Want to get more businesses to join your Chamber of Commerce? It’s time to get creative about the member benefits you offer.
Taking advantage of social media tools for the benefits of your members can help make your Chamber more visible and benefit local businesses at the same time.
Consider the typical ribbon cutting – take a photo, put it in the paper, run it in the newsletter, and post it on your social media. Now let’s think about a new method of doing a ribbon cutting that engages people and helps boost the businesses visibility. It’s time for a new type of ribbon cutting.
I’m talking about turning the traditional ribbon cutting for new businesses or new Chamber members into a Facebook Live business tour and owner interview.
Facebook Live videos pop up with notifications to all who follow your page and will often show at the top of someone’s News Feed.
How to Prepare
You don’t need expensive equipment to do a Live video, but a little preparation can go a long way.
Get in touch with the business owner in advance and go over some questions that you will ask. Ask them to walk you through their business to show you some of the ‘behind the scenes’ tasks or processes. Have them point out their best-sellers or favorite part of their store.
Your video doesn’t need to be too long – just long enough to capture some eyes on Facebook and get people watching the video. 10-15 minutes would be an ideal length.
Better yet, make this a regular posting on your Facebook page at a specific time and day so that people know when to tune in to catch the tour! Promote the Live Video interview on social media and your newsletter prior to starting.
Equipment You’ll Need
All you really need is your phone with the Facebook Business app installed.
However, to make the video better quality for your viewers, you should look into either a tripod plus the phone attachment and/or hand-held stabilizer for your phone to make the video stable and not bouncy. You should also consider a wireless lapel mike for the interviewer and business owner. These two things will help out a lot and are reasonably priced.
Make sure that you are taking the video in good lighting so that your viewers can see what you’re showing them and clearly see the person who is talking. Don’t shoot the video of a business owner in front of a window. If you want to make sure that you’re getting good lighting and good shots, do a test run of a video on your phone (not Live or on social media) and play it back to see what it looks like.
If the business owner is camera shy, then have one of your Chamber staff do the walk through in their place. A quick tour talking about what the business does, sells, or produces can be a great benefit to your members.
Once the Live feed is done, post the video on your Facebook page. When you’re just starting out with this new strategy, you may want to boost the video to your followers.
Repurpose the Video Content
You have just created valuable content for your member business. Now you can repurpose that content in several ways to boost the benefits to your member.
You can also download the video and upload it to YouTube or Vimeo so that you can embed the video on your website for those looking to check out a few local businesses — or even add it to that business’s directory listing as a bonus.
Repurpose your video by taking some of the content and writing a short description of the services and products of this business and add it to their directory listing.
You can create a quick blog post featuring this business by writing some text, posting some of your photos, and a link to the video or embedding the video. Include some of the quotes from the business owner taken out of the video. This is a second benefit for the member business.
While you’re at the business for this video shoot, take some additional still photos and add this to their business listing or use on your website article.
This change in how you do Ribbon Cuttings for Chamber of Commerce members can increase the visibility of BOTH your Chamber and the member business. So get out there and give it a shot!