Talk Up Your Town In Person, and Online

  

If a researcher for a Fortune 500 company wanted to bring a new employer to town but wanted to confirm the town was a good fit, what would they find online? If they found the city page on Facebook, would it be full of complaints about businesses and schools?

There was a time when businesses would hire companies to go in and talk around a town to determine its culture and learn about its problems. Much (but not all) of this is now done online.

If you find a town that is excited about new businesses, supports the businesses it has, is positive about its school, has a family-focused culture, has a well-run local government, an active parks system, and a good network of non-profits, you will likely become a magnet for businesses.

If you are not already a magnet, it might be worth considering how your residents talk about the community and what can be changed to make that talk more positive (both in person and online).

Here is an example: Elkin, North Carolina had seen a lot of people move away and storefronts emptied.

Instead of being negative, community members put their efforts into placemaking. A resident formed the Elkin Explorers and the group used their money to organize community events like Food Truck Friday or concerts in the park during the summer.

Elkin is a few miles off the main highway, but when Explorers go there to fill up with gas, if there's someone at the pump next to them, they will talk about Elkin. They tell visitors which restaurants to visit and what events they have coming up.

You may not get a lot of residents willing to talk to strangers at gas pumps, but can we get residents whose mindset is that their town is worth bragging about as a place to visit and live?

That changes your town when the residents who live there think they've got something good. How do we create a community culture of attachment instead of negativity?

This is especially important now as we see a rise in the number of people who can work from anywhere with remote work.

This means quality of life is becoming more important. It isn't enough to just be a place that has a lot of jobs, people are choosing places that are enjoyable to live.

That is one reason why more cities are prioritizing public spaces and parks. It is also a reason why our communities need to work on becoming more welcoming.

Community openness can't always be built, but it comes along when people feel connected to each other and they feel joy in their community. That is what place attachment is: how we experience joy in our towns because we love them and are happy to be there.