support downtown augusta: the blog

I started a facebook group called Support Downtown Augusta in February of 2007 right after opening my shop Vintage 965 downtown. I wanted to build a group of followers that were passionate about supporting the downtown community and keep them updated on events going on. My hope was that not only would it encourage them to continue their patronage of downtown businesses and attendance of downtown events, but that they would invite others to come along. The group quickly grew to about 300 which i was very excited about, then it quickly doubled to 600 members. It stayed around that number for several months so I thought we had capped out. After a few months I (not being very technically savy) figured out that I could include a link to take members directly to where they could invite friends to join. The group began growing by leaps and bounds and over the next year or so it maxed out at 5000 members. I say maxed out because facebook does not allow messages to go out to a group of over 5000 people. A few of the members suggested I start a fan page so that the group could continue to grow, so a couple months ago I started a fan page which has grown to over 1200 fans. All very exciting but lately I have been thinking why confine the group to just facebook members, so starting today Support Downtown Augusta has a blog. I will still continue to send out messages to the facebook members but it will link them back here. This will allow group members to share event info with more than just facebook friends. It also allows for corrections and additions. There have been many times I hit send message and then remember an event I forgot to list or I get an email from someone with an event right after it has been sent out. Anyway I hope you enjoy the new format and thanks for supporting downtown!