Phil Johnson.
“Print has its limitations,” commented Phil Johnson; phone book publisher in a recent interview.
“There have been years where telephone directories revenue and page count have fallen a devastating twenty to even thirty plus percent in large metropolitan markets.” Phil is a second-generation directory guy. His father, Ken Johnson was a leader in the industry; according to Phil; now 60. He and his wife, Karen, spent their lives crisscrossing the country working in the business.
Phil publishes several rural phone books in the area; but saw the handwriting on the wall relative to printed media. “I have been fortunate because the shift from print to online media has been much slower in rural markets; maybe a point or two a year.” “I had the dream years ago to take everything online.” He said; “I understand the need of such publications being in print in small rural areas; where Internet connections can be spotty; but I wanted to marry print and online media; to allow customers to connect and find what they are looking for in whatever way is familiar or easier for them.”
Years of note taking and seven years of planning; a year and a half of site building later; his online ‘community’ quietly launched earlier this year. The site It’s All About Town: is already gaining traction, with thousands of hits since it’s appearance in late May of this year. The new website; exists under his parent company, Showcase America. “I know the name sounds high falutin’; but so far we are just a small operation.” A small operation – with big dreams of spreading into other markets.
“I would encourage people to set It’s All About Town as their home page.”
“There are lots of online niche markets, in larger cities like Tulsa. My chief developer, Brian McCullough, founded and built http://tulsafood.com/ and countless others you would recognize. This website; It’s All About Town, covers all of Pittsburg and McIntosh Counties, is the first market to be launched. Phil hopes it will be a valuable interactive link to showcase local businesses, community groups, attractions and events all over the greater Lake Eufaula area.”
“The idea did occur to me years ago; but at that time; the tools just weren’t there, or if they were, they were deadly, deadly expensive. You had to write the code for everything. To put up such a website ten years ago would have cost, what, a hundred thousand dollars or so? I still have invested a lot of money in this, even with all the tools.”
“The site already covers 2,480 local businesses; over five thousand pages of information, and countless links. The thing I liked about printed directories is that they are ubiquitous; they are in every home and business – and the thing I still like about directories is that they don’t blast out advertising like other media; where on TV for instance you might get five minutes of advertising and then eight minutes of scheduled programming before the next advertising barrage. It seems like everywhere you go, you get hit with advertising; it’s everywhere!”
“Directories are something you invite in. It sets quietly wherever you put it, and waits for you to pick it up when you are looking for something.”
“On my website; I have published a number of graphs about how people are using the Internet; what’s trending up and down. Ratings and reviews top the list in helping people decide who gets their business – and it’s even more powerful when that good word comes from a neighbor. Anyone who owns a business or works in advertising will tell you that positive reviews and ratings equal sales. New research shows six or seven positive reviews will work, and fewer if they are recent and credible. I have built reviews and ratings into my website. Local people can go in and rate local businesses.”
Just now, the site requires a user to sign up; user name and email address; in order to rate or review, but Phil is seriously considering changing that. He would be moderating postings and reviews, to weed out malicious content.
Phil’s Photoshoped image.
Phil commented about this picture on his site; “No, this is not my office. Do you recognize this building? It’s that old gas station on South Main Street in McAlester. I just went into Adobe Photoshop and added my sign (Notice the sign post is a telephone pole). “I have always loved that building. It is so cool, and such a fine piece of Americana.”
He and his wife Karen run their operations out of their farm located between Okemah and Bristow, where he is active in the community. “On my front page I do run articles and news of local interest, which will soon include full texts of McAlester Matters articles, along with a link to the website.”
Phil is also involved with the Bristow Chamber of Commerce, and is currently the president of the organization. “The city only has about 6,800 residents, with several feeder communities that come and shop and so forth. Anyway, Bristow has a really cool old railroad depot. The Eastern Flier is a railroad company based in Colorado, and recently did some inaugural passenger train service there this past year. They, and other specialty railroads, do this Polar Express Train Ride in various cities around the United States and at least one in England that I know about around Christmas. A couple of weeks ago it became official that Bristow would be hosting the Polar Express this year. It’s a big thing; Warner Brothers Studios is even involved.”
From the Polar Express website.
“I posted this article on Sunday afternoon and noted it on It’s All About Town and my Facebook site. Roughly thirty hours later I checked my stats, and the site already had over 22,000 hits. Thirteen hundred people had read that story, and then gone on and explored more of my site. I noticed on Facebook this morning that there were 165 shares of that Facebook link to my site with thousands of people clicking on the Polar Express website to look at pictures and buy tickets.”
“As you know, those are numbers you don’t usually see.” Phil built his site to also enable clubs or community groups to have their own presence there, and link to other community websites from around the area. “There isn’t a day or a week that goes by that I don’t learn about another group or website that I want to link to It’s All About Town. I already include obituaries and other life transitions on my site; because that’s what many people are interested in; but I built this site to be a reflection of, and resource for the communities I serve.”
“I invite churches, youth organizations, and schools to post their activities and events on the site.” Plans are already being made to upgrade It’s All About Town to a newer version; itsallabouttown.com version 2.0, which should be making it’s debut this December or January, according to Phil.
“I want my site to connect the local communities together in ways that matter. I have zero interest in covering traffic accidents or arrests. I will leave it for others to cover that.”
WEBSITE LINK: http://www.itsallabouttown.com/
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