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 June 18 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 week, I did a webinar for the Illinois Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (IACCE) on social media for chambers of commerce.  One of the questions at the end of the webinar was "What are the pitfalls of using social media."   I wanted to share my answer and expand on it here.

There are many benefits of using social media for sure, but there are also some dangers.  As long as you're aware of them, you can work to avoid these pitfalls and use them to your advantage.

Loss of Control
In the "good old days" you could send out your mass faxes, your printed newsletters and your blast emails and not have to really worry about any complaints.  If someone disagreed with what you were saying or doing, they couldn't really tell many people about it (without spending lots of money). 

Using social media means giving up some of that control.   If you use blogs, Twitter or social networks, it may seem like anyone and everyone can "gang up" on you.  I frequently am asked if chambers of commerce should allow comments on their blogs because the board is afraid of negative comments.  And this point alone keeps many organizations from jumping into social media.....but it shouldn't.

YES, allow comments on your blog! Social media is used to create and develop conversations and relationships. You can't have a ONE-WAY conversation - it has to be TWO way. 

What are you afraid of?  That a few people might add comments that they have a different opinion that yours?  Honestly, what could be better than having your whole community discussing the issue that you were supporting?  You get the opportunity to further your position, share additional resources and engage in healthy debate.   

Those people adding comments don't get to spam you, blatantly lie or use profanity - you can delete those comments.  But leave all other comments even if they disagree with you. Reply to them in a polite and professional manner and further the conversation.  You may even be surprised by some of your supporters who also join in the discussion.

No Communication is Disposable
Sometimes, due to the speed and sheer amount of communications, you may think that your tweets, comments, statuses or posts may go unnoticed.  No matter what nor when you post something, someone will see it.  And, in many cases even if you delete a post, is has already been indexed, saved or copied somewhere.

If you wouldn't say it in front of a group of 50 members, don't say it on your blog, Twitter or any other social media.  As an example of poor choices of posts, back in March the Batesville AR Chamber executive had to resign over some anti-Obama posts on Twitter.

Don't let these ideas scare you.  You do need to use social media to promote your organization's positions, benefits, member, events and more - but do know that there is a line you can cross and offend large groups of members.  Disagreement is fine. Debate is fine.  But offensive or inappropriate posts must be avoided if you hope to build relationships, improve member retention and gain new members.

Once you start, you can't stop
Your members are already using social media sites to network and share information for their business. Some of them are even hoping (expecting) you to be there, too.  They'll welcome you to the party and encourage you to share information and have discussions with them.  You'll probably have some good successes at first and be energized to continue.  Stay energized!

If you stop sharing and stop engaging your members, they will likely feel like you're neglecting them.  And, if they've continued using social media and grown their network, they may have plenty of other resources to find information.  So, keep your organization in the conversation and continue to listen, learn, adapt and share.  It does take some commitment, but you and your members will find it rewarding.


Please don't let these potential negatives keep you from using blogs, Twitter and more.   This blog (and many, many others) are full of great examples of companies and member-based organizations having great success with social media.  Here's an example: I got a note from Jessica Hibbard at the Frederick County Maryland Chamber just the other day.  She had just met a member at a Tweetup who said she joined the chamber after she found them on Twitter.

The benefits of using social media far outweigh the negatives.  Get started today!  If you have any questions, please let me know.  And, if you're already using social media,  stay connected to your members and your community online.  Keep them engaged!

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)

Today on Twitter, my co-worker Benji Craig (@benjicraig) posted this tweet: 

1. What is the role of of chamber of commerce
2. What is the purpose of a chamber of commerce

There are probably plenty of businesses in your community (and even some members) that have the same questions.

Right now, go create a blog post and/or newsletter article that explains not only the role of a chamber of commerce, but specifically how YOUR chamber serves your business community.  Include specific benefit programs, recent government affairs efforts and more to demonstrate how your ogranization works for your members. 

And, use this as an opporunity to ask your members how THEY see the role of your chamber.  You may find that some of them have much different ideas about what activities your chamber should be doing.  Cross promote your new post on Twitter and/or your LinkedIn group and engage your members in a conversation.  Ask them for their opions and ideas.  Educate them about services they may not know about.  Share the information you learn.

And, if you need ideas for more blog posts, see 25 Things Your Chamber Can Blog About.

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?

I posted this poll on Twitter yesterday and thought I'd share it here.  The poll will close on May 9.   Please let me know what your biggest challenge is regarding social media.   I'll work on some future posts to help you with those challenges.  Thanks!

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.

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

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

Twitter
Use Twitter to cross-promote your chamber's blog posts, events and members.  There are a number of chambers using Twitter in other ways, too. However, don't forget to follow businesses in your area and have conversations with them, too.

And, of course, you can cross-promote your LinkedIn group, Facebook page and any other social media you use.  I will stress again, though....don't just push information.  Mix up your tweets with questions and replies to your followers.

Blogs
We know that blogs are great ways to position your chamber as an expert and create communications that engages your members.  If you've been blogging for a while and think you've run out of topics, check out
25 Things Your Chamber Can Blog About.  

See some good Chamber blogs below.  These Chambers do a nice job of creating communications that are relevant for their members. Yes, you can mix in posts about events and members with legislative and business issues as you'll see in some of these blogs.

LinkedIn
If you're not on LinkedIn yet, go there now and set up your profile and have your coworkers do the same.  Using the tools that LinkedIn provides, you'll be amazed out how quickly you can build a network.  You can (and should) create a profile for your chamber, too.  Connect with your members and other businesses in your community.  Keep you and your chamber in the middle of your area's local and online networking.  If you don't, someone else will take that role.

There are plenty of chambers of commerce who have LinkedIn groups, too.
I've been researching chamber LinkedIn groups and will post soon about using these groups effectively.  In the meantime, here are some quick tips:

• It may seem obvioius, but ask questions. Push content and concepts to your LinkedIn group members and get their input.  
• Answer questions asked by others, or at least refer them to another resource in your area.  Be the great connector in the online world just as you are in the offline world.
• Post national and local business news, make it relevant to your community and see how your group members respond.  Again, ask for their input, see how it is affecting them or show them what they can learn from it.

Facebook
There are two things (among many) that you can do on Facebook for your chamber:  Create a group and create a page for your chamber.   The biggest difference is that people can "join" your group, but they can become a "fan" of your page/chamber.

There are subtle differences in how you would manage a group versus a page. (Why not have both?  The two can live in harmony, after all.)  For example, through Facebook's interface you can invite anyone to join your group (either your Facebook friends or send email to anyone else).  Once they are a member of your group, you can send messages to them about new items in your group, invite them to events, etc.   

On your Facebook page, you can send an update to your fans (through Facebook's tools) and let them know when you've added new videos, events or other content. 

See a list of chambers with Facebook pages and chambers with Facebook groups.   Similar to LinkedIn groups, be sure to engage your Facebook fans or members by giving them frequent updates and new content.

The big finish
Use this quartet of social media tools to cross-promote each other.  Use Twitter to announce a new blog post or ask for replies to a question in your LinkedIn group.  Connect your blog's RSS feed to your Facebook page and your LinkedIn profile.   Create blog posts about successful connections between members in your LinkedIn group.  Share information about your chamber and about your members.

However, please don't simply repost everything you do to every other medium.  Occassionally that's OK, but if you do it all the time, it will seem like spamming to your biggest fans (the ones who connect with you on all networks) and you certainly don't want to alienate them. In fact, you want to reward them!  Why not create some social media exclusive items like contests on Twitter or Facebook trivia questions that you don't promote in other areas?   Your followers and fans on each network will appreciate your efforts to create unique content. 

And....have some fun!  Let your enthusiasm for your chamber, your members and your community come through in yours posts.

By using these tools, you and your chamber can be make sweet music using social media - no chamber orchestras required. (OK, enough with the music puns!) ;-)

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

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

So, to keep it to one hour I'll be focusing on:

• New ways of looking at your website traffic
• Paid social media monitoring
• Free social media monitoring
• Mentions of the tools the can be used to measure and monitor

Click here to learn more and to register.

Due to time constraints, this session will mostly deal with metrics and monitoring tools rather than the social media tools you can use and how you could use them. For information on ways your chamber or business association can use social media, check out some of my previous posts. :)

• Use Twitter to welcome and promote your members
• More Ways Chambers Are Using Twitter
• Twitter Tools for Chambers of Commerce
• Worried you're not a social media expert? Don't be!
• Social Media Marketing for Chambers

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.

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

Ask your followers what they'd like to see posted from you.  The Boise Metro Chamber asked their followers this exact question. What a fanstastic way to engage your followers to learn how to provide information that they want.

Share business information about your community.   The Indianapolis Chamber shared information from another organization reporting on local job creation.  Even though the chamber didn't create the report, the news is relevant for those following the Indy Chamber. 


Reach out to people talking about your community.  If you're not using tools like Twitter Search or Twilert, start right now!   Set up searches for your chamber's name, your city's name and other community-specific terms you'd like to monitor.  The Wausau WI Chamber likely used one of these services to find the tweet below:

and responded with:

This is a great way to introduce someone to your community AND connect them with businesses in your area (YOUR MEMBERS) that can provide the products or services they are looking for.  You can even go further and create links that take them directly to your employment, visitor or relocation information pages as needed.

In the next example, a board member for the Tualatin OR Chamber saw this tweet from someone obviously visiting their community.  (And maybe not sure why they were there?)
and responded with:
Wow! If I had posted that original tweet, I would be very impressed that a local business person found it and thanked me for visiting the community. How cool is that?

Cross-promote your blog.  The tweet below is a great "double play" post from the Asheville NC Chamber.  First, they are cross-promoting their blog and including a link to the post.  But at the same time, they are sharing great information about the local business community with their followers.
And, here's another example of connecting your followers and chamber members with each other on Twitter.  The Rogers-Lowell AR Chamber shared several of their members who are on Twitter with this post:
And, if you're not following what the Loveland CO Chamber and their President/CEO Brian Willms are doing on Twitter, you should be.  There are many great examples of them sharing local information, relevant business and marketing information for their members, retweeting others, promoting members and events and connecting busineses in their area.  Bravo!

I'm very excited (yes, I'm a geek) that so many chambers are using Twitter and other social media to have conversations with their members and share information.   Do you have other examples of how your chamber is using Twitter?  Please share them in the comments below or email me at curt.moss[at]weblinkinternational.com.

A while back I posted about Five ways your chamber can use Twitter. With the recent increase in chambers of commerce using Twitter, I've seen some great examples of how chambers can use Twitter.  I thought I'd share some of them with you.

Promote your members

Several chambers of commerce use Twitter to announce when local businesses join.  Below is an example from the Stillwater OK Chamber. In this example, they are also providing the member's address and a link to their website.   You might also consider linking to a Google Map of their location or to that member's listing on your own website.  (You can use URL shortening services to fit within the 140 character limit)


Another way to promote your members is to announce when they receive local press coverage or awards.  The Clovis CA Chamber recently posted the item below to congratulate a member on being featured in a local publication, with a link to the article. 

Connect your local businesses on Twitter
By using some of the tools I mentioned in this post, you can quickly find people and businesses in your area that are using Twitter.  Once you've found them, why not let your followers know, too?  The Asheville NC Chamber shared two local businesses and asked for others as well.  This can be a great way to develop your community of Twitter followers.



Promote Ribbon Cuttings
Holding ribbon cuttings is still a big part of business for many communities.  If your chamber does them, why not use Twitter to promote them?  The Greenville SC Chamber does this.  One thing I might recommend is to include a Google Map link to the location of the ribbon cutting.


Note:  Try to use your chamber's name when ever possible.  Using "Stillwater Chamber" or "Asheville Chamber" will help your tweets be found in search.   You do use Twitter Search, don't you?  As you might imagine, a search for "chamber" returns many more results than one for "Greenville Chamber." (Including some for chamber orchestras, gun chambers, etc.)

And Twitter is tweaking the SEO value of their pages, so using your name may help your chamber be found in more Google searches.  Note that the Clovis Chamber used their Twitter name in the post above, "@ClovisChamber," which is another way of including your organization's name in the tweet.

How are you using Twitter to promote your members and your community?  Please share your ideas in the comments below and include links to your tweets if you can.

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

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

What do you do with it?  Do you:

• Create mailing labels to send your members a newsletter?
• Look up members' phone numbers when you need to call them?
• Enter event dates and committee meeting minutes?
• Send invoices to your members?

If you're just doing basic things and not gaining valuable insight from your membership data, you're missing tremendous opportunities to truly connect with your members (and future members) and expand your organization's influence.

Sure, your chamber will be able to survive by tracking basic information, sending out email and newsletters and running monthly board reports. But do you want to survive or do you want to thrive and enrich your local business community?

Why not shoot for more?  Why not use your database to:

• Extract member intelligence to help you better KNOW your members?
• Use this member intelligence to make better decisions for managing and marketing your chamber?
• Directly integrate member information with your website for real-time updates?
• Learn which members are the most (at least) valuable?
• Segment your members for more personal communications to them?
• Predict how certain members may act based on past behavior?
• Build relationships with your members in such a way that they become raving fans?
• Communicate the value your members receive so well that your retention rate soars?

You may have heard something like, "you don't have a database to put information in to, you have a database to get information out of."  So, what kind of data, information and business intelligence are you extracting from your membership management software?  Are you using that info to do work or to grow and improve?

What would it take for you to do this?  Some features that help make this easier are:

• A web-based member management system.  This let lets you access the system from anywhere and allow for real-time integration with your website
• Seamless integration with your GL system. Integration saves you time and potential mistakes during duplicate entries.
• Robust reporting cababilities.  As you find ways to better use your data, you're going to want to see it in dfferent ways too. A reporting tool that give you maximum flexility will also give you maximum opporunities.
• Multi-user logins.  If each of your staff can log in as themselves, you can track their interactions with your data and the relationships they have with your members.
• Dashboards.  Quick-glance information centers that help you quickly understand your data and take action on it.
• Advanced member segmenation.  Slicing and dicing your membership data into chunks can help you see which type of members are most valuable.  And you can communicate with each segment to deliver more personal, relevant information.

What if you were able to do all these things and more?  You could change the culture of your organization to be data-centic and use your high-tech system to create a high-touch environment for your members.  Show them that you're listening. Provide them the information they want and need.  Communicate your value to them.   All of this requires good data, a good system and good people to manage it.  (Don't forget about the people aspect).

You can make your membership database SO valuable that you actually wanted to hug it!  And, in turn, probably make some members want to hug YOU!

More and more chambers of commerce are starting to use Twitter recently.  However, I’ve noticed that many chambers only have a few followers and they are typically following even fewer people.  Of course, the best way to get more followers is to tweet frequently about topics of interest to your audience, share valuable information and engage them in conversations. 

Another way is to follow people located in your area.  When they see that a local organization is following them and that you’re providing relevant information, they will likely follow you, too. 

I’ve said before that chambers of commerce were the original social networking platform.  Chambers bring businesses together through events, committees and other meetings in the hopes of future business transactions.  Now, chambers have the opportunity to continue being the “great connector” in local online conversations.

But, how can you find Tweeple in your community? Sure, you can try Twitter search to see who’s tweeting about your area, but you can also use the tools below.  One tip:  be sure to add your location to your Twitter profile!  All of the tools below will search that field.

Monitter 
Monitter is a real-time monitoring tool that lets you see who is tweeting in your area and about what keywords.  First, at the top of the page, enter the radius you want to search around and the city where you’re located.  You can also enter three different keywords to search that are being tweeted by people in the area you’re searching. (You can also add/subtract columns using the ‘–‘ and ‘+’ buttons at the bottom of the page.) You might enter “chamber” or “taxes” or anything else that’s likely to be talked about by people in your community.  From your search results, simply click on the users name to go to their Twitter page, where you can follow them if you like.

Nearby Tweets
Nearby Tweets also allows you to search in a radius near a certain location and by keywords as well. It doesn’t update automatically like Monitter does, but it has a nice interface and is easy to use.  Once you search for local tweeters, you can click on their name to access their Twitter page and then follow them.

Twitter Local  
Twitter Local is not a browser-based too; it’s an Adobe Air application, similar to Tweetdeck or Twhirl, so if you like those tools, you’ll probably like Twitter Local, too.  Once you download and install it (Adobe Air is required for installation, which is free, too), then enter your location and your radius to start finding local tweeters. 

Twitter Grader
Oh boy, if you’re not addicted to Twitter yet, prepare to be!  Twitter Grader “grades” your Twitter account based the people you follow, your followers and the number and frequency of your tweets. Once you get graded, you can see who the top tweeters are in your city and state.  As you continue to add more followers and post more items, head back to Grader and see how your score has improved.   Once you've been graded a few times, you'll probably keep going back to see how your score has changed (thereby the addiction begins). :-)   There’s also a feature under your Tweet Cloud that lets you check to see if someone is following you, too.

There are so many Twitter tools out there...these are just a few. If you’re using another tool to find and connect with local tweeters, please let me know in the comments below.

I know that Frank Kenny of the North Mason WA Chamber and Daniel Klotz of the Lancaster PA Chamber and several other chamber executives have assembled lists of Twitter users in their communities and are working to connect businesses in their area through social media. The opportunities are there for you to do the same!

Be sure to follow back the people that follow you, too….especially if they are in your community.  You are using social media to see what’s important to the businesses in your area and engage them with conversations.  If you don’t follow people, you will appear interested only in promoting your views.  You’ve probably seen Twitter users who follow 100 people, but are being followed by 1,000.  What does that make you think about how likely they are to “hear” your concerns?

Here’s another recent post of mine that may be useful, too: Twitter tips for Chambers  

Also, here is an excellent resource for anyone new to Twitter.  There are loads of great tips, lingo and other information for everyone just getting started on Twitter.

I've noticed an explosion of Chambers using Twitter recently. There are at least 300 chambers and their staff that I know of using Twitter. Some are doing a great job and others are just getting their feet wet.

Note that the Batesville AR Chamber Exec resigned recently over an anti-Obama tweet (or more than one) on the Chamber's Twitter account. Here's the story.

I love that Chambers are using Twitter and other social media to engage their members and communities, but remember that your posts are public and can/will be found by lots of people. There have been several other examples recently of people getting fired or losing job offers based on their Tweets. Yes, you should use Twitter to promote your Chamber's events, blogs posts, positions on issues and to have conversations with your followers about all of those items. Know, though, that you can "cross a line" that offends your supporters, as seen in the Batesville example.

Check out this post of mine for some examples of chambers that are using Twitter well and some other Twitter resources for Chambers.

Also, a local business program here in Indiana recently published some great tips and advice for businesses just starting to use Twitter.

I hope you find this information helpful!

I've found a bunch of good Twitter posts recently and wanted to tie them into one post. 

First, "How to Twitter like a Pro."   There are some great tips here on how to get your feet wet in Twitter.

• Use a Twitter client - This is a piece of software that you download and install on your computer.  When you set it up with your Twitter account, it will connect to Twitter's API, instead of you needing to go to Twitter's website to see/post tweets.  Some popular apps are Tweetdeck (allows you to set up groups of friends), Twhirl and DestroyTwitter.  These apps have a rich interface and make Twitter immensely more enjoyable and efficient.  If you have questions about using these apps, please let me know. I'll be glad to help.
• Complete your profile - Make sure you put your name (or your org's name), a link to your website or blog and include a brief bio of you or your org.  You may also want to create a custom Twitter background of your logo or a picture to help tell people more about you.  Your Twitter profile is what most people use when determining if they should follow you.  Give them some insight into you or your organization.
• Jump in and Tweet - Be sure you're adding to the conversation or starting new ones.  Retweet items that you find interested or useful and praise your followers for their business achievements, blog posts, successful events, etc. 

Two chamber of commerce staff who use Twitter very well are Beth Bridges of the Clovis CA Chamber and Brian Willms of the Loveland CO Chamber.  And the Maryland Chamber and Asheville NC Chamber have organization accounts. Follow them to see how they use Twitter to engage their members and promote their local communities.  

This brings up a good point.  You can (and probably should) have Twitter accounts for yourself and your chamber.  And, you should also have multiple staff using Twitter so you can connect to more/different businesses and have multiple conversations.  (Many of the apps mentioned above allow you to manage multiple accounts) 

The Loveland CO Chamber has a chamber account (in addition to Brian's above) and several of their staff use it, too.  What if your entire staff was using Twitter?  How many additional conversations could you have?  How many new relationships could you build?

Now, after you've been using Twitter for a while, you will naturally find other people who you'd like to follow and you'll be followed by Twitter users you've never met.  How do decide who to follow back?  Do you follow everyone just to "be nice."    Check out these post on creating following guidelines: The Twitter Followhollic: An Epidemic and If you were stuck on a desert island, and could only follow 150 people on Twitter, who would you follow and why?

Don't feel like you have to follow everyone that follows you.  Remember, though, that you are using Twitter to have converstations with your chamber of commerce members and to find potential new members as well.  Follow the people that you want to have active conversations with and stay focused on your Twitter goals.

Here are a few more Twitter resources:

• How to: Build a community on Twitter
• How to: Live inside Twitter and still stay productive
• Follow Fail: The top 10 reasons I will not follow you in return on Twitter
  
• Five ways your Chamber can use Twitter

You don't need to be an expert to succeed at using social media for your chamber of commerce or business association!  What you need is a desire to connect with people and engage them in conversation.  (And you do need to actually have those conversations, too.)

Just setting up an account on Twitter and having a blog and creating a Facebook group isn't enough.   But, it doesn't really have to be much harder than that.  Simply use these tools to do the things you're already doing like delivering useful information to your members, listening to their concerns and fostering relationships.

If you're not already, you might first ask if your chamber of commerce needs to be using social media. You're mostly certainly going to hear "yes" whenever you ask this question.  It is one of the hottest topics among chambers of commerce and business associations - all businesses, really. Check out my post from last year: Should Chambers be expected to use social media?  

How do you get going?  Find 3-4 things you can devote some time to that will help you engage your members and prospects.  I would suggest: 

1. Blog - Blogs are clearly a great way to create content, position your chamber as an expert and engage your audience in conversations.  See 5 reasons your chamber should blog, chambers are not blogging WHY  and 25 things your chamber can blog about.
2. Twitter - Twitter is growing like crazy right now and plenty of chambers of commerce are using it effectively to engage the businesses in their community.  See Five ways your chamber can use Twitter and More chamber-Twitter thoughts.
3. Facebook & LinkedIn Groups - These are the two most popular social networking sites for business professionals.  Several chambers of commerce already have very active groups on these sites.  Keep your pages updated with new content and have conversations with your members in these groups.  You can repurpose existing content or create new questions and discussions.   Your members are already using LinkedIn and Facebook....why not meet them where they are?  See how chambers can use social networking sites.

Yes, using social media does take some time and effort and, as mentioned before, a desire to make connections with/for your members and prospects.

But, you don't need to be an "expert!"  There are plenty of great chamber staff out there who are simply using social media as a tool for them to further their chamber's mission and goals.  They are regular people who care deeply about the businesses in their community and they are choosing to engage those businesses using social media.  You can too!
  

Are you worried you could spend your entire day "playing" with social media and not get any "real"work done?  Check out: Tweeting 9 to 5: The Social Media Work Routine.  There are some good tips on balancing your time and getting started in social media.

As I've said before, chambers of commerce are the original social networking platform.  Using social media is just the logical next step in the evolution of your chamber. So, go out there and get social!   And let me know if I can help you in any way.

On this blog I've mentioned several chambers who are using social media well.  They include the Maryland State Chamber, Clovis California Chamber, Frederick County Maryland Chamber, Salem Oregon Chamber and North Mason Washington Chamber.   I know there are others, too....tell me your stories!  (Please.)  :-)

How is your chamber and your staff using social media?  And what successes are you enjoying?

I'm doing more research looking for upcoming whitepapers, webinars and technology presentations and I'd like to include your success stories. 

• Are you using your blog to position your chamber as an expert and engage your business community in discussions of the issues?
• Have you used Twitter to reach out to prospects and convert them to members?  Or have you connected existing members to each other to foster a business relationship?
• Do you have a Facebook or LinkedIn page/group that is active with member participation? Are your members asking/answering questions and having conversations on these sites?
• Have you used YouTube or other video site to promote your members or your community?
• Does your chamber or community manage a Wiki where community members can collaborate on business topics?
• Do you have your own social network where members are connecting and building relationships?
• How else are you using social media?

As you may know, I worked for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce for eight years...chamber is in my blood and I truly enjoy working with so many chambers around the country.  I love hearing how you're using social media and I also love sharing your successes with other chambers.

Please send me an email at curt.moss@weblinkinternational.com to let me know how you are using social media (or if you have questons about how your chamber could use social media). 

There are so many chambers of commerce doing great work and evolving their organizations.   Let's show everyone that chambers are progressive and using new media to engage their members and their community!

I really do want to hear your stories!  Thank you. 

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:


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:

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!