#Blogging: Interview With Somerville Local First
Joe Grafton, Executive Director of Somerville Local First, is on top of his game. He excels at marrying serious, sustainable change with desirable, fun and sticky brands. SLF’s Harvest Fest, their annual fall fundraiser, is a smorgasbord of the finest local eats and treats (why, hello, Pretty Things Beer) set to live music and a decidedly un-stuffy vibe.
Did you know that he’s also Chief Operating Officer of Together Boston, a badass electronic music festival? Even that supports his mission of unifying local businesses and getting people to spend money in our fair city.
Together Boston 2011 Festival Preview from TOGETHER BOSTON on Vimeo.
I take long to get to my point but here it is: He asked me to be a community blogger for SLF (posts coming soon!) and I thought this was a terrific opportunity to pick his brain about what SLF needs and in general, the role bloggers play in advancing a nonprofit’s mission. So here it is, straight from an ED and Huffington Post blogger:
Joe, for the uninitiated, please talk about Somerville Local First. How did you get involved?
Somerville Local First is one many local nonprofit networks of locally owned and independent businesses, nonprofits, artists and community members seeking to build an economy that is local, green and fair.
I'm the founder, along with our founding Board of Directors,so I've been with SLF from before our official launch date. The story is a long one, but I worked successfully in corporate for a number of years, had a crisis of conscience, and started to work for what I believed in instead. SLF became the genesis of that for me.
First and foremost: because it is far more impactful on our local economy, and therefore our community. Two to three times as much money stays local when someone buys local, via local businesses using other local businesses for products and services.
But also, buying locally gives individuals an opportunity to affect positive change through simple actions. In our current world, with the frustration with our elected officials, an environmental crisis that is only getting worse, and many other challenges, people can feel paralyzed and powerless. The reality is that depending on the estimate you trust, consumer spending represents 60-70% of the economy every year. So we actually have the power in our society. By choosing local businesses, we exercise that power.
Finally, buying locally helps foster and create community, and I believe that we all desire community in our lives.
How does SLF encourage people to buy local?
We run a number of programs and campaigns to do so. We do two major events each year, SomerFun (a street festival in Union Square) and Harvest Fest (one of Greater Boston's best tasting events). We manage a robust online presence including website, blog and social media. We also distribute two publications per year, our coupon book which is a collaboration with our sister network in Cambridge, and our annual magazine, "A Local's Guide to Somerville."
You’re looking to add new community bloggers to your roster. Who are they? What is the most important thing they do for SLF?
We are and we're PSYCHED you're gonna be one. We've got a number of contributors, you can see them on our Our Bloggers page. They are a wide-ranging group of individuals, and their most important role is to give our readers, and us, a number of different lenses and opportunities to learn about local economies.
How much traffic does the SLF blog drive to its website?
Without getting too deep into analytics (Google Analytics = gold), I'd guess its about 50% of our total traffic. Our goal is to get three posts per week posted to the blog, so posting frequently is a key driver for our website.
Who are we writing for? Use three adjectives to describe the SLF blog’s audience.
The audience varies, but I'd use these three adjectives: Engaged, community-minded, and smart.
Describe SLF's blogging voice.
Lively and fresh, covering a wide range of expertise and interests so our readers can be educated and engaged by various topics. Our style is to identify and partner with creative professionals, and then let them do what they do best. Placing too many boundaries reduces the quality of the product, so we let them do their thing, which typically means awesomesauce.
What other opportunities are available for people who want to support SLF?
Make the shift to buying local businesses, especially our members, and tell people about it! The way to create tipping points in my view via Malcolm Gladwell, is to influence numerous social circles and create new social norms and behaviors.
Becoming a community member or making a donation is tremendously helpful. We are even worse off in the current nonprofit environment, because our work isn't really supported by either government OR foundations.
Sign up for our email list, read our blog, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Attend our events: SomerFun is FREE, Harvest Fest costs money, but is one of the best deals all year long.
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