SOMERS POINT — Marketing efforts continue to pay dividends for Somers Point, which hired a local firm in June to promote events and attract more business to the city.
Charlie Haberkorn, co-chairman of the Economic Development Advisory Commission, presented a midyear report to City Council on the ongoing campaign Oct. 26.
He said the EDAC’s role is to advise City Council on future and current conditions of economic development and its primary purpose is to market the economic strengths of the city to provide stability with existing businesses while encouraging future development.
The report outlines the efforts and accomplishments of Performance Marketing from June 1 to Oct. 20. The city signed a contract with the firm in June to produce news releases and social media posts.
The report includes Facebook analytics such as page reach, post reach and engagement rate, and provides follower metrics to help target appropriate sectors, rather than anecdotal estimates.
Haberkorn said the Facebook reach rose by 87.7 percent over the prior five months, reaching 110,148 accounts. Facebook posts reached 56,400 accounts just in the past 90 days, he said, a 51.4 percent gain over the prior 90-day period.
Likewise, engagement is up in the past 90 days by 35.3 percent for a total of 3,700 engagements, including reactions, comments and shares.
Haberkorn said the total number of Facebook followers was 9,294, 71.2 percent of whom are women.
“According to the diagram, the most popular audience is women between the ages of 35 and 64, which can aid in content creation to appeal to this group while considering increasing the engagement for other groups as well,” Haberkorn said.
The top-performing post was a scene of Bay Avenue from the water, which reached 26,221 accounts, generated 352 reactions, 28 comments and 28 shares.
A post announcing the grand opening of Norman’s Hallmark reached 13,479 accounts, generated 500 reactions, 71 comments and 35 shares.
Haberkorn also discussed the social media content calendar, which was scheduled to release a post about the Jazz@thepoint Fall Festival on Nov. 2, a post about city history on Nov. 6 and one regarding the city Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 7.
Upcoming posts will highlight the Christmas parade, a newsletter, area restaurants and shopping destinations and accommodations.
Haberkorn said the electronic newsletter would be delivered to the more than 200 people who have used the QR code assigned to a previous promotion.
The city also tabled a resolution calling for a three-way stop at Dawes and Bay Avenues. Engineer Greg Schneider said after reviewing further studies, he and Police Chief Robert Somers are recommending against the three-way stop.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff