• Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Frank J. Kenny's Chamber Pros Community

Chamber industry training and resources including social media, digital marketing, membership sales, retention, non-dues revenue, engagement, and more.

  • About Us
  • Our Services
  • Free Resources
  • CPEd Login
    • Login
  • Contact

How Well is Your Chamber Communicating?

Chambers, how are your communicating with your members?How well is your chamber communicating with its members?

It used to be a simple answer something along the lines of, “We send out a monthly newsletter, event invitations, and dues renewal letters.”

Right?

Now how often you communicate is not the only answer to that question. Now the format matters too.

A Story of Generational (Mis)Communication

 

A member of the Chamber of Commerce Professionals Group on Facebook told a story of an experience she had with generational differences in communication preferences.

See if this makes you nod your head like I did.

What started as a brilliant idea of generational teaching turned into a communication blooper (through no fault of the chamber):

A lot of our businesses are owned or managed by Boomers. There are a lot of old school who don’t see value in social media, web presence. We have some members who don’t even have an email address. 

We set up a partnership between the high school FBLA 
(Future Business Leaders of America) and local businesses to work on Facebook. The kids were going to teach the business owners how to use and help set up. They kids and business leaders couldn’t even connect to get together to do this. The kids didn’t pick up the phone to call the members and the members didn’t respond to emails. When the members tried to call the kids there weren’t able to get a hold of them. Out of the four or five businesses that said they’d like the help I think only one ended up getting it. The rest gave up when they were unable to connect. It became too much of a hassle. 

Sound familiar?

Whether you agree in the generational stereotypes presented in articles on the Interwebs or not, the communication preferences are vastly different. As a member of Gen X, I prefer to communicate over email unless it’s something that needs clarification (like a project). It’s less of an interruption than a phone call.

Boomers, generally, prefer face-to-face but if that’s not possible, phone is the next best thing.

Gen Y goes for texting and messaging, the quicker the better.

What can your chamber do? Send your messages out three different ways to everyone?

Please don’t. That’s even more disruptive.

The best solution, if you have technology that supports it, is to allow members to opt out of certain types of communication. This suits the Gen Xers who don’t want phone calls or the Boomers who never check email (If you can show them how to opt-out through your technology/member profiles.) For Gen Ys, or others who prefer texts, have them sign up for text alerts or work with your Young Professionals group to come up with a solution that meets their preferences.

While it seems tiresome to communicate through member-preferred types of communication, it will radically improve the amount of people who respond to your message.

 

Guest post by Christina Green

Image credit: Norma Davey

 

 

Frank's Solutions to Your Chamber Issues...

Search (1,500+ Articles)

Explore these new posts

  • You Might Be a Chamber Pro If…
  • Going Beyond Small Business Saturday: Now, 10X Your Success
  • Social Media & Email Etiquette: 8 Things for Chamber Pros to Stop Saying
  • 3 Roundtable Discussion Topics Your Members (and Community) Will Love
  • Welcome New Members: 23 Awesome Member Onboarding Ideas
  • 4 Social Media Personas That May Be Sabotaging Your Chamber
  • 5 Personalization Marketing Strategies for Chambers of Commerce
  • How to Create a Basic Chamber Marketing Strategy
  • How to Get More New Chamber Members with Video

Get the Chamber Pros Community ENewsletter (it’s free)

Want To Discover What Today's Top Chamber Leaders Are Having Success With? Access the Chamber Pros Education (CPEd) Resource.

cpc-side-bar-widget-3

join-the-conversation-button

Archives

Our Authors

Frank Kenny is a successful entrepreneur, chamber member, chamber board member, chamber board of directors chair, and chamber President/CEO. He now coaches chamber professionals, consults with chambers, trains staff and members, and speaks professionally. He helps Chambers and Chamber Professionals reach their goals. See full bio.

Christina R. Green teaches chambers, associations and small businesses how to connect through content. Her articles have appeared in the Midwest Society of Association Executives’ Magazine, NTEN.org, AssociationTech, and Socialfish. She is a regular guest blogger on this site and Event Managers Blog. Christina is just your average bookish writer on a quest to bring great storytelling to organizations everywhere.Visit her site or connect with her on Twitter @christinagsmith.
Faculty Member:

Institute for Organization Management

W.A.C.E. Academy

Chamber Pros Online Conference

WACE
ACCE

Testimonials

“This workshop was a major success and the attendees loved it.” -Mark Sturdevant, President/CEO La Habra Chamber Testimonials

Legal

Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2019 · Education Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in