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Internet Social Networking Training

Following up on my presentation to the Washington State Chamber of Commerce Executives (WCCE) at the technology summit in June, I am scheduling a series of training sessions for Chambers of Commerce that want to take the next step in bringing Internet social networking to their chamber.

At the technology conference, I urged my fellow execs to join me in championing ISN statewide. They agreed. The first step is training.

• Executive Director Internet Social Networking Workshop - I will share with the exec and staff what our chamber has tried that has worked and what has failed to work. I have spent many hundreds of hours testing and using various ISN sites with a focus on usability and Return on Investment for chambers of commerce and members. Learn from our success. Your board, tech committee, and members are invited to participate. - 2 hours
  

• Member Internet Social Networking Workshop - Two hours of hands on member training on Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook, and others....All focused on return on investment and business. Your chamber doesn't need to be 100% up to speed for you to facilitate this training. You will be offering real value that your members are looking for! - 2 hours
  

• Complete Internet Social Networking Workshop - Up to 2 hours with the executive and staff with the remainder of time in workshop with your members. Get you and your chamber up to speed quickly and gain all the benefits of being a leading chamber. This will jump start your involvement in ISN while saving you countless hours of frustration and learning from mistakes. - 4 hours
  

• Regional Internet Social Networking Conference - Are you a leading chamber? Are you capable of organizing a regional ISN conference that would brand you and your chamber as visionery and effective business leader? Can you bring together your surrounding chambers and take on the role as the lead organizer? This is your chance to lead! Conferences such as these are selling out nationwide. The conference will be focused on your members and prospective members. We will help you to organize the event including multiple professional speakers and trainers. Lead your community into the next big thing.

• Other - What do you have in mind. Frank is available for ISN training or speaking on various topics of concern to chambers of commerce. Let's talk about your ideas.

Internet social networking training for Chambers of Commerce and their members

Press Release

Immediate Release

6-19-2009 – Belfair, WA – Frank Kenny, North Mason Chamber of Commerce President & CEO, was a featured speaker on Friday, June 12th at the first annual Washington Chamber of Commerce Association (WCCE) Internet Social Networking summit in Yakima, WA. Mr. Kenny gave an overview of what the North Mason Chamber is doing to lead the nation, among chambers of commerce, in introducing and championing Internet social networking for chambers of commerce and their members. More than 30 chamber executives attended the sold-out event.

At the event, Mr. Kenny challenged the chamber executives in the room to join him in leading the nation saying, “Chambers of Commerce are the natural communications bridge between business and the community. Our chamber is at the bleeding edge here and we want to share what we are doing with the rest of the state because it is working so well. Let’s lead!” The challenge was accepted and endorsed by the Board of Directors of WCCE. Mr. Kenny is offering training to any chamber in the state that wishes to get up to speed on Internet social networking for chambers of commerce. He has also set up a networking site exclusively for Washington chamber of commerce staff to share best practices. A series of region training conferences is in the works with details to be announced soon. The first regional conference will most likely be held in the West Sound – Kitsap Peninsula area.

Mr. Kenny has also been booked to be a presenter at the annual state chamber of commerce convention in Thurston County this fall. Additionally, he will be a featured presenter in February 2010 at the West Association of Chamber Executives (WACE) annual convention in Burlingame, California on Internet social networking for chambers and how to utilize the Internet to increase attendance at in-person networking events. The annual convention attracts more than 450 chamber executives from the western United States and Canada.

Mr. Kenny can be reached through the North Mason Chamber of Commerce at 360-275-4267 or frank@northmasonchamber.com. His blog is at http://www.frankkenny.net.

Internet Social Networking for Chambers of Commerce

This past Friday, June 12th 2009, I was one of the teachers in a state wide technology conference for chamber of commerce executives. My part was teaching Internet social networking and showing what our chamber is doing for its members by utilizing ISN. The class was sold-out and the feedback was very positive.

During my presentation I threw a "Gauntlet" to my peers to join me in leading the nation in championing Internet social networking for Chambers of commerce. They voted to accept the challenge!

Washington state chambers are officially taking a leadership role in introducing and educating members on the value and techniques of ISN. If you would like to know more please contact Frank@northmasonchamber.com

Here is the post on the ChamberPeople that talks more about the event:

On June 12th, 2009 the Washington Chamber of Commerce Executive association held a tech conference in Yakima, WA. A sold-out crowd of about 30 of us gathered to discuss all things techy that chambers should be considering.

Dave Warkentin of the Walla Walla Chamber showed how WordPress can be used to easily create very powerful websites that you control (no more middle people or IT between you and the chamber's website). He was able to create a "policy portal" for the Yakima chamber in less than 2 hours. You can too. Call Dave for for info.

The folks at 180Networks discussed all sorts of things dealing with the back-end tech of running a first class chamber. Contact them for info.

I covered what our chamber is doing for its members by championing Internet social networking for chambers of commerce. Here is my PP ISN for WCCE final.pptx. I hope to have the video to post soon. We have 92 members using MyNorthMasonChamber.com, our members-only networking site. With 30,000 views in just 3 months, it is more active and offers significantly more value to our members than our website which we have had for many years. Contact me if you want to discuss how this could work for your chamber. I also covered how Twitter is being introduced to our community by the chamber.

Kyle Sexton anchored the meeting with a great overview of what ISN means for chambers. He did a terrific job of pulling it all together in a very understandable and persuasive way. If you have a chance to have Kyle present to your group you should grab it. Kyle is absolutely a leader in his efforts to make chambers modern and exceptional. Do yourself a favor and call him.

"Nice work" goes out to Bob Green of WCCE for organizing the event. Hat tip to Mike Morrisette from the Yakima Chamber for hosting and the great lunch.

One of the things to come out of the meeting is that the Chambers in the State of Washington are excited to be taking on a leadership role in bringing Internet social networking to chamber members and chambers of commerce across the county. Our motto: Let's Lead. Please contact Frank at the North Mason Chamber if you have questions, ideas, etc...

If you attended the event, please post your thoughts below.

Internet Social Networking for Chambers of Commerce

Here is a video of segment of a class I teach to Chambers of Commerce on how they can offer tremendous value to the membership by having their own Internet social networking site and then adding Twitter to the mix. It really does put "Word of the Mouth on Steroids".

I am available to teach this class to Chambers and other non-profits. Contact me frank@northmasonchamber.com for info.

Frank Kenny's Internet Social Networking for Chamber's of Commerce from Frank Kenny on Vimeo.

And here is the PP that I work from. http://tinyurl.com/ozjv2u


The North Mason Chamber is a nation wide leader in championing internet social networking for its members and the community.

Internet Social Networking Class Friday June 5th at Noon.

I am giving a class today at noon to about 16 of my members (class sold out). It is going to be a monthly presentation on beginner social networking for chamber members. Kyle Sexton and I am also giving something similar to WCCE on June 12th. It is also sold out.

I will add an intermediate and advanced course as the year goes on.

I believe chambers are in a sweet spot between the business community and public concerning social networking. With the active participation of members, we (and they) can reach all 200,000 people in our area for free through these services. Everyone of the 200,000 people in my area has a relationship with at least one member, if not several. We, the chambers, are the natural bridge and conduit. And, if don't own it, someone else will.

Vision this: A member, who is a non-profit, sets up a webpage to take online donations. That member Tweets (Twitter) out about a fund raiser with a compelling reason to donate. First, that members followers, all 200 of whom she has built a relationship with over time and all of whom follow her out of free will, have a chance to donate say $5. Now, I am a follower of course and I donate $5 plus I ReTweet her compelling message to my 2100 followers, most of whom are local. I was not the only one to ReTweet the first message though. Suppose 6 of the 200 did. Now about 6,000 local people have the opportunity to donate and ReTweet again. It is exponential. Free. Personal.

Anthony Robbins, the public speaker has 500,000 followers. They LOVE him. Would they give $5 bucks to feel closer to Tony. In a minute. Well, with small local businesses, thier customers also love the owners and individual staff. With a compelling ask, non-profits are going to be able to raise substantial funds, smaller amounts on average, but from a much larger and new population.

I really see this as potentially one of the most powerful, and FREE, ways to quickly spread the word LOCALLY.

I am focused on getting local members to encourage their local customers to follow them and then each member can all follow all the local people. Theoretically, we should be following thousands of local people within a few months.

I will keep you informed.

Inspirational

When ever you begin to feel sorry for yourself you may want to watch this video. Then, count your blessings. Then, be of service.

I guarantee you your period of melancholy will pass. The sooner you become "of service" the sooner the good times return. And, in my experience, they always return.

Frank

Funny Thing Just Happened To Me

This is just too funny. I am working late (almost 7:00 pm when the day started at 5:45 am). Anyway, I am returning phone messages left during the day when I was in meetings. I returned the call of a lady who was looking for a business near us. I looked up the number for her and she basically said, "Never mind. If I had to wait for you I would be dead already." and hung up.

The funny thing isn't that she was entirely rude and ungrateful for the free Chamber service. Or even that it was well after working hours. It was that the number was for a singles group organizer (I Googled her). Single? I can't believe it.

Too funny.

Big Goals for Our Chamber

We are implementing a plan to make our Chamber the leader in utilizing Internet Social Networking. Wish us luck.

Stay tuned.

Social Networking

I am putting together two social networking presentations. The first is for the 35th District Republicans in Washington State. The second is to the Washingston State Chamber Commerce Executives.

If you are interested in seeing the presentations, I will be glad to share my PowerPoint presentations. I am also available to speak to other group as my schedule allows.

Tourism Commercial

These are two new TV commercials that are running in the Seattle/Tacoma markets. They will reach 500,000 Comcast cable customers. We put in $50,000 from a lodging tax grant. Comcast matched us dollar for dollar and added $8,000 in Internet ads.

What do you think?