Culpeper Chamber of Commerce in the Lead

Published in the Star Exponent Monday, July 18, 2010:

Culpeper Chamber of Commerce leads the country in “Hot Deals” according to Jill Schmoyer an Internet Marketing Consultant for ChamberMaster. Ms. Schmoyer reported this at a recent meeting of the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. The Hot Deals section of the Chamber Website is just one of the many cutting edge opportunities for our community to take advantage of. Our businesses offer these as a way to encourage both businesses and everyone in Culpeper to buy locally. Any Chamber member can post Hot Deals with printable coupons free as part of their membership on CulpeperChamber.com.

In addition, the Culpeper Chamber has offered “Chamber Cash” for anyone to buy as gifts. We offer them in $10 increments. The Chamber Cash is redeemable locally at many Chamber Member locations – encouraging local spending. A commonly published statistic suggests that $68 of every $100 stays in the local economy. We are offering a special promotion this month at ChamberCash.com.

To further encourage local awareness of business, the Culpeper Chamber was one of the first in the Country to have a Smart Phone App referencing our Chamber members. Try downloading MyChamberApp to your IPhone or Blackberry free. You will find a directory of “Local” Culpeper Chamber of Commerce members. MyChamberApp allows the business location to be pinpointed on an easy to navigate map. The App allows one touch dialing to call each member business. I have used this and it works…. When I need to find a Chamber member to do business with, now, I just touch the MyChamberApp icon on my IPhone, find the business, and press the phone number… “Hello, this is Jim with the Chamber, I need to schedule an Oil Change…. how many miles were on my vehicle at the last change….” So easy and no need to have the numbers in my phone directory…. Now, in addition to the Chamber Member Directory on our website, we have an easy to use mobile app.

One of the new Chamber acronyms is RAVE – meaning Resources, Access, Visibility, and Energy. We have taken strides to bring visibility to the Chamber members both physically and virtually. Physically… we have begun a new Wednesday Evening Leadshare group for members to meet at a new time – after work - to share leads and network – spaces are limited and first come first served – contact the Chamber office for details.

Virtually, we are in the process of upgrading our SEO… Search Engine Optimization. Our members are currently connected to one of the largest business networks virtually thru our ChamberMaster affiliation. The new SEO partnership with ChamberMaster will bring more search visibility for online searches. When it comes to online visibility, large networks matter. Our members can further improve their results thru their personal login and access to tweak their key words.

Our Virtual Visibility continues with our Facebook, Twitter, and Blog posts. Look us up as Culpeper Chamber and “like” our page to have access to our up to date local business 411…..

Growing local business since 1915 …. Join us….

Best Regards

Jim Charapich
President / CEO
Culpeper Chamber of Commerce