spread that news very rapidly.  (See her blog here – With updates)

This news struck a chord of emotion with those people who frequent the farm, with those people who appreciated the product, and with people who’d never even been there; based on principle.

My point is this: a well-written blog, circulated amongst the followers of that blog, that is also 

promoted across multiple platforms (a link to it was place on twitter and Facebook) can have an extraordinary impact on a community.

Community can mean:

• a small micro area such as your downtown area
• a certaingroup of people like environmentalists
• people who are traditionally stereotyped
• the planet we live on and ourselves as a whole race

No matter the size or scope of your community

 you have the ability to change it.

I remember thinking when I was growing up:

“How can I change the world?”

Thanks to the power of blogs, cross-platform social media, and our tendency as humans to truly want to help one another, a single person with a small physical voice can translate that voice to words   and change the world. YOU have the power, you can change it.

So tell me, how are you going to change the world?