Does your chamber have a Shop Local Buy Local campaign? Maybe it shouldn’t. At least right now.
Another question for you. Is your chamber’s staff sharing enough of their knowledge and expertise through technology, social media, or digital marketing? Most aren’t sharing nearly enough.
How about this? Is your chamber investing time and energy in creating connections between members and other leaders in your community? This could be one of your paths to continued relevancy.
We talked about all of this and more in this, the 38th edition, of the Chamber Focus Show.
Shop Local Buy Local
As the co-author of Small Town Rules, Becky McCray does a lot of thinking and writing about how local small businesses, including chambers, need to innovate in order to remain relevant. Watch the video below to hear our special guest and the panel discuss Shop Local Buy Local programs, technology, creating connections, and more.
We had an especially interesting give and take on chamber Shop Local Buy Local programs. If these programs are on your chamber’s radar, this edition of the Chamber Focus is must see viewing.
We discussed:
- Why your chamber should stop promoting Shop Local.
- Why some of the guests thought the term “Shop Local”, and even the concept, is overused.
- How communities should focus first on improving customer service skills.
- What else to do before promoting shop local, buy local programs.
- The WOW Cambridge Customer Service Program and how the chamber earns thousands of dollars a year from it.
- How to achieve shop local “Critical Mass”. It doesn’t happen one night a month.
We also discussed how chambers should be using technology to create awareness and build relationship without having to create new content continuously. We talked about Becky’s “Create Once, Use Many Times” strategy and how it applies to Facebook, Twitter, and your chamber’s emailed newsletter. We also chatted through what to post to Twitter as a chamber of commerce. Lots of tips for you in this edition of the Show.
Access this episode and the other episodes of the Chamber Focus Show in the Chamber Professionals Education (CPEd) resource
About Becky McCray: She has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Entrepreneur Magazine. Her blog, Small Biz Survival, ranks in the top 20 small business blogs worldwide. She makes her home base in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a community of 30 people.
Becky says that small businesses and small towns have a future. She is a small town business owner, she and her husband Joe co-own a retail liquor store and a cattle ranch. She writes and speaks about small town business, and she and Chicago entrepreneur Barry Moltz are the authors of the award-winning book Small Town Rules.
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