That’s one of the goals of the recently formed Stroudsburg Council Public Relations and Social Media committee, a group formed by Mayor Tarah Probst that wants to modernize borough-to-resident connections and bolster downtown tourism.
The committee, comprised of Probst, McCabe and Anjelica Badillo, was approved by borough council last week, becoming the first of its kind for Stroudsburg. McCabe worked with Probst on her campaign, and has volunteer experience with programs such as Girls on the Run. McCabe wants to reach what she calls a “bedroom community.”
“To reach those people that are not active in our community — to get them to come out on the weekends when they are here — the only avenue we have is social media,” McCabe said.
The committee will set up and promote borough profiles for social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope. Those last three — which primarily serve as photo- and video-sharing platforms with location tags — are of significant interest to McCabe.
“You get hints of what’s available in the downtown and want to check it out,” McCabe said. “It’s mainstreaming and modernizing what the borough is doing."
The committee’s intent is to eventually organize a promotional system among local businesses that is whole and singular, McCabe said. She realized this sort of system doesn’t exist when recently trying to share information about the upcoming Winter Festival online. McCabe eventually realized that promotion for the event wasn’t even online yet.
“A couple of businesses have done an extraordinary job of promoting themselves and each other, but it's almost insulated with how cross-promotion happens, and we need to support the entire downtown,” McCabe said.
She described the borough having a mentality of “If you know, you know, and if you don’t, you don’t.”
“We need to change that attitude,” McCabe said.
An immediate priority for the committee is addressing signage on the highways that advertises attractions for Stroudsburg. McCabe said signs on I-80 — which the borough is responsible for — only advertise chain restaurants and major attractions.
"There are no signs to tell you we’ve got amazing restaurants and art galleries right in town,” McCabe said. "We need to draw them in, but not with commercialization. We need something that draws in the non-chain crowd, wanting something more authentic."
For inspiration, McCabe has looked at the public relations work of areas such as Bloomsburg, a college town that she believes has its own “authentic flair” aside from the campus culture.
"Looking at how they handle their social media, we can recommend to our council what we need to do, how we need to do it and how we need to promote our borough and downtown,” McCabe said.
That begins with coordination — getting borough officials, businesses and organizations to be on one channel that then streams onto multiple platforms. Some reconfiguration has already begun in the borough, as residents are now being asked to access the Stroudsburg website at StroudsburgBoro.com, an address set months ago that will become the borough’s sole site access.
This will also change borough email addresses to end in @StroudsburgBoro.com, Borough Manager Cathie Thomas said.
Though the new council has been actively seeking means to change or improve the borough, many officials site its history as a lasting appeal. The part of its past that doesn’t have to remain, McCabe said, is its place amongst other towns.
“When people go out, they go to Easton, Bethlehem,” McCabe said. “No one knows we have a french bistro on our Main Street with phenomenal food. Nobody comes here because nobody knows it’s here."
©2016 the Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
