Travel website expands to help businesses, visitors

DiscoverLitchfieldHills.com, a website that provides travel and tourism information to municipal sites around the state, is expanding its offerings to promote businesses in a big way.

The site is managed by CivicLift, a Litchfield-based software company.

NWCOG Communications Director Jocelyn Ayer said Discover Lit ch field Hills is a main connection for the coalition of town governments.

“It’s a way to really support all of our towns’ businesses,” she said. “The improvements will help people find and support small businesses. That’s a key goal for the site and our social media marketing.”

As part of its promotion of the site’s new features, CivicLift designer Evan Dobos talked recently with the Northwest Hills Council of Governments on how the new information can help the state.

“The new DiscoverLitchfieldHills.com features are going to make it a lot easier to find content, like places to go and things to do,” Dobos said. “We built and launched the site more than a year ago, and just recently we released our community website, Ecosystem 2.0, which will help towns and the region.”

Most towns and cities have a municipal website of their own, which provides residents with information on local government. Torrington’s site, torringtonct.org, for example, posts weather-related information on parking and plowing, meeting minutes and agendas, a way to contact City Hall offices and staff, and links to other departments and Facebook pages that are related to the city’s operations.

The site, Dobos said, has been updated “because we outgrew it.”

“We wanted to upgrade the search directory, with business types and location,” Dobos said. “We had an interactive map, but it left people out who don’t have a physical location and still want to be listed.”

In addition to the enlarged search directory,

with business types and locations, businesses can fill out an online form to be added to the listing. The searches also have been upgraded with filters for type, town and category, Dobos said.

“Within that we’ll have a local business highlight, featuring a company and what they’re doing: expanding, improving or offering new services, with a Q&A and photos,” he said.

Another new addition is a job

hub with improved search and filtering capabilities, as well as rotating featured employers, featured jobs and added links to individual websites to further job searches.

“We’ve integrated with Indeed.com and cthires.com to put all the job (search information) into one place with the searches and filtering,” Dobos said. “We’ve been updating (the job hub) every two weeks, but we’re probably going to change that to once or twice a week.”

DiscoverLitchfieldHills also is linking to Northwestern Connecticut

Community College in Winsted, where there is an employment assistance center for students. “It’s a way to help students find jobs,” Dobos said. “We’re improving that connection and updating it.”

Because the site also focuses heavily on tourism, it offers users an events calendar that includes all 21 towns in the county, with an interactive map.

“Now that we have a business directory, we’re adding a fine arts page, with shopping, local events, art-related events, and listings of galleries and shops,” Dobos said. “There’s a things-to-do directory.

It’s kind of nice that we can connect that way.”

Another new feature is Eat Local, with features on local restaurants and what they’re doing to stay open during the pandemic. This section also has a listing of restaurants around the county.

“We’re doing an experiment with a guide of vineyards, breweries and distilleries, as a subset of Eat Local,” Dobos said. “What I’m planning is to have an interactive map and tour, with a ‘Driving Around’ guide to areas where people can spend an afternoon, for example.”

Users can sign up for email blasts, event reminders for Small Business Saturday and a Shop Small Holiday Guide. “Those connect with other community sites,” Dobos said. “It connects with Facebook and other social media. Our content is good and engaging, and it keeps people coming back.”

CivicLift is upgrading a number of municipalities’ websites, Dobos said, which helps improve the communication network DiscoverLitchfieldHills is trying to build. “That network ... plays an important role,” he said.