In January our local chamber will be sending out renewal notices for membership to the local Chamber of Commerce and we already know that many members will be asking themselves that important question asked by people such as Nancy and many of those who don’t have a clue about what social media can provide them. That question – what does the chamber do for me and is it worth it to join or remain a member?

Before dropping a check in the mail, many will stop and think about why they want/need the chamber membership, and what such an affiliation actually does for them.

This year, the Trail Chamber will be providing more education on the benefits of why it is important to be a member of the local chamber of commerce and to join other chambers across the country. And social media education will be a very important part of that message.

In regards to Nancy’s comments on the benefits of engaging in social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, and meeting people in the local community and nationwide that were very enthusiastic about actually networking, this is key to a chamber’s understanding.

I agree with her that more can be gained if the need is social media focused – and this is all a part of the cycle of adoption for social media by chamber members.

In his book Crossing the Chasm – a must read for any chamber director thinking of implementing a social media strategy – high-tech marketing guru Geoffrey Moore offers time tested insights into the problems and dangers facing (growing software companies), and a blueprint for survival and many of the same widely accepted ideas in this “bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets” holds true for social media adoption.

The key points in his book are:
A market is defined as a set of actual or potential customers
for a given set of products or services who have a common set of needs or wants, and who reference each other when making a buying decision

And Moore makes another very important point, “the notion that part of what defines a (high-tech) market is the tendency of its members to reference each other when
making buying decisions– is absolutely key to successful (high-tech) marketing.”

And this is where the Adoption Life Cycle and the smooth bell curve comes into perspective, progressing from adoption of social media by:

- Innovators – people such as Nancy and some chambers that are already engaged in using social media to network, market and sell.

- Early Adopters – people that are educated and encouraged to get on board social media use – by people such as Nancy and those chambers that continue to engage in the promotion and education, and consistent use of social media tools to educate and show members how chambers are adapting to improve networking and opportunities for members and chambers

- Early Majority, Late Majority, and finally Laggards – as Moore says, “the way to develop a market is to work the curve from left to right, progressively winning each group of users, using each “captured” group as a reference for the next.

We must remember – it takes time for markets to evolve and while many of us would like it to happen in a week or a month – it will take years for the full adoption cycle of social media to evolve.

It is yet to be seen how many chambers will try to make it across this chasm. But for chambers to evolve, they have to engage and become innovators and Early Adopters – the rare breed of visionaries “who have the insight to match an emerging technology to a strategic opportunity,… driven by a ‘dream’.

Moore says, “The core dream is a business goal, not a technology goal, and it involves taking a quantum leap
forward in how business is conducted in their industry or by their customers… Visionaries drive the high-tech industry because they see the potential for an ‘order-
of-magnitude’ return on investment and willingly take high risks to pursue that goal.

Chambers that become visionaries will get the enthusiasts and early adopters on board … Hencethe chasm.

Four fundamental characteristics of visionaries that alienate pragmatists:
1. Lack of respect for colleagues’ experiences.
2. Taking greater interest in technology than in their industry.
3. Failing to recognize the importance of existing product infrastructure.
4. Overall disruptiveness

Let’s see where this discussion leads to next December 2010?

Randy McCallum
ChamberVoice.com

In January a series of Guides (screencast videos) will be posted to http://www.ChamberVoice.com and http://www.chambervoice.com/microblog to show chambers how they can implement their own social networks using the same open source tools I use on a regular basis.

I look forward to Nancy’s next post that has a chamber focus.

Randy McCallum
ChamberVoice.com

Edit to my above post –

The goal in 2010 is to gain early adopters and provide access to a wealth of open source content and tools so chambers can get with it and not break the bank doing so.

While online marketing or social media presences are important for small business to adopt to be more competitive – real face to face networking connections are still very important and local chambers provide this opportunity to members better than any other resource.

Small businesses have expectations and as they become more educated about the benefits of social media they will demand that their local chamber be at the forefront of the social media revolution.

I am a social media network designer/developer and also a director of a local chamber in Trail British Columbia Canada. While I agree with many of Nancy’s comments, I feel that such comments are a wake up call to chambers, and the only way for them to keep members and gain new ones is to become educated about social media. The question for most chambers is how to do so on limited resources?

I found that social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook are very important to educate chambers and members, but a local hub social network for chambers to connect and share ideas and content was missing, so I created an open source social network for chambers of commerce to connect.
http://www.chambervoice.com – it is in beta and will be launched in late January.

With all the fanfare of Twitter – I got an idea – create a Twitter for chambers to connect. I recently implemented a chamber focused microblogging site that has groups and social media capabilities such as link, video and image embedding. http://www.chambervoice.com/microblog/

Our local chamber needed a way for directors to connect with members in a public environment, but they also wanted to have the ability to discuss issues in private group. Rather than limit the new microblog to the Greater Trail area, I created the ChamberVoice Microblog network so all chambers can join for free and connect to share ideas about social media. Now the Trail Chamber can have the best of both worlds – a social network for private and public social networking – all in an easy to use Facebook/Twitter type environment.

The goal in 2010 is to gain early adopters and provide access to a wealth of open source content and tools so chambers can get with it and not brake the bank doing so.

Randy McCallum
Founder
ChamberVoice.com
Director & Volunteer
Trail & District Chamber of Commerce