Meet Lilly Franklin: Big Rapids new PR/Communications coordinator
Hopes to increase public awareness and engagement
Cathie Crew, Staff writer
Lilly Franklin is the new Public Relations/Communications coordinator for the city of Big Rapids. Her goals include increased public awareness and engagement.
Pioneer photo/Cathie Crew
BIG RAPIDS — The Big Rapids city commission welcomed Lilly Franklin as the new Public Relations/Communications director for the city during a recent meeting.
The PR/Communications position is a newly created position recommended by the Economic Development Strategy guide introduced by former Community Development Department fellow Jesse Black, who worked with city staff on adoption of the economic development strategy.
Franklin told the Pioneer she applied for the position because she has lived in the community as a student at Ferris State University for four years and loves the community.
"From the standpoint of a student, and now from the standpoint as a professional adult, I see a lot of potential for the city and I am excited to see where it goes," Franklin said. "I am very excited to share my perspectives as a young person, and also to observe and learn other perspectives too."
As the PR/Communications director, Franklin will be responsible for managing information and getting it out to the community.
"My most important role is getting information out to the community as it impacts them," she said, "I feel I am the liaison between the city and the community. When there is information that needs to get out, I will make that happen."
Franklin said when it came to communication, her first thought was social media, but after attending several meetings she realized that there would need to be much more to it than just social media.
"I quickly realized that we would need to use everything, including the radio and newspaper," she said. "The city newsletter is digital, so I am taking steps to make a print version available in the lobby. We will be utilizing the water bill to redirect people to other sources of information."
The first thing Franklin tackled was the city's Facebook page. When looking at it, she said she noticed that postings were very sparce and the information was very "flat" – the minimum one needed to know.
"When approaching an audience and growing that audience and keeping them engaged, you need to post regularly and make sure you have a 'voice' for your company," she said. "The city tries to have a voice that caters to the community, so I decided to make sure I was getting the reach and engagement to make sure when I get the information out people are engaging."
Franklin added she is starting to keep track of the numbers of followers and users by the month so she can use that information to set goals for increasing engagement.
"My goal is to have 40% engagement on each social media post that has alerts on it. That way I know people are getting the information," she said. "If I see that nobody really knew about something, then I need to see what I can do to make sure they do know about it. I will be looking for feedback on how people are engaging on social media posts."
Franklin said she plans to attend city commission, planning commission and other committee meetings to keep up with ongoing information that may be important to share with the community and learn about the different projects so that she can convey the information to the community in a more understandable way.
"With the RRC, for example, the community didn't really understand what was going on — the why's of the project and what was involved," she said. "I had those same questions, so I am trying to keep aware of what I am thinking before I learn about (something) so I can say, 'I understand now, but what did I want to understand most?' That way, when I share it with everybody, the information is more to the point.
"I see a lot of opportunity to shore up, strengthen and polish up the city's communications," she added. "I will be developing vision, mission and policy statements that we can use to guide our decision making. I will be working closely with Mr. Gifford (city manager) and Tammy Gillis (city clerk), hammering away at getting the word out to the community."
Franklin is a graduate of Ferris State University. She has a degree in marketing and communications. Prior to coming to work for the city of Big Rapids, she held several related positions.
"I worked for the Cadillac Area Visitors Bureau for roughly a year during the COVID stuff," she said. "I met Connie Koepke from the Mecosta County Visitors Bureau. It was interesting to see how Big Rapids was doing things compared to Cadillac."
From there, she went to TrueNorth Community Services in Fremont where she worked with a team of three handling communications for 80 plus programs.
At FSU, she spent time as a resident assistant, an assistant with the Human Resources staff development team, an intern with FSU News Services director Sandy Gholston and a student manager at the Rock Café.
In her spare time, she enjoys cooking and crochet, but spends most of her free time relaxing and playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons with friends.
"It is nice to be able to put a professional face on for the job, and then when I go home, I can just be nerdy and have fun," she said.
That includes spending time with her best friend, her 5 year old cat, Smoreo.
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Cathie Crew
Cathie Crew has a bachelor's degree in English with teacher certification. She taught ELA for 15 years. She grew up around this area, and recently returned to Big Rapids after having lived in Texas for many years. Her favorite pastimes are traveling and spending time with her two adult children.