News U Can Use Feb. 13th, 2009

This is the weekly news you can use from YOUR hometown chamber of commerce

Chamber Membership Rising
At the beginning of January chamber membership was at a mere 33 businesses. The chamber is now proud to announce that as of February 10th, 2009 we are 83 business members strong! Our goal is to have at least 100 members. We ask you to be loud and proud about what your chamber is doing and encourage others to join our organization. No one of us is as strong as all of us! Membership applications are available at the chamber office. The price of a chamber membership is $10.42 a month. Where else can you get all the benefits a chamber membership provides for just $10.42 a month?

Web Site Updates
The chamber has been working with Anole Imaging to update the folkston.com website.

The most recent updates were to the member listing, downloads page, maps and analytics systems.

All chamber members should go to the website and check that their contact information is posted correctly. If your information is incorrect, please contact the chamber and let us know.

The downloads page was updated for the purpose of adding the new Rail Watch information.

The online map was updated to Google map with the capability of displaying points of interest.

The analytics added were two applications so that the chamber can perform a comprehensive analysis of the website’s traffic. For instance, we now know that in January 2009 the chamber website received 2206 unique visitors with 2976 total visits. We also know that so far this month our website attracted the most visitors from Monday to Saturday, with the least visitors on Sunday.

In addition to all of the above, with the new analytic tools the chamber can now track where the website visitors come from (country and address), what web browsers and operating systems they are using, how they connected to our site, what search words they used to find the site, how long they stayed on the site, and what pages on the site that they viewed.

Some of you may be saying “So what? Who cares about such things?” The statistics are actually a very useful marketing tool. For example I placed information about Rail Watch on numerous web sites throughout the internet.

Within several hours of my placing the information I could pull up the statistics page and see that we had numerous people who logged onto the sites where I had posted the information. The visitors then followed the links on those web pages to our folkston.com site. Once there those people reviewed the Rail Watch information and then downloaded the photo contest and vendor application. Now whether or not those site visitors actually send the applications in is another thing. But what the stats do tell me is that the sites I put our information on were good choices and that our message is getting out. Knowing whether or not your information is reaching its’ target is one of the linchpins of marketing.

Even better than being able to track your promotional efforts effectiveness is being able to do so for FREE. Those statistical tools are available to any business with a web site for free through Google Analytical. You can either log onto http://www.google.com/analytics to find out about how to install them yourself or ask you web designer for help.

A final fun little web fact for our chamber members to know is that the top 5 countries that our January web site visitors came from were the United States(2158), Romania(96), Germany(85), Canada(38) and Great Britain(35).

China Cable Travel Channel to be filming in Folkston on February 16th, 2009
In case you ever doubted that Folkston gets visitors from all over you should know the following. A Chinese filming crew is scheduled to film at the National Wildlife Refuge, Okefenokee Adventures and pass through Folkston this month. They are filming for a program that will be shown in China at all major cities to about 400 million people. Now how is that for worldwide exposure?!

Children’s Writer Coming To Folkston in October
C.E. Watz, a children’s book author and educator has contacted the chamber about coming to the Okefenokee Festival and autographing her new children’s book entitled “Alley Loo: A Spooky Swamp Tale”. She is interested in working with others in our community that wish to promote literacy among children. Those interested in involving her in children’s literacy activities can reach her at cewalz@yahoo.com.

Co-Op Advertising Opportunity Available
The tourism related chamber members were offered an opportunity to engage in co-op advertising in the 2009 The Georgia Coast Regional Map & Guide. The brochure in question is distributed to all of the State Visitor Information Centers, at various Welcome Centers, trade shows, FAM Tours and sales missions through the Georgia Coast Travel Association. The advertising space deadline was February 15th, 2009. The savings of advertising co-operatively with the chamber as opposed to advertising alone ranged between $110.00 to $550.00 per facility listing.

Group Tour Leads
The chamber received 5 group tour leads from Group tour media and 264 group tour leads from the National Tour Association.

Want to promote a Folkston restaurant?
Georgia Magazine is looking for people to send them information about their favorite down-home Georgia restaurant. They also want you to tell them the best thing on that restaurant’s menu. I know that several of our chamber member restaurants could fit the bill. You can help promote your favorite Folkston restaurant by contacting Georgia Magazine and nominating them. You can e-mail your nominations to georgiacooks@georgiaemc.com or mail it to Georgia Magazine, Attn: Down-Home Cooking, PO Box 1707, Tucker, GA 30085-1707. Be sure to include the name, address, phone number of the restaurant you are nominating along with your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.

Tentative Miss Okefenokee Pageant 2009 Date Slated
The Chamber Events Committee has announced a tentative date of August 22nd, 2009 as the date of the Miss Okefenokee Pageant. Additional pageant details will follow as they become available.

Compete for top Flavor of Georgia
Did you know that every year the University of Georgia (UGA) Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development (CAED) searches for a “Flavor of Georgia” grand prize winner? The annual contest is designed to spotlight market-ready food, whether commercially available or prototypes, made in Georgia. Categories include barbecue and hot sauces, meat products, snack foods, jams, jellies and sauces and dairy products. Winners can earn the right to have their products stamped with the Flavor of Georgia logo. It is too late to enter this years contest but it is never too early to start on next year’s entry. For more information on entering next year’s contest log onto http://agr.georgia.gov/

Railroad Museum Gets New Display
The Railroad museum located in the restored train Depot got a new display table this week. The table was built by Cornell Industries – D.J Ray Prison and delivered to the Depot by the City of Folkston workers. Many thanks to all who helped in this process.

Rail Watch Sponsors & Vendors Applications Coming In
The chamber is pleased to announce that they have received three confirmed sponsors (two photo contest categories and an anonymous tent sponsor) thus far for the Rail Watch photo contest. We have also received several inquires from folks wishing to be Rail Watch vendors. Anyone wishing to help sponsor a photo category or be a Rail Watch vendor is encouraged to get their applications in. The categories for “Best Folkston Photo” and “Most Unusual Photo” have already been taken. There are 6 photo category sponsorships remaining. If you have any questions regarding either the photo contest, sponsorship or vendor space rental please contact the chamber.

Cornell Industries Sponsors Chamber Meeting
Cornell Industries graciously agreed to sponsor lunch for the Annual State-of-the-Chamber Meeting to be held on February 17th, 2009 at the Charlton County Senior Center. We wish to send many thanks to Cornell for their generosity. We appreciate them greatly.

Horror Film Crew From Atlanta Inquires About Possible GA Filming Site
This week the chamber received news that a film crew based out of Atlanta was looking for a specific Georgia location to possibly shoot a major supernatural thriller this summer. They were looking for an old 1940’s – 1950’s style commercial building that would pass as a psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a suitable filming location for them in Charlton County during this go round.

Calling All Schools, We Need You To Apply For A “Save Our History” Grant
The chamber has an opportunity to apply for a “Save Our History” grant available through the History Channel but in order to apply we need to collaborate with Charlton County’s schools and youth groups. The grant is for the purpose of funding projects that inspire a community’s youth to preserve history. The 2009/210 grant cycle began in January and the application deadline is in June. Each year the grant program gives away $250,000 to organizations (chambers) that partner with schools or youth groups that create projects designed to preserve their community’s history. There is also a corresponding “Save Our History” initiative that helps supplement the teaching of history in America’s classrooms by providing resources to elementary, middle and high school teachers to connect their community’s local history to American history. A previous grant winner was a community who had a restored historic train depot. Their project involved the students working to preserve the community’s railroad history. Some of the other previous grant winners created programs where the youth helped interview the community’s elderly on the Great Depression and helped preserve and catalog museum items. If you are a Charlton County school or youth group and are interested in working with the chamber to get this grant, please call (912) 496-2536 or email me at Director@folkston.com.

2009 Railwatch Information

Hello All,

The 2009 Railwatch Photo Contest application, Vendor Information - application and Sponsorship information has been posted on the www.folkston.com website.

Just a reminder that Railwatch will be held on Saturday April 4th, 2009 from 9AM until 5PM in downtown Folkston.

In addition to the trains, there will be a educational program held in the train museum. The educational program schedule will be announced at a later date. We are awaiting finalized information from the program organizers ( Cookie and Danny ). Once we have the final schedule, we will post it both here and on the folkston.com website.

News U Can Use Week Ending January 30th, 2009

Here is a little "news you can use" that includes some FREE publicity opportunities. If you have already received this information earlier this week, I apologize. We have been updating our members email database so it is possible that some of you have already received this information.

Video Footage Needed
Carey Ferrara is our Regional Tourism Representative with the GA Dept. of Economic Development. She is working on some project for the upcoming Meeting Planners International Convention to be held in February in Atlanta. She is looking for video footage of our communities and businesses to show on the motor coaches. This is a FREE opportunity to get your information to a lot of people. The chamber is sending her a copy of Danny Harmon's DVD "Folkston, A Train Watcher's Paradise". If you have some video footage of your business and Charlton County in general that would be of interest to outsiders and are interested in participating, please contact Carey and let her know. Carey's contact information is Phone - 912-644-5975 or Cell - 678-640-4357.

Completed footage should be sent to Kevin Langston C/O GDEcD 75 Fifth Street NW Suite 1200 Atlanta, GA 30308.

Opportunity For Free Web listing
Second, there is a new art-centric website offered by the state where Georgia based businesses can list their information. The web site is http://www.gamadegagrownproducts.org/. This website has more than 780 businesses currently registered and they fully expect it to have thousands of Georgia-based businesses that create and sell authentic local products or produce productions that represent the essence of Georgia.

If you know artists, entertainers, museums, gallery owners and others that could benefit from this FREE marketing tool, encourage them to sign up. One can register by clicking on “register/log in” at the top of the homepage. This is economic development in its purest form – a tool that facilitates business to business relationships between Georgia’s creative industries and the universe of consumers.

Editorial Content Needed
Third, we received a call from Monica Kiger at The Griffon 108. She was looking for information on family-friendly businesses to mention in her newspaper both as editorial content (which is FREE) and as advertisers (not free of course). We will be sending her information, but you are encouraged to do so as well.

The Griffon is an official Army publication. They reach 40,000 reserves, National Guard, and enlisted US Army Soldiers and their families with each quarterly issue. Monica tells us that for those that have served in Iraq they receive a thirty day leave for R&R upon completion of the tour of duty. Most, if not all, want to spend time with family and travel. She believes that our area is a perfect destination for these soldiers and their families. Military bases are located throughout the country (including nearby Kings Bay) and this newspaper reaches those bases. Please visit her website at www.thegriffon108.com for more information and to view her publication on-line.

Sweepstakes Prizes Needed
Fourth, ITI Marketing, who is affiliated with destinations2discover and vacations2discover is looking for businesses to donate prizes for their sweepstakes. For more information contact Andy Uhlig at andyuhlig@iti-marketing.com or call him at 912-267-1558. The chamber donated a Folkston Funnel Polo Shirt in exchange for being mentioned in their advertising.

Upcoming Chamber Meetings
February 4th, 2009 8:30 AM @ Chamber Office to discuss Rail Watch 2009

February 17th, 2009 –Noon @ Charlton Co. Sr. Center, RSVP by 2/12/09 Annual “State-Of-The-Chamber” Meeting

February 19th, 2008 8:30 AM Location TBD Regular Chamber Board Meeting

Chamber Now Offers FREE Webinars To It’s Members
Following the success of our first chamber -sponsored webinar, we have scheduled the second in the series for February 17 at 1:00pm. The topic will be recent changes in labor and employment laws and pending legislation. Below is a summary of the February presentation.
Workplace Legislative Update: What's New and What's Coming: There is no question that workplace laws are changing rapidly and significantly. Some laws have already changed. Employers can expect to see more legislation passed that will further add or change laws that impact the workplace. Much of the pending legislation has the apparent backing of Congress and the new Obama Administration. This webinar is designed to help employers understand current and proposed changes as well as expected trends that will affect employers. The changes cover many areas from FMLA regulations to the Employee Free Choice Act to increased enforcement of wage and hour law. This is a FREE webinar, presented by Fisher & Phillips attorneys, that The Okefenokee Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring to it's members. To register for the webinar log onto: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/382575688

If you had one wish.....

What one thing would you want your chamber of commerce to do for you and why? Would it be to share leads with you to help promote your business? Would it be to offer you networking opportunites with other chamber members? Would it be to offer you free educational seminars or bulk advertising discounts? You tell me. Let's get a dialog going here.

Welcome Everyone!

Welcome Everyone!

This blog is for those associated with The Okefenokee Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber is located in Folkston, Georgia within the restored train depot.

Folkston is the county seat for Charlton County, GA.

There is also a train museum within the building that focuses on the Atlantic Coast Line Rail Road which use to run through Charlton County.

Our chamber's main web page is
http://www.folkston.com

I encourage you to check us out.