Beaumont is harnessing the power of social media to promote local businesses

With COVID-19 impacting businesses and municipalities right now, it has become more important than ever to promote local businesses and foster a sense of community.

OpenInBeaumont is the brainchild of Beaumont’s economic development team, communications team, and the local chamber of commerce. It is a way to promote what businesses are doing in Beaumont and spread the word about these positive interactions.

The great thing about a social media campaign like this one is that it doesn’t require quite as much elbow grease as some other options. Total reach for Beaumont’s posts to Instagram and Facebook is more than 20,000 people, and that doesn’t even include posts by the local chamber of commerce or others using the hashtag. So far, the hashtag #OpenInBeaumont has been used over 300 times, which is a testament to the support for the campaign and the community.

When Beaumont rolled out the hashtag in mid-April, the campaign gained steam right away. At the onset of the campaign, their economic development team put together a package for local businesses and chatted with them to introduce the campaign and encourage them to start using it. That, supplemented with an email the chamber of commerce sent out to its membership, really got things rolling.

The goal is that once social distancing has eased and things go back to ‘normal’, the campaign can pivot and evolve into something that remains relevant to residents.

Any resident who uses the hashtag between now and May 14 will be entered to win a gift basket full of locally-sourced goodies.

For other members interested in introducing something similar, Maya Filipovic (Senior Strategist, Communications and Marketing at the City of Beaumont) emphasizes that you need buy-in from all local groups, including your chamber of commerce and communications teams.

If you have any questions, or if you are interested in starting a campaign like this in your community, please let us know by emailing hello [at] auma.ca (hello[at]auma[dot]ca).