FIRST, YOU MUST BE A REGISTERED USER OF THIS SITE & A CHAMBER MEMBER TO ADD A LISTING

(if you have not signed up for this site yet, please go back to the main page where you can create your account either using the "Login with Facebook" button by following the directions after you click that, or you can create an account which does not link to Facebook by clicking the "Register for this site" link below the login area)

You may skip to the bottom of this page and click the link to the form to get started at any time!

As a Hope Mills Area Chamber of Commerce Member, you are entitled to THREE FREE listings in our member directory.  You may add more listings for a small fee, but the 3 free listings should get you well on your way.  We want your listing to look great too!  With that in mind, here are some tips for creating a nice looking and effective listing for all of our other members and guests to admire......

First, you'll want to let the system know where you are located for placement on the map.  This is crucial for getting your business properly located!  In the image below, the red arrow points to the pop-up that will appear as soon as you open the "Add New Entry" page.  Be SURE to click on the "Share Location" link so that your location will be included.  Otherwise, you will have to manually add it later on.

Once you have set your location by clicking that button, you can now proceed to add your category or categories.  You get 3 FREE category listings, so feel free to check all of them out for the best fit for YOUR business.  This is how folks will find you when doing a search or selecting those categories.  You will want to make sure your business is in the right categories!  Don't worry, you can always change them at any time if you make a mistake or your business changes.

After you have chosen your categories that your business will appear in, you next need to add your business name.

IMPORTANT! If there are no categories that fit your listing, or you would like us to add some categories, please just select a

category that most closely matches your listing temporarily and then contact us with your request for the new categories.  We'll

add them and you can come back at any time and add, delete or switch categories for your listing.

Now, if your business has a slogan, enter it in the "Slogan" line.  Even if you do NOT, this line can be used to grab attention.  It will appear in your business listing to the right of your business name in large lettering, so choose something short, catchy and to the point for this.  It will appear on the Virtual Business Card (or V-Card) listing and in your detailed business listing.  I always recommend putting SOMETHING here...

The INTRO TEXT is a brief description of your business that will appear in the V-Card and in the detailed description of your business.  Just a quick 5 or 6 lines about your business that will give the casual browser an idea of what you do or sell and a reason to look a little more at your full listing.  Just be creative and have some fun with it!

The Phone(s) sections are pretty self-explanatory.  We just ask that you use the following format when entering phone and fax numbers for a consistent look...

910.123.4567

A Contact name would be the business owner, manager, or anyone who is authorized to represent the business to the Chamber and to the public.

The Email address is a contact email for the company or for an individual.  It should preferably to to the person who is in charge of things like filling out this form.  If not, then a general email address for the company that will be answered quickly when someone is making an inquiry from our site.  You will just need to fill it in twice to confirm it.

Now come the parts that can really add to your bottom line!  Social networking information is a GREAT way to get your business noticed and customers coming through the doors, or purchasing from your web site.  Each item is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case.....

It is easy to just copy and paste the addresses of all of your social sites.  I would always recommend using the full URL.  Include the "http://" portion of it as well.  You can see that we have places for all of the most popular social and business relationship sites here.  These will really make it easy for potential clients and customers to locate you as well as giving your Facebook and Twitter pages a lot more exposure.  Today a lot of business count on these sites to bring them a good amount of business.

If you have a web site, in the first line just type the name of your business and on the second line the actual web site address (using that http://).   This is very important for you business as every link to your web site adds to the importance of it in search results.  This site should really help make your site more visible to anyone doing a search for the key words used for your site.

The Address information has county and country included for those who manually add a map entry.  Otherwise, you may leave those blank.

Now, if you chose to allow our site to share your location information, the map should already have your business located on it.  If you did NOT allow sharing of your location, the map will be blank or showing nothing at this time.  You will need to MANUALLY move the marker on the map to your business location on the map.

If you allowed us to share your location, your map should look similar to the one above.  Already filled out.  Easy as 123!

Okay, on to the pretty parts now!  Those "Small" and "Main" image items are REALLY IMPORTANT.  They will make your listing really STAND OUT if you do it right.

The SMALL image will appear on your V-Card listing which is the small listing you will see at the bottom of the pages or in the category views.  Try to use something that is relatively square or vertically rectangular so that it shows up well.  You can always change it if you don't like the way it looks.

The MAIN image is the one which will appear on your DETAILED business listing.  It can be the same one you used for the small image or something completely different.  The choice is yours and you may change it at any time to suit your needs.

The IMAGE GALLERY is for pictures you would like to share of your business or people or whatever you would like.  These will appear in the "MEDIA" section of your business listing.  You can have up to 3 free items here and add more for a small fee.  I ALWAYS recommend putting a little something here.  It just makes your listing stand out a bit more and of course makes it more interesting to those looking it over.

The YOUTUBE video section is pretty self-explanatory as well.  Here you can embed a link to a YouTube video of your business or related just to get folks a little more excited about your products or services of just something fun!

The Hours of Operation allow you to set opening and closing times independently for each day of the week.

PAYMENT METHODS allow you to select which methods of payment you accept at your business.  Simply check each that you accept and they will appear as images on your business listing.

The QR Code site link and QR Code items are not required unless you already have QR Codes for your business.  These are the Phone-readable codes which allow someone with a smartphone to take a picture of the image and it will store all of your business and location information directly in their phone!  The system will AUTOMATICALLY generate one for you if you do not already have one!

The Business Overview is exactly what it sounds like.  Just fill in information about your business and what you do.    The same goes for the Products and Services Overview.  This will appear in the detailed listing and is a great way to promote your business and services.  You can add special deals and more here too!  Anything to get yourself some extra business!  Use the Products and Se vices TAGS to add tags (words which describe your products or services) that will be searchable.  Simply type in a name or word and press enter, then another and another until you are done.

The Organization section is simply asking for organizations which your business belongs to.  The Hope Mills Area Chamber is always a great one!  Any other organizations you wish to list would go here as well.  You can also include the URL to their web sites.

You can include the date you joined the Chamber and finally a little business history such as how long you've been in business, or anything else which might be of interest to a potential customer.  Once you've completed everything, give it a final check and then just click the "Submit" button.  If everything is okay, your listing will be added to the listings awaiting approval and should be available very shortly.  If anything is wrong with the listing, it will give you an opportunity to correct it first.  You can always change your listing at any time after submitting it.

Ready to get started?  Well then, just click HERE