Social Media Training for Your Members

Do you know how many of your small business members are experts in social media or know nothing about social media?

There have been many articles on delivering value to our chamber members.


Delivering value is about solving problems!

Why not start a monthly training session on social media that addresses:

  • The pro's and con's of the different platforms chambers are using today (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Blog, YouTube, etc.);
  • How to get online and create a content calendar (a previous blog post on Content Rules and be found HERE;
  • Measuring outcomes with the likes of Google Analytics, etc.; and
  • Share successes and failures of other businesses who have played in the social media sandbox.

These monthly sessions should be great to not only get those members online that are not currently online, but improve the techniques of those already on the Internet to help them grow their businesses.


Find a college student who you can hire once a month (first Friday of the month) to conduct a one hour session over coffee.  Be consistent with the same time and venue each month.  Whether 10 or 1 show up, you're providing value.


For a great resource on content marketing go HERE and visit HERE for social media tips or visit my blogroll on the right navigation bar for other resources.


In addition, here's three websites I visit on a regular basis Copy Blogger, Jeff Bullas and Content Marketing Institute.


Solve your member's social media problems by creating a monthly training session on how to use the latest tools on the market (free or fee based tools).  Click HERE for 14 Social Media Marketing Tools Recommended by the Pros.


That's a great way to engage your members on a regular basis and solve their social media challenges!

Chamber Mergers: Lessons Learned

At a recent best practices session with a dozen of seasoned chamber CEO's the topic of mergers was addressed.

With a sluggish economy it was suggested that there will probably be more mergers or outright closings of chambers in the future, not less.

Let's start with a couple of facts:

  • There are over 7,000 chambers of commerce in this country
  •  Local chambers are in competition with each other

Now that we can agree that mergers are inevitable in our business, as discussed in this session, I thought I'd share a few comments from the panel.

The following statements we're made:

  • Most difficult thing I've ever done!
  • Put people on your board who can be change agents
  • You may not have a job at the end of it
  • It's emotional
  • In today's global economy there will be more mergers in the future
  • Address all the issues
  • You must believe in the merger
  • Potential companies don't look at community lines, it's bigger than that

But at the end of they day, you need to do what’s best for the organization and the surrounding community.

Can you come up with any partnerships with surrounding chambers of commerce?

For some research on the subject of nonprofit mergers by the Stanford Social Innovation Review go HERE.