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Beach Chamber will publish new community guide next fall

By Staff | Apr 7, 2009

Sales for the community guide being produced for the Greater Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce are underway, according to Chamber president John E. Albion. He and his staff are working with VillageProfile.com, Inc. , which has been producing publications for the Chamber since 2006.

The updated guide will be published this fall. The 4,000 printed copies will be distributed throughout Fort Myers Beach and the surrounding area, to visitors, and to individuals and businesses inquiring to the Chamber about relocation.

The Chamber is taking part in the Village Profile Convergence Publishing Program – the only one of its kind available to Chambers of Commerce. In addition to the printed version, all editorial content and advertisements will be published online as a NewView eBook at the Village Profile Community Profile Network website (www.villageprofile.com). The online publication will link from the Chamber’s Community Profile Network website to advertisers’ own websites.

The eBook is downloadable free to computer desktops and most wireless devices. The searchable membership directory will be accessible via smart-phones, web-enabled cell-phones and similar wireless devices at www.vpmobile.us.

The Village Profile community portal garnered nearly 24 million hits in 2008 and 2,342,900 page views — nearly 1.7 million of which were unique page views. The vpmobile.us site had 4,333,000 hits in 2008. Since 1996, the site has seen nearly 220,000,000 hits from Internet locales around the world and from all manner of users: education, government, business, individual, organization, and of course, .coms.

This guide is regularly asked for by new members and businesses in the area. With the need for our members to help each other during these more challenging times, the guide can help bring our members together in a more profitable way.

Advertising in your Chamber publication has even more advantages. According to a national study recently conducted by the Atlanta-based marketing company, The Schapiro Group, “consumers are 63 percent more likely to buy goods and services in the future from a company that they believe is a member of the local chamber” and “they are 44 percent more likely to think favorably about” the business.

The report further concluded that, “When business decision makers believe that a business is a chamber member” they are “59 percent more likely to buy goods and services from it.”

Businesses interested in advertising should call Village Profile representative Carolyn Fish at the Chamber office, 239-454-7500.