Civil and Municipal - Mar 2023

36 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 into the community,” says Bennington. The city wants to keep localized chains busy; the kind of establishments that serve casual food, geared towards the local demographic. Anniston’s downtown district encompasses a large area and is a locally and nationally designated historic district. The city has a local historic preservation commission that works with building owners to ensure buildings maintain their architectural and historical integrity. The Main Street community is included in this downtown district. They do an immense amount of work to keep up the historic character of the area. Main Street Anniston and the Downtown Development Authority also work together to ensure information is available to residents and visitors. Promotion and marketing for Anniston are currently done via social media, namely Facebook. Another channel, but mainly for the locals, is an app called Nextdoor Neighbor, which is used by older residents. “Most of the marketing communication is P2P, or peer-to-peer, where we interact with our followers directly. The city has other social media channels, but our primary channels are Facebook and Nextdoor Neighbor, which we use to inform residents of activities,” says Jackson Hodges, Public Relations Director of Anniston. Recently the city updated its website, allowing for more interactivity. It also allows citizens to report nuisances as well as apply for grants online. The website sees a lot of use, with about 20,000 users a month. These users are captured through the website when they sign up for newsletters. Information communicated via these newsletters varies from hazardous weather conditions to transit alerts and updates for new methods of online payments. The website is also mobile-friendly and allows citizens to access information and