If you have something to share with fellow citizens then consider sharing it on boom towns and not on social network websites
. You are right in saying that social networking groups connect people from across the globe but local connection work better. What is the use of telling your story to a person who is sitting at a distant place? The person wont take interest in your story but one who is living in your city would be interested in knowing your experience.
The idea is to connect people living in the same city. Your local social media platform would provide you an opportunity to connect with fellow residents whom you can meet at marketplace, in cafes and on weekend parties. Simply put, the idea is to take online social networking to offline. People living in your city would be interested in meeting you after going through your story and they should get a chance to meet you.
Boom towns provide the right platform to disseminate information useful for the people residing in your city. It is simple fact that citizens of a city share common interests. For instance you read a news story in one of the many newspapers published from your city. You find the story informative and you like to share with others. You go to the website and share the link of the story. People visit the link and get benefitted from the news story.
Local social media is also helpful in promoting local business like hospitality, healthcare and education. A local restaurant would find no benefit in going global when it is expecting customers from within the city. Also a doctor working in a small locality would be interested in contacting his patients who come from nearby areas.
Boom towns connect businesses with their customers. Many shops in Chicago wait for the customers to come because they are not advertised properly. Publishing newspaper ads is not enough and starting print marketing campaign on large scale could be expensive for small businesses. But there is no expense in promoting your business on local social media platform. Share details of your business on the social media and tell people about advantages of shopping in your departmental store. Not for profit organizations and religious groups can also take advantage of boom towns when they need to aware people of their good deeds. Every city should have its social platform.