During two years as a sponsor of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organizational Management I had the opportunity to speak directly with over 1,000 chamber managers.  I asked them all how business was going, how many members they had and what was their market penetration rate?

I was shocked to find out that the average market penetration rate was in the 25% range. [some Chambers of Commerce flat out knock the cover off of the ball but they appear to be the minority] Shocked because I always thought that being a member of the Chamber of Commerce was a right of passage for a local company and a great way to position your business as a trusted company in the community. I still think this way. However, it is apparent that a lot of businesses don't share this line of thinking. They vote with their wallets and 75% are saying NO to the local chamber of commerce. This won't change anytime soon as the emerging class of Young Professionals will find the typical tried and true "Chamber Mixers" and "Power Lunches" to be a bit dated. They will definitely seek alternatives to their local Chambers of Commerce unless their local chamber steps up its value proposition and starts to cater to their needs in a more contemporary fashion.

This is a fact that I am sure keeps Chamber of Commerce executives busy as they try to propagate ideas on how to recruit new members and retain their current members. Ironically, there are a lot of Chamber of Commerce executives who are ignoring trends like social media and how these technologies can positively impact their membership growth.

Market Research Fact #2 - On the wire just today.

Small Businesses Embrace Social Networking Sites in the U.S.

More than 600,000 small businesses (SBs, or companies with up to 99 employees) in the United States will deploy integrated social networking services in the next 12 months—up from about 300,000 currently, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

In percentage terms, 300,000 represents about 5% of the total number of SBs in the U.S. “As social networking evolves, we can see the emergence of targeted offerings for business users,” says Nikki Lamba, New York-based analyst at AMI Partners. “In order to attract a greater share of SBs, social networking services must provide customized services that SBs can leverage in order to realize their business goals.” 

Take Fact #1 and Fact #2 and Chamber of Commerce executives  should not walk to a social media platform - they should run with open arms.

Published 04 November 2008 - 0 comments

Business Intelligence - you can't get business intelligence on your membership community by sending your members somewhere else to network online. Members are becoming more educated and therefore more demanding. Balancing on this shifting terrain, non-profit business managers are expected to deliver steady membership and revenue growth. Somehow, they must smooth out the bumps and anticipate the changes.

The speed of business today means that people can no longer sit in ivory towers, or control and restrict the flow of information within the organization. If information is power then it must be made available to the people that need it for their jobs. A Social Network is a strategic Business Intelligence platform because it puts the right information in the right hands at the right time, and gives non-profit managers the ability to test various scenarios for investments and program strategies while monitoring important drivers of member satisfaction and organizational performance.  You can convert data into knowledge to effectively and efficiently run the organization.

Non-profit organizations can create visibility into their community and gain an advantage on executing their strategies by leveraging the power of social networking. Business Intelligence makes community data actionable. It uncovers trends and patterns that might otherwise go undetected. Managing a non-profit business on intuition, educated guesses or polls and surveys isn’t good enough anymore. To be successful, a non-profit needs a foundation of accurate, current and complete information.

BY building your own private social network your organization to accomplish the following;

• Know more about your members though detailed profiles
• Monitor what topics are being discussed
• Better understand what challenges members are facing
• Know how members are weighing in on key issues such as member benefits

This type of information puts your organization in a much better position to:

• Engage and retain members
• Realize how your organization is being viewed by members
• Know exactly which products or services to present to members as a group or to an individual member
• Recognize what content will be most relevant to members

With a social network the possibilities are limitless.

Published 01 November 2008 - 0 comments

How are your event attendance numbers trending these days? After five years of conversations with non-profits it is clear that there are a lot of managers who are stuck in a bureaucratic rut, where making decisions to move into new technologies is risky and they don't want to make mistakes on their watch lest they end up with egg on their face. I understand this dynamic. However, it's now time for a wake up call. You can't ignore the fact hundreds of millions of people are using social networks. It is now safe to make the decision to move into social media! Retaining the new generation of members will be next to impossible if you don't offer them social media tools for networking.   Don't Miss the Boat - Get Started Today! If you are a non-profit manager and you are not seriously considering or currently offering event based social networking to your attendees, you are missing the boat and frankly, you are not doing justice to the people who are paying you good money to attend your events.  Social networking takes event networking to an entirely new level by making it possible for pre-event social networking to occur. That's right, people attending any of your events can meet online prior to attending the event. These online interactions or networking opportunities are often much easier for everyone making it possible for even the most quiet individual to possess the best networking skills.

Event networking has never been easier or more cost effective than it is today.

Published 30 October 2008 - 0 comments

There's no question this time of change is threatening to all businesses, particularly so for chambers of commerce and non-profit organizations who are constantly looking to enhance their member value proposition. But, this is also a period of great opportunity; one of which is the opportunity to get to know your members better and to strengthen your relationship with them by leveraging the power of social media. The rate of fragmentation is accelerating and there is a lot of choice in the market for social networks so organizations need to stay relevant in their members’ eyes, particularly with the Young Professionals, who represent the future of any organization. 

As non-profit organizations make plans for member growth and engagement in 2009, social networking has to be on the list of value added member benefits.  Forward-thinking non-profit managers should view web 2.0 technologies as an integrated part of the marketing mix that is focused on directly supporting member acquisition, engagement and retention activities.

With so much disruption in modes of communication, networking and learning social media is providing organizations a newer, innovative way to deliver value to members. Market drivers include providing members better networking and career building opportunities while providing business intelligence and transparency for organizations.

Published 28 October 2008 - 0 comments

1. It does not offer enterprise level security and governance and controlled access to content.
2. You can't do an advanced search to match members to members based on advaced search criterea, or match members to content in the community. With Ning you can search by name only.
3. In order to customize your social network beyond adding the Ning feature set you need to have a PHP programmer handle this for you.  PHP programmers cost at least $100.00/hour.
4. Planning, designing and member support - you are on your own with Ning so you better be sure your staff is up to the task or the community will not flourish.
5. Guilty by association. Ning supports the creation of Porn communities. Let me expand on this particular gotcha.

READ THIS ARTICLE - Andreessen-responds-on-Ning-porn-its-about-being-pro-freedom  Some excerpts follow;

And we extend this agnostic attitude to our entire service -- porn, yes, but also other potentially controversial activities, ranging from political activism and protest organizing.....  We think a better approach is to let people fundamentally do what they want, as long as it isn’t illegal and doesn’t otherwise violate our terms of service. Call it being agnostic.

As noted by CPM Advisors some of Ning's top networks include names like girlongirl.ning.com, ladyboyworld.ning.com and others that I won't list because you may find the url's offensive.

Published 20 October 2008 - 0 comments