Story Published:
Sep 16, 2008 at 5:21 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Sep 16, 2008 at 7:43 PM EDT
Facebook and MySpace are two of the largest social networking sites around. Now some Augusta leaders and business owners are tapping into those resources.
Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver is fairly new to Facebook.
"A young man, who now goes to Tuskegee signed me up two weeks ago," said Copenhaver.
Since then Mayor Copenhaver has met 140 friends on Facebook. And he's using the page to grow Augusta.
"That's one of the things I'm doing is looking at these pages and reaching out to them and asking them 'how do you want to see Augusta grow? What type of projects do you want to see come forward,'" said Copenhaver.
Open Facebook and you'll find lots of opportunities to voice your opinions on Augusta. One page called "Support Downtown Augusta", lets you give your opinion on putting a new baseball stadium in downtown.
While some are selling Augusta development, others are selling cars.
"I read an article in an automotive journal six months ago. It said if you're interested in selling cars on the Internet get a Facebook or MySpace account," said Angela Hillesland, Public Relations Manager for Jim Hudson Lexus.
"In August we had a sale and posted an add on the page about the sale and it was one of our best months. Is there a relationship? I'm not sure, but we're staying in touch with our people," said Hillesland.
Downtown stores, Blue Magnolia, and Vintage 965 both have Facebook pages. We also found some local elected officials, like Augusta Commissioner Corey Johnson, on MySpace.
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