Some of Washington’s tourism-related efforts have won awards over the years, but that isn’t enough for the Washington Tourism Development Authority.

With the WTDA leading the effort, Washington residents and organizations are working to have Washington chosen as one of America’s Coolest Small Towns. That effort includes a billboard asking people to join that effort. The billboard is on U.S. Highway 264 between Washington and Greenville.

Lynn Wingate, the city’s tourism-development director, explained the effort to the Washington City Council during its meeting last week. Wingate told the mayor and council members she expects them to actively participate in the campaign.

Budget Travel magazine is conducting the nationwide contest, which is based on consumer input.

The contest seeks towns with populations less than 10,000 people and “a certain something that no place has: great shops, food, a unique history, a breathtaking location, peerless music scene, art galleries or maybe something cool we haven’t thought of yet,” according to the Budget Travel website.

Berlin, Md., was America’s Coolest Small Town for this year, according to the website.

Nominations will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Dec. 2. The nominees will be reviewed and narrowed to a list of 15 finalists. In January 2015, the finalists will be posted and a new round of voting begins. The Top-10 finishers will be announced in February 2015.

To vote for Washington, visit www.BudgetTravel.com and click on the banner to nominate America’s Coolest Small Town. Click on the green thumb’s-up logo next to Washington, NC.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Washington ranked second, behind Hillsborough, another North Carolina town. Huron, Ohio, was ranked third. Two weeks ago, Washington was ranked third.

A person may vote once every 24 hours, and that person may vote by smartphone, tablet and computer. A poster asking people to vote for Washington instructs them to include #littlewashingtonnc and #ACST2015 on their social-media posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“We all know and love Washington and know that it is a cool town. Now, we’re really trying to put that on the map as a part of Budget Travel magazine’s annual competition,” Wingate told the council.

“We’re just in the beginning of launching our efforts and trying to get people accustomed to voting. … The best part about this is it’s very little investment on our part. We really wouldn’t even have to invest anything if we weren’t so high up. Right now, we’re trying to invest something, so we’re spending a little bit of money. Like, we have a billboard that’s going to be going up, probably this week,” Wingate said Monday. “We have some additional marketing materials, and we’ll continue to put those out during this campaign, but we definitely don’t want to lose our spot in the top 15, so that’s the priority right now.”

Wingate said the local campaign is targeting young people, hoping they will use #littlewashingtonnc and #ACST2015 when posting photographs of Washington on social-media sites. Around the city, posters are up promoting the campaign.