BY MIKE HELENTHAL
DANVILLE — Vermilion Advantage officials say they are putting more emphasis on the organization’s Web site to recruit professionals to the area and to better highlight the shops, services and industry already here.
The site has recently undergone several changes, most notably the addition of a “Relocating to Vermilion County” portal aimed at anyone considering moving to the area.
“On a day-to-day basis, our main audience is companies,” said president and CEO Vicki Haugen. “But recruiting professionals to the area is also very important and most people these days start with a Web search.”
The Web site has added new panoramic photos throughout showing features and amenities in Danville and the surrounding area.
The new portal leads to information ranging from housing and churches to business contacts and cultural experiences. In the business directory area, companies are listed by category and many contain direct links to the companies.
Haugen said the Web site will continue to serve general industry and the relocation focus would simply be an extension of that. She said some local companies were having trouble attracting enough high-tech and skilled workers.
“This is a direct response to that,” she said. “It’s just another tool that’s out there.”
Job-seekers can already see listings for some of those jobs through Vermilion Advantages 442jobs.com Web site, but Haugen said it’s the first time the organization had grouped relocation information — including the job site — in one easy-to-find portal.
Vermilion Advantage also is encouraging its members without a Web presence to take the technological leap.
“One of the main parts of this is just getting the chance to explain why they need one,” said Alicia Pettigrew, the group’s special projects coordinator. “They think if they’re not selling their products online, they don’t need a Web site.”
Pettigrew is leading a members training session with Web consultants, Marketech, at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in the organization’s first-floor conference room at 28 W. North St. The $5 fee includes a light breakfast. The name of the seminar is “What Makes (or breaks) a good Web site and why you need one.”
She said costs of maintaining a presence have gone down substantially in recent years through the use of e-mail marketing and social networking services.
One of the problems for small businesses, she said, is simply finding them. She said even using a Web site for contact purposes can lead to new business opportunities.
“Even if you’re looking for a specific business sometimes you can’t find them in the phone book or you don’t know where to look to find them,” Pettigrew said. “You may not even be able to remember the exact name.”
She called Vermilion Advantage’s new portal a “sister site” that members can employ for a one-stop viewing of Danville’s offerings.
“We’re going to explain what they can do with it,” she said.
Economic development leaders are also offering lower-tech networking strategies aimed at those who have recently made Danville their home.
Haugen said she will next week finalize plans to host the first reception for newcomer professionals.
“It’s a matter of not only welcoming them, but plugging those people into the fabric of the community,” she said, adding there are plans to make the receptions quarterly.
“The first wave here have been mostly medical-related,” she said, noting the addition of several new physicians in the area over the past year.
Vermilion Advantage just received eight-page booklets that will be distributed to local companies who recruit as well.
“We’ll have someone say, ‘We’re recruiting so and so and do you have some information we can send them?’” she said. “We wanted to have something that addressed that, too.”
FYI
The new “relocation” portal can be accessed at http://www.vermilionadvantage.com
