Chamber of Commerce Goes Social

With the rise of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, the introduced a new community information website on Wednesday to help drive traffic and provide more visibility for local businesses, according to chamber President and CEO Warren Zimmerman.

Zimmerman said he recently recruited Gig Harbor's Alan Jones of Access IPD to build the website, which will be an extension of its current chamber site.

With social media and mobile functions heavily integrated into the site, local business owners will have another outlet to promote their businesses to the community, said Jones.

"It's a community for the Chamber," he said. "We're giving you, the individual, the business owner, the ability to present yourself the way you want to the community. We're basing you around individuality rather than making you an extension of your business."

The community page, which features business profiles with a rating system, calendar and networking opportunities, will be available to anyone in the community.

In addition, chamber members will also be included in the comprehensive business listing, access to job bulletins and membership discounts.

"We want the community to use this site," Zimmerman said. "The benefit for us and for our members is that the more traffic you get, the more exposure the membership gets, the more value to their chamber membership."

He said the website will allow the chamber, which currently includes about 530 members, to be more competitive in the today's economy.

According to Zimmerman, about 60 percent of the membership don't consider themselves as "technologically-savvy," but he assured that the website is simple for anyone — regardless of any social media experience.

"We are seeing many, many more young adults who are now young professionals moving into the business community, and we want to attract them by having things that they are accustomed to using for communication. But we also want to educate those who haven't caught onto social media yet," he said.

The Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce will also be offering training sessions to its members. Click here to check out the community website.

For more information, contact office manager Blythe Price at officemanager@gigharborchamber.com or 253-851-6865.