Your schedule is filled to the brim. You’re busy doing what you need to do for the chamber and trying your darndest to help share your audience with your member businesses. You’re hoping that even the smallest bit of social media attention will help members grow their customer base but it’s exhausting. It’s like trying to be a stage mom to 20 kids. Some days it feels impossible.
So how do you help members without losing your mind?
We turned to our Chamber Pros for some advice. Here’s what they shared on how they give a little social media love to members.
Creative Ways to Help Members on Social Media
Implement Member Crush Monday
Make one of your member’s Mondays that much better with this idea from Shasta Martin, Membership Director at the League City Regional Chamber of Commerce. She shared that her chamber does Member Crush Monday (#MCM) where they randomly pick a business to highlight every Monday.
The Lewisville-Clemmons Chamber does something similar with their Saturday Shoutout.
How can you randomly (and easily) pick a business? Karen Duncan from East Hants & Districts Chamber of Commerce shared this brilliant solution: The Wheel of Names.
If you have something larger (like your entire membership to pull from), you can use a random number generator. Just type “random number generator for <insert your number of members or people>” into Google’s search bar and it will give you a number almost before you can hit enter. Or use your favorite AI to do the same.
Celebrate Important Anniversaries
While you can go through your member roster and pull out the members who have been with the chamber (or in business) for an impressive number of years, there are easier ways. For instance, upload your member roster into AI and ask it to generate a report of all businesses celebrating membership anniversaries in that month and sort by years of membership.
You can also place the onus back on the businesses to tell you when their business is celebrating a big year. Send a call out to businesses celebrating a designated anniversary (1, 5, 10, etc.). Tell them to send you their information so you can help them celebrate in a big way. Shauna Rupp shared, “They contact us, and we do a post for them. It’s caught on in our community and I have a super cute Canva template we just insert their pic in!”
Pre-plan Posts
Social media can be a grind if you’re trying to fit it in during the rest of your hectic day, but there are a lot of posts you can pre-plan for greater efficiency. Carmelle Bielenberg shared that at the Stayton Sublimity Chamber of Commerce they, “…do a weekly ‘Thank the following businesses for renewing’ for those that renew on time, highlight specific members relative to important dates (like Tax Day, Manufacturing Day, law enforcement appreciation, etc…) and celebrate milestone years in business, awards, or new leadership of current businesses, in addition to new member introductions.” Most of those types of posts can be pre-planned and they still have the same meaning to those being highlighted.
Love Everyone Equally
One of the biggest concerns chambers have when it comes to highlighting members on social media is fairness. They want to make sure all members get a similar amount of love. But just as in any relationship, some members are easier to love than others, right? The easy ones give us a lot of content to disseminate, while with others we have to dig and pry for it.
The Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce tracks what they share and when. Shauna Marie Lee Wessely, the Chamber’s Executive Director wrote, “We keep a spreadsheet and put the date each time we do a post. This way, we can see which members we’ve shouted out most, and which may need more attention.”
Do What You’re Already Doing
Social media doesn’t have to be something you do over and above what you’re currently doing. It can be an extension of visits and places you’re already going. And since video is really hot these days, capturing your travels around town is a solid engagement strategy. For instance, Sara Hickman shared what she’s been doing at her chamber, “We are just being involved in our community and being intentional in taking pictures and posting them. For example, I got coffee from a member so I made a reel about it and tagged them. We are also being intentional to take pictures and videos at events. When I visit a member I am making sure to get some content with each visit.”
Businesses appreciate the tag/check-in and by posting when you visit, you’re not only helping show the chamber is out and about supporting them but also helping those businesses with word-of-mouth marketing. You’re there anyway. Might as well document it and share the love on social.
Have Fun with Merch Monday
Have you ever watched a show with hosts drinking from branded cups? Of course, you have. That kind of promotional item or merch gets a lot of attention. You can give your members that same kind of attention by using some of their merch. Kim Young from the Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce created Merch Monday where she gives special attention to branded items. She shared, “I have tried to collect merchandise from our businesses throughout the years and now do a Merch Monday on most Mondays, wearing their shirt or drinking out of one of their mugs, etc. The other thing we started was Chamber Cheer. We have a committee of chamber members and we visit 3-4 members (as a surprise) once a month for 5 or so minutes, take a quick pic and post all of them that we visit. It will take a while to get to all of them but it’s something we’re trying.”
Highlight Your Activities and Your Members
If you’re highlighting something on social media that you would anyway (like your podcast or a new blog) and it features a member, go above and beyond just giving the member’s name. Check out this idea. The Lewisville-Clemmons Chamber told a bit of the member’s story and used a quote to convey her personality. Best of all, this is re-run content as it was recorded in January but still sounds fresh and exciting.
If you’re looking for ways to get your members more attention from the community, these social media ideas are a solid start. Creating a content calendar and posting schedule can help keep you consistent. Plus, most of these types of posts can easily be incorporated into things you’re already doing. When you’re strolling downtown, make a quick video. Go live. You’re already there and while it may feel a little weird “talking to yourself,” people will quickly realize what you’re doing and they’ll want to join in.
