Chamber Launches New Website With Features for Businesses and Residents

The Internet has obviously changed the way we do business, even on the local level with things like Facebook pages and review websites rising to prominence. That's led businesses to revamp websites and utilize social media more often.

The is looking to do that to help its member businesses, as well as the community, with a new website that launched Thursday. At a chamber luncheon in April, CEO Deb Hypke and Dan Stefanich of the Gammon Group, which built the site, spoke to member businesses about the new tools at their disposal.

"This is going to breath some new life into membership businesses and give you a new arsenal to add to your marketing and communication efforts," Stefanich said.

The current chamber website is getting a complete facelift that will largely feature the latest business news and also link more prominently to the chamber's Facebook page, which regularly updates with news and photos.

In addition, there will be a much more dynamic and functional events calendar that separately lists community events and those just for member businesses. The "Hot Deals" feature from the current website will also become a bigger part of the new site and offer weekly discounts to local businesses. That's an important aspect of the chamber this year, which is seeking to implement a "shop local" campaign that could involve a discounted gift card to local businesses.

Besides more community events and discounts for residents, one of the largest additions to the site will be a tab for community resources. This will aggregate a number of resources and information from various places in the village to provide a guide of sorts to residents or others looking for certain information, such as village history or business development information. There will be job openings listed and links to other relevant information.

“We borrowed from a number of resources," Hypke said. "This site has grown beyond just the business community.”

But the message at the luncheon to the business community is that the chamber will be taking a more proactive approach to online marketing and outreach for its businesses. But Stefanich also encouraged those businesses to see what more they can do online to market themselves.

“It might be a time for you as business owners to look at your own website," he said. "It used to be that people would first encounter you face-to-face, and now it’s a lot more often that people are forming their impression of your business online.”