Traverse City Social invades Northwest Michigan

Move over Facebook, there's a new social media site in town.

Traverse City Social, sister site to Marquette Social, was launched last week by Jason Edward White, an Internet entrepreneur who left the Detroit area in 1996 for the sanctuary of Michigan's Upper Peninsula where he has cultivated skills in web application development, network security, and fly fishing. His domain portfolio includes MichiganSocial.com, UpperPeninsulaNews.com, MarquetteSocial.com, MackinacSocial.com, MarquetteGreenLiving.org and JWSFCMS.com.

The Traverse City site, White says, came about as a response to the reception his first site, Marquette Social, has received since this spring.

"My first site, Marquette Social, has been very well received by Marquette County," says White. "I feel that these sites are a valuable contribution to Michigan's local economies and communities. Regional social networks are a great way to provide a family friendly environment while enabling small businesses to connect with a very specific target market."

But it's also about more than just having a website on which a business or person has a profile. For White, it's about doing his best to lend a helping hand.

"It is my firm belief that by enabling small focus areas of Michigan to demonstrate their uniqueness through imagery, written communication and interpersonal relationships that I am contributing, in some small way, to Michigan's economic recovery," he says. "I have lived and traveled around Michigan my entire life and feel very strongly about what it has to offer. We have an amazingly diverse and beautiful state, and there is no better way to demonstrate that today than through social media."

Traverse City Social is free to sign up with and is fully interactive with Facebook and Twitter and more, allowing users to post a single status that updates all of their social media sites. Yet, Traverse City Social allows users to stay focused on the local scene.

"Have you ever tried to list everything happening in or around your community from Facebook? How about a nice way to find all the local businesses?" asks White. "Personally, I know that there are a lot of missing pieces from my Facebook and Twitter networks, and a large part of that is due to the difficulty in narrowing my search down to smaller areas."

Traverse City Social also allows photograph sharing, blog feeds, store fronts, games that don't bother others with updates and even the occasional live event and parties that members are invited to.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Jason Edward White, Traverse City Social