Not that anyone really cares, but I made a presentation Tuesday to the Kane County Committee of the Whole, updating them on the progress we’re making with Kane County Connects.

I started the presentation with a selfie, just to illustrate that (a) I was still “working” while speaking to the group and (b) we live in a brave, new world where selfies roam the Earth.

We live in a digital age — confirmed by the mental telepathy you’re experiencing right now, reading words set in pixels instead of ink.

I won’t bore you with the details of the presentation, but I will try to share a few highlights.

As I’ve said before, we’re working on three platforms now: the WordPress page where this is written, the daily (and now the new weekly option) newsletter on Constant Contact and social media, primarily Facebook, but a small number of followers on Twitter, as well. Here are some numbers, presented via screen shots of a couple of slides on the PowerPoint presentation:

It’s not a lot — not yet — but it’s a start. What we’d like to do is grow our audience dramatically, so that in a year or two or three, maybe we’re reaching 50,000 people or 100,000 people or 200,000 people instead of 2,000 or 4,000 or 6,000.

And now that we’ve established the platforms, we can get to work.

Next Steps

• Start marketing
• Develop content strategy
• Improve our performance on social media platforms we’re using now: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
• Diversify: Google-Plus, LinkedIn,  Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.
• Add pages, widgets to WordPress
• Add e-blasts and text messaging (important)
• Enhance internal communications, protocols (synergy)
• Develop mechanisms for civil dialogue and citizen engagement

This initiative doesn’t move forward unless it has, not just the County Board’s permission but your active participation. That’s what I’m asking from you today.

Take a minute to write a comment to this article, tell a friend about the newsletter, share a Facebook post or send me an email with a photo and a story. Tell me what stories are of most interest to you. Email me a news tip at ricknagel23@gmail.com.

Then fasten your seatbelts.

“What we’re setting out to do here is in some ways simple, fundamental, even old hat,” I said. “But in other ways, it’s groundbreaking — a 21st-century community outreach initiative that has the potential to engage citizens, involve communities and improve government services.”