1. How to Prove Your Chamber’s Value Using Social Media By: Mike Schlossberg, Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce

2. 1) Does my Chamber really need Social Media? 2) What does my Chamber talk about on our Social Media sites?

3.  Radio – 38 years  Television – 13 years  Internet – 4 years  Facebook – 9 months …to get to 100 million

4. 1. China – 1,330,000,000 2. India – 1,147,000,000 3. Facebook - 500,000,000 4. United States - 304,000,000 …it would be the 3 rd largest in the world.

5.  Among Generation Y (roughly 1982 – 1995) – 96% is on a Social Network.  Social Networking is the most popular activity on the internet today – 22% of all time on the internet is spent on Social Networking. “Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.” Source: Social Media Revolution, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8 If Facebook was a country...

6.  Facebook: Over 500 million users, 2 nd most trafficked website in the world.  LinkedIn: Over 80 million members, one new join every second.  YouTube: Over two billion video views, 3 rd most trafficked website in the world.  Twitter: Over 165 million registered users – majority of tweets come from a mobile device.  Blogging: 77% of all internet users read blogs.

8.  Don’t just have a presence for the sake of having a presence.  Nothing looks worse than a page that was updated two or three times and then…nothing.  If you are going to use Social Media to prove your value, you must answer some basic questions first.

9.  Who is going to handle the operation & supervision Social Media?  Are they empowered to resolve customer issues, make media decisions, etc? If not, who do they have to talk to and what kind of delay will that place on responses?  Do you have internal Social Media policies?  When can your employees use personal accounts? What can they and what can’t they say?  How will you handle criticism?  Most important: What is your internal capacity?

10.  Find other Chambers!  Search for other Chambers on Social networks and see what content they are using/how they are engaging.  This will give you some good ideas about how to proceed.

11.  Facebook: Create a fan page.  For smaller Councils, a new group page may be a better option.  Twitter: Great a Twitter channel.  YouTube: Create a YouTube channel (and buy an inexpensive video camera).  Blog: Create a blog.  LinkedIn: Create a LinkedIn group.  A word of caution: LinkedIn is not the best for content sharing & distribution.

12.  In this world, the average business-person is busier than ever. The most valuable resource isn’t money, it’s time.  If someone is going to give you their time and spend it on your Social Media, how do you keep and reward their attention?  The answer: Top-notch content.

13.  News Stories: What is in the news today that may be of interest to your members?  Staff/Volunteer Profiles: Show off your staff & volunteers – let your readers get to know them on a professional & personal level.  Member of the Day: Allow any member to be the “Member of the Day” and have one or two lines about them in your Social Media.  New Member Welcome: Welcome your new members as you get them.  Member Benefit: Highlight a particular member benefit – with the focus on how that benefit can help the reader.

14.  Business Advice & Tips: Provide useful information geared towards helping your members make money.  Job Openings: When a member has a job opening, we put it on Social Media.  Polls & Surveys: Poll your members – this will yield valuable insight and show your members that you value their opinion.  Pictures & Video of Events: The more, the better! Use as much multimedia as possible.

15.  Chamber Community Activities: What sort of volunteer/non-profit work are you doing in the community?  Public Policy: Provide updates on public policy happenings (and how they may affect your members), as well as information on your Chamber’s public policy positions.  Interviews: Interview community/business leaders.  Guest Blog Post: Allow one of your members to write a blog entry that highlights their area of expertise (but isn’t a blatant self-promotion).

16.  Blog: http://lehighvalleychamber.blogspot.comhttp://lehighvalleychamber.blogspot.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheChamberhttp://www.facebook.com/TheChamber  LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com and search for “Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce” under groups.http://www.linkedin.com  Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/GLVCChttp://www.twitter.com/GLVCC  YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/GLVCChttp://www.youtube.com/GLVCC

17. Mike Schlossberg mikes@lehighvalleychamber.org  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MikeSchlossberg http://www.facebook.com/MikeSchlossberg  Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MikeSchlossberghttp://www.twitter.com/MikeSchlossberg  LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/MikeSchlossberg http://www.linkedin.com/in/MikeSchlossberg