MTN reporters are joining a growing social media platform, Nextdoor, which keeps neighbors informed on local issues, businesses and events.
"We've seen a lot of great success with local reporters being able to connect directly with neighbors on Nextdoor and use Nextdoor as a platform to share their work, build audience, and actually find and vet story ideas and sources directly from the Nextdoor community," said Isaac Teich, Nextdoor product partnerships manager.
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Teich said the platform serves more than 105 million verified neighbors across 11 countries.
"This is a tool for organizing meetups, community events, and internet based or interest-based groups so that your online connections can actually turn into offline connections," Teich said.
The platform saw high activity during Friday’s heavy snowfall, prompting brothers Luis and Santiago Maya to promote their snow removal services.
Luis and Santiago Maya own a landscaping business in Billings but rely on snow removal for business in the winter.
"We've been kind of hoping for a little bit more snow, but we've got about four things of snow this entire winter, so it's been pretty slow," Luis Maya said.
Despite the slow season, the brothers said business picks up quickly when snow does fall.
"When it does snow, there's quite a bit of people that reach out for us to help them," Santiago Maya said.
The brothers use Facebook to connect with most of their customers but have been incorporating Nextdoor to reach more people.
"They just reach out to us. We head out to their house and just give them a free quote," Luis Maya said.
Find Q2 News on Nextdoor here.
Billings reporters joining Nextdoor include Vanessa Willardson, Isabel Spartz, Andrea Lutz and Hannah Pedeferri.
