Social media is constantly changing, but still an important element to your Chamber. It is a great way to share visibility for your members, interact and engage, and create awareness for your community and events. It’s not just enough to post and say you’re doing it. Get 10 tips for how you can make the most of your time on social media and see results!
Consistency!
This is critical! Showing up regularly keeps you top of mind with your followers. If you aren’t posting there isn’t anything for them to engage with and once people start engaging with you you want them to keep doing it!
What is consistent is up to you and the platform you’re on. If you can only post 2-3 times per week on a regular basis then start there. You can always increase how often you’re sharing.
Share Local News
Yes, you should be sharing member news, but also share local news. You want to be the hub and go-to place for people in your community to get information. This will help you increase your members, increase your retention, and give your members more visibility.
You also likely have partnerships with the local government and other community organizations. By shouting them out its sharing relevant information that your audience loves AND you don’t have create the content yourself.
Be Social
Now this probably seems super obvious but you’d be surprised how many businesses don’t follow up on comments or DMs. This is a missed opportunity for a conversation. Block off 15 minutes in the afternoon to quickly run through your social media platforms and respond to people that have engaged with you.
Being social also means showing up on other people’s content. Commenting on your members posts shows them you care about what they have going on, boosts their visibility and is a great way you can further support your members. Same with responding to comments on your page, give yourself 15 minutes each day and engage with as many member accounts as you can.
The added benefit to all of this is that social media platforms will reward this engagement and continue to show your content to them more regularly.
Add an Additional Platform
When adding more platforms, it’s important to ensure your audience is there and that it will add value. Plus, you want to make sure you are already consistent on the platform(s) you’re already on.
Adding another platform will do a few things for your organization.
🔹 grow your audience.
🔹 increase the chances that people will see your content.
🔹 build more trust.
The other beauty is that adding another platform doesn’t mean doubling the work. Be thoughtful about how you repurpose your content and share the same posts at different times and days.
Value Added Content
As a Chamber it can be easy to get into the trap of always promoting. You have tons of events, featuring your members, all the things! Remember to add posts into the mix that support your members as well.
You can share ideas for promotions, businesses looking to collaborate, blog posts you find (like ours 😂) that share tips and resources businesses can utilize. It makes your profile more exciting and will encourage more people to follow along.
Keep Your Branding Consistent
The whole goal with social media is to stop the scroll. Because you’re creating incredible content people will want to see it all!!! When your branding is consistent people will be able to easily recognize your content and stop to consume it.
Create templates for your core content categories so you can easily post. This could include new member spotlights, ribbon cuttings, tips and tricks, community highlights etc. You don’t have to get too fancy here. Pay attention to your fonts, colors and don’t forget to include your logo and/or website as space allows.
Share Member News
We see a lot of Chambers sharing news about their members. It typically looks like a photo with a caption that says, “Business A just celebrated 15 years!” While its great that you gave them a shout out you’re really missing out on an opportunity to get more engagement.
Try something like this instead:
Congratulations to Business A on celebrating 15 years! It truly is an incredible feat. Founder Jane Doe has been an incredible community member. She has supported our art show for the last 10 years, been a board member, ambassador, and always has a smile on her face. We asked her what her secret to success is and she said, “treating my customers like they’re a member of my family!”
Help us celebrate Business A on their succes by stopping by this week and sharing with Jane your favorite experience with Business A. While you’re at it, post some love 👇🏼👇🏼 👇🏼👇🏼 We’ll be stopping by to pick up our favorite lavender bar soap.
This post is more personal and encourages engagement.
Promote Your Events
Pretty much every social media platform has an event option. Make sure you’re creating events and inviting your followers. This gives your event more publicity and allows for people to have conversations about the event.
Don’t forget to add comments leading up to the event to encourage people to join in on the fun! Even better, have your team members, board members and ambassadors share it on their personal pages and invite their followers. The more that RSVP the more your event will get shown to those the platform things might be interested.
Collaborate With Other Businesses
Collaborations are the best! They help you get in front of more people and they’ll trust you more because they’re being introduced by a brand they already follow. Since you are a natural collaborator by nature, make sure you’re tagging all the appropriate organizations in your posts.
Communication is also key! Make sure you talk about when you’ll be posting so they can comment and share, and vice versa. This will give you much more visibility!
Repurpose
You can share content more than once! 😱 Remember that people aren’t always seeing things when you share them. Repurposing posts and content is a great way to be consistent without taking up more time!
The key is to switch it up with a different photo, a new caption, creating a video, etc. Also – making sure you post on different platforms on different days. There is always a little twist you can make to ensure the posts seem fresh and new.
Our podcast creates over 20 posts over the course of a week on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Conclusion
Don’t be afraid to be social on social media. It can be a great place to build relationships, start conversations and grow and retain your membership. As a Chamber you have a great opportunity to grow the visibility of your members and social media is a great option for that. With a little more work you can increase that engagement even more!