From Aye Memphis: My Thoughts on Memphis Blog by Larry Jensen:
Last weekend more than 400 Teach for America Memphis area teachers gathered at the Memphis Academy in Frayser for an in-service training day. This was an impressive gathering of young people serving our city. I spoke to a breakout group of about 35 TFA members on the subject of good things in Memphis. Afterwards, two twenty-something young men came to me to express a concern: how do we get the message out about the good things in Memphis? In particular, they were sharing their frustrations trying to present the good story to their middle and high school students whose parents are apparently telling them to leave Memphis.
Suppose you are a 25-year old thinking about relocating to another city. Your first step? Go to the internet search engine and type in: ‘moving to Memphis’, or ‘moving to Nashville’, or ‘moving to Detroit.’ Or suppose you are a site selector researching for information about a good city to locate a business. So you search: ‘business relocation to Memphis, Nashville or Detroit’. Check out the results from both online searches! Please tell me who owns the Memphis online messages and, more importantly, who is driving the content of the first-stop communications to the creative class and businesses?
If you look at the economic development responses for Memphis, you will find four different organizations: Greater Memphis Chamber, EDGE, Shelby County Economic Development, and Fast Forward. If I am searching for the first time: I am confused! Who do I call? Who is in charge? Detroit’s first Google listing: ‘Young people flocking to Detroit’. If I am a site locator or a young person, what gets my attention?
Stay tuned soon: Memphis message to the creative class!
(Note from Smart City Memphis: Also, Google “moving to New Orleans” for a stark contrast to Memphis results. While it calls out for more attention to the message, it also calls out for a course in search optimization here.)
The problem with online information that I and most people have “Googled”
about Memphis (or any other city) is that it’s based on people’s individual experiences and opinions.
You can’t change opinion or negative experiences.. Truth is truth about everyone’s posted experience. No one is ganging up on Memphis to place negative comments online in a digital world. Face it, there are some real negatives about Memphis that I’ve read and experienced myself. What should people do ? LIE ? or sugarcoat their own truths and experiences ? What do you want happen ? censorship of less than flaterring comments?
No one is picking on Memphis. Memphis shot itself in the foot, and continues to do so every year, and has done so for decades. Parents want the best for their maturing kids, and telling them to look OUTside the region for personal opportunities is smart, not dumb. Mobility is great these days and there is nothing wrong with being flexible, instead of wearing blinders about Memphis. Memphis NOT the best environment for lots of kinds of pursuits. So what? Memphis is not even the best city in which to live, period. So what?
All the glossy, blowhard PR stuffed online can’t hide the glaring deficiencies so evident to resident young people and to outsiders considering a move to Memphis.
If Memphis is doing the daily and yearly work to improve “living and thought” in Memphis, the online “image” will take care of itself for godsake.
Memphis needs substance, change, accomplishment and totally fresh thinking FIRST. But that’s not going to happen any time soon, and the web image is already exceptionally negative, Comments and opinions online about Memphis remain in clear view for years upon years, and that’s what Memphis doesn’t realize about its own history : it follows you FOREVER.