Five ways to promote your heritage project and help Voices of the Past be successful

Voices of the Past is a partnership effort. As the person reading content on this site, YOU are one of those partners. We’re not asking for much. Just keep us in mind when you work on a heritage-based project and upload that content to the web.

In most forms of social media, you have the option to use “tags.” These are keywords that help people find your content. When you use the tag “voicesofthepast” we are able to find your content and recognize it as news relevant to the netcast or shownotes site.

There are very real needs you can help with. First, the netcast needs video and images. In fact, the quality of these components make or break the broadcast. There is no budget for traveling the world (or down the street, even) to collect footage and interviews.

So, we’re putting our faith in the social web and and in you! Here’s how to help out:

1. Upload digitized video from your heritage project/event to an online video site. We prefer Blip.tv for the video netcast because of its superior quality and ability to handle video of any length. Another great service for general video uploading is Past Horizons, which hosts only video related to heritage issues. Support them! Title and caption your upload as thoroughly as you can. Then, tag it: preservationtoday. If you want to make sure we get it, notify us here at the site as well. We’ll do our best to feature it.

2. Upload your photos to Flickr. Again, use the tag “voicesofthepast”. It will show up in our Flickr stream on the front page.

3. Become a fan on our Facebook page.

4. Visit the Voices of the Past forum page and suggest story ideas related to heritage preservation.

5. Tell other folks about Voices of the Past. A bigger audience for our site also means a bigger audience for our content. It’s all about connection and communication. Thanks for taking that first step and just being here!