GATE CITY - Scott County could see a new venue to showcase local products and agriculture in 2025.
During her report to the county Board of Supervisors Wednesday, County Tourism Director Brittany Robertson said she hopes to see a makers and growers festival in September that will build on the 2024 Bounty Trail tourism project and feature products made by students at the Scott County Career and Technical Center.
The festival would be a collaborative showcase of tech center, students, local artisans and growers with a tentative Sept 26-27 date, Robertson said. The event would include a farm-to -able dinner or lunch featuring county-produced foods.
“We want make sure that people regionally know who we are and what we have to offer,” said Robertson, “and that they know about our businesses.”
Robertson reviewed the tourism department’s social media efforts since she followed previous director Pam Cox in October. She said she has focused on in-house video content to assess her office’s budget situation.
Robertson showed the board videos and reels that have been on the county ‘s tourism social media platforms – spots on local businesses, Natural Tunnel, the Gate City Veterans Day celebration, 72 hours in a Scott County weekend.
“My goal to leave more of a visual footprint for Scott County,” said Robertson.
A video on the 2024 Bounty Trail campaign for the county’s agricultural producers and artisans will be shown at the Landsburg, Va. welcome center through June, Robertson added. A Facebook marketing campaign for the Trail will run through May-July with 30 second targeted ads.
“I’m 100% not opposed to running sponsored or paid content, but my goal when I came into this role was to try and not spend money for a year and see where I sat on budget and see what I can do organically,” said Robertson. “I wanted to get a foothold for what financially the future could look like and focus more on video content. I feel like that’s an important aspect to focus on.”
The county Facebook tourism page has garnered 907,000 views min the previous five months, Robertson said, while the page’s reach climbed 36% to almost 400,000 people. Content interactions - likes, shares, comments – climbed 5% to more than 16,000, and the page has gained almost 1,000 new followers.
Link clicks were down for the period because the department had not done any sponsored content, Robertson said.
“That’s really exciting for me to see all our numbers are up, and that’s with 100% organic reach,” said Robertson. “None of that has been sponsored or paid advertising. That’s pure organic reach. To have close to a million views, to be reaching 400,000 people, to have those kinds of numbers without having any sort of paid sponsorship is a really big deal.”
“I’m 100% not opposed to running sponsored or paid content, but my goal when I came into this role was to try and not spend money for a year and see where I sat on budget and see what I can do organically. Obviously, I’m spending if I advertise in local newspapers and things like that. But I wanted to get a foothold for what financially the future could look like and focus more on video content. I feel like that’s an important aspect to focus on.”