Behind 203local
203local was created in March of 2018 to discover, explore and support local small businesses and events in the area.
Upon creation of the account, the hashtag #203local had been used less than 500 times. As of the date of this new website launch (1/1/23), the tag has now been used almost 200K times.
Early on, we figured out that the best way to get local businesses to start using the hashtag was to “like” every picture from different accounts. We created over 20 accounts that we would spent 5-6 hours a day “liking” all posts that used the tag #203local.
While no one owns a hashtag, you can clearly see upon following the tag that it is commonly used by local businesses, social media influencers, social media professionals, and regular people to share information about businesses they have discovered in “the 203”.
We think it’s super cool that so many members of the community are utilizing this tag and have been able to discover TONS more businesses because of it!
All businesses posted on 203local must have a local tie. Locally owned, operated, etc. The only exception is if they are destinations for people that live within “the 203”!