Don’t ever give me 15 minutes to consider additional options for sharing the story of downtown Shreveport, because chances are good I will create new work for myself (and likely, others). Social media is a double-edged sword. Because it’s free (mostly), instantaneous and responsive, I love it. But to do it right, you have to really be committed, and that means time and effort, even at night, even on the weekends, even when you feel like doing anything BUT posting a status update.

Facebook has been our ‘go to’ of choice because we were able to post and get response, something we really, really like. Recently though, we’ve had to change our page to a community-government-business thing and it seems to have taken our Facebook momentum with it. Now, instead of seeing responses and getting feedback, it’s like we’re alone in a long, dark tunnel. And the wind is blowing. And it’s cold.

Mark Zuckerberg is so seriously OFF our Christmas card list.

Feedback is really important to us, hence the attempt to elicit some with this blog. I started thinking about it in earnest at the Main Street Conference in the spring, when a presenter talked about her downtown blog. She went on at length about how much the blog meant to her inner well-being. “I love it,” she said. “It’s where I go when I need to re-balance.”

Eager to check out how she balanced, I Googled her blog site and read her latest posting, one that was four months old. Obviously, her balance had been pretty good for quite a while. I hope that through this blog we find our ‘inner balance’ (whatever), but mostly, that we create another place for us to talk about Downtown Shreveport—the cool stuff, the opportunities, the things that need to be changed and how to change them.

Love to have you along. Please write. It’s cold and lonely in the tunnel.