NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas -- Two New Braunfels women have made it their mission to make Facebook a more positive place, by creating a group to share good news.

Great Job, New Braunfels” is a Facebook group gaining traction as a place to post positive messages and stories about local businesses. Melanie Esqueda and Kaitlin Silvio started the group more than a year ago, but it's skyrocketed in members in the last couple of months.

"[Kaitlin] and I kind of both have the same heart for supporting other people and spreading good news about everything, so we kind of came up with this little page," Esqueda said.

"It's taken off!" Silvio said.

The group's posts range from things like someone wanting to share photos of a great meal, to a person who got good customer service and wants to recommend a business to others.​

"It's just kind of reminder that the the small business owners are human, you know, and they deserve the shout outs and they deserve the positive reviews from our community," Silvio said. "With the growth in New Braunfels, it just kind of brings us back to why New Braunfels is New Braunfels. That small town feel, the local shout outs, all of that.​"

 

 

The pair started the group largely due to the fact that their Facebook feeds became a breeding ground for negativity.

"Every time I open up my Facebook feed, I see vents," Esqueda said. "'I need to vent, I had this terrible experience,' or something dramatic, somebody had a bad experience somewhere. They don't go and just try to contact the owner of the business, they actually shout it out on social media, and I've seen businesses really suffer from that.​"

Esqueda knew it was time to give her Facebook feed a "breath of fresh air."

"I felt like, well, geez, we got to support these local businesses that are doing such a great job. You know, if we tell everybody that we know what a great job they're doing then guess what, more people are going to go to them," Esqueda said.

Even Silvio's business, Road Dogs NB, gets some positivity in the group every so often with people posting about their favorite new hot dog food truck.

"It still makes us do a happy dance whenever we get positive reviews, especially those shout outs on the page," Silvio said. "We have new customers coming in, just because of the shout outs, so it works. It helps and it's great to get the word out."

People have even started posting random acts of kindness they've experienced.

"We had somebody post that they lost their ID, and it was found in front of Buccee's by a local business owner, and they mailed it to that person," Silvio said. "Just humans being humans. It's nice to see."

The pair are approving new members to the group every day and hope to continue to see Great Job New Braunfels continue to grow even bigger. To join, click here