We know that one of the main reasons companies join chambers of commerce is to increase their business.  And the exposure your members gain via your website is the single largest way you can promote them and drive traffic to their business.

The value that members receive from exposure on - and traffic from - your chamber’s website often justifies their membership renewal each year.  And, that value can be used to acquire new members, plus generate non-dues revenue through website advertising.

With chamber websites clearly being a critical communications and member promotion vehicle, any chamber executive who is serious about promoting their members and their community must ask themselves two questions.

Is our website doing all it can to promote our members?

Chamber of commerce websites have certainly evolved over the past few years, but the time has come for a major leap forward.  

Consider this:  40% of all search engine queries are done with local intent, meaning some city name, place name or local term is included.  If your site is not search engine optimized, you’re missing a huge opportunity to capitalize on your chamber’s and your members’ local presence.  After all, your chamber and your members are already LOCAL, so if your website is not showing up for local searches, you’re missing out (and so are your members).

Perhaps the single largest asset your chamber has is your members and their collective marketing power via your website.  Chambers must leverage this information to maximize their exposure to search engines.  A search engine optimized website lets Google and other searches engines realize the relevance of your website (and your chamber) and helps you create additional exposure for your community.

Perform some simple test searches for your community.  Search for your popular business categories, such as hotels, restaurants, attorneys, golf, etc., but include your city or area name in the search.  (For example, “Indianapolis hotels”)   Does your chamber’s site come up on the first page?  Are you in the first 3 results?   If not, your website is not doing all it can to drive traffic to your members. 


Who is competing with our chamber and taking credit for promoting our members?

Online directory sites such as ShopLocal, Yelp, CitySearch, TripAdvisor, YellowPages.com and dozens more are all competing with your chamber for your members’ attention AND for their money. 

If these sites come up higher in searches for local businesses in your community, they will get the credit for driving traffic to your members, not your chamber.  Eventually, business owners may question what value they are receiving from your chamber if they aren’t receiving referrals or traffic from your site.  When they don’t see enough value from your chamber, they will drop their membership.   

Plus, all these sites sell advertising of some kind.  If your members find those sites more valuable for promoting their businesses, they may purchase ads on those sites as well, thereby taking money out of your local community.  That money should be going towards dues or advertising on YOUR website where you can use it to strengthen your community.

Your website is critical to your success

Chambers of commerce have long been concerned about how to gain new members, increase retention and generate non-dues revenue.  A well-designed, search optimized website helps you accomplish all three!

Decide today that your website is critical to your success and dedicate the resources needed to make that happen.  Do an evaluation of how well your site is indexed by Google.  What changes can you make to improve your ranking?  Do you need a new website?  Do you need help?   Determine what you need and go do it!  Your online relevance is eroding – but you CAN reverse it and take control of your community’s local online presence.

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?

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce is kicking off their 2010 Membership Drive with a special incentive for current members.   Recruit three new members and the Chamber's Chairman will wash your car.   Read more about the offer on the Maryland Chamber Blog.

I like this particular offer because unlike prizes or other incentives, it personalizes the organization.   And, unlike special offers where the new member gets a reward, in this case the exisiting member gets the prize.

However, this does require the member to recruit new members.  How about doing something special for the existing members, too, just thanking them for their business?

I saw on Twitter today that the Greater Owensboro Chamber has members personally visiting other members, thanking them for their business.     And I know that the Medford/Jackson OR and Las Vegas Chambers have staff members personally call each member just to say "Hi" and see how they are doing.  

In the fast-moving world of social media, sometimes the personal touch can go a long way.

What special things does your staff or board personally do for your members?   Please share them in the comments below.  Thanks!

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. 

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?

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.)

I keep hearing that when individuals search for businesses within a community, the first place they go is to the chamber of commerce website. But what if that individual doesn’t know what a chamber of commerce is?  While this may seem absurd to some, I’ll admit my ignorance – before working for WebLink, I did not know much about chambers of commerce, let alone that chambers are a trusted business search engine. And the sad reality is that most of my generation is missing out on the valuable resources of chambers simply because we don’t know about them.

A perfect example. I recently moved to Indianapolis from Dayton, Ohio. After settling in my new apartment, I decided I seriously needed a hair cut before starting my new job. So I turned to the internet. My search (hair salons near 46268) had over 300,000 results, all of which were individual websites requiring me to sift through more results than I cared to. Had I known that chambers of commerce are the ‘Google of their community’, I would have saved a lot of wasted time going through various websites – some that did not even relate to my search.

Chambers are not only valuable to their members, but also to people like me who just want to easily find relevant information on the internet in ONE PLACE. Membership directories are like a one-stop shop for people looking for local businesses. Chambers of commerce easily connect searchers with their member businesses – saving the searcher time, and giving the business a potential new customer.

How is your chamber making sure you reach consumers who might not know what a chamber is? There are probably residents in your community who don’t realize the tremendous resources and services your chamber of commerce offers.   Sure, you might say that “residents aren’t our target for membership.”  But, consider that all those residents have to work somewhere, right?  Are their businesses members of your chamber?  And, what happens when all the young professionals start their own businesses or move up the corporate ladder.  It would be beneficial to your organization if they already knew what the chamber was.  It would be even better if they already had a relationship with your organization.

How are you getting the attention of young professionals in your community?  I know many chambers of commerce have started separate young professionals groups.  How is that working? Are they eventually transitioning over to your chamber or are they losing interest?

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!

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 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 Valley (CA) Chamber of Commerce will soon find out.  The chamber will be closing its doors - but not closing for business - and have the employees work from home through several web-based software solutions, allowing them to stay connected and share information without all being in the same location.  Note: One of these solutions is WebLink's web-based membership management software, WebLink Connect.  :-)   For more info about their descision to "go virtual," read "Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce Relocates ... Online"

Yes, the chamber will continue to have events and and other meetings - they will just all be at member locations rather than the chamber's offices.  “Chambers are community-based organizations,” says Michael Kramer, a Goleta Valley Chamber member. “Going virtual forces chamber staff to meet in the community they serve."

Sure, there are some examples of virtual chambers of commerce already, but none that I know of that serve a local community.  These virtual chambers were designed to exist solely on the internet and serve a certain demographic. The Goleta Valley Chamber's move marks the first time I know of that a chamber with a brick and mortar presence has made the move to a virtual presence. 

The trend towards going mobile is increasing, for sure.  Last year, the International Data Corporation (IDC), predicted that by year-end 2011, nearly 75% of the U.S. workforce will be mobile.   And, Forrester's Consumer Techographics survey showed that telecommuting will rise to include 43% of the U.S. workforce by 2016.   A few years ago, Manpower released results of a study showing that 80% of U.S. workers would prefer telecommuting to a physical commute to work.   

What is your organization doing to be more mobile?  Does your staff use notebook computers that they can take with them?  Would your staff be more efficient if they could work from home?   Do you have web-based membership management software so your staff can utilize your database from anywhere?  What other technology would need to be removed or replaced for your staff to be mobile?

Perhaps the larger question is....is this even a good idea?  What are your thoughts? Do chambers of commerce and business association NEED a physical location to be successful and to provide benefits to their members?  Please let me know in the comments below.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this move works out for the Goleta Valley Chamber.

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 segmentation strategies drive sales, increase retention, promote satisfaction, define program development, and deliver high lifetime value.  

Cathi and Mike teamed up last month to present a webinar on "Leveraging Technology to Measure Member Loyalty and Engagement." That session was very well received by chambers of commerce and business associations. 

Cathi has more than 18 years experience in sales & marketing and training & development. She has worked with organizations of all sizes and across industry sectors to plan for market changes and to develop customer loyalty strategies.   She is a national trainer for ACCE (American Chamber of Commerce Executives) for membership development and facilitates regional workshops on membership sales and retention. Cathi is also an instructor for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Organizational Management.


Mike Bryan has more than 14 years of experience in business strategy, marketing, and product development in the web-based software industry, including experience at First Advantage, TruStar Solutions, Major Video Concepts and consumer products at Walt Disney. TruStar Solutions was an Inc 500 Fast Growth Company in 2003 and 2004.  At WebLink he is responsible for client acquisition and retention, marketing strategy, advertising, and public relations initiatives, strategic business development and partner management.

Learn more about the webinar and register here.  Register on or before July 15 to receive the early bird rate of $49.  After that date, the registration will be $59.  We hope you can join us for this informative and inspiring webinar on using techonology to better understand and manage your membership.

Last night, I participated in a Small Business Buzz Twitter Chat (Hashtag #sbbuzz) with staff from chambers of commerce and small businesses around the country.  The discussions centered on how chambers of commerce and small business can use social media to benefit their community and each other and how members can gain benefits from being members of their local chambers.

The question of “What businesses will receive the most value by joining their local Chamber?” sparked some very good discussions. 

A few people replied with things like "The members who receive the most value are often those who add the most value - participate on committees, volunteer, etc."   Yes, it may be true that members who put a lot into their membership will likely get more measurable return in terms of sales, leads, etc.  And, every chamber has at least a few of those power members, however, those members are generally the minority of members. 

My concern lies in making “you get more if you participate” part of the message of the chamber.  Each member has their own perception about how the chamber can/will benefit them. In order to meet/exceed those expectations, the chamber must know at least some of those expectations and strive to meet them on an individual level….and communicate that value as well.  Knowing why a member joined and what's important to them helps you improve your membership retention and increase new member sales through referrals from those satisfied and value-receiving members.

If the answer to “What businesses will receive the most value by joining their local Chamber?” is “the type where the employees work to gain more value” that’s fine, but I don’t think it would be wise for a chamber to say that to their members. ;-)   Otherwise, I'm not sure there is any one type of business that would necessarily benefit more than others.  I suppose a business who sells to local businesses and consumers would gain more benefit than someone who sells to businesses NOT in their community, but even then there are exceptions.

My response to the question was, "The ones that receive the most value are the ones that PERCEIVE the most value. Depends on how the chamber tells the story."

While every chamber has power members that will naturally gain value from their activities, I think the larger effort by the chamber should be placed on knowing which members are most valuable to them from a business perspective and finding ways to demonstrate to each member the value they received based on each members’ definition.  How do you do this?  Through a robust membership management system with CRM features and detailed reporting of course! 

What do you think about the question of “What businesses will receive the most value by joining their local Chamber?”   Do you think it's a good idea to tell member that they get more out by putting more in?   How do you go about communicating value to EVERY member and trying to meet/exceed their personal expectations.  And, lastly, how to you use technology to accomplish this?   Please add your comments below.  Thanks!

Here are some posts on similar topics:

• Communicating Value To Your Members
• Chambers using technology to create and communicate value
• Know your members (and show them that you know them)

A 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 them with their audience and allow people to subscribe and comments on videos.  You can add your logo, "feature" certain videos, and change the layout and look of your channel to create your own customized space. 

Recently, YouTube passed Yahoo! as the world's #2 search engine as more and more people are looking for and viewing videos on the web.  Video is here to stay (and growing) and your chamber of commerce or business association can use it too, to engage businesses in your community, improve member retention, increase new member sales and even generate non-dues revenue.

To create your channel, go to YouTube, click sign up and start adding videos. Your channel will be at http://www.youtube.com/user/YOURNAME, so choose your YouTube account name wisely. :-)

Here are some examples:

South Carolina Chamber of Commerce   The South Carolina Chamber has more than 50 videos on their channel and they add new videos fairly often.  In addtion, they've added a good keyword-rich description of their chamber and included contact information and a link to their website.  They also have a large featured video that gets your attention when you first visit their channel.

Asheville (NC) Area Chamber of Commerce    The Asheville Chamber also adds new videos frequently and has a large featured video.  They use a Flip video camera for many of their videos.

Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce Wow! 128 videos so far. Lots of ribbon cutting videos.

Maryland Chamber of Commerce  The Maryland Chamber has more than a dozen videos, including one from the new chairman explaining his goals in his new role.

With the availability of pocket video cameras like the Flip series, it is very easy to record a video and upload it to YouTube in just a few minutes.  Yes, you can upload professionally shot videos as well and I think it's good to add those if you have them.  Personally, I think more content is good, so I like more frequent, casual videos as a way of building a relationship with your members.  Even if the videos have some "hiccups," I think more videos and more frequent updates outweigh the
time and expense of creating professional videos. (Most of the time)

What could you record?  Plenty!

• A daily announcement and in essence create your own TV show
• Ribbon cuttings - Instead of a static photo, why not use video to capture the sights and sound?
• Member testimonials - When one members see the additional exposure another one is getting, they too will want to record a testimonial video.
• Member commercials - You could even charge members to add videos to their listings in your member directory where they could promote their products and services.
• Updates from the state legislature or city council meeting. 
• Events - Even if you don't record the whole event, you can post key points made by speakers or big announcements made at the event
• Daily life - Show your members what it's like working at your office.  Do a "man on the street" impromtu inteview with your staff, asking them what their working on and why the like working for your organization.
• Calls to action - Do you need your members to "get out the vote" or act in some other way. Use video to create an emotional appeal instead of text in an email or a letter.
• Explain a benefit like your Office Depot discounts or health insurance plans.  Remind your viewing of the exclusive benefits of joining your organization.
• Walk members through how to use your website or blog. (Remember, videos can also be screencasts, using tools like Camtasia or Jing)

Remember, too, that you can embed videos from YouTube in pages on your site or your blog, too.  By adding videos to your web sites, blogs, Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles, etc., you'll have more opportunities to engage your audience.  Remember to create videos that focus on issues that are important to them - demonstrating your relevance and giving them reasons to renew their membership each year.

How is your chamber of commerce using videos?  How has the reaction from your members been?  What's working? What's not working?  Let me know in the comments below or send email to curt.moss[at]weblinkinternational.com.

Here are some other posts you might find useful regarding videos:
Get Social (Media) with a Testimonial Event
Is your chamber using video yet?

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.

I 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 members.  She is a trainer for the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) and has delievered presentations and consulting services to numerous chambers of commerce and business associations.   In addition, she has twice presented at WebLink's annual user conference and technology summit and received rave reviews both times. 

Mike Bryan joined WebLink in May of 2008 and brings strong business intelligence and product management skills to WebLink's marketing efforts.  He's able to translate "for profit" business concepets into ways that chambers and business associations can use them to better manage their business operations.  Mike recently wrote an article for the ACCE's Spring issue of Chamber Executive titled, "Chambers Turn to Technology to Beat the Recession."

Learn more about the webinar and register here.
Register on or before May 6 to receive the early bird rate of $49.  After that date, the registration will be $59.  We hope you can join us for this informative and inspiring webinar on using techonology to better understand and manage your membership.

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 attend all the early morning breakfast meetings and the after 5:00 mixers and the weekly total resource development campaigns and I've seen their the genuine concern for local businesses.  Or maybe it's because I've seen so many chambers jump into using social media and reinevent the way they run their business by providing more and better benefit to their members. 

I do believe that chambers of commerce in general need to change in order to survive and thrive, but...BUT...why focus on pointing out these fairly obvioius facts (they are true for LOTS of businesses) and then wrap up the post with (essentially) "if they don't, they'll be gone." If you're going to point out a problem, why not offer a solution....or better yet, show examples of how some chambers of commerce ARE indeed changing as they suggest so that others can learn from them. Do the very thing you suggest that chambers should be doing and connect them with someone that can help them. I want others to see the success stories and know that chambers CAN evolve.  And I've tried to share information on chambers that are evolving here on this blog.

To be fair, Joe Abraham does have some decent suggestions near the end of his post. They mostly focus on delivering real value to your members by directly helping them increase profits and improving the lives of the individual members.  These demonstrate some of the opportunities and decisions I believe chambers have before them.

Be the great connector
Chambers have held mixers and networking events for a long time.  While these may still have some value, the two authors point out some deficiencies in these types of events.  (Those who understand the value of long-term networking will disagree, I'm sure).  However, chambers can go beyond these events and actively connect businesses who may need/want each other's services.  This may involve "business match making" services or using technology to match business together.  Listening to your members' concerns and needs though social media (and in-person visits) can be a great way to start connecting them to other businesses.  Certainly social media will be a major part of chambers' efforts to connect local businesses.  Those chambers already using social media will have a great head start.

Be THE business advocate
Dave Kilby (and others) at the Western Association of Chamber Executives have encouraged chambers to be active in business legislative issues for years.  Some chambers have long avoided jumping into the political arena.  If you're not there already, now is the time to be the advocate for business in your community and make their concerns heard.  Blogging, email and Twitter will take larger roles for those organizations who are politically active.  They'll be able to share information instantly and solicit feedback from members.

Provide personalized business services 
Many of the chambers of commerce I know are run by staff who have no or little experience running small business themselves. (Including me when I worked for one). Chambers could hire succesful small business owners and managers to provide one-to-one consulting services for other small businesses.  Things like creating business plans, developing marketing materials, even dealing with HR issues could be provided as paid services.  And because the small businesses would be getting help by someone who had "been in their shoes," they may feel like the chamber truly understands their needs.

Promote/develop a strong local economy
Despite Jack Deal's comments about how people can buy anything from anywhere in the world (which is true), the reality is that the vast majority of people in your community shop locally for most items. They drive to work each day past local gas stations and local grocery stores.  They drop off their cleaning at local dry cleaners and they buy lattes at the local coffee shops.  Chances are they have an account at the local bank and they bought or sold their house through a local realtor.   They live in neighborhoods full of other people that do the same types of things they do....they spend 75-90% of their time working in, playing and and shopping in their LOCAL area.  So, why wouldn't the chamber of commerce can work to create positive economic conditions in the area and promote their members?

Create/demonstrate value on an individual basis
Ah, the world of mass customization.  Each member has different needs and different reasons for joining the chamber.   Chambers will need to use customer relationship management software and other technology to create value for members as they need and want it.  And, you'll need to have customized ways of communicating that value to each member.  It won't be enough to say "you're on the chamber's health plan."  You'll need to tell them how much they spent, how much value they got and how much they saved over using other plans.   Where will you store this informaton? (Hint: Hopefully in your membership management sotfware) Can you provide this info for your Office Depot discount plans and other benefits? If not, you should probably start finding ways of getting this information and communicating it to your members. 

Explore different avenues for revenue generation
What if the chamber was an open organization that had benefits for all businesses, regardless of if they "joined."  Could you create a new set of services and charge for those services to all businesses?  Could you then offer a "premium" level of service that in essense replaced your membership dues structure?  What new product and services would you create? For more info on this concept, see an older post, Retain more members by competing with yourself.  Certainly, customer relationship management software and social media will have roles here as well.

What about exclusivity?  This has long been a selling point on being part of the chamber.  "If you're not a member, you won't get X, Y or Z."  Is it time to let go of this sacred cow or is it time to reinforce it and make it even stronger?  I can see both sides of this argument and I've love to get your input.

What are your opinions about the two posts above?  How is your chamber changing to provide more and better services to your members?  How will you use technology to help you evolve your chamber?

And most importantly, what do you think is the future for chambers of commerce?  Please leave a comment below or email me at curt.moss[AT]weblinkinternational.com.

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 post:

How are you implementing these and/or other strategies? How are you using technology to help you?    Are you creating segmented communications to deliver relevant information? Are you communicating value to every member using benefit tracking, referral reports or other tools? How are you attracting new members?  Are you showing your members that you "know" them?

I also found this line a bit contradictory: “Surprisingly, they identified online media (blogs, Facebook, twitter, etc.) as the least effective tool at their disposal.” The article goes on to say that most organizations will be increasing their spending on social media or keeping it the same. I suspect the response is due to the difficulty in determining direct ROI when using social media.  I know that plenty of chambers are having good success with social media and are doing the great job with it.

So, do you view social media as a valuable tool to help you survive and THRIVE in the recession? And if so, can you share your reasons why you think it's valuable in the comments below? I would love to know what you think about the article and report AND what you are doing to focus more on your members as mentioned above.

Edit:  I got a reply from one of our clients and it was so good, I just had to add it to this post.  Jessica Hibbard from the Frederick County MD Chamber had this to say.