Creating Community Spirit with Outdoor Notice Boards

Create a Great Sense of Community Spirit with Outdoor Notice Boards

Have you ever gone out of your way to have a look at an outdoor notice board situated at a village green, local church, or in front of a post office? If you are like most people, the answer is a resounding yes! Outdoor notice boards grab our attention and pique our interest, and it is common for people to go out of their way to approach them, and then stop to peruse what is posted.

While social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have overtaken many traditional forms of communication, they still can’t compete with external notice boards placed in a community. Outdoor notice boards feature news and messages that apply to locals, letting them know about upcoming events and other important news.

When your business invests in an outdoor notice board, you are sending a clear message that you care to your local community. Why not get involved?

Outdoor Notice Boards Quickly Become a Community Hub

In addition to being a beacon of information, don’t be surprised if your outdoor notice board becomes a meeting place! People walking past tend to stop and have a look at what is on the board, and this becomes an ideal place to mix and mingle with one’s neighbours.

Greeting one another, saying hello to dogs and babies, allowing children to play on nearby playground equipment – this is a great place for people to get to know one another. Strangers don’t stay strangers for long when they are gathering around a notice board, reading about upcoming events, and then meeting again at those gatherings!

Outdoor Notice Boards Help Newcomers Get Involved in the Community

When a newcomer moves into the local area, they can be at a loss for how to integrate into their new community. Reading about gatherings, sport events, clubs, classes, village fetes, and other upcoming events on their village notice board is a brilliant way to get a real feel for the area.

While they are reading about their new home, they are also likely to run into their new neighbours who are also popping by the notice board. Once again, the local outdoor notice board becomes a place for meeting new people and getting involved.

Where is the Best Location for an Outdoor Notice Board?

There are plenty of places in your local community where you can erect an outdoor notice board. Your own local area will have its own ‘hotspots’ where people tend to pass by and cluster around on a regular basis. This area will likely spring immediately to mind, but make sure that you ask around and consult with your neighbours to ensure that you have the right spot in mind.
These locations can include:

• Village Halls
• Churches
• Community Centres
• Parish Councils
• Bowls Clubs
• Tennis Clubs
• Scouts, Cubs, and Girl Guides Centres
• Village Greens
• Popular local pubs and businesses
• Outside of Schools
• Post Offices
• Sport complexes
• Parks and gardens
• Heritage and historic attractions
• Museums

What Kinds of Things can you Post on an Outdoor Notice Board?

The sky is really the limit when it comes to what you can post on an outdoor notice board. Different communities have different needs and characteristics, so you will need to think about what makes your own local area unique and interesting.

The best thing about an outdoor notice board is that people will soon start to submit all of their useful, interesting – and at times, weird and wonderful – notices. The snowball effect will occur, and you can rely on your neighbours to fill your notice board will all kinds of content. This can include:

• For sale by owner adverts
• Local sport, exercise and language classes
• Upcoming community events
• Village fetes
• School events and parties
• Promotions and sales at local restaurants and businesses
• Lost pet posters
• Sporting events in the community
• Car boots and community jumble sales
• Offers for services provided, like pet sitting, garden work, and baby sitting

Read more: What is a reasonable budget for an outdoor notice board?

Should Private Businesses Erect Outdoor Notice Boards?

Up until now, we have been focusing on the benefits of external notice boards placed in public areas, such as village greens, schools, and community centres. But can a private business also benefit from an outdoor notice board?

The answer is yes! Many pubs, small businesses, cafes, and shops choose to erect an outdoor notice board outside of their premises. Not only does this show that they value their local neighbours, it shows that they are keen on becoming a positive force in the community that is eager to ‘give back.’
Well-maintained notice boards give a professional and polished look to any premises, and provide a highly visible place to advertise to potential clients.

Outdoor Notice Board Tips for Businesses

If your business plans to ‘host’ a community notice board, here are a few top tips to help you gain the most benefit:

• Keep things neat and tidy by ensuring that things never get tatty. A notice board full of torn and dated posters will turn people off, and send them running in the opposite direction.


• Remove old and out of date notices so that the board always stays useful, up to date and relevant. Nothing is worse than a notice board full of irrelevant old notices!


• You can use this opportunity to advertise your business, but make sure that you don’t go overboard. People will see right through your ploy if it feels like you have only erected the notice board to serve yourself.


• Approve and display a whole array of different notices that include and benefit many different people in your community, including restaurant deals, details about classes (think yoga, languages and karate), upcoming fetes and fairs, charity events, and other useful community resources.


• Get in touch with your neighbours, and let them know that you welcome their posters, adverts, and notices. Encouraging people to contribute might be more necessary at the beginning, but once people start to use the notice board, the contributions will start pouring in.

Make Sure that the Community Can Get in Touch With You

One of the most important tips for setting up an outdoor community notice board is making sure that local people can actually get in touch with you! If people can’t access you in order to submit new posters and notices, your board will soon go the way of the dinosaur.

Remember, people will only stop by on the regular if you are updating the postings. If you are too busy to take this side of the job, it might be worth giving the whole idea a miss, or delegating the task to an eager community member.

Consider Setting Up a Parallel Social Media Page

While everyone in your community can benefit from and use an outdoor notice board, some of your younger residents might prefer a social media group. Many people of all ages use social media more than ever before, and rather than seeing this at odds with an outdoor message board, they can really complement each other.

Consider setting up a social media group or community at the same time that you erect your external notice board. You can advertise the existence of your notice board on the online forum, and vice versa. Neighbours will start to add one another, and soon you will have a robust and useful online community that can add value and interest to your notice board.

Interested in Purchasing an Outdoor Notice Board?

If you are interested in purchasing an outdoor notice board, there are many options for you to consider. There are models that can be mounted on the wall, as well as freestanding outdoor models that can be placed in a variety of locations.

Wondering about the best options for your community? Get in touch with our expert team at Red 17. We have years of experience working with outdoor notice boards, and can provide advice and suggestions that will help you choose the right model for your needs.
Call or email us today and we will get to work.

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