Southport Magazine

We are bombarded with information today more than ever before in human history. The little phones we  carry in our pockets have become powerful computers connected to the entire world, but as wonderful as that is, the abundance of data sometimes makes it feel more difficult to connect to the news we really need, the news about our own community. The City of Southport has a solution that it hopes will keep its residents, businesses and visitors in the loop and Southport Connected.

The Southport Connected! Community Information System now allows the city to get its message out immediately and to target that message to the people who need to receive it most. From emergency alerts to weather updates to traffic and road closures to general community news, the system will use secure messaging via phone, email and/or text to notify its users of all the news they want.

Anyone interested, from Southport residents to business owners to visitors, must sign up for the service, and Southport’s Tourism and Communication Department has worked hard to make the process as easy as possible. “We looked at the people who had trouble signing up for the vaccine and learned from that. We know we have to make this easy to understand,” said Southport’s Director of Tourism and Communications Randy Jones. 

The web page www.cityofsouthport.com/southportconnected hosts a complete overview of the Southport Connected! Tool and a video explaining step-by-step how to sign up. 

Southport Connected! uses geo-targeting to allow the city to send messages just to those who need to receive them. Southport residents will be able to access the entire range of options while those who live outside the city will be able to sign up for community updates. Business owners can sign up with a business address inside the city limits to also access the entire range of communications.

“This is part of a push to get businesses engaged,” said  Asst. Director of Communications Lisa Anderson. “We needed a better way to communicate with businesses and this system will allow us to send messages just to businesses within Southport.” For example, the city can send out road closure information concerning the ongoing sewer project that target the businesses in the affected block, said Jones.

Jones said that when he spoke to business owners last year as the pandemic forced closures and the sewer project closed parts of Southport’s roadways they expressed concern with the city’s communication. “I want them to know we listened,” said Jones. 

The city’s visitors center and museum in Fort Johnston has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic and Jones said he and his staff have used the downtime to work on the city’s communications efforts. “We started the newsletter and began live-streaming meetings,” said Jones, “and this was the logical next step.”

The city used federal CARES Act funding to finance the Southport CONNECTED! System, Jones said. Brunswick County Emergency Services uses the same provider, but Southport’s system is much more full-featured. Residents already signed up for the county alert system will need to sign up for Southport’s as well, Jones said.