How can you use technology to promote your members and your community?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...Read More » »

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...Read More » »

How can your chamber of commerce improve your website?Earlier this week I posted Part 1 of 10 Things Chambers of Commerce Can Do To Improve Their Websites.   Today, I continue with Part 2.

5. Cross promote your social media activities – You’ve probably got a Twitter account, a blog, a Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile.  You might even have a Flickr account or a YouTube channel.  How will your site visitors know about these unless you tell them? Include social media icons on your home page (every page would be better) and link them to your...Read More » »

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,...Read More » »

Social media strategy for chambers of commerceOver 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...Read More » »

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 touch
Dolores Simon – Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
 
Garmin Nuvi GPS system
Rebecca Trujillo – Albuquerque Economic Development, Inc.

Flip Digital Video Camera
Kelley Schiesl – Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce
Steward Sandstrom – Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce
Dick Rush – The...
Read More » »

ACCE Convention, July 29 - August 1 - Raleigh, NCWebLink 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:  meMike 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...Read More » »

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...Read More » »

Want to be more social? Add a comment to a blog post!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...Read More » »

Do chambers of commerce NEED an office to be successful?Chambers of commerce have long held a physical presence in their communities.  Their offices have been a central meeting point for business leaders, small business owners and elected officials to network and discuss local business issues.  And, the chamber office is usually a resource to visitors in town looking for maps, guides or other local information.

But, does the chamber of commerce need a building or physical offices to provide benefits to their members and their community?

The Goleta...Read More » »

WebLink International will host a webinar on July 22 titled "Top 5 Reasons to Use Member Segmentation to Drive Your Marketing Strategy."  Cathi Hight of Hight Performance Group and Mike Bryan, WebLink's vice president of marketing will demonstrate ways you can use technology to learn more about your members.

This webinar will show you ways to use your membership management software plus your website and survey data to analyze and define your ideal target market for members. You'll learn how...Read More » »

YouTubeA couple of weeks ago, I posted about The Social Media Quartet, the four social media tools used most often by marketers - Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook.  Now that you've mastered the Quartet, are you ready for the encore? ;-)

In that post, I mentioned the Social Media Marketing Industry Report.  After the social media quartet, YouTube was the next most frequently used media. 

At YouTube, several chambers of commerce have created their own "channel" where they can add new videos, share...Read More » »

WebLink International will host a webinar on May 13 titled "Leveraging Technology to Measure Member Loyalty and Engagement."  Cathi Hight of Hight Performance Group and Mike Bryan, WebLink's vice president of marketing will demonstrate ways you can use technology to learn more about your members.

Cathi HightI first met Cathi about 3 years ago and immediately connected with her on the concept of using member intelligence to help organizations make better decisions and provide better benefits to their...Read More » »

What's the future for chambers of commerce?I came across two posts yesterday that were very similar in nature and I wanted to share them here and get your input.

What Happened to the Original Social Network? by Joe Abraham

Is Your Local Chamber of Commerce Obsolete? by Jack Deal

Read these two posts, then continue below.

I've seen these posts mentioned on other sites and they bother me a little bit, too.  Maybe it's because I worked for a chamber for 8 years and know how hard the staff works to serve the members. I've seen the staff...Read More » »

If you can use only 4 social media tools, use these:  Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn & Facebook.   These are by far the social media tools that marketers most frequently use, according to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report. (page 19)
Social media tools that marketers use

Each one of these - Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn & Facebook - can be used in concert (see what I did there) with each other AND with what you’re already doing in your organization’s communications efforts.  But how can your chamber create a communications symphony wit...Read More » »

Next week, I'll be doing a webinar for the ACCE titled, "Web 2.0 Marketing Metrics for Your Chamber."  It will be on Tuesday, April 28 at 1:00 PM Eastern time.

I've been doing research on how to monitor and measure your website traffic and your use of social media in the "web 2.0" world.  As you would expect, there is a huge amount of information out there.  This could easily be a 3-4 hour session. 

So, to keep it to one hour I'll be focusing on:
  • New ways of looking at your website traffic
  • Paid...
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How is the recession affecting chambers of commerceToday, I found this blog post that discusses how chambers of commerce and business associations are being affected by the recession. Rick Cohen, the post's author, cites a number of sources, including the 2009 Economic Impact On Associations Report by McKinley Marketing.

There are certainly many examples of the economy affecting chamber membership numbers and sponsorship revenue. However, with each obstacle there are opportunities. :-)

I thought this was an interesting nugget from the blog...Read More » »

Last week, I posted about how chambers can use Twitter to welcome and promote members.  Since then, I've seen lots of chambers using these concepts to talk about their members on Twitter.  I've also seen some great examples of chambers of commerce using Twitter in other ways and wanted to share them with you here.

Ask your followers what they'd like to see posted from you.  The Boise Metro Chamber asked their followers this exact question. What a fanstastic way to engage your followers to learn...Read More » »

Have you hugged your member database today?I've been working with chambers of commerce and membership organizations for nearly 15 years. I've never seen anyone hug their computer, let alone hug their member database. Oh sure, there have been some who've said they LOVE their database (WebLink clients, of course!) ;-), but mostly it's viewed as a necessary evil.  Let's change that!

First, why do you have a database? Or member management software? Or a customer relationship management system?

What do you do with it?  Do you:
  • Create mailing...
Read More » »

At the Western Association of Chamber Executives (W.A.C.E.) conference in Las Vegas, WebLink held a drawing at our booth for Flip video cameras.  (Learn how you can use these (and similar) cameras to create videos for your website.) Congratulations to the three chamber executives who stopped by the WebLink booth and won cameras:
Read More » »

 

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