Bringing Media to the Masses: A Memo

Brought to you by Hometown Digital, A Company Devoted to Bringing Small Things in Life

To the Media Business Authority’s Board of Directors:

Welcome local Medians, we appreciate your time, as we rush into one of the busiest seasons that exists as we roll into the holidays. Media, Pennsylvania has always been an attractive town that has capitalized on their unique position as a communion place with over 300,000 daily visitors—near Philadelphia, with a large courthouse, a busy main street, and nearly all local, small businesses (MBA website). The Media Business Authority leveraged Media’s position and market by providing their citizens with fun and creative activities, usually in the forms of large events and festivals (Media, as you know, is well known for their food and music festivals during the nice weather months, bringing in over 10,000 visitors a day). Unfortunately, with the advent of COVID-19, close to a dozen events that Media had been come to be known for could not take place as Media Business Authority had wanted (and needed for Media’s business to grow). It is an easy solution to continually cancel and/or events as they come, but Hometown Digital has brought an alternate solution that includes growing business in a scalable way, continent on uncontrollable environmental factors (like, for example, a pandemic).

We would also like to quickly acknowledge the critical changes that have recently and continue to change inside the MBA. New leadership means new opportunities to consider new businesses strategies. We see your eagerness to transform yourself to suit the new age and we applaud and encourage you. We’re hoping to offer you something valuable your new team can center yourself around.

With a town of only 6,000 people, it is key to engage the citizens that already live there as well as encourage young professionals already passing through (or close nearby) to spend money at local Media businesses. Delaware county is 20% people ages 20-34, our target market, so there are plentiful young professionals with little obligations and money to spend who are looking to get a real experience. In an increasingly digital world, we looked to create a mesh of digital and physical (since Media will continue to exist as a physical town and we want to encourage growth in person equal to any digital promotion). To the board we are presenting a renewed digital experience that relies on we have dubbed “Journeys.” We look to take you on different pathways that you can both digitally and physically walk down.

Picture this:

Improved site navigation that includes quick buttons to different Journeys you can take in Media
An improved interactive calendar that you can download and link into your own Google or Outlook calendar
A feed for Youtube, Twitter or Instagram to view different Journeys or hashtags (where Medians could even see themselves if they use the hashtag) or,
A callout to our newest social media promotion on Twitter or Instagram
Links and embedded videos for useful videos on where to go and when (for the best discounts, meals, gifts, etc)
Embedded maps on Journey pages so you can start planning as soon as inspiration sparks

This set up will be perfect for the young professionals we are targeting, with a start in digital (often social) that leads to an interactive digital experience, with the option of taking it offscreen with friends and family. Bringing in influencers to Media will create the FOMO (fear of missing out) for people already in the area and doing other much more boring things than the authentic, original things our influencers will be trying in Media.

A big part of our Journeys will focus on Media’s specialties, like them being the first Fair Trade Town or their Dining Under the Stars events, but from different perspectives including influential Medians or influencers in the Philadelphia area. Our kickoff campaign centers the holidays in Media, and how to leverage your small-town experience.

Benefits to the MBA:

The interactive site and social media presence means that the SMBs in Media can advertise not just their daily/weekly/monthly discount, but they can also do special product spotlights or promotions, and then, when business starts to ramp back up, the MBA can start advertising for new events and festivals. The site will be set up in such a way that when a store (or season, or any other parameter) is doing great, they can ramp up their promotions and events in sync with demand. A survey of close to 100 local Pennsylvanians revealed that 65% would go to a small town for a designated trip with family and friends

Hometown Digital X Media Collab:

Businesses in Media that were previously struggling because of lack of visitors can encourage their regular Median customers to post online using our hashtags, bringing in organic posts to our site to boost through ads and back into social media as spotlights for other local young professionals in our geographic profile. Seeing your own posts about the town on the town’s website will help our locals feel heard, and more likely to contribute again. Though our campaign relies on engaging a larger audience, it’s the citizens of Media that are there year-round, spending consistently. If we don’t keep our citizens engaged, we won’t be able to retain the small-town charm and wit Media has acquired.

Looking Towards the Future:

Our success will lie with our engagement. It will be easy to capture the digital metrics as the MBA website and social media are already tracked (although it will be important to invest in a platform that can congregate data between platforms and campaigns—we’re recommending HootSuite, but what is important is the disregard of vanity metrics. Followers and Page likes aside, we will be looking at post engagement- reshare/retweets, comments, likes, mentions, etc. Actually responding and keeping a conversation going (along with new suggestions of how to utilize Media) will be a great way to gain trust and show support and interest in locals.

We will also rely on the MBA to report back to us if possible, on foot traffic and business sales, so that we can capture those that may be listening to us and our suggestions, but without engaging us on social media. Who’s to say they didn’t hike it right to town and have a great conversation at 320 Market Café about their special of the day?

Are you ready to invest in Media? Hometown Digital is ready to bring the Digital to Media if you are!

Thank you for the time,

The Hometown Digital Gals