Imagine you’re new to the relatively rural Ironwood area (specifically, Gogebic County, Michigan or Iron County, Wisconsin), feeling a little cabin fever and seeking a fun weekend activity. In the absence of an everyday newspaper, how do you easily find the best options?
Enter
FeLiveLife, a free online community calendar rejuvenated by the Ironwood Chamber of Commerce over the past few years as a way to promote area events to tourists, current residents and would-be residents.
Web metrics show it’s growing in popularity as a way of drawing together people from the two-county area for entertaining, educational and/or practical purposes. Some might even call it critical to local social interaction in the region of some 20,500 spread-out souls.
Working hard toward that end is Website Manager Kris Darrow, who handles the outreach, research, writing and editing needed (as well as ad sales and design) to keep the site solvent and the calendar consistently full. And that’s paying off in both positive feedback and boosted site usage (nice hikes in first impressions, web clicks, posted events and other key statistics over the past two years).
“What I really like to see is that, even in a shoulder season like we have right now, our following is still steadily increasing,” Darrow reports. “We also have a weekly events newsletter for subscribers, and that has an 85 percent open rate --- so those who get it actually want it and read it.”
Ironwood Chamber Director Michael Meyer calls the calendar “an essential source.”
“COVID got rid of our daily newspaper, and we’re also far from any large media market out here in the middle of nowhere,” he says. “Before, everybody ran on Facebook and its individual groups. Now we’re a one-stop shop by the day, month or hour to find out what’s going on.”
Not just for locals anymore
Coined to combine the chemical symbol for iron with the simple goal “live life,” FeLiveLife has also become a valuable resource for real estate agents, employers, investors and others with vested interests in the region’s livability, according to Meyer.
“The overall goal, of course, is to get people to move here,” he says. “Gogebic County is one of only two in the U.P. with small population increases in the last two years; however, we’re looking at long-term trends, and many of us are old. We especially need young people capable of making (more) Yoopers and Yooper-ettes to sustain this part of the north moving forward. Young people … might think ‘I don’t want to go there, there’s nothing but snow,’ but there’s a lot going on here.’”
Darrow says FeLiveLife seems especially helpful to tourists with vacation homes in the region, including a family she recently met from the Twin Cities.
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Ironwood Chamber of CommerceThe calendar has reminded residents of how large the art community is and events like the Range Art Tour.
“They told me ‘Every year we come up for a visit, we check the calendar to see what else is going on besides us just sitting around.’ Locals know where to look (for events) on Facebook pages, but others don’t, so the calendar is incredibly helpful for that.”
The busiest season for calendar events? Mid-June to mid-August, with July almost always generating the most posts. Meyer points to the most popular summer events as those involving trails, festivals and/or recreation, while popular winter events tend to feature skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and music/theater.
“This time of year, people cannot get enough craft shows, and they love anything for kids – especially anything free for kids,” Darrow adds.
Behind-the-scenes, calendar takes work
Initiated by the University of Wisconsin Extension Office 15 years ago, FeLiveLIfe at first just listed area recreational resources. Eight years ago, it was converted to a calendar that allowed local organizations to post events and links to their organizations.
The chamber hired Darrow three years ago to reintroduce it to a post-COVID public, to forge stronger business and organization partnerships and to improve its usage and profitability. Her job now involves networking; managing cross-marketing programs; scouring the internet and other sources for events; confirming and writing info; designing ads for the site; and maintaining its Facebook and Instagram presences. Meyer calls her “the guardian angel of making sure all things work.”
That doesn’t mean her role is always easy.
Not every organization recognizes the value of the free PR the calendar provides, and many don’t self-post; in fact, Darrow initiates about 80 percent of the posts herself. Others post too late to create awareness, in which case she sometimes promotes them on Facebook or Instagram.
“Many don’t think about posting, they assume everybody knows their events are going to happen,” she confirms. “But FeLiveLife link is now on many area chamber, travel and business web pages, and we’re constantly looking at ways we can expand people’s awareness.”
Current examples of cross marketing: calendar QR codes on theater screens, playbills and golf score cards and in newspapers.
Another challenge can be filtering out posts that benefit for-profit businesses without offering anything free to the public – as well as events that fall outside the two-county area. Gray areas include eateries that offer live music without cover charges, and events that take place on the portion of Lake Gogebic outside of county lines.
“We really do try to stick to our rules, because the chamber’s being supported by the businesses and organizations in Gogebic and Iron counties,” Meyer notes.
In general, ads taken out on FeLiveLIfe generate enough to pay for Darrow’s salary as well as the necessary tech support expenses and licenses. And Meyer says having an established, well-maintained regional calendar for the public is well worth the work it involves. Otherwise, he notes, key happenings can easily be overlooked – or might inadvertently be planned to overlap with other key events.
“To locals living here, having a single go-to website (not Facebook) listing present and future events is very important,” he confirms. “Anecdotal evidence indicates many out-of-the-area folks are following FeLiveLIfe and use its listings to plan trips, consider relocation and link directly to area organizations. As the calendar grows, the number and breadth of events displayed indicates a vibrant rural socio-economic landscape, and thus provides an attractive ‘pull’ to people who might be considering moving to this area.”
Originally from Kalamazoo, freelance writer Michelle Miron now lives in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where her side hustle is selling vintage clothing.