Is Your Chamber or Networking Group Marketing in the Digital Age?

The concepts of The Chamber of Commerce and networking groups have served business owners well for many, many years.

They've long been fueled by membership dues, fundraising events, golf tournaments and advertising revenue through joint ventures such as town business maps.

They always have opportunities for your business to "sponsor" a wide variety of events.

Nationally, Chambers and networking groups are BIG MONEY. And so it wouldn't surprise me if I get all sorts of hell for writing this piece. But, for those of you who know me or the team or follow ANY of our blogs, you'll know that we don't pull punches. So let's have some real talk.

Is your Chamber of Commerce or your networking group doing business like it's 2014/2015? Or are they marketing and advertising like it's 1998?

I think it's a fair question that we all need to ask ourselves as business leaders. It's something that our team is looking into for ourselves as we go into 2015.

We're currently involved in several Chambers and a variety of networking groups. And I'm a huge believer that networking is the key to growing your business. So before readers go on the attack about that - I'm not...nor would I ever... suggest that you NOT network or be a part of these different organizations.

What I AM suggesting is that perhaps it's time we raise the bar for them.

Analyzing Your Results

There are very few of these organizations that are free - and those that are, well, aren't. That's because everything you're a part of requires an investment of your time. To calculate somewhat of an ROI, we need to understand what our time is worth. Take the annual revenue that YOU or YOUR ACTIONS drive and use that to get a (very rough) idea of your hourly worth.

Now take that hourly worth and multiply it by the number of hours you've invested into the networking group or Chamber. Add in membership dues, fees, and any advertising dollars you've spent.

Now...take the total number of CLOSED LEADS you can attribute to the organization. Not just those direct leads...but leads that came from leads. For example, I met Manny from MD Tech Team through a member of The Breakfast Club. Manny introduced me to six more clients. That would be a total of seven clients directly attributed to The Breakfast Club.

THIS is how you get a rough idea of your ROI. I stress rough because there are other branding opportunities that come through this groups that take a longer period of time to foster. But that's not what this particular piece is about.

Marketing in the Digital Age

Here are some questions that our team will be using as a reference point for determining what networking groups or Chambers we'll be a part of in 2015. While this isn't the golden standard for everyone, there are questions in here that all of you should consider using as a baseline for your organization...or for using to raise the bar for your networking group.

1. Does the group have a responsive or mobile friendly website? I don't know about you - but I want my business to be found. If part of my membership includes directory listings, I don't want half of the people accessing the website to not be able to access my information.

2. What is the level of social media involvement? Social media is a great way to network all of the businesses in an organization. Social media has driven 75% of our business. Think of it like an online cocktail party. Everyone is there...don't you want to be there as well?

3. Is there a strong charitable component to the organization? Shirley Chisholm once said, "service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth." We believe that it's not just about us...and I want our business partners to feel the same way.

4. Will the group protect it's own reputation? This year, we watched a Chamber protect one of it's members that was entirely in the wrong. Then the Chair of the Board tried to shut down a conversation about whether ANY business should be allowed to be a member of the Chamber - whether or not they operate ethically. His perspective was that because the by-laws say that anyone should be allowed in, that this is the end of the story. Our team believes we should always be elevating our standards and looking out of the interests of all Chamber members and consumers as well.

Feeling Good Vs. Making Money

We believe it's important to give back, as stated above. But we also believe than businesses, especially in turbulent economies, need to also protect themselves to be able to continue to give back. And so when you look at how much money your business CAN spend on signage at golf tournaments, name mentions in brochures, etc., we believe that you NEED to be constantly analyzing your expenditures to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck. I'm not saying to STOP doing what you're doing. I'm simply suggesting that in this digital age, perhaps we can do a little better.

What are your thoughts on Chambers and networking groups? Do you have a litmus test that you use?

POSTED BY

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Kyle Reyes is the President and Creative Director of The Silent Partner Marketing, New England's #1 Marketing Agency. We're a boutique marketing firm focused on helping businesses grow in an age of exploding technology. You can find him on Google+, Facebook and Twitter. He's the Chuck Norris of marketing. It's outrageous - we know. That's kind of the point. Outrageous marketing - extraordinary results.