Screen shot from Forbes.com 1/9/2013 at 10:05AM
How cool are we? A Forbes.com survey ranks Knoxville,Tennessee as the 2nd happiest city to work in. Well shucks, we already knew that! But here is the article to enjoy anyway: The Happiest and Unhappiest Citites to Work in Right Now.
Thinking about “community” this evening…
While I am passionate about building engaged and fruitful social media communities, that same passion and excitement extends to my physical community, Knoxville, Tennessee.
As individuals, leaders, and businesses we have a responsibility to invest in our communities. We are all informal marketing agencies for where we live. So, I step away from my online world and onto my physical soapbox…
Knoxville, Tennessee is my community—A mid-sized, southeastern city that is a quick hop to the beautiful Smoky Mountains and the home of the University of Tennessee, but Knoxville is much more—so much more! Knoxville has a vibrant downtown, a rich arts community, a robust music scene (name your genre), great outdoor activities great shopping, delicious food that rivals any big city and incredible businesses, non-profits and people.
Tennessee Volunteer spirit is strong in this community. Before launching BombDiggity, I worked in television and oversaw our community efforts. Time and time again I was humbled by the way our community came together to support a neighbor in need. I cannot remember a time where a spoken need was not met: whether it was funding Mobile Meals for the elderly, to saving Helen and Ellen’s Love Kitchen during a tough economic time, to helping families pick up the pieces after traumatic weather, to making Christmas happen for the children of Appalachia through the Mission of Hope. The hearts of East Tennesseans are huge!
If you live in the area, I challenge you to engage—be an ambassador for home. Get the word about our culture, history, activities and opportunities. Support our local businesses, consider stepping up to volunteer with a non-profit or two that you a passionate about, start your business here or encourage someone else to follow their dreams. Use your online community to be a cheerleader for your physical one!
If you haven’t visited Knoxville, you should. In fact, here is the link to the new Knoxville City & Visitor Guide that was just released. Make the time to visit this awesome city and then tell your friends about its cool vibe and exciting opportunities.
Knoxville is the BOMBDIGGITY!
I’d love to hear your thoughts about your community–What do you love about Knoxville? If you are not from this area, why should someone visit your city? I love to add new destinations to the “must go see” list.
EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! Here is a great local campaign. I will always be proud of this work. To me it screams pride of place. It is called “Knoxville, That’s My Hometown” and was inspired by an old 45 that was found at a garage sale. In the late 60′s, the record would be given to customers of the Cas Walker grocery store who purchased a certain amount of sausage. Funny, right?
Then we asked local musicians to be inspired by the original song and write their own version. They were all in…and I was in awe of the talent and heart that they each brought to the project. Enjoy their versions and see Knoxville through their eyes…
Some of my collectibles (notice there are NO people in this photo!)
I am a collector by nature… I collect Fire-King Jadite dishes from the 50′s, fish-shaped bitter bottles, unofficially I like lady bugs, I have more pairs of shoes than any woman should be allowed to own and have a huge affinity for accessories in general. Collecting is fun, it gives me a goal when I am digging through a flea market or browsing a store. I love to find treasures! But simply collecting in social media just doesn’t work.
In my years in television, social media went from “something that would never catch on” to a key tool for communicating with our audience on a daily basis. Initially the corporate push was to collect people, get the numbers any way that you could–the numbers were where the action was. I have never subscribed to that approach and held our course… steadily, and for the most part, organically growing a trusted community that engaged us on a daily basis. For a long time, our mid-sized market station had the largest social media community out-doing much larger cities with much greater potential, but more importantly, we had a HIGHLY ENGAGED community that cared what was said and shared their thoughts, ideas, tips and feedback with us. What an incredible gift!
I would much rather have 1000 people who are engaged and focused than 5000 who have my company hidden from their newsfeed because I promised them an ipad and then pelted them with spam messages.
I am not adverse to promotions and contests but be careful that if you promise something that it makes sense and that the end result is a positive one. My favorite example is the “Be our friend or the puppy gets it” promotion. It goes like this –you agree that if you can get to a certain number of friends by a certain day that you will give a sizable donation to an animal shelter… BUT What happens if you don’t reach that number? Do puppies die? Do you just keep your money? I sincerely hope not– I, for one, love puppies! Think through your promotions and contests to make sure that they have true benefit for your social and/or physical community.
Don’t just collect your social community, build it, engage it, fill it with content that matters and they will come.
