Social Media is the Great Equalizer!

I just had a thought I wanted to share as I am preparing for a presentation to a group of Chambers in Northern California next week. I have been asked to speak on membership development to a group of small/mid sized chambers.

I have been to numerous Chamber industry conferences over the years as an attendee and a speaker; and one thing I have always noticed is that it can be overwhelming trying to implement what you learn. Representatives from smaller Chambers sometimes feel frustrated hearing presentions from speakers who work for Chambers with muli-million dollar budgets. Many attendees are left with thoughts such as "If I had the financial and staff resources that (fill in the blank) Chamber has, I could do that too, but we have a small budget and just 2 staff members."

Enter the "great equalizer"--- Social Media. In the last couple of months since diving into to social media arena, what has struck me is that it's not the Mega-Chambers that are necessarily standing out in this area, but the brightest stars in this arena seem to be smaller chambers. Most notably are the North Mason Washington Chamber, Clovis California Chamber and the Tempe Arizona Chamber. I purposely did not hyperlink to their websites because I would like you to look them up on Google. When you "google" their names you will see the strong Social Media presence that each of these Chambers has built.

A significant part of my presentation next week will be devoted to the opportunties that Chambers have to help their members grow through Social Media. I passionately believe that all Chambers, regardless of staff size or budget, have the ability to take the lead in this area.