So, to follow our own advice about good business practice, we've had a spruce up of our branding to make sure we are consistent across the board. There is a little more to it than that as we have actually had a review of our back office systems too, as we couldn't believe that it was 2015 since we last had a major review - doesn't time fly when you're having fun!
How does this affect our members?
So, we have moved our domain to enable us to be in control of our own website and this will enable us to update our content more frequently. We haven't released all our pages yet, but we have made phase 1 live this weekend, so take a look around our site and if you have any questions or comments, please do get in touch - we are always open to feedback.
Our Blog
Part of the website update includes this blog which contains some sections we hope you will find useful:
Virtual Leaflets
As we run a virtual office, we will be collating leaflets virtually under this category too. You can read more about how it works here, but essentially it means if Members or Partner organisations have information that we believe is useful, then we will be able to share them under this blog category.
Members
This section is all about you! We hope that members will provide us with their good news stories, so that we can promote them and keep other members up to date with what is happening within business in North Devon. It can be hard to get published in the media, so at least we can help share your updates. You can navigate to our blog page and then click on the tag that says Members.
Business Insights
Here we hope to share information that businesses will find helpful, whether it be information on finance to legal, insurance to funding options to name but a few. This Business Insights category will be a growing resource to those in business.
Coming Events
This will contain posts about the Chamber and other events that are happening soon. These will be posted with the date of the event, not when the post went live, so you will be able to see easily when the event is happening in the Coming Events category.
There are other sections too, so make sure you have a look around on the Blog pages, as well as the rest of our website. Why not bookmark the page so that you can visit it easily in future, as we will be adding to it going forward.
Brand consistency is key
Hopefully as you visit our platforms across the board you will see a more consistent message now, from our Facebook to Twitter, LinkedIn to Eventbrite; they all have recognisable imagery and consistent message.
If you are not following us on your platform(s) of choice, make sure you visit the links above to do so and then you won't miss anything!
We are also planning to introduce a closed LinkedIn group for Members which will be run as a sharing environment to assist members and offer opportunities for collaborative working.
A word about our Patrons
We were excited to announce that Viridor became a Patron for the Chamber at our AGM last November.
Their support has helped us as a Board deliver more effective services to members, by offering subsidised or free member tickets for some events, ensuring you get more value out of your membership. We have also been able to make connections with businesses who have needed their assistance on waste collection and if you are interested in this, please contact us so that we may help you with this.
We will continue to work in collaboration with them to add value to your membership, so keep your eyes peeled on our social media for future updates.
Our Members are important to us
We hope that if you are a member you will continue to support us and if you are not yet a member, that you will consider joining us.
We are an independent Chamber, run by a voluntary Board who are passionate about North Devon being recognised as a great place to do business. We are recognised both locally and outside the region as a Chamber who punches well above its weight given our limited resources, to ensure the voice of North Devon is heard.
If you have any feedback, comments or want to get involved with the Chamber, please do contact us. We are here for the benefit of all Members and we can only be effective if you get involved!