Looking Forward to 2021
As we run full steam ahead into 2021 welcoming a new year if for no other reason than to just be done with 2020, I want to take a few moments to reflect on some highlights of what has been going on at your Chamber over the past year.
We started off 2020 with much excitement, having no idea what was just around the corner. We kicked things off with our annual pre-legislative coffee as our elected officials were headed into session in the ATL. In February we wrapped up our 2020 Leadership Class with a visit to the State Capital for a tour and to sit in on the House and Senate as they acknowledged Stephens County Day at the Capital. We proudly saw 22 Stephens County High School Seniors and 9 Local Business Leaders graduate from our Leadership Toccoa-Stephens County Program as the Class of 2020.
In early March, I was invited to speak to our legislators at the State Capital for “Film Day at the Capital about the direct impact the film industry has had on Stephens County over the past few years through the six films shot in our community. With each project investing between $80k-$250k directly into the local business community of Stephens County. While I was at the Capital, the crew for our seventh film project was rolling into town preparing for the production. Within just a few days the reality of pandemic hit and life as we knew it was changing right before our eyes.
We immediately responded with a new go to resource page on our VisitToccoa.com website to help our Chamber family, prospective Chamber members and Community at large with local healthcare updates, small business resources, and remote working tools in addition to operating hours for our local stores and restaurants. We have since seen 3212 unique visits directly to this page with many more return visits.
We have since added 23 new Chamber Members to our business network team.
Our newsletters reach over 1800 individuals and we have sent over 60 newsletters this year.
We have taken out ads and written articles to share updates and encouragement through our local news-media both newspaper and radio.
Our website traffic has jumped to over 18,000 unique visitors as well. We are continually linking individuals back to our webpage that hosts personalized member listings.
We now have over 8,000 followers on our social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
We launched a Keeping Stephens Strong Together T-shirt Campaign designed by your Chamber, which allowed $10 from each t-shirt purchase to go directly to a local place of business chosen by the individual buying the t-shirt. In turn, we sold over 400 t-shirts and raised over $5000 given to our local business community. The promotion reached 34,708 on our social media.
Late this fall we began to gather in-person to celebrate new and the growth of existing chamber members by way of Chamber Ribbon Tying events. Our Ribbon-tying’s represent the community and the Chamber coming around and “tying together” in support of our local business community. Those promotions reached 32,347 people on social media.
We began a “Meet Our Members” Spotlight and with the nine companies we highlighted, we reached 22,169 with the news on social media, not to mention the exposure by way of our newsletter.
Our Annual Golf Classic turned into another successful “virtual tournament” as teams were given a broad window to play their round of golf at our breathtaking Currahee Club. We kept track of the scores and were able to recognize the winning teams as always. Of course, we missed the camaraderie of a one-day event with over a hundred golfers participating, but with the posts acknowledging the sponsors for the Golf Classic we reached over 11,000 people.
Currahee Military Weekend looked quite different this year. We were only able to host our Annual Chamber Chicken-Que. However, we sold 1043 chicken plates, more than ever before. And the social media promotion for our faithful sponsors reached over 9,000 people.
Our 75th Chamber Anniversary Awards Celebration is currently on hold with more details to follow in early spring 2021 as we look forward to the freedom to gather as a community once again to recognize the outstanding companies and individuals leading Toccoa-Stephens County.
We came in strong at the end of 2020 with a Chamber Christmas Shop Local / Wishlist Campaign reaching 26,379 while encouraging our residents and followers to always shop local first to support our neighbors who have chosen to invest by opening their business here and to keep our tax dollars at home. Of course, this is our goal every day and all year long.
The year 2020 will surely go down in history for many reasons. It has been a one-of-a-kind year but we have united together and made it a strong and successful year for our Chamber Partners and we look forward to continue working with you in 2021! Keeping Stephens Strong Together.