OUR BLOG
Your Town Rising featured on CBC News
Your Town Rising had a fantastic day doing walkabouts in Ailsa Craig and Strathroy, Ontario on March 21, 2023. Both communities are bursting with enthusiasm and looking for ways to create momentum in their downtowns.
We concluded the day doing a presentation in the evening filled with immediately doable ideas that can be kickstarted on shoestring budgets.
An exciting bonus during the day was a visit by CBC News to tell the story of Your Town Rising and the energy in Ailsa Craig and Strathroy for placemaking initiatives.
Full CBC story > https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/can-small-towns-boost-their-core-on-a-shoestring-budget-this-group-says-yes-1.6786117
Gregg McLachlan is interviewed by CBC London news reporter Michelle Both in downtown Strathroy, Ontario
We return to Minto to celebrate downtown success!
Four years ago we travelled to the Town of Minto, Ontario (Clifford, Harriston, and Palmerston) where we spent four days visiting each downtown, leading walkabouts, and making presentations to inspire the communities and downtowns about how to create momentum and accelerate revitalization.
Looking back, we could sense the enthusiasm for doing and change. We knew great things would happen. And they certainly have.
When we visited four years ago, we presented a path to success that didn’t start with mega grants or grandiose plans or reports destined to sit on a shelf. Ever since, the towns of Minto have been turning heads with their actions on public art, street enhancements, events galore, street markets, and way more.
In September 2022, Minto held a celebration event to mark the dramatic changes. Minto invited Your Town Rising back to see the progress in each town and make a presentation about next steps. We spent most of the day walking the downtowns, spur-of-the-moment chats with shop keepers, and snapping photos of the many things that caught our eyes. In the evening we presented a next steps roadmap that builds on what the towns of Clifford, Harriston and Palmerston have already started. Our presentation was full of specific ideas to Minto that would further complement and grow its branding even more as the family friendly community.
How remarkable has Minto’s progress been in such a short time? Well, the following day after our presentation, a tour was to arrive from another community to learn about how Minto did it. And best of all, Minto is not done. Some stuff is still a work in progress. And we just know that this community of doers will get it done. Soon.
YTR works with 11 towns in southwest Manitoba
“The community presentation was exploding with fantastic ideas and suggestions. Immediately, we saw participants engaged and motivated to make small but impactful changes.”
It has been a long two years of the pandemic for everyone! It was no different for us. Finally, in April, we were able to return to the road and help inspire towns to creative change with what they already have.
Your Town Rising spent eight days working in 11 towns and villages across southwestern Manitoba. This work involved community walkabouts in Souris, Melita, Deloraine, Hartney, Elgin, Elkhorn, Waskada, Pierson, Kenton, Virden and Minto, Manitoba, as well as community presentations on opportunities and possibilities for creating change. We also did the keynote at the Southwest Manitoba Business Expo.
One of the highlights of any trip we do is listening to locals. After all, locals know their towns and villages best. Together, we’re able to harness what they have, what they know, and opportunities going forward.
“The can-do spirit in these small towns and villages really was something special!” Leslie said.
“I agree!” added Gregg. “It’s inspiring to see folks volunteering ‘I’ll do that!’ right in the middle of a community presentation or walkabout.”
We saw so many opportunities in the towns and village of the southwest.
“Gregg and Leslie were a breath of fresh air as they helped our community see the potential in our region to create interesting, beautiful features in our communities that were creative and affordable,” said Reeve Ruth Mealy of the Municipality of Grassland,. “We are looking forward to implementing many of their ideas to really bring our communities to life and attract visitors to our region. “
"Having Leslie and Gregg visit our communities in southwest Manitoba became more than we expected,” added Eric Forster, Regional Economic Development Officer, Crocus Country Economic Development Corporation. “It was a true eye-opener on missed opportunities, and areas that needed extra TLC. It’s amazing how complacent we can become living in our towns for as long as we do. If we don’t take notice of the communities we live in, why should visitors?
“Leslie and Gregg’s walkabouts and presentation really opened our eyes and inspired us with simple steps we could take to make each of our communities stand out, and how we can showcase the region as a whole! Our group stayed behind for another hour after the presentation further discussing the opportunities and how we could put them into action."
In Souris, Manitoba where we were based for the 11 days, we were wowed by the friendliness and welcoming vibe throughout the town.
"The community presentation was exploding with fantastic ideas and suggestions,” said Echo Finlay, Economic Development Officer, Souris-Glenwood Community Development Corporation. “Immediately, we saw participants engaged and motivated to make small but impactful changes. Within a week of the presentation, some of our businesses are showing off new paint, sail signs, vibrant planters and colorful, attractive benches - all a direct result from this experience. The sky's the limit for us! #SourisMB."
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To learn more about bring Your Town Rising to your region or town, please contact us
10 mistakes to avoid when making smartphone videos
By Gregg McLcahlan
Smartphones make it super easy to create videos. You simply have to hold the camera in front of you, hit record, and instantly you have a video.
Ohhhhh, if only it was that easy to make a good smartphone video!
Every community is littered with poorly made smartphone videos. Now, I know..... some of you may think "Who cares if the video is not great, it still got tons of views!" Maybe so. But in 10 years of doing the work that I do, I have yet to meet a small business or nonprofit that said "We want to grow our long-term brand image by continually making crappy videos!" Hey, we've all made uninteresting or just plain crappy videos with our phones. I certainly have. Most of us, however, want to improve.
All the bad videos usually have a few things in common. Here are 10 common mistakes:
1. Reading pieces of paper
Ugh. This is like doing a video of someone reading a book. How long would you watch? Put down the paper and the notes and talk like you are having a regular conversation. Even TV newspeople no longer look down at a piece of paper to read the news. We want to watch you talking to us. We don't want to watch you looking down and reading notes. Reading information is not an engaging video. You are engaging. The notes are not. Be human. Talk from your heart. Pro tip: A few key words on paper as topic prompts, are OK. These can help you keep your talking flowing in a logical sequence.
2. Bad audio
The built-in microphones on smartphones suck. Spend $35 and get an external mic. Your audiences' ears will love you. Pro tip: Saramonic has some awesome mini mics for smartphones.
3. Too Dark or Harsh Lighting
You don't need expensive studio lights. A window with ambient light is great. A place in the shade is great. Just avoid bright sunlight and awkward shadows on your face, unless you like having shaded eyes that resemble a raccoon mask. Filming at noon is notorious for causing eyes to be shaded like a raccoon. Sometimes a small inexpensive LED light can work wonders too. Great lighting will flatter you. Pro tip: White coreboard at dollar stores is inexpensive and can be positioned to help bounce soft light onto your face.
4. Shaky Video
Hey, many of us love being on boats. We don't love trying to watch something that looks like it was filmed on a boat in rough seas. Hold the phone steady. Or get a gimbal. Or use a tripod. Pro tip: Your smartphone may have built in stabilization. If it does, toggle it active.
5. Standing too far away
Remember, most people watch videos on their smartphones. So when you stand far away from your phone, you look even smaller when people watch it on their phones. Get closer. And you'll be closer to your audience when they watch you on their phone. Closer means more personal. More engaging. Pro tip: Standing closer will also really help the quality of the audio
6. Holding the phone the wrong way
Wait, what? There's a wrong way? Well there can be depending on which social media platform you plan to use. If your video is going to be an Instagram Story, then hold your phone vertically. If it's going to be posted at Facebook, you can hold your phone vertically or horizontally. Alternatively, you may want to use an app like InShot to crop your video to be square. Doing this also makes it the perfect sizing for a regular Instagram post. Pro tip: Holding the phone the wrong way really can become a headache if you are sourcing clips from multiple staff. Imagine getting a mish mash of vertical and horizontal videos and having to piece them all together.
7. Using music illegally
You love Taylor Swift! You sing Taylor Swift songs! You want to use a Taylor Swift song in your next small business video! STOP!!!!!! You can't do that. You don't own rights to do that. Taylor does. And I doubt she'll say "Sure! You can use my music for free in your video to sell more cupcakes!" Only use legal music. Otherwise you could have your social media account suspended or get a copyright strike against you. You can search Royalty-free music online. Many tracks may simply require that you credit the artist in your post. And voila, you can use it for free! Pro tip: Facebook has its own free library of audio tracks and sound effects that you can use. It's called Sound Collection and is found in Facebook's Creator Studio. You can find it here at this link.
8. Forgetting your call to action
When people watch your videos, what do you want them to do after it ends? Unfortunately many small business videos created by owners simply end with a thud. Viewers are left wondering "Now what?" Simple things like how to contact the business are missing. A website url is nowhere to be found. Don't leave your viewers in the dark. A call to action is all about helping them know how to take the next step with you. Pro tip: Have a standard ending slide created so it's always ready to be placed at the end of your videos. This will give your videos consistent branding.
9. Wearing clothes that make eyes go wonky
We're not talking Speedos and bikinis. We're talking about shirts with prints that distract the eyes. Got a favourite shirts that is all over black and white checkerboard pattern r neon hot pink? Um, you'd better leave those behind. Not only can such shirts distract the eyes, they can also play games on your smartphone camera/video lens. Likewise, a white t-shirt may make your face look washed out. Pro tip: Neutral tones are good, or solid colours. Just watch the funky neon eye-popping colours.
10. Set your white balance
White balance is a setting that adjusts the lighting balance per the conditions. There are usually settings like Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Flourescent, and Incandescent. If you do not select the white balance for the situation, you may see your video have a blueish or yellowish cast. By setting white balance, you will correct this problem. Pro tip: Try to avoid using Auto. It will auto change the white balance as you change locations or lighting conditions in your video. Such auto changing can be distracting to the viewers' eyes.
Your Town Rising speaking in Manitoba
Your Town Rising is thrilled to be travelling to southwest Manitoba April 24 to May 1.
We’ll be presenting a keynote talk on April 27 at the Southwest Business Expo, a regional effort to promote entrepreneurship and business development in the Westman Region. Communities including the Town of Melita, Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester, Municipality of Souris-Glenwood, Municipality of Pipestone, Town of Virden, Municipality of Grassland, and Municipality of Wallace-Woodworth. We’ll also be doing breakout sessions at the Expo.
In addition to the Expo, we’ll be visiting numerous rural towns in southwest Manitoba to do downtown walkabouts and post-walkabout presentations to the communities about opportunities for creative placemaking and social marketing.
10 ways to get out of your social media rut
By Gregg McLachlan
We've all been through it, the dreaded social media rut. Not knowing what to tweet or post, or write as a status update can be paralyzing. It can also cause you to get off track and post aimlessly just to stay active which is never good.
And, hey, we ALL have a ton of things on our minds thanks to the stress of Covid19.
Here are 10 simple ways to help you juggle the demands of staying active on social media, get unparalyzed and posting again without missing a day:
1. RECYCLE
This is one of the simplest things you can do. Go back through posts from many months or even years ago. Often there are themes or posts where the wording can be tweaked and posted again as fresh new posts. Remember, your new fans or followers were not with you when you posted years ago, so recycling from the past becomes new posts to new fans. We call this type of content Evergreen content because it can always be freshened up and used over and over again. This is a technique that many top brands use. You can use it too.
2. LOOK AT OTHER ACCOUNTS
You have competitors or simply other pages that you like. Look at them. What are they posting? Don't steal the content. Rather, examine the themes that are being used. It might give you inspiration.
3. CURATE CONTENT
I usually caution most businesses and organizations to be careful about curating content (finding blog posts, articles, news stories, etc) to share on social media. You want to make sure you are creating your own original content as much as possible. But curating content, especially in times of being in a content-creating funk yourself, can help you get through ruts.
4. USE A NOTE-TAKING APP
One of my go-to tools for on-the-fly jotting down ideas is the app Google Keep. When I need inspiration or ideas, I can quickly reference my list. Bingo! I'm good to go with another post! And best of all, I can sync it with my desktop and smartphone so my pre-written notes for creating posts are always super quick to access from anywhere.
5. USE THE MASSIVE CONTENT LIBRARY YOU ALREADY HAVE!
You already have tons of content! If you are like everyone, your smartphone has hundreds if not thousands of photos. There's content there! Photos of your community. Photos of your business. Photos of so much. It may be something as simple as 10 Photos of Some Favourite Places in My Community. Dig into your smartphone photos and ask yourself How could I repurpose some of these photos?
6. BE HONEST! IT STARTS WITH ADMITTING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCKS!
For some reason, many businesses and organizations won't admit their social media is terrible. Maybe it's a vanity thing. They do social media, but they don't evaluate their social media for purpose, goals, effectiveness, and how the whole approach is contributing to branding (remember, branding is what audiences think about you). Instead, they are only obsessed with how much Reach they got (Woohoo! Look, we got 3,100 reach on that post!). Before you can get help or fix it yourself, you have to admit you have a problem. I'm floored when I hear some managers say they rarely look at what is being posted on their brand's social media. Some don't even know that the last time something was posting on their brand's Facebook page was 36 days ago. Huh?
7. CREATE A BRAND INSPIRATION LIST
This is so easy and similar to #2. You follow or like some amazing brands on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. When you see their content, you not only read it, but you probably talk about it offline too. That means these brands do stuff that works! Create a list of your favourite five brands. And then frequently look at how they approach using social media. You will quickly see they have a strategic purpose and specific content approaches. Get inspired!
8. BE A COMMUNITY CHAMPION
It never gets old to share the love. You are out in the community on a regular basis. Hello! That's content. Showing a little business-to-business love is always a good thing. Especially in these challenging times of Covid19.
9. STOP OVERTHINKING IT
Often content ideas happen in front of us everyday at work, but we don't look at them as content ideas. OK, that doesn't mean a photo of coffee every morning. But it could be the weather, a cat, a new product that has arrived, a note from a customer, something humorous overheard, flowers, cookies, your new shoes (yes, that's the personality-themed post!). OK, you get the idea. Don't be so rehearsed with creating content that you begin to look too pre-planned all the time. BTW, it's that pre-planned obsessiveness that often creates the social media rut in the first place. Being real means spur of the moment too. It's easy and comes natural once get comfortable with it. Not every post has to be the perfectly staged, perfectly choreographed, perfectly placed laptop and coffee scene, with a white background.
10. MAKE CUSTOMERS THE STARS OF YOUR SHOW
You have some awesome fans and followers on social media. Many are probably customers. You have so many options here to show appreciation and not be salesy, but rather just appreciative. Why do they love the community? Maybe they have a top 3 list they could send you. Are they posting photos on Instagram that can be re-used by you? The possibilities are endless. But most importantly, you will be getting your community more involved in content creation for your page.
All of us reach a point on social media where we struggle some days or weeks about what to post. You're not a failure. You're like all of us. Hopefully these 10 tips can help you get motivated and inspired again.
Tourism marketing: Social media is not a mouthpiece!
By Gregg McLachlan
One of the common mistakes that tourism organizations and small business tourism operators make on social media is using channels as if they were megaphones. They flick a switch. Shout out their destination marketing message. Turn off the switch. And then carry on with the day.
You know a tourism business has a problem when it makes a post on Facebook and then someone asks a question -- "What are your hours?" -- and the comment goes unanswered for days, if answered at all.
You've already read plenty of articles saying social media is about conversations and relationships. But what does that really mean? Well, for starters, it means you have to look at content creation from this point of view: What is it that your audience wants to see? Why are they following you? Audiences want to be entertained, educated or inspired. They want to interact with you too.
Too often, organizations and small businesses look at social media through their own lens of this is what we want our audience to have. Usually that means flooding audiences with photos of event flyers, special deals, etc.
Social media is not a broadcast tool. It's not about just transferring what you do or have done in the past in newspaper ads or brochures and posting it on social media. Sadly, that's exactly what many businesses and organizations still do with social media.
Being a mouthpiece can appear spammy
There's a reason that Facebook now aggressively throttles the reach of posts with cheesy clipart graphics shouting SALE! 50% OFF! These posts are annoying and add noise to our feeds. Facebook now provides easy-to-use tools attached to every post we see so we can quicky mark such business posts as spam, or even block them. That's right! Your business may already be on block lists if you've annoyed users.
Imagine if Facebook didn't fight this spam and all of our newsfeeds were filled with these push marketing ads? Facebook would cease to be a social platform and instead become a 100% spammy ad platform.
If businesses actually took the time to look at how posts perform on social media, they'd see that spammy push-marketing posts perform poorly. There's little engagement or likes. It's ironic that one of the BIGGEST excuses businesses have for not using social media enough is "We don't have the time!" Yet businesses will waste their precious time creating crappy push-marketing posts on Facebook that are a waste of effort (and time!) because very few people even care to engage with those posts.
But the opposite tends to happen when posts give audience a deeper look at you, what you do, and behind the scenes of your business.
Audiences want to see + hear + experience
To be successful, your business or organization has to embrace the behavioural change that is social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., are all about audiences wanting to See + Hear + Experience you.
So, the marketing question to you is: What are you doing to enable audiences to see + hear + experience you? What are you doing that turns your social media into a behind-the-scenes access pass?
Start putting your content through a filter. Ask these questions before you post: Does this engage the eyes? Does it feed the ears? There's a reason that some outdoors brands frequently post 10 second clips from the woods. Why? Because each clip is a feast for the senses. Rain drops can be heard on leaves. Birds can be heard calling in the canopy. Wind can be literally felt swooshing through the trees. Bugs can be heard buzzing. Audiences are left with a feeling that they are actually in the woods with you. That's a powerful pull for people to get outside and be in the woods. Perhaps with you and your outdoor adventure tourism business!
How one town recognizes businesses that contribute to improving appearance of downtown
By Gregg McLachlan
I’ve written in the past about how downtowns can slide into a state of ugly appearances one bad storefront at a time. It begins with paint left to peel off, little to no effort on window displays, and tacky, cheap and flimsy banner ‘signs’ hammered into brick above a store door as a substitute for professional signage. The problems spiral when another new store arrives and thinks this is all acceptable and follows suit. Soon, the appearance of a downtown is a sad contrast in standards.
Every downtown has businesses that have invested to create a professional appearance. Everything from signage, to window displays, to lighting and storefront ‘landscaping’ is well thought out. But then there are the shops that look like fly-by-night operations not planning to invest for the long haul to contribute to the appearance of a downtown.
When the above happens the public perception of a downtown slowly erodes. Appearances matter. Revitalization goes nowhere when a downtown’s appearance as a whole looks to be in a state of disrepair and decay.
So how do you encourage businesses to contribute to making appearances count?
In Brantford, ON, the Downtown Brantford Business Improvement Area is a vibrant and growing destination. The BIA developed its Golden Broom awards to showcase businesses that are helping to create that success. The awards program runs July through October and recognizes one business or organization each month of the contest’s duration that has “excelled in its efforts to improve the appearance of Brantford’s Downtown Area.”
The Downtown Brantford Business Improvement Area launched the campaign in hopes of “raising the bar on the level of cleanliness and appeal of Downtown Brantford, and wishes to reward those entities that have made a significant contribution in improving the street-level environment,” it said in a release.
Mark down those three very important words: Raising the bar. That’s what it’s all about. Who are the businesses that are raising the bar in your downtown every day? They do exist. And they don’t deserve to toil in their efforts without public recognition.
“It is important that the community sees a clean downtown. This is an important step in continuing to showcase our vibrant downtown to our community,” added DBBIA chair Keri Korfmann.
The public (ie. shoppers!), tourists, businesses and downtown employees can easily nominate businesses by picking up ballots inside stores, going to the BIA website, using social media, or visiting the DBBIA office. In other words, the program’s marketing has a complete street-to-web-to-social integration that is a must today if your audience is people. (P.S. Very active social media accounts by the DBBIA help put this program — and everything else that the association does — very front and centre with the public.)
Each month a judging panel reviews nominations and takes into consideration the following factors:
Overall Business Appearance (Clean, litter free, graffiti free, signage quality, window displays, landscaping and flowers if applicable, and managing waste responsibly) and Improvements (Façade improvements including those supported by the Façades Grant Program, signage, historic preservation, and public space improvements).
Each month’s winners are also celebrated with congratulations on social media.
Why is Brantford’s Golden Broom awards program worth duplicating in your small town? Here are five simple reasons:
It celebrates business leadership: Too often, BIAs, board of trades, and chambers do year-end awards and that’s it. Being progressive means doing more to publicly showcase and publicly celebrate your members as leaders every day of the year, not just during one awards night once per year. P.S. By the way, those once-per-year awards nights are not public events. It’s time to start publicly recognizing businesses that are making an effort and put them into the spotlight by showing their leadership for helping with placemaking and revitalization. An ongoing and repetitive awards program like Brantford’s Golden Broom done on a regular basis is one more way that downtowns can improve perceptions in the minds of the public that the downtown truly is making an effort.
It shows the public that your downtown does care about appearances: First impressions matter. Ask any first-time tourist in your downtown! Imagine what full-time residents think. When a downtown starts to erode, the public starts to lose confidence that a turnaround is possible. Let’s stop leapfrogging ahead and using that tired Shop Local slogan and instead take a step back to think about what makes our downtowns vibrant places. It begins with street-level appeal. You have businesses who share that vision. Shout about them! If your downtown business association is using that all-too-familiar line we “…help beautify the downtown” as part of its mandate, then go beyond just words and show the sustained actions of members that help that cause.
It gives folks a way to show their love for your downtown: Humans are attracted to attractive things. Let them nominate and celebrate that love by sharing their enthusiasm for businesses that catch their eyes!
It’s simple: You don’t need six months of meetings to plan it. You don’t need consultant studies or more endless surveys that all say what everybody already knows. You don’t even need presentations to council. You can just start doing it. Now.
Businesses are in it together!: OK, yes, you have some downtown businesses that don’t put forth much effort. Fortunately and strategically, a program like Golden Broom awards puts the focus on the ones that are making an effort and how they are helping to make downtown an appealing destination. Sometimes the way to bring the lazy stores up to speed, is to show them how far they are behind. Peer pressure can work in a downtown too.
How is your downtown regularly and publicly celebrating shops that go that extra mile to create curb appeal? If you aren’t doing anything, Brantford’s Golden Broom program is a good place to learn. Check out the Golden Broom nomination form.
Any small-town downtown can duplicate this.
Festive makeovers in downtown Strathroy, ON
In November we travelled to Strathroy, Ontario to work with the Downtown Strathroy BIA and Middlesex County. The visit was for our Downtown Storefront Makeovers On Shoestring Budgets program.
We did storefront makeovers at Rusty Wrench Brewing Company and Imagination Created.
As part of our visit, we also filmed a 30-minute video of the makeovers in Strathroy that can now be used by the downtown as a training and learning tool.
Learn more about innovative storefront makeovers program.
We launched this program as a way to safely bring us to your town during Covid19, create an immediate impact for businesses, and help inspire more businesses in a downtown to get creative on a shoestring budget during a time when first impressions at the storefront level really matter for catching attention.
Watch this 30-second video behind the scenes of our work at Rusty Wrench
Your Downtown And The Litter Problem in No Man's Lands
The community can work together to take pride in the appearance of its public spaces that everyone uses and enjoys
Does your downtown have spaces where litter piles up and nobody knows whose responsibility it is to pick it up? . Unfortunately, if your down is like most, you definitely have these locations.
What are No Man’s Lands in downtowns? They are those places and spaces where litter piles up over time and nobody knows whose responsibility it is to pick up that litter. So the result is the No Man’s Land becomes an ever growing eyesore in your downtown. And it contributes to a narrative of neglect.
In this episode, we wanted to walk the talk about what we often preach and tackle one of these No Man’s Lands. We are fans of having the community work together to take pride in the appearance of its public spaces that everyone uses and enjoys.
It really does make a difference. The evidence is all over Trip Advisor, where many reviewers frequently comment on the cleanliness of places and businesses. Visitors notice clean towns and litter-strewn places.
