On Monday, the Wall Street Journal published a story about how chambers of commerce are helping small businesses stay abreast of the latest technologies.  The article demonstrates how some chambers of commerce are using technology to engage their members and strengthen their business community.

We're very pleased that two of our clients, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Salem (OR) Chamber of Commerce were highlighted in the article.   A few months ago, we had our PR firm contact the Wall Street Journal in an effort to help our clients get media coverage demonstrating how they are benefiting their communities.  A few of our clients' stories - and even a mention of WebLink - failed to make the final edits, however.  (Darn editors!) ;)

Now consider this blog post by Tony Rossell - Associations Get Mixed Grades for Helping Members in a Recession    (I know that chambers of commerce are sometimes different from associations, but I think there are some common themes here.)  Tony mentions a report, "Beliefs, Behaviors and Attitudes in Response to the Economy," that shows how members feel about their organization's efforts to help them during these economic times.   

In his post, Tony highlights several key points from the survey.  How do you feel about the survey? Are the results similar to what you're seeing with your members?

Tony also says in his post:

"The need to better communicate value came through to me especially in the answers to questions about what members say about their associations during difficult economic times."  

I touched on some ways chambers can do that in this recent post.   Many of our clients use referral reports and custom fields to track and report on all the ways their chamber provides benefits to their members - on an individual basis.  They then use this information in communications (phone calls, emails, mail) throughout the year to help communicate value.

The Wall Street Journal article shows some clear cases of chambers of commerce are evolving and using technology to create and communicate value for their members.   Back in December, I wrote this post about creating value with technology and have since heard from several of our clients.  We've heard that some of them are indeed able to increase member retention and generate new member sales (even during a recession) by using technology.

Grafton deButts of the Loudon County Chamber of Commerce, had this to say:

"We've been having success using the web referral report as an insert to our dues invoices that go out to the membership. Many members who are not active attendees to our events are seeing the value just in the customers who see their company from our website, or are guided to their website. We've been using this tool just over 4 or 5 months now and have seen retention increase, which in this economy for us has been a difficult uphill climb. Also, each member I've spoken to in person has decided to renew because of the information I share with them from this report."
 
How is your chamber of commerce or business association using technology to create and communicate value? Let me know in the comments below.   I'd love to hear your success stories!