The Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce recently announced a new website design which offers Mahomet businesses and community members new freedoms to interact.
When Theresa Berry joined the Chamber of Commerce staff in 2008, the board decided it was time to look into changing the website content and designed. Alongside Lyn Ferdinand of the Mahomet Insurance Centre, the duo collected content, page designs and tabs.
But updating the web content not only proved to take time, it also became costly. Ferdinand found LiveEdit through ChamberMaster, which affords the Chamber financial freedom through set monthly billing, instant access to update content, space for more information and approachability for businesses so they can share information with the community.
“It will be really nice for the Sangamon River Music Festival,” Berry said. “Every time we get a sponsor or something changes, we can just add it to the events. Before I saved up the changes because of the cost.”
After organizing all the content, Ferdinand and Berry were able to adjust a prefabricated template that fit their informational and visual needs.
“I think it just gives us greater control to keep it fresh and current,” said board member Liz Roseman. “To me it’s very appealing to the eye. It’s something that you want to dig in further when you get into it.”
With the new design, the business directory, event calendar, and community news are just a click away.
Chamber members also have the freedom to post advertisements, job postings or classified ads to rent their business place or sell a car. The Chamber board also encourages members to post “hot deals,” or coupons or discounts that can be used after visiting the Chamber site.
“Any way shape or form that we can get people to go into the chamber of commerce site, will be a way for more businesses to be seen,” Ferdinand said. “With the business directory and all the ads floating around on the site helps our visitors see businesses and that’s what they are wanting. They want to be able to stay home locally and shop locally.”
New Chamber members are recognized on a front page scroll on the homepage. The Business directory stores all the business and contact information for chamber members.
Since launching the new site at the end of May, the website has already had approximately 900 hits.
Ferdinand plans on inviting chamber members to a training session in the fall to educate them on the benefits and changes made to the website.
