Social Networking, Trust, and Schools

This morning, I joined a call by Peter Shankman of help a reporter out (HARO) and Chris Brogan, an expert on business strategy and social media. The call was very Twitter focused and as participants tweeted questions, notes, and comments using the hashtag “#broman”, broman became one of the top trends on Twitter. People who were not on the call started tweeting about broman to figure out what it meant and why it was trending.

What does this mean? Is there a small twitter universe of self-referential people who want to be in the know who are creating a lot of buzz? Or are people on twitter thought leaders and influencers who catch a wave first that many people will soon join? Are we speaking to the choir or creating groundswell of a multitude of voices?

Some schools are starting to use twitter to communicate with their communities. Could twitter and other social networking tools help schools connect to their communities beyond students and parents, perhaps reaching out to taxpayers?

As I’m looking to buy a house in Pasadena, I keep hearing people knock the Pasadena School District. I’m skeptical. Is it really that bad? With so many nice homes and universities here, aren’t there people who care enough about the public schools to make them better? I will have to tweet that question and see what comes back from the twitterverse.