Board Member Gus Hill with Make It So Printing wanted to use social media to promote members of the SWBA but the alliance wasn’t using their Facebook Page to its full potential. “What if we did a Member Spotlight each week on Facebook for one of our members?” said Mr. Hill in a board meeting. “It could help the members and the SWBA.”
As with most volunteer organizations the one with the great idea gets assigned to “Make It So”, which is just what Gus did. Each week one of the over 200 members in the alliance is featured on the SWBA’s Facebook page. “I make up a graphic image for the business being spotlighted with contact information, logos and products. We encourage them to promote a special offer or coupon for the business,” stated Hill. “As a printer I have all the tools to do create the image efficiently and after we post it to Facebook we encourage the members to ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ it on their Facebook pages and profiles.
“Since we started the program 3 months ago we’ve had an increase in the number of followers to the SWBA page (https://www.facebook.com/SellwoodWestmoreland) and some of the spotlighted members have observed a bump in ‘Likes’ too,” Gus smiled. “Partners in a Healthy Community is the motto of the SWBA and this is a perfect example of that in action, using social media to create support within the community and drive traffic into the neighborhood. Everyone benefits and we’re healing the economy one local business at a time.”
By working together to promote each other on Facebook, the members have improved their edge rank, making posts more visible online and helping promote the neighborhood to a larger audience.
“We also post the member spotlight to the SWBA website. SellwoodWestmoreland.com gets thousands of views each month and offers more exposure to the members,” Hill continued. “The website helps us promote the Sellwood and Westmoreland area to the world, located just southeast of downtown Portland across the Sellwood Bridge on the east bank of the Willamette River. It is a wonderful community that we’re proud to live and work in.
“I’m thrilled to serve on the board of the Sellwood Westmoreland Business Alliance and foster community support for the place I call home. The SWBA meets on the 3rd Thursday of each month at the Smile Station at 9:30am. The board is pleased with the value we offer local businesses and are always looking to add benefits to the members,” Hill concluded. “Along with the several annual events we sponsor, the walking maps, website and neighborhood kiosk we provide the community, the weekly Facebook Membership spotlight is just another way we serve our friends and neighbors.”
If you would like to learn more about the SWBA you can contact Gus Hill at Make It So Printing (http://www.makeitsoprinting.com/) or visit their website: http://www.sellwoodwestmoreland.com
