There's an old podcast somewhere where Nathan Barry talks about a local Boise
newsletter he started and is growing. I'll dig it out and link to it.
Follow the links in that LinkedIn post i shared above and you should be able to listen to the full podcast when it comes out. I subscribed to the Sparkloop podcast just now so I can listen to it.
I love the idea of localised newsletters/email lists, even if it's a big national
newsletter and people are segmented by location (or maybe starts that way).
I also love the idea of doing a newsletter, website/directory, and social media accounts for my town of 22k and county of 220k.
Facebook pages would be great for local, and Twitter accounts are often used to keep locals up to date with local outages, weather reports, school closures, sporting fixtures/results, etc.
Also... I've mentioned this a few times in the forum for those getting started: They could go round local businesses with a camera round their neck saying they're going to add them to the local directory/newsletter. Record and edit videos and send them to the business so they can put them on their own social media accounts or website.
They could also create simple websites for free on the directory for those that don't have websites. I do this all the time for friends who want little websites. I create demarcocleaning.mycountyonline.co.uk and often run Google Ads for free for them.
I'm pretty sure you'd build your network of local business owners faster than joining the local chamber. And who wouldn't want to help a youngster who has initiative, and which business owner wouldn't think a youngester understand the online world better than them anyway?
I'll loop in
@Lex DeVille in case he's still working on local Facebook groups etc.