By Pam Sefrino, National Sales Manager

Do you really know what’s happening in your membership? What are your members truly interested in? What events or workshops have the attended in the past year? How long have they been a member for that matter, and why do they stay?   And, how can you use this information to help improve retention and even generate new members sales?

Many business associations and chambers of commerce abandon what I like to call “member discovery” because it’s just too much work, it’s not automated and it requires a ton of data entry.  Some associations may have the capability of automatically tracking member participation, subscriptions or interest groups through their web site integrated with their membership management software, but many more do not.

Also, those that do have the ability may still not have a process in place for effective information collection and use because the staff has not been adequately trained.  More often than not, associations who are tracking this information actually have no idea how to get it out of their membership management system to help them achieve their goals. 

Missed opportunities abound for demonstrating membership value and increasing retention and sales.

Here are a few things you should consider tracking if you are not:

• Reason(s) for joining
• Their interests (business and personal)
• Committees, groups, communications they would be interested in or are participating on
• Business goals, what they are looking to achieve
• Date the business started
• What events they attend regularly
• What, if any, events or programs they have sponsored
• What other groups and organizations they are involved in outside of your association
• Their social media outlets

How do these things apply to membership value? With this type of information being collected regularly, your association is now able to:

• Show members what they’ve invested in the association in terms of dollars
• Share with members what they’ve received…what’s in it for them!
• Show their participation at events, on committees, at workshops etc.
• Identify trends with individual or groups of members
• Show referrals and connections made between people
• Connect people based on activity, interests and relationships

And so much more.

And if you can show this to your members through one simple report that you can send them periodically throughout the year, even better!

Associations today need to take a proactive, ongoing approach to demonstrating membership value for retention, and it all begins with effective tracking and then sharing of results. Knowledge is power!

Pam Sefrino is the National Sales Manager for software and technology sales at WebLink International. With more than 10 years of senior level association experience, Pam, with the rest of the WebLink team, is focused on helping membership organizations to remain relevant and easily gain and use valuable member and customer "intelligence" to help streamline operations and communications and create long-lasting member value, increased retention, new member sales and non-dues revenue.

By Pam Sefrino, National Sales Manager

We all know that one of the primary reasons that companies join business associations and chambers of commerce is to network, have access to resources and grow their own business.

One very simple (but often overlooked) thing that business associations do unknowingly to hamper members’ opportunities for business growth is unintentionally hide their member directory – which is essentially a business directory – on their web site. More on this in a minute.

Some business associations do not publish a member directory at all. I’ve always had trouble understanding the reasoning behind keeping the membership list a secret from non-members. I advise associations to consider how making their member directory public on their web site can benefit their members (drive more business and connections) and also their own organization.  Prospective members want to know who else is “a member of the club.”

But back to the hidden directory. First, consider your varied audiences. Your members are a primary audience and are seeking to connect with each other. Make it easy for members to find and connect with each other by making that directory prominent on your site.

But who are your other audiences?

What about consumers and others who come to your site to learn about the industry, or who are, in fact, looking for a referral to members in your industry?

Sometimes business associations and chambers of commerce unknowingly bury their online business directory under the "Members" section or "About the Organization" section in their web site’s navigation, not realizing that visitors to their web site can’t find it or don’t have the patience to search for it.  See the example below where the Membership Directory is buried under a complex sub-navigation menu.

Here’s a simple fix. Make it easy for visitors to your site to find your members with just ONE CLICK. Place your member directory in your main navigation. Do this, but also consider other pages on your site where it makes sense to link to the member directory, such as your resource center, professional development page (members can learn from other members!) or your join page.

The key here is to think about your entire audience – members, potential members, visitors seeking information, key stakeholders – and then plan and build your web site to serve all of those audiences.

One last item in terms of impeding your members’ success – automatic directory updates! Many business associations and chambers of commerce still do not have automatic updates from their membership management software to their web site. That means when a new member is put into the member database, or a change is made to a current member’s information, that update is not automatically transfering to your web site.  This results in incorrect or outdated information interfering with the referral and connection process.

Waiting even one day for membership updates to your web site or sending changes to a third party to update when they get a chance is no longer an option. 

Lack of a seamless integration between your database and your web site hampers your ability to deliver referrals and drive business connections to your members.  

Make it EASY for your members to find other members and gain more business value from your organization.  They will thank you for it!

Pam Sefrino is the National Sales Manager for software and technology sales at WebLink International. With more than 10 years of senior level association experience, Pam, with the rest of the WebLink team, is focused on helping membership organizations to remain relevant and easily gain and use valuable member and customer "intelligence" to help streamline operations and communications and create long-lasting member value, increased retention, new member sales and non-dues revenue.

By Pam Sefrino, National Sales Manager

Your members want more. That’s the bottom line. The biggest question they are asking themselves when they actually take a minute during the craziness of their day to consider your association is, “what’s in it for me?” or “how am I really benefitting from this?”

Every day, association professionals face the challenge of not only providing increased value to their members, but figuring out exactly what an individual member finds valuable, providing that value, and also demonstrating that value back for retention and additional non-dues revenue opportunities such as sponsorships or advertising.

Typically, what associations tell us is that they provide great value to their members and they share all of these great “benefits” with prospective members during the member sales process. And, associations share the value they provide with current members in their print and email newsletters, through event invitations, and on their Facebook page, Twitter feeds and other social media outlets.

Associations tell members all about the wonderful opportunities that the association provides, and how that member will benefit.  But often missing from a typical association sales process and ongoing membership communications is finding out what’s important to each individual prospective or current member, and reaffirming those priorities periodically.
 
I think that often, part of the problem is that associations don’t consider that they have to continually “sell” the benefits of membership, and that the most important thing in any sales process is actually listening, not talking or telling.

According to Sandler Sales Institute, which, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is a professional sales training program, too many sales people – and that includes association professionals, whether your title includes the word “sales” or not – “Spill their Candy in the Lobby”…which means, they give away too much information, too soon! They make the mistake of not listening more than they talk. They make the mistake of not finding out what’s important to that prospect or member, and they don’t take the time to fully understand that individual’s priorities, goals and challenges.

So, don’t make that mistake!

Put together a plan to find out what’s important to prospects and members. Formulate some questions to get at what their challenges, priorities and goals are. Once you’ve spent a lot of time listening, and identifying an individual businesses’ challenges and goals, only then share with them a solution ---

• how the association will help their individual business to achieve its goals
• what committees would be most beneficial
• what events would serve them best, based on what they told you
• what communications, newsletters, social networks, would be best – FOR THEM!

Listen to prospects and members, identify what’s important to them, make sure you take note of it and then tailor Association benefits to their needs. Move away from One Size Fits All membership. That will bring you one step closer to creating loyal members.

And remember track the intelligence you gain on each member in your association management software and use it to create member loyalty! More on that in my next blog post…

Pam Sefrino is the National Sales Manager for software and technology sales at WebLink International. With more than 10 years of senior level association experience, Pam, with the rest of the WebLink team, is focused on helping membership organizations to remain relevant and easily gain and use valuable member and customer "intelligence" to help streamline operations and communications and create long-lasting member value, increased retention, new member sales and non-dues revenue.

I read an article today on Business Insider that QR Codes are dead.  Many chambers of commerce and business associations haven't even started using them yet. 

The article does have some good points about QR codes sometimes being awkward to use.  And as a call to action in an advertisement, they may not be as effective as hoped.

However, there are many more uses for QR codes than in advertising.   Ticket confirmations, contact information on business cards, product information, mobile optimized web forms and many more can be great conveniences if accessed via a QR code.

And, there are plenty of ways chambers of commerce can use QR codes - and many other social media technologies - to create exposure for their members and demonstrate value.  

At the core of this issue for chambers of commerce and business associations is this question: "Which new technology should we adopt and when should we adopt it?"

I think that chambers of commerce should experiment with as many new technologies and social media tools that they can.   Yes, this can be time consuming sometimes.  But running the new technology through some filters can help set priorities.

• Can our organization use this technology to help improve member satisfaction/retention or increase new member sales?
• Will our members or target audience know how to use this new technology? (How much will we need to educate our audience?)
• What is the staff time required to implement this new technology?
• What might we need to stop doing in order to use this new technology?

If you can create a moderate impact with little staff time, I say "Go for it!" even if you're a little unsure about the long-term benefits.  Your chamber will be viewed as more progessive because you are trying new things and "staying up with the times."  

Of course, you'll need to eventually evaluate the effectiveness of the technology or tool to make sure you and your members are getting benefits.  But, there will always be new technologies to evaluate and work into your communications, too! 

Is your organization using QR codes?  What other technologies or social media tools are you considering that you haven't implemented yet?

by Aaron Cox, Membership Management Specialist

I have seen the puzzled look on the faces of board members, volunteers and sadly even staff at chambers of commerce and business associations when asked the question, “Do you know anyone else that would benefit from membership in your organization?”

While referrals are one of the best ways to generate new membership sales, existing members often understand the value they receive from the organization but can’t always readily see the same benefits for others. 

Further, with busy lives, packed schedules, and a thousand other thoughts how do you get current members to refer you? 



Here’s a thought — a quick survey of members that asks,  “Who Fixes Your Car,” “Who Cuts Your Hair,” “Who Does Your Taxes,”  or something similar that your members are likely to use in your community.   

Send the survey to members, ask them to complete it and end with 2 easy questions: “Are you happy with or feel you are receiving excellent value from our organization” and “If asked by any of the people/businesses above would you recommend membership in our organization.” 

Then take these business names you receive to develop a list of the common services, activities, and business categories that will be well served by your organization.

There you have it—several new referrals, potentially lots of new references, and at a bare minimum a nice new list of prospective members. 

It’s worth a shot.  Even if you get 50 people referring 3 people each and you can gain 1/3 of those referred as new members, at $200/member, you'd have $10,000 in new member revenue. 

What works for your organziation when asking for referrals from members?

Aaron Cox, a Membership Management Specialist at WebLink, brings a wealth of Chamber and not-for-profit leadership and management experience. Immediately prior to joining the WebLink team, Aaron served as the first executive director of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Executives (KCCE). During his tenure with KCCE, the membership doubled, revenue increased dramatically, sponsorship of the organization was increased over 400% and three affinity programs designed to provide necessary services to KCCE chamber members and their members were developed and implemented.

Prior to KCCE, Aaron managed several not-for-profits in the areas of workforce and economic development. These organizations have ranged in size from a staff of one on a shoestring budget to staff of 60 and $6.5 million budget, hence his keen awareness on how to maximize staff, technological and other resources.  You can contact Aaron at aaron.cox@weblinkinternational.com.

In a blog post last week, I shared part of my presentation from the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals 90th Annual Meeting, titled "Social Media Strategy for Impacting Member Sales & Retention."

In that post I discussed how tools like the Facebook Like button and others can help make your chamber's website content more "sharable" to encourage your members, fans and followers to post your content on other networks.

How can you get them to share your content, though?  Well...let's give them something to talk about. That is, let's get them to tell their story through you....or tell your story through them.   How would you do that?  One way is to talk about THEM.

Here are some ideas: 

Ask them for stories about how they got new business through your chamber of commerce, add those stories to your website or blog and tag/mention your members when you promote that website content on social media sites.  (Tag members in photos or posts on Facebook, mention their specific user ID - such as @curtmoss - when posting on Twitter.)

You'll be suprised how many of your members will share that information via reposts or retweets.  Your website content will be automatically shared with all their followers, increasing positive word of mouth for your chamber.

The best time to get your members to talk about you is when they are happy, so be sure to ask them to post after:

• joining your chamber of commerce
• attending events
• they receive awards or recognition from your chamber
• ribbon cuttings
• major business iniatives led by your chamber

Ask your members on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites, "Do you know any businesses that should join the Chamber?"  You'll engage them in conversation that both of your followers will be able to see.  AND....be sure to thank those members in additional posts when the referral leads to a new member for your chamber.  For a double-dip, thank both the new member and the member who gave you a referral in the same post!   Be sure to ask your followers to welcome new members to the chamber or community, too. 

Talk about what your chamber is doing and ask your members and followers for their thoughts on:

• local business issues
• government advocacy efforts
• chamber programs
• discounts and affinity programs
• events
• community topics

Reply to your members.  Retweet them or reshare their news on your website, Facebook or Twitter.  Ask them questions.  Includes links and photos in your posts, too!  Your members will be more likely to share your posts if there is a link to useful (or fun) information.

Get your members and followers to share your content and your story with THEIR followers.  Their followers all work for businesses would could be prospects for joining your chamber of commerce. Or they could already be members who need more evidence of the value your chamber is providing.

I've got lots of great examples of chambers of commerce doing all of the above.  There's just too many to put them in this post.  Let me know if you'd like to see them, I'd be happy to share them with you.   What other ways are YOU getting your members to share your content?

Last week, I presented a session at the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals (FACP) 90th Annual Meeting called, "Social Media Strategy for Impacting Member Sales & Retention."   It was great to see how many chambers of commerce have implemented social media into their communications efforts!

I follow around 700-800 chambers of commerce and their staff on Twitter and Facebook and I see several chambers doing a great job of engaging their members and finding ways to demonstrate the value they bring to the business community.

In preparing for this presentation, I reviewed an older blog post of mine, Social Media Strategy for Chambers of Commerce, first.   That post talked about simply getting in the game and using social media as another tool in your chamber's communications plan.

But the FACP presentation had a specific topic:  using social media as a STRATEGY to improve member sales and retention. 

We know that word of mouth is a very powerful tool when a member of your chamber tells a non-member how great it is and that they should join.  You've probably had members refer other businesses to join your chamber of commerce in the past.  And we know that social media is perhaps the best word of mouth marketing tool around, so.....let's combine those concepts!

Think about this:  How often does an email you send to a member get forwarded to their entire contact list?  How often does a member share your printed newsletter with all of their friends and colleagues?   Not very often, right?  

Well, what if there was a tool that did that for you?  There is.  The Facebook Like Button. (and more.)
When a fan/follower of your chamber of commerce clicks on the Like Button on your website, they automatically share that content with all their followers.  It's like a mini-endorsement of your chamber, your events, your program or whatever the content was about.  (Feel free to click on the Like Button below to test it out.) :-)




I'd recommend adding the Facebook Like Button, Twitter tweet buttons and other similar services to all your website pages.  Add This and Share This make it easy for website visitor to share your content, too.  There are also toolbars like Meebo and Wibiya that "wrap" the bottom of your web pages with sharing tools.

Adding these features to your website will make it easier for your site visitors, fans and follower to share your content.  Now, you've got to give them something that they want to share! 

I'll share some ideas on how you can do this in an upcoming blog post.  How are you getting your followers to share your content online?

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 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!

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 respective social media accounts.  Use widgets to include your chamber’s Twitter feed on your blog or website and link your blog’s RSS feed to your Twitter account and your Facebook stream.  You never know when someone’s going to be paying attention for the first time, so be sure to cross promote your efforts in the appropriate media outlets.

4. Post more photos  – Services such as Flickr or Picasa and many others make it very easy to upload photos and link to them or embed them on your site.  Take lots of photos of your community or at events, ribbon cuttings and press conferences…anytime…and share them with your site visitors. Use photos in your site’s design, create photo galleries and embed slide shows on appropriate pages.  Your members love to see photos from events. With a digital camera and a notebook computer, you can even upload directly from an event! If you use Facebook for photo albums, make sure you link to them from your website, too.  (See #5 above)

3.  Add more videos - With the availability of easy-to-use pocket video cameras like the Flip series and cell phones that can capture video, there is no excuse for not using videos.  Videos add a dynamic aspect to your site and site visitors love to watch them.  Use videos to post member testimonials, “live” updates from city council meetings or events.  Include videos in your blog posts to show the human side of your chamber and communicate your position on issues.  Generally, keep most videos 1-3 minutes long with occasional more in-depth videos.  You DO have a channel on YouTube, don’t you?  (If not, go create one now.)  See this post with examples of chambers of commerce using YouTube.

2. Include search – Include a site search box on your home page.  On every page would be even better.  Usually, search boxes are located somewhere near the top right of the page, but wherever you place it, keep it consistent on all pages.  Despite all the great changes you’ve just made to your navigation (in point #9), some people simply want to search instead and they expect that you’ll have that option. If you don’t, they might not stick around.

1. Create great content – Yes, you could call photos and video content, but I’m talking about good old fashioned text.  Relevant, timely and frequent.  A blog is one way to add content and helps position your chamber as an expert and news generator.  But, you should also add content to other areas of your site.  Keyword-rich text about visiting, living in and working in your community plus local business news helps your site rank higher for local searches – something your chamber needs to own! 

Use your readers’ vocabulary to deliver relevant content.  When possible, include real-life examples from members of how certain issues affect their business.  Keep text short and simple, use correct grammar and spelling and make it unique and interesting.  You might not think you can create that much content....yes you can! You can write about the history of your community, famous residents, long-time members and their impact on business in the area.  You can write about current business issues and member benefits and all the things your chamber does on a daily basis to benefit business in your community.  Great content is what will attract visitors to your site and updated content is what will bring them back. 


Notice a trend with these items?  Yes, they all involve work that you must do.   You must take an active roll in producing great content, setting goals for your website and making change that help produce the results you want.   Do these things well and you'll ultimately create more value for your members, which helps improve retention and generate new member sales.

And, you've probably noticed that many of these items aren't exclusively about your website - they involve other tools as well.  Your website should be the hub of ALL of your communications efforts and it should overlap with each of them.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, your blog, your printed newsletter, your events - they all should tie back into your website.  This is probably a shift in thinking for some chambers of commerce.   Think of your organization as a media company and find ways to use your various communications tools together to tell your story. 

There's an added benefit to making all these improvements, too, besides better usability and increased traffic - non-dues revenue.  I'll highlight ways you can leverage all the hard work you've done on your website and improve your chamber's bottom line in an upcoming post.


What improvements have you made to your website?  How have you measured the results?  What other ways do you think chambers can improve their websites? Let me know in the comments below.  Thanks!

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.)

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.

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!

Recently, I posted about chambers of commerce being "Twitter-worthy." Since then, I've had some good discussions with chambers of commerce on how they are working to be remarkable for their members. 

In some cases, chambers are leading the way in their community by being on Twitter and other social media and showing their members how to use it.  In others, the chamber is just learning how to use social media to connect to and engage their members to improve member satisfaction, increase retention and even gain new member sales. 

Some chambers are using social media AND getting back to more face-to-face and phone conversations to truly show their members that they care about their business. I know of a few chambers who are calling every member 2-4 times per year just to say "Hi," ask how their business is doing and see if there's anything the chamber can do to help them.  With all the media available today, sometimes a simple phone call and genuine concern can go a long way towards being remarkable for your members and improving member satisfaction.

Today, I found this post on Twitter where a chamber of commerce is clearly remarkable for at least one member.  WOW!  What a great unsolicited remark!

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!

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.