How To Submit Your Announcements to Birmingham Patch

As the editor of Birmingham Patch, I really like our announcements section. Unfortunately, I feel like it's underused, and I want to change that. To do that, however, I need your help.

What are announcements?

On Patch, announcements are opportunities for you and me to spread the news about what’s important in our community. We try to cover as much of Birmingham as we can in our stories, but for the things we can’t, announcements are where it’s at.

What kinds of stories are perfect for announcements?

That’s easy:

• Celebrate life events the right way by letting everyone know first and fast. Are you recently engaged? Why be buried on Page 23 in your local newspaper? Submit an announcement to Birmingham Patch, and we can feature you on our home page! The same goes for when you have a baby, get married or experience the loss of a loved one. Plus, rather than breaking out the scissors and clipping out your one-inch newspaper brief, using Birmingham Patch to share your good news is as easy as sending an e-mail.
• Our children do some amazing things. They’re named and . We try to keep tabs on all the amazing young people in Birmingham — especially through our — but if you're itching to share your child’s accomplishments, Birmingham Patch is the perfect way to do so. But it’s not just our children who are accomplished; when a Birmingham business or when at her law firm, Birmingham Patch announcements can document those achievements.
• Do you need volunteers? Birmingham Patch is dedicated to helping others and promoting volunteering in our community. So if you need help at an event, post it on Patch! We’ll help you find the people you need.
• The biggest way our readers can use the announcements section, however, is by sharing important information with the rest of the community. Before you take Fido out to play, check our announcements to see whether the . Have something to say about how city parks are run? In our announcements, learn that the . Birmingham Patch also posts the agenda for every major meeting before it happens, so if you’re curious about tonight’s City Commission meeting, stop on by to look over what city leaders will be discussing.

How does one submit an announcement?

That’s easy, too. From the Birmingham Patch home page, look for the announcements section under the News tab. Click the button “Announce it to everyone!” in the upper right corner, and from there, you may enter a title, give it a category, write a description, upload a photo or video and enter a location. When you click “Post My Announcement,” it’s on the site and available for anyone with an Internet connection to find.

And so, I hope to see you around the announcements page more often these days. Whenever a story isn’t possible, I make an effort to post as many announcements as I can, and I hope you’ll stop by to see what your neighbors are doing.

Truly, it's sections such as our announcements that lend Birmingham Patch the feeling of a community gathering place. If anything, think of our announcements page like you would the bulletin board at your local coffee shop—a friendly, very local place to share information with your neighbors. We’ll work on providing the electronic coffee, but we hope you’ll come back every day just the same.