Few people know that I took over as vice president of Economic Development at the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce earlier this year. My reasoning for taking such a role was pretty simple: I want to give back to the community by helping develop and expand local businesses. Seven months into the position, I’m happy to announce my first of many initiatives, “Embrace the Mobile Web”.
The Overview
In 2012, it€™s no longer enough to simply be on the web. 48% of adults today own a smartphone in the United States. 79% of those people engaged in shopping related activities on that mobile device. Yelp receives over 40% of it€™s traffic on mobile. Google has location based searching to find businesses. If you haven’t seen the data, I highly suggest the Data Monday summaries that Luke Wroblewski often writes.
The question isn€™t will people find you on their phone; the reality is, they probably already have tried to look.
As the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce, we’ll be able to give local businesses mobile ready web sites, help make sure they’ve verified their Google Places (Google+ Local) listings, and web hosting for a very low $39 a year cost to members. We want to take the pain out of the process and make their information (ala working hours or a menu) quickly available to not only local residents, but also the 8 million or so people who travel and stop in Oakdale each year.
What does this program offer?
The ability to get a simple, mobile-ready website up and running, without all the fuse. Let us take the headache out of the software so you can focus on content and reaching customers.
- 10 mobile and desktop ready themes installed, powered by our self hosted Wordpress.
- Email provided by Google Apps for Business free starter tier.
- Help setting up Google Places for Business.
- A monthly getting started / help course hosted at the Chamber.
- Empowerment. You control and edit the content from your web browser, no special tools required.
Why it’s important for local businesses
The Oakdale Chamber of Commerce has always made strides to help expand economic growth in the community. We want this initiative to help foster that by:
- Making businesses more available to local residents and surrounding communities
- Making businesses more available to the tourists who use Oakdale as a gateway to Yosemite
Too often I overhear “I wish [Local Business X] had a mobile website so I find out [insert need here].” We want to solve this issue as best we can in Oakdale.
Changing the status quo
To my knowledge no other chamber of commerce has set forth an initiative to offer not only web hosting, but a mobile centric focus. Even if your own local chamber doesn’t offer such a benefit, I would highly suggest that you consider making sure your web site is mobile ready. Now is the time.
Kick off event
We’ll be hosting a free kick off event this week (I will be presenting), August 15th at 5pm at 229 North 3rd Street in Oakdale. If you’d like to attend, please RSVP at 209-847-2244. Both Oakdale Chamber members as well as non-members are welcome to attend.
Addressing the naysayers
Some folks from a certain valley have told me that it’s “too simple” and that “anyone can do that, just have the business install it themself”. Since I am not a politician, my response is as follows:
Bullshit.
I am tired of the elitists that say everyone should know how to do this, that it’s easy. I’m sorry, but even with simple one click installers in web panels, it’s simply not. Small businesses are the backbone of communities; their core business is likely not setting up a web site and hosting, and they sure as hell have better uses of their time. Why expect them to inherently know how to put all the pieces together? I suspect if your mechanic told you “anyone can do that, just replace the fuel injector yourself” you’d balk at such a presumption.