The Elizabethton/Carter County Chamber of Commerce soon will launch a new website that will showcase better what Carter County has to offer.
The Chamber had been working over the past few months to get a new website online, Chamber Director Tonya Stevens said. The Chamber expects it to go live Feb. 1.
“We just haven’t been where we wanted to be, with technology and with how members and visitors can interact with us,” Stevens said.
The Chamber is working with Chambermaster, a nationwide website development company that focuses on the needs of Chambers of Commerce.
“We did want to stay with a local company, and we did try that, but we do think that by going with this company we can have a much better experience and get where we want to be with our website,” Stevens said.
Stevens said the new website would be more locally specific and would offer a fresher, more streamlined look for visitors to the page. Also, the Chamber will be able to manage content on their own, which is something they have not been able to do with the current site.
“There will be more we can do here at the Chamber,” she said. “If we have something that needs to go up, we can do it right away.”
Among the changes to the site:
– The new site will include a calendar of events to share more about what is happening in the county.
– The Chamber will be able to personalize the site, changing the background image can be changed to highlight seasons or community events.
– The new site will be reactive, which means it can sense what type of device visitors are using to view it — computer, smart phone or tablet — and adapt accordingly.
Chamber members will benefit more from the site, Stevens said. They will be able to log in and update information about their businesses or services. Once the changes are made, the database of members on the site will be updated automatically.
Members also will have the option to place an advertisements on the new site’s main page. The paid ad will be an active link that will take visitors to the member’s website.
The Chamber hopes to have the website set up soon to accept membership dues from members online for added convenience for members, Stevens said.
“We want our site to reflect the community we live in,” she said. “We want our site to show what we are about; promoting the people and the community we live in. Hopefully our website will offer an enticing peek and they will want to come and see what we have.”