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Nola Sizemore

Staff Writer

Offering a free seminar on how to grow your business online, Harlan Daily Enterprise General Manager Alexander Gould, discussed details about the upcoming event Wednesday during a meeting of the Harlan County Chamber of Commerce. The event will be held at the Harlan campus of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College at 6 p.m. on Sept. 18. Everyone is strongly encouraged to register for the event at www.harlandaily.com/CreateConnectPromote.

“Digital marketing is so important,” said Gould. “One of our partners is Radiate Media, which has been kind enough to come into the market this coming week to put on this seminar on our behalf — to meet with business owners and operators, like yourself, in a very low pressure, no sales piece of discussion on why digital marketing is so important. If you’ve ever considered selling things on your website — how you can go about doing that at a fairly low cost and also why being found on Google is very important to your digital presence both near and far you need to attend.”

Gould said a lot of people will Google businesses to research products and services offered. He said by not showing up on Google, businesses are probably losing a lot of potential customers. Gould suggested if business owners can’t attend the seminar, they may want to send one of their employees to gather helpful information on digital marketing.

“Please register for the event,” said Gould. “If you’re have trouble registering, please feel free to call me at (606) 248-1010 and I will register on your behalf. We will be providing refreshments at the end of the one-hour seminar.”

Gould also discussed a Business Expo, which will be held at the Harlan Center on Oct. 12 in partnership with the Harlan County Chamber of Commerce and the Harlan Daily Enterprise. He said only 40 booths will be available.

“It’s a great way to interact with your customers,” said Gould. “Sometimes it’s hard to get away from your desk and have conversations with your customers and potential customers causing you to lose out. This will give people a chance to come up and talk to you about what you do that may never come to your place of business any other way. We’ll be promoting this event through the newspaper. This is a great idea and a great way to promote yourself in a non-traditional way. For more information or to register for a booth you may call the Harlan County Chamber of Commerce at (606) 573-4717.”

Other chamber action included:

* Noted Ralph Souleyret was placed on the Kentucky ChalleNGe Foundation Board;

* Harlan County Clerk Donna Hoskins said the last day to register to vote in the November general election is Oct. 9;

* Noted food is needed to fill 800-1,000 backpacks every Friday in the Weekend Backpack Program. This program is to help ensure at-risk students have nourishment between school on Friday and school on Monday. For more information contact Aimee Blanton at 573-4915 or email at doitbest.aimee@bellsouth.net;

* Noted Angel Tree Project is already in full swing. The chamber is working with the FRYSCs of both school districts. Trees will go up Nov. 2 and the deadline for turning in gifts is Dec. 3. The wrapping party is set for Dec. 8 and distribution is set for Dec. 15. For more information contact Drew Adams by email at adams@harlanonline.net;

* Representatives from U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers and Sen. Mitch McConnell attended the meeting.

Reach Nola Sizemore at 606-573-4510 or at nsizemore@heartlandpublications.com