Main Street communities use all sorts of strategies to spread the word about their downtowns. Videos require more financial resource and expertise than some other strategies, but when done well, they are great public relations tools.

Many communities provide a professional tour of their downtown to showcase recent improvements and exciting new initiatives. In the Main Street community of Macon, Georgia, the College Hill Alliance has a series of videos including a narrated tour of the corridor that describes the community’s vision for the corridor and the exciting accomplishments to date. Downtown residents describe why they love living in the historic commercial district on Live Downtown Macon’s website.

Abingdon and Marion showcase their downtowns in videos that were developed as part of a regional economic development initiative in Southwest Virginia. Downtown Winchester developed a handsome video to welcome visitors and locals to its newly-renovated pedestrian mall and Main Street district.

Believe in Bristol created a fundraising video to reach out to donors. Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance uses videos to celebrate the Main Street district’s arts scene and advertise upcoming events.

Some of the best videos are the ones that not only showcase the downtown, but also show how fun it is to part of the community. You cannot but feel “happy” when you watch these videos from Lynchburg and Fredericksburg.

If your Main Street does not have a video, and you are tired of launching into a lecture to explain why Main Street revitalization and people’s support of the district is important and wish for a light-hearted, but still poignant way to explain that local businesses are the building blocks of the many things we love about Main Street, consider uploading this video from the National Main Street to your Main Street website.

Thanks to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, a national version of this video created for Michigan Main Streets has been adapted for use by communities everywhere to spread the word about supporting Main Street and its businesses.