Shoplocalmilledgeville.com promotes local economy

Shoplocalmilledgeville.com is Milledgeville’s one stop website providing its viewers with a plethora of information about local businesses in town.

The creator and program developer for Digital Bridges, Tommy Cook, came up with the idea to create the website during his time as a graduate assistant at Digital Bridges.

“Trying to find information about Milledgeville online was kind of difficult, so we decided we were going to make an online directory with a whole lot of extra information more so than just the yellow pages,” Cook said.

The website launched in May and is a side project of Digital Bridges, which is funded by the Knight Foundation, and GCSU oversees and administers the funds. This site allows businesses to register and create a profile free of charge. Since the site is free, much of the revenue is made through the selling of advertising space for $25 a month.

Over 700 businesses are registered on the site and many have fully completed their profiles. On their profile they can include information such as a description of their business, services and products they offer, coupons, hours of operation, contact information, virtual tours, and menus. Shop Local Milledgeville has also taken on the initiative of providing its audience with a calendar containing information about sales and events going on in Milledgeville, such as wing and trivia nights, upcoming concerts, and drink and food specials that restaurants may be offering in town.

A great feature located in the center of the website is a comment and feedback box. Anyone can go on the site, without having to register, and use this box to submit anything from a tip of something fun to do in Milledgeville to an event they know of that isn’t already on the site.

Colin Moore, a graduate assistant at Digital Bridges, says they are currently in the process of testing out a new idea called Coupon Local.

“We think (Coupon Local) will really benefit businesses and the community and would also help sustain the Shop Local initiative,” Moore said. “Each week we would offer a ‘super deal’ – something like a $10 certificate to a local business that people can buy for $5. Ultimately, we would like for people to be able to buy these online, but for the time being we plan on selling the coupons each week at the Knight Community Innovation Center located at 127 W. Hancock St.”

The site has been active for less than a year and Daniel McDonald, the communications coordinator for Digital Bridges, said they have had great support from the community.

“From my perspective, there are strong supporters of the initiative within the community that see this as an opportunity to benefit the local economy,” McDonald said. “The Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce, representatives from GCSU’s College of Business and individual business owners have provided much support and enthusiasm in getting the information for the site, taking out initial advertisements and creating specials and promotions to feature on the site.”

Posted by Lauren Davidson on Nov 5 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.