By Kathy Kyle Bonomini

How is your community rejuvenating in light of COVID?

We created DigiKind to help local communities reimagine their high street experience. We are talking to local BIDs, businesses, non-profits, and councils every day and sharing their best practices on our channels – for free. If you go to our social media feed, that is what you will see. Communities innovating. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Adam Grant and his concept of give and take. I co-founded DigiKind because I wanted to help to create a community where we were empowering people to be givers, where we are shouting about the awesome work people are doing across the UK, and working together to rebuild our economy. I have been talking to the people in the community who are doing the work – and documenting it here – and I’ve been doing the work myself for the past year for a Council in Windsor and Maidenhead, and I believe that building empowered communities is the answer.

We believe that strong, sustainable high streets are rooted in engaging and empowering the local community – people working together to own their local.

Our team have worked with BIDs, councils and SMEs for many years and advocate for community-led solutions and this requires the use of tech for good solutions to ask people what they want for their towns and cities. In light of the government’s recent announcement regarding high street rejuvenation, local authorities, BIDs and businesses must focus on community-led solutions. But what are the most effective ways to do this? How do you empower communities? How do you ensure you are hearing from your citizens?

We’ve been working on high street issues for years, and have built and implemented award winning multi-channel marketing, PR and place making strategies to engage local communities and business owners to champion their high streets. We’ve engaged local stakeholders to serve as brand evangelists – building a word of mouth economy – and empowering local businesses to embrace digital channels, safely reopen, and reimagine what was possible in a time of COVID.

I’ve have found that one of the keys to high street rejuvenation is community engagement. And using effective technology to empower people. You’ve got to focus on getting authentic buy-in from community partners and influencers. On each of our engagements, we haven’t focused on “Saving” the high street, but reimagining it in a collaborative and creative way.

We are currently supporting a council in their high street rejuvenation and recovery efforts. We’ve spoken about this on a variety of channels about this topic (to include a webinar on community engagement with our client), but at a glance, every council and BID should be thinking about:

1. Creating a digital ecosystem that focuses on creating a community of town brand advocates.

2. Once this happens, treat citizens like customers and focus on creating a word of mouth economy. By asking brand ambassadors to share authentic messages, they can also provide invaluable feedback and insight that can guide decision-making.

3. Focusing on the customer journey and putting people at the centre of your efforts so that they help to create a sustainable high street.

4. Future Proof the high street by providing training to businesses and partners, to include those most impacted by COVID-19: young people, people of colour, women and SMEs: sustainability training, grant and funding opportunities, Direct to Consumer Marketing, e-commerce/social commerce, and using all of the omni channel tools and tech for good tools in your tool belt to engage and empower citizens to shop safely and share their local.

5. Utilising tech for good platforms, place making and social media engagement to build strong community bonds. 

In my experience, taking these steps is what will help our high streets recover and change behaviour. Create a community that takes ownership and shapes their high street themselves.