I saw a post on Twitter today about how someone thought that texting was a useless form of communications.  It made me think about a story that a chamber of commerce president told me recently.

The chamber was having their regular board meeting and one board member was offering his opinion on a certain position he thought the organization should take.

He was getting some initial pushback from other board members and retreating slightly in his position. While other board members were discussing it, the chamber's president sent a text to the one board member with a message like, "We'll support you."

The president saw the board member glance down at his phone. The board member then took up the debate again, now with added confidence, and ultimately the chamber adopted his position.

Obviously, a call wouldn't have worked in that situation.  And, it's possible that the chamber president didn't feel like he could tell the board member that across the room.

I know that chambers of commerce also use text messages for staff to communicate during large events.  And some chambers use texting to send updates to their members on events or urgent business issues.

Does your chamber or business association use texting?  If so, how?  Do you have a story like the one above? Please share it in the comments.  Thank you!

In the past year, I've seen dozens of chambers of commerce dramatically increase their use of social media, especially Twitter and Facebook.   I've noticed a few chambers of commerce that have truly created their own community of followers on Twitter, too. 

These chambers not only promote their own events and news, but they highlight their members (using their Twitter IDs) and they engage them with conversations.   And, their members even end up promoting each other in addition to recommending their chamber to others.

How cool is that?  An online community of chamber members using Twitter to promote their business, their friends' businesses, their chamber and their physical community!

I think this is fantastic, but it can be hard to keep your followers up to date on which of your members are on Twitter.

Today, I saw one way the Mountain Brook AL Chamber of Commerce makes it EASY for members to follow other members on Twitter - all at once.   On the lower right portion of their website (and probably in other communications), they link to a list of their members on Twitter.


The page you land on is created on TweepML, which lets you create lists for any group of Twitter users you want.   What's neat about this service (and makes it a bit different from the lists that Twitter lets you create) is that you can choose to follow one, multiple or ALL of the members on the list at once. 

You simply select the people you want to follow (or Select All) and scroll down the page to enter your Twitter name and password or connect using Twitter's Oath service.   Then you'll be following everyone you selected.  Quick and easy!

I know that some applications like Tweetdeck and Seesmic let you see Twitter lists that you follow, too. But most small business owners probably don't use those applications or fully understand how Twitter lists work.  By using a tool like TweepML, you can help them directly follow other chamber members.

I did a quick test of TweepML and it was very easy to set up my list.   Try it out for your chamber of commerce or business association.  And let me know other ways you connect your members on Twitter to each other, too.  Happy connecting!

The Zionsville IN Chamber of Commerce (just northwest of Indianapolis) recently announced a new marketing initiative using technology to promote their community.   However, several of the community's business owners are not exactly enamored with the plan.   Read the full article here.

The Chamber has purchased advertising on electronic billboards at the baggage claim area of Indianapolis International Airport.  While this is a technology used by many companies to reach their target audience, I wonder how effective it could be for a community such as Zionsville.   
If you have already landed at an airport, you probably already have an agenda or schedule of things you need/want to accomplish.  Would a billboard advertising a nearby community influence you to stop by?

To be fair, the Zionsville Chamber will also place ads in the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Authority's promotional materials.  These may do a better job or reaching potential visitors before they are already in the area.

I don't mean to beat up on the Zionsville Chamber by any means.  I've worked for a chamber and know there can be many challenges, especially with chambers in small towns.  But, I do think there are several other ways to use technology to promote the community that could be even more effective.

Search-optimized website with great content
Chambers of commerce along with convention and visitors bureaus have a great resource of content sitting right in their membership management software.  By leveraging the business names, categories, contact information and business descriptions effectively, chambers can create huge numbers of content-rich pages to be indexed by search engines. 

Coming up high in Google, Yahoo and other search engines is more CRITICAL than ever if chambers of commerce want to attract more business to their community and drive referrals to fuel local members’ business success. The higher they come up on search engines, the more traffic their websites will receive and thus create more opportunities to attract more business to the community and their members. More website traffic also enables chambers to generate significant non-dues revenue via website advertising.

And, you can reach potential visitors before they arrive in your community.

Social media engagement plan
Social media is fast becoming the ultimate word of mouth tool.  It allows your members and their customers be more engaged and share information quickly with dozens (or hundreds) of their friends.  Chambers of commerce have the opportunity to use social media not only to promote their own benefits to members and prospects, but to promote their members as well.

Chambers such as Oceanside, CA, Clovis, CA,  and Nashville, TN do a great job of  communicating their chamber's agenda and mission, AND spotlighting their members, too.  Find and follow these chambers on Twitter.  Read their blogs.  Become fans of them on Facebook.  You'll see the many ways they use social media to gain exposure for their members and community.

Teach your members how to use social media
I see chambers of commerce across the country offering workshops and seminars for their small business members on how to use social media and improve their websites.  They bring in local or national experts to teach their members about the tools and strategies for effectively using social media.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the chamber and their members to all work together to promote the community and engage potential visitors.  Social media is SOCIAL, so use these communications to help each other, make referrals and share information.

See this post from Mashable on how the resort industry is using social media.  There are several ideas that chambers of commerce and their members can adapt and use to strengthen their community's marketing efforts.

Using social media in this way allows the groups to also reach a potentially under-accessed group of visitors - people who already live in the larger surrounding communities.  While they may know you're "nearby," they may not know about many of the great things to do, places to eat or shopping opportunities in your town.  Reaching out via social media can be the first step in getting them to visit.


All of these methods help you generate additional word of mouth for your organization and your community.   And generally, they can be accomplished with little additional expense - at least when compared to other advertising options.

What other ways have you seen chambers of commerce or convention and visitors bureaus use technology to promote their members and their community?

I read a story today about how the Mesquite NV Chamber of Commerce has worked through a rather tumultuous year.  

In addition to the economy forcing the Chamber’s members to rethink their investment of membership dues, the Chamber lost a grant of $25,000 from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA) – money that had already been budgeted.  (Note: The Chamber did nothing wrong; the LVCVA stopped grant monies to all chambers of commerce.)  

Read the full article here. 

As with many chambers of commerce this past year, these events sparked some major changes.  The one word mentioned repeatedly in the article is accountability.   Accountability of the exec to the board, accountability of board members to each other and members and accountability of the chamber as a whole to its membership and the community.

There are many ways you could define accountability.

• Doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it.
• Delivering on the value (and more) you promised the member
• Responsible use of membership, tax and/or grant dollars
• Accepting repercussions when promises are not kept or goals are not reached

How can you ensure you’re delivering on all your promises?   Certainly, a passion for your local community and a dedication to your members is paramount.  But, you simply can’t manage the relationships, expectations and benefits of all your members without a customer relationship management system.   Robust membership management software gives you operational, analytical and collaborative tools you need to deliver more value and be accountable to your members.

How does your chamber define accountability?  

And, how do you use technology to help you be accountable to your board, your members and your community?

Within the past two years, we’ve seen well-established newspapers fold as readership numbers plummet. The culprit? The internet, of course. As this CNN article points out, newspapers are “losing their relevance in the lives of a majority of Americans, particularly younger readers.”

And this trend isn’t isolated to just newspapers – it affects chambers of commerce and business associations. Today, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce (a WebLink International client) announced they will cease publishing their magazine, NC Magazine. In this article Sherry Melton, vice president of communications for the Chamber, stated: “We’ve seen a 68 percent decrease [in advertising revenue] in 2009 from last year.”

Although there are many reasons for the declines in print advertising revenue, the impact from online advertising is undeniable. (See Mike’s post “Your website should make you money… not cost you money” for more.)

That’s why WebLink has created an exclusive website advertising program that helps associations and chambers create more opportunities for their members AND a sustainable source of non-dues revenue.

There are many reasons why the WebLink Ad Program works, but what makes our program different is what counts. One of those differences is that this program is integrated with our membership management software (WebLink Connect), allowing you to easily show the VALUE of online advertisements to your members.

Still not convinced about the shift? Talk to the young professionals you know and ask them if they have ever heard of the area’s local tourism publication. Chances are they haven’t. And that’s because more and more people are disregarding the traditional, paper-based methods of research for the faster, more convenient internet.  (And no paper cuts is a bonus too!)

No matter, the push for online advertising is strong, so make sure you are keeping up by making such offerings available for your membership.

Today I came across this article that gives a glimpse into the spending habits of consumers. It’s obvious that discounts motivate buyers, but did you know it takes less to motivate young professionals?

YP’s said discounts as low as 10% would make them willing to spend. Comparatively, it would take a discount of nearly 30% to get the affluent to “open their wallets”.

So, why should you care? Members join associations and chambers of commerce primarily to grow their business. And allowing your members to display coupons on your website is another way your organization can help them convert your site visitors into consumers. With membership management software like WebLink Connect from WebLink International, you have the ability to track the number of times a coupon is viewed, which is a great way to show VALUE to your member.

You can even go a step further and use Twitter as another way to promote your member’s discounts. The best part, Twitter links can be tracked too. (Check out if your chamber or association is “Twitter-worthy").

Everyone’s budgets are shrinking; coupon clipping is no longer just for soccer moms. So be sure to help turn your audience into motivated consumers for your membership by promoting not only their business, but also their discounts. 

A few months ago, I wrote about the Pitfalls of Social Media for chambers of commerce and associations. Since then I've had some great conversations with staff from chambers and association about how to avoid these pitfalls and use social media to strengthen their brands and engage their members.

Recently, I found this post by B.L. Ochman about Three Top Ways to Damage Your Brand With Social Media.   She makes some good points about ways you could negatively impact your organization with the MIS-USE of social media.


Start a Twitter account, then don't use it - Fortunately, I haven't see very many chambers of commerce with Twitter accounts such as the @TimeWarnerCares example in the post. 

However, I have seen plenty of chamber Twitter accounts with hundreds of followers, yet they are only following a handful of people.  A big part of using Twitter is listening and engaging in conversation with your followers.  What does it say about your organization if you're not following your members or other businesses in your community?  It seems like you're not interested in listening to them!  That doesn't do much for your brand, does it?

No, you don't have to follow everyone that follows you, but you should probably follow anyone who is located in your community or has an obvious link to your organization.  When someone follows you, look at their profile location, URL and bio to see to determine if you should follow them back. (In most cases, you should). 

Not tracking your brand using monitoring tools  -  With all the free tools available, there is really no excuse for not doing at least some monitoring.   See "Is your chamber 'listening' to the internet" for more info.  Set up searches for your organization's name, your city name or other terms specific to your organization so you can know when people are talking about you. (And decide if/when to respond).  Some tools to try include:

• Twitter Search - View results in your browser or set up an RSS feed of your search
• Google Alerts - View results, set up email alerts or get an RSS feed
• Google Blogsearch - View results, set up email alerts or get an RSS feed
• Twilert - does a Twitter search, but sends you email
• Monitter - a browser based Twitter search tool that lets you search by keyword and geographic location.

If you don't monitor the web for your brand mentions, you will probably be left out of the conversations taking place in your community.  You can't do much for your reputation and brand if you don't know about these discussions.
 
Start using social media, but don't tell the rest of the organization - Good news, here.  I don't know any chambers of commerce or business associations who have done this.  Occasionally, individuals will start using social media and because they work for a chamber of commerce or assocation, the followers will assume they are speaking on behalf of the organization.  It's probably worthwhile to have a conversation with all staff about the appropriate use of social media and refinforce that (whether they like it or not) they are respresenting your organization.  Remember, too, to keep your board (and members) advised of what you're doing with social media.  We've all had those phone calls from board members who are upset because they had to find out about something from someone else.


I have a couple of addtional ways beyond those listed in the post:

One way communications on Twitter - I've seen a few chambers of commerce that only post updates on Twitter with links to their own events, blog posts or website.  There are no replies to others, no retweets and no sharing of links or resources on other sites.   This practice is similar to not listening.   Even when someone replies to the organization, there are no subsequent replies. 

If someone answers your question or retweets your info, reply to them, thank them and engage them!   Some replies are certainly better sent as direct messages (and not viewable on your stream), but having some RTs and @replies in your Twitter stream shows you're engaging your audience, not just pushing out info. 

Repetitive Tweeting - Some organizations seem to post the same 5-10 things every day on Twitter. "Check out our website" or "Did you know XYZ" are great every once in a while, but when done systematically, day after day, with exactly the same text, they become the equivilent of spam.

Sure, you could argue that not all followers will see the message each time and you want to make sure you get the word out. I certainly understand that. But, you can vary your text and messaging so that you're not monotonous.  Your followers will quickly tire of seeing the same message over and over again and may choose to stop following you.


What do you think?  Are there other ways you could damage your organization by using (or mis-using) social media?

Since WebLink International works exclusively with chambers of commerce, business associations and membership organizations, I get to see and use chamber websites every day.  And, since I managed the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce website for eight years, I remember all the challenges of keeping a chamber website up to date and relevant.

Recently, I was asked what things most chambers of commerce could do to improve their sites. I thought this topic would make a great "top 10" list for the WebLink blog. Here are the first 5 ways I came up with.


10.  Leverage your analytics – Stop worrying about page views and visitor sessions without understanding how the design of your site influences your visitors’ behavior.  Rather, focus on the outcomes you want from your site. Do you want 10 new members to join online each month?  Would you like to get 500 new people to sign up for your e-newsletter?  Do you want visitors to order something or register for an event?  Once you set such goals and review your analytics, you can determine how you can change your site to help create your desired outcomes.

9.  Streamline navigation & overall design – Streamline your navigation into as few main items as possible.  Try to view your site through your typical visitors’ eyes.  What are the main reasons people visit your site?  What information are they viewing most often? Create main navigation buttons or links that reflect the major areas of your site and use sub-navigation for everything else.  Don’t design navigation or critical information so it looks like advertising.  Keep the site as open and easy to view as possible.  Look to some of your favorite web 2.0 or social media sites for inspiration.

8.  Make it shareable – Sharing information via social media is hot right now, so why not make it easy for site visitors to share your content?  Services such as AddThis and ShareThis (see example at the bottom of this post) give you code to embed on your website that make it easy to share your site’s content via multiple popular social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs.  Including such tools on your site shows that your chamber is progressive and understands the current media trends.

7.  (Don’t ) click here – The words “click here” don’t add anything to the usability of your site and they certainly don’t help you with any search engine optimization (SEO).  Instead, use strong anchor text (the text that’s actually linked), such as “Download the Chamber’s annual report” or “Watch our latest State of the City video.”  Where you can, use both a graphic (such as the cover of your annual report) AND a text link to help guide readers to your content.

6.  Use internal links – Linking from within your text to other relevant areas of your site does two things.  First, it improves the usability for visitors since they can now easily move on to additional content on your site. Second, it helps improve your rankings in search engines and can get more of your content indexed.  Usually 3-5 internal links per page is good.  More than that can become distracting to your readers.


Part 2 of this list will be coming soon. What other items do you think should be on the list?

Many young professionals give back to their communities by mentoring area children and students, but rarely are they are on the receiving end such a relationship – until recently!

In an effort to get more young professionals involved in their young professionals groups, chambers of commerce are beginning to offer mentoring programs.

The types of programming for such mentoring programs vary, but two of the most popular I’ve come across include:

• One-on-one programs that pair young professionals with older, more experienced professionals for a minimum of sixth-months
• Group mentoring in which members meet in groups with a mix of older and younger professionals

As a young professional, it is exciting to hear that chambers are creating such innovative programming to help better connect the business community and to help develop future business leaders. I would be eager to join a group that offers the chance to “pick the brains” of seasoned business professionals.

Has your chamber or association already started a mentoring program within your young professionals group? If so, how is it working for you – have you seen an increase in participation, what is the feedback like? If not, is this something your young professionals group might start considering?

Consider this: For the chamber of commerce, this is not only a great way to get young professionals involved with your chamber and more informed about your organization, but it also offers your members a way to volunteer while getting more involved in the chamber. Plus, who else is better equipped in your community to do this than your chamber? No one -- because no one has the kind of connections to the local business community like you!

You've probably been using social media such as blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for a while now.  Have you seen your efforts pay off with new members?  Some chambers of commerce have.

Read this article about how the Athens GA Area Chamber of Commerce appealed to a local businessman with their adoption of social media. From the article:

A few months ago, I got this note from Jessica Hibbard of the Frederick County MD Chamber of Commerce in response to a post about how social media may not be effective for associations:

The North Mason WA Chamber of Commerce has increased their membership from 210 to 400 in the past 19 months.  Frank Kenny, President & CEO of the Chamber, attributes much of that growth to the Chamber's adoption of social media, including Twitter, blogs and a dedicated social network.

These are just a few examples of chambers of commerce connecting with new members via Twitter and social media.  How about your chamber or business association?  

Can you attribute an increase in new member sales or an improvement in retention to your use of social media?  I'd love to hear your stories.

Retention. It's a key indicator for most chambers of commerce and business associations.  The factors that drive retention also drive just about everything else about the financial health and growth of your member-based organization.  Revenue. Sponsorships.  Event attendance. New member sales. 

Higher retention means more satisfied members, more connected members and more word of mouth advertising for your organization.  

And more fans.

Fans.  Not just Facebook fans, but someone who actually loves your organization and your staff and will tell other people about you.  In his book, Purple Cow, Seth Godin calls your biggest fans "sneezers" because they are so enamored with your company that  tell others about your products and services and help spread your ideas.

How do you get more fans faster?  Social media!

Think about how hard it would be to increase the number of true (raving) fans your chamber of commerce or business association has by hosting great events or sending out great newsletters.  Yes, you can use member segmentation and mass customization to deliver targeted, relevant information, but events and newsetters are relatively infrequent compared to how you can use social media. 

Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and others all help you tell your story more frequently, more immediately and in more places.  And these social media allow your members to help you tell your story WAY more than your events or newsletters do.  (Word of mouth advertising).  Having more fans helps you build more momentum and improve retention even more since they can now all help you in your efforts.

Social media allows you to share more information than ever before without spamming your members.  They've voluntarily choosen to follow you, read your content or join your group.  They can reply, ask questions or share your content with others.   This blog and many others are full of great examples of non-profit organizations, chambers of commerce and business assocations using social media to actively engage their members and prospects and create an entirely new fan base.   I've seen great examples of members in a community reposting information about their chamber of commerce, writing blog posts about chamber events and even creating videos on YouTube about their chamber.

You can't do it with social media alone, though.  You must provide real benefits and demonstrate your value to your members using all of your communications tools.  You must ask for their input and respond.  Listening, learing, adapting and communicating helps you improve retention and all the other things listed above.  And, great membership management software can help you record and track information about your members to help you communicate your value more effectively.

But, social media lets you do this all faster and on a much larger scale.  So, go improve retention!  (And get more fans.)

While perusing the U.S. News and World Report’s website today I came across a few lists of “Bests” -- America’s Best Places to Find a Job, 10 Best Places to Grow Up, etc. And yet, when I went to some of those city’s websites, there was no mention of these honors -- a missed opportunity for the chambers of commerce, the visitor’s convention bureaus and any other city website really.

Maybe my college liked to brag too much, but whenever something like this was announced and we were on the list, it became a top story on the homepage. Does your chamber of commerce or business association ever put links to third party reports on your website, or does your news section only contain content written by chamber/association staff? If it’s the latter, there are still ways for you to promote the great news from other sources yourself – by writing a press release, writing a response to the report, etc. Finding ways to boast about your organization on your website is a great way to capture potential new residents and potential new chamber members or association members.

You might be wondering what I mean by potential residents. Well, when I was looking for a job right out of college, my biggest concern was location. I figured that after I found a city I wanted to be in, the job search would follow suit.  (A sort of ‘If you build it, he will come’ mentality :) ) And I’m not alone. My experience with a lot of my friends has been that young professionals want to live in certain cities -- not we want to move to a place because of a job (although sometimes that is what ends up happening).

Picture this. A college student/recent graduate has found your website thanks to your high SEO when he or she types your area into an internet search. This person sees the pictures of your area on your homepage and likes it so far. Then, on the homepage there is a blurb that says “One of America’s Best Places to Find a Job!” You better believe that young professional is more likely to consider relocating to your city with that kind of news! (BTW - Is Your Website Attracting Young Professionals?) 

But, even if that person ends up somewhere else, they become a prospect for local tourism. Sometimes things don’t work in our favor to allow us to live in the cities we want, but that’s what vacations are for, right?

So don’t hold back. Make sure visitors to your website know not only the value of your chamber of commerce or business association, but also the value of your community!

Recently I sat in a conference call with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. As WebLink’s Benji Craig was explaining the importance of SEO to their chamber, it hit me – this really is important.

Before I joined the WebLink team, I knew nothing about chambers of commerce, convention and visitors bureaus or business associations. It was almost embarrassing learning about these organizations and realizing what a great resource I had been missing out on. Whenever my friends or I would plan a trip outside of our community we – like most – started on the internet. Searching for generic terms such as “hotels” or “attractions” often lead us to multiple pages that gave us headaches on our quest to find what we wanted. If only we had known about chamber of commerce websites!

If someone does a generic search such as hotels and attractions in your area, would your chamber’s website come up?

But it’s about more than just SEO – your website needs to not only be appearing high on the results page, but needs to be easy to navigate, esthetically pleasing and informative.

My generation is your chamber’s next major audience to reach, and our reputation of having short attention spans needs to be accepted! Within the first couple of seconds on your website a tone will be set about the professionalism of your organization. In addition, if we cannot find what we want within those same seconds, we’ll turn somewhere else.  If possible, reach out to the younger professionals of your organization and have them or their friends audit the accessibility and overall appeal of your website.

If a person wanted to find a hotel or a local business in your area, would they be able to from the homepage – without clicking through many navigation tools? Do you have a search box on your home page?  What does your home page say about your organization?  Although we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – we do, so make sure your homepage gives visitors the impression you want it to convey.

And, it’s not just about site visitors either. Your community is full of young professionals that may have pre-conceived notions of what a chamber of commerce is.  You can show young professionals that your organization is “up with the times” by creating a modern, easy to use website that contains updated and useful information for local businesses and visitors alike.

Over the past few weeks, I've spent quite a bit of time talking face to face with chamber of commerce executives, both at the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) Convention and the Western Association of Chamber Executives (W.A.C.E.) Academy.  We've talked about improving retention, increasing new members sales, generating non-dues revenue and more. But by far the hottest topic has been social media.

I find it puzzling that so many chambers of commerce are still "holding off" on using social media because they want to "get our strategy figured out." 

Sarah Hubbard from the Detroit Chamber of Commerce says to not "overthink" your use of social media. Jump in and start learning! See her post where she explains that you need to be familiar with the tools before you can determine a strategy for using them.

Let's think about social media relative to your other communications tools for a moment.

What is your strategy for your newsletter? 
For your events?
For your emails?
For your website? 

I'll guess that your strategies for these items involves providing relevant and useful information to your members regarding local business issues, government affairs efforts, chamber programs, benefits and policies, your events and community topics.  Do the same thing with social media!

Social media allows you to do all the things you're already doing, but with more immediacy and frequency!  And, your members get to participate!

Aha....that last bit scares many chambers.  How do you handle the "wild card" of your members?

As a rule of thumb, don't say anything on social media sites that you wouldn't say in front of a group of 50, 200 or 500 members.  Sure, you'll get some people who disagree you.  Take that opportunity to engage in a healthy discussion....be social!   See The Pitfalls of Social Media for additional thoughts on this.

Yes, I know I'm simplifying the process here, but my point is that it doesn't need to be hard!  You're already using a variety of other communications tools - simply add social media to the mix.  

But, who will "control" the social media for your chamber of commerce?  My suggestion is to let the same staff who manage your website, email, newsletters and other communications.  They're already used to crafting your chamber's message - let them start using additional social media tools to tell your stories.

Jump in! Don't worry about being a social media expert. Use common sense. Learn from others. Adjust to fit your other communications strategies.

And, have some fun, too.  The Asheville Chamber of Commerce does a great job of using their blog and Twitter accounts to provide information to their community and promote their members.  Recently, they also share a security camera video of a bear that had rummaged through trash cans in their parking lot.  It had no direct correlation to business in Asheville, but it was unusual and kind of fun.  I've seen other chambers share funny stories of things that happen in the office, too.  

These "real life" stories help build relationships with your members and followers.   While they want and need the information that can help them run their business more effectively or generate new sales, they'll also appreciate the fact that there's a real person (or people) behind all those great updates from your chamber.  

And regardless of your social media goals, building relationships will certainly be part of the strategy.

WebLink is proud to announce the winners of our big contest conducted at the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) Convention in Raleigh, NC.   Please read on to see if any of your peers were winners.

iPod touchGarmin Nuvi GPS system
Flip Digital Video CameraiPod Shuffle
$50 Amazon gift cardIt was great to meet so many of the chamber of commerce staff I've connected with on Twitter and other social media.  Thanks for stopping by the booth so we can now match a face with the avatar. :-)   That's one of the great things about social media - ultimately connecting face-to-face with someone you've been following for a while.  The online connection leads to an offline action.

WebLink received tremendous response and interest in our membership management software, website design and development, and non-dues revenue programs for chambers of commerce while at ACCE.  From all of the chambers we talked to it appears that now is the time most of you are seeking to make a change for the better.  Whether it's creating more functional websites, better utilizing your member database or jumping into using social media, chambers of commerce are eager to keep pushing forward.

Thanks again to those who stopped by the booth.  And congratulations to all of our winners!

Last week at the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) Convention in Raleigh, I sat in on Rahaf Harfoush's presentation on how the Obama campaign used social media, websites and email to connect to and engage voters during the 2008 Presedential Election.

She explained several ways that the campaign created online connections to facilitate offline actions by voters.  These included extensive use of technology and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, a dedicated social network, an iPhone app and many others. 

When she got to email, she stressed the key to their success: Hyper-Segmentation

The campaign delivered different messages to voters based on:

1. State
2. Interests on certain issues (indicated when opting in to emails)
3. Donation history

By carefully crafting messages for people and keying on their location, interests and history, they could make each email extremely relevant.  This helped make the recipient feel that the campaign truly knew who they were and that the issues discussed were happening right in their backyard.

Are you segmenting your email communications to your members?   Can you deliver relevant messages to your members so they feel like your chamber of commerce understands them and is working to serve their needs?  Can you make your messages personal?

I've mentioned segmentation on this blog before, but the concept bears repeating since many chambers of commerce are just now realizing the power of segmentating communications to help increase member satistaction and retention and generate new member sales.

Ways you can segment your members include:

• Employee count
• Business category
• Interests (collected through your website or membership application)
• Dues amount
• Length of membership
• NAICS code
• Previous event attendance

So, when you send out emails to members about how certain issues affect their business, why not break that email into two or more versions?  Send one email to members with 1-50 employees, and include quotes from similarly-sized business stating how the issues affect them. Then rework the email for the members with 50+ employees with a different take on the issues.

You can do this for just about every email you send to members using any number of ways to segment.  Try to make your "blast" emails seem like you sat down and typed out a note to each of your members individually.  By carefully crafting your messages, you'll end up demonstrating more value to your members.

This issue was highlighted recently by Ben Wolf, IOM, vice president of member services at the Nashville Area (TN) Chamber of Commerce in his article in ACCE's Chamber Executive, "Are You Effectively Communicating Your Value? Make it Personal."   (Congratulations to the Nashville Chamber for being recognized by ACCE as the top Chamber in the country for their dues range.  The Nashville Chamber is a WebLink International client!) :-)

In the article, Wolf states, "Communicating value is not just about delivering a standard message. It’s about identifying what one perceives as valuable. It’s not just what is said, but how it is said that makes the difference. It is tailoring a specific, targeted message to a targeted audience member."  Excellent advice.

Know your members though data collection and management
Segment your members for greater member intelligence
Communicate your value by using segmentation and knowledge gained from your data

Obviously, the key here is membership management software or a customer relationship management system that allows you to collect your members' interests and other demographic information and easily export that for use with email and other communications.  Find ways to input AND extract this information in your database and use it to deliver targeted, relevant communications.

And...why stop at email?  You could create different versions of postcards, letters, mailings....even your printed newsletter, to deliver relevant messages to your members.

Happy segmenting!

I've seen quite a few chambers of commerce asking questions about Twitter recently.  How often we post? What should we tweet about? Who should be allowed to post?

I'm always inclined to say "It depends," and that you should use the same guidelines for who speaks at events or with the media and who writes posts for your blog or newsletter.  But...let's find out.  Here is a poll (also below) to see who manages your chamber's main (organizational) account.  If you have more than one account or if several people manage the account, pick one answer - but please also add more information in the comment section below this post.   The poll will expire on August 1.

WebLink will be exhibiting at the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) Convention in Raleigh, NC July 30 and 31.  If you’re attending this conference, please stop by the booth (#224) to say hello.   We’ll have at least 8 staff members there:  me, Mike Bryan, DJ Muller, Misty Stennett, Pam Sefrino, Aaron Cox, Chris Painchaud and Nathan Marquardt.

We’d like to hear about the challenges your chamber of commerce is facing during these uncertain economic times and how you are working to strengthen your local business community. WebLink works with more than 400 chambers of commerce and business associations across the U.S. – a number of our clients are doing great work right now and even increasing membership.

While you’re at our booth, be sure to learn how WebLink can revolutionize the way your chamber operates and help you deliver powerful benefits to your members.  Our unique approach combines the industry’s leading membership managment software and award-winning website design and develoment with our proven marketing methodology to eliminate technology costs AND generate revenue for you year after year. 

If you're already a WebLink client, please stop by and let us know what we can do to help you continue to increase retention, gain new members, generate non-dues revenue and strengthen our partnership.  We value your business and want to grow with you.

I’ll be glad to discuss your social media ideas and goals, too, including blogging, Twitter, social networking sites, social bookmarking, and photo and video sharing.  There are a number of chambers of commerce doing great work with social media – I’d love to “talk shop" with you for awhile and learn from you, too.

And….(saved the best for last), we’ll be giving great prizes like Flip Video cameras and Amazon.com gift cards at the WebLink booth (#224).  It's easy to win....just stop by to enter!  We hope to see you in Raleigh!

Chambers of commerce, assocations and member-based organizations use a variety of tools to determine their members' satisifaction with their organization's services and benefits. Member surveys, Net Promoter Score, retention rate, event attendance, referrals, new member sales and many other tools are often used.

How about a new measure of your members' engagement with your organization?...

Is your organization "Twitter-worthy"?

Whole Foods recently launched a billboard campaign promoting how their products and prices are so great that they are "worth twittering about."


Can this be a new measure for your chamber of commerce or business association?  Are your members voluntarily talking about you in social media such as blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter?  Is your organization worth twittering about?

In his book, Purple Cow, Seth Godin writes about making your organization, products and/or services so remarkable that people voluntarily tell others about it.   Or, in other words....they make a "REMARK" about it.  

Here are some examples of local businesses making voluntary remarks about their chamber of commerce on Twitter:

I've even seen members of local chambers of commerce HELP the chamber promote their events by retweeting, voluntarily posting about events, recruit new members and spead chamber news.  Do your members use social media to help your chamber?  

Are you using social media to help them?

How can you make your association or chamber more remarkable?  For starters, start using social media to listen to, learn from and respond to your members!   And, make sure your staff is listening at events and meetings for ways to engage and connect your members as well. 

Being remarkable isn't just about having a great social media presence.  It's about having a genuine interest in your members and working to provide them the resources and opportunities they want and need to meet their goals.  Social media is just one way your chamber of commerce or association can help your members and be more "remarkable."

Here are some links you might fight useful:

• Five ways your chamber can use Twitter
• Use Twitter to welcome and promote your members
• More ways Chambers are using Twitter
• Is your Chamber "listening" to the internet?
• Social media marketing for Chambers
• Retain more members by competing with yourself

If you're wondering how you can start using social media more, here's an easy one - add a comment to a blog post!

I spend about an hour a day reading various blog posts from chambers of commerce, business associations, marketing organizations and social media experts.  I'm amazed at the time, energy and passion that writers put into their posts.  And their insight and ideas help me be a better communicator.  But, I don't tell them often enough.

And, of course, I try to compile and create useful information on social media, technology and marketing for member-based organizations to use in posts for this blog.   But, there are very few comments on this blog.

Adding comments to blogs shows the author that you read the post, absorbed the info and had a reaction to it.  And....it starts a conversation.  As social organizations, chambers of commerce, business associations (and their staff) usually welcome new conversations with businesses and members in their community.

Commenting on blogs can also be a great way of networking with the businesses in your area.   You may notice that after you comment on someone's blog, they may start follow you on Twitter and they may comment on your blog, too. You might even connect with them on social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.  You can take that opportunity to build a great relationship with them.  And that's what social media is about - sharing and building relationships!   And, as you know, the stronger those relationships are, the better chances you have for improving member retention and creating new member sales.

So, starting today, make it a practice to add at least one comment to a blog post each time you catch up on your reading.  Once a day would be great!  Yes, it does take a little time.  But remember how you feel when someone takes the time to thank you, compliment you for something you did or give you constructive feedback?  Pretty darn good, right?   Most bloggers WANT feedback on their posts - positive, negative, constructive...anything that lets them know that you've read their post.

What would you write? If nothing else, just let the author know that you appreciate them taking the time to compose their thoughts and share them with you.   But, it would be even better if you added a thoughtful comment, highlighting a certain point that you agreed (or disagreed) with and add your own thoughts to the issue. 

I know I would appreciate feedback as would just about every other blogger that I know.  So go out and add comments.  Be social!