BRZ communications manager, Emily Chong, left, seen discussing business with local business owner, Diana Walburger, right. Photo by Erik Lukie.

While you walk down the busy city streets, you hear the leaves crunch under your feet as you pass a variety of storefronts throughout downtown.

As you open the front door of an unfamiliar store, you are greeted by smiling faces, helping create a friendly atmosphere in what may now be a new favourite store of yours. This is the experience the Downtown Business Revitalization Zone is looking to develop.

October marks Small Business Appreciation Month for businesses throughout Lethbridge. The downtown BRZ is helping bring the focus to various storefronts through social media marketing.

A large goal of the BRZ’s posts is to help bring a face to every business downtown. This is done by highlighting the people who own and operate the storefronts throughout downtown. 

Callum Campbell, a BRZ ambassador, says the efforts of the BRZ help people discover new and exciting things throughout downtown. 

“With the events we host and the posts we make on social media, we try to help people find a new business or store that they may not have noticed before and will enjoy.”  

These proactive efforts by the BRZ can be instrumental to various businesses as fall is an important and busy time for many business owners. 

With fall fads and seasonal apparel being a large selling point for many businesses this time of year, there is plenty of work to prepare for the bustling fall months. 

Andrew Galloway, an employee for the Populous Company, says that a lot of work goes into the transition between summer and fall for retail stores like Populous.

 “The store and the product go through some changes from season to season and things get busy for us come fall and winter.” Businesses in the food and retail sector see heavy foot traffic for seasonal clothes and warm drinks throughout October.

This makes each interaction another selling point for companies and creates more opportunities to connect with the community.  Campbell says the efforts of the BRZ will hopefully bring a variety of new faces to stores downtown. 

“Whether people see our posts on Instagram or our website, the goal is to help bring people downtown and into these stores.” 

The BRZ also helps bring more people into Festival Square through community events. These events take many shapes and forms such as the Downtown Night Market and various live musical events. Events such as these are important to creatives without a physical storefront to share their work with others. 

Sarah Peace, a local Lethbridge artist, says she enjoys the opportunities the Night Market has created for her to share her art.

 “Art is a hobby of mine and is very important to me, so it is nice to have a way to connect with others and show off my work.” 

As the temperatures drop during the fall months it becomes harder to host outdoor creative events. With the lack of events, the BRZ still makes an effort to highlight creatives through their social media and website. This allows patrons in the city to discover these amazing artists without being able to physically view their work. The updated information from the BRZ website is integral for citizens to stay in tune with the daily activities year-round. 

Representatives from the BRZ are hopeful for a fun and busy fall season throughout downtown, creating many lasting relationships between stores and shoppers.

Time will tell the effectiveness of the BRZ social media strategies, but many business owners say they are ready for a productive fall quarter. Businesses will still see features and support on the BRZ website after the end of October.