As the summer ends and the 2023 NLEA/DTE Energy Foundation Interns move on, the Choose the North campaign will continue. The intern project was created with the goal of attracting and retaining young talent in our region. To achieve this, the interns created a secondary brand that highlights living, working, and playing in Northern Michigan. This summer, we have conducted twenty-six interviews with local professionals which serve as the basis for a key component of the campaign. The edited interviews are posted to YouTube and highlight not only their career path, but also their favorite pastimes and why they chose to live here.
Across our four different social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube), we were able to reach over 41,000 people since we started our project in mid-June. Reaching so many accounts has given us the opportunity to promote Northern Michigan’s lifestyle and professional opportunities to people across the country. Approximately twenty-five percent of our TikTok views have come from downstate population centers, such as Detroit and Grand Rapids, while approximately forty percent of views were from out-of-state locations, such as Denver, Minneapolis, and Columbus. Reaching a national audience is significant, because it exposes more people to the personal professional opportunities our region offers. A major reason we were able to grow our reach so quickly was our collaborations with local businesses. When Choose the North content was posted featuring owners or employees of a local business, many businesses shared the content through their channels which helped both us and the business reach new audiences. Looking forward, we plan to launch an ad campaign targeting areas with a large demographic of young professionals. This ad campaign will highlight the professional opportunities available in Northern Michigan and plant a seed in the minds of the viewers that they can live and thrive in our region.
While the intern team may be finishing their time with the NLEA, the Choose the North talent attraction and retention campaign will continue. One intern team member, Lila Bolden, will continue working on the project part-time while at college. This will allow the campaign to continue to grow and reach an even wider audience. This summer, we created an extensive library of interviews that are prepared to be posted every Friday for the rest of 2023. Our followers will learn more about the unique businesses, exciting professions, and alluring natural environments that our region has to offer. Next summer, another group of interns will take the baton and carry the campaign even further. Talent attraction does not happen overnight. We may not see needed workers moving here tomorrow, but we are building a narrative that demonstrates the unparalleled quality of life Northern Lower Michigan has to offer.
To support the campaign and learn more about Northern Lower Michigan, be sure to follow Choose the North at:
