On Tuesday, March 3, the Celebration Area Council hosted a spring kickoff event at Windsor at Celebration’s 6th floor Skybar, which features a great view of Osceola’s tourism community, including the Disney parks. In fact, if you hang out late enough you can catch the Disney fireworks!
Attendees at the CAC event enjoyed chocolate covered strawberries and brisket sandwiches, in addition to other goodies, courtesy of Windsor’s culinary team. The winners of a cell phone scavenger hunt received tickets to Old Town’s Ferris wheel. There was plenty of time to meet new people and build networks, and attendees had fun trying to distinguish fact from fiction during a game of “Two Truths and a Lie.”
The evening ended with a few words from Chairman of the CAC Board of Directors, Amy Buehler of Land Title Professionals, and a raffle for prizes including tickets to an Orlando Magic game, tickets to Old Town’s Ferris wheel, and a $25 gift card.
Follow the Celebration Area Council’s Facebook page to stay up-to-date on their upcoming events. In June they will host Town Hall at Old Town, at which attendees will hear from the candidates currently running for Osceola County Commission District 1. In August, the CAC will once again gather at Experience Kissimmee for their popular Business Spotlight to highlight several Celebration area businesses and enjoy food, drink, and networking.
The CAC’s Spring Kickoff Networking Event was generously sponsored by Land Title Professionals, Avius, Old Town, and the Orlando Magic.
COMMUNITY INPUT FOR STRATEGIC PLAN
Share your ideas and suggestions for Osceola Library’s future
Hart Memorial Library
Wednesday, March 4th | 6p - 8pm
SPANISH FOR BEGINNERS
Learn basic conversational phrases for daily communication
Hart Memorial Library
Wednesday, March 5th - April 2nd | 6p - 8pm
FOOD TRUCK RODEO
Fun filled night of games, music, and dinner
Kissimmee Lakefront Park - Veterans Lawn
Friday, March 6th | 6pm - 9pm
MOVIE IN THE PARK - FROZEN II
Free popcorn, games and giveaways
Kissimmee Lakefront Park - Veterans Lawn
Friday, March 6th | 5:30pm - 9pm
DAKIN AVE CRUISE IN
Classic cars, live music and raffles
3 Sisters Speakeasy
Friday, March 6th | 6pm - 10pm
ST. BALDRICK’S KISSIMMEE 4TH ANNUAL SHAVE FEST
To support children working to beat childhood cancer
Dakin Ave
Saturday, March 7th |4pm - 9pm
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE FOR BEGINNERS
An immersive 4-week course
Hart Memorial Library
Mondays, March 9th - 30th • 6:30pm - 7:30pm
KOWTOWN - CITY OF KISSIMMEE’S BIRTHDAY
Live entertainment, kid zone and more
Kissimmee Lakefront Park - Festival Lawn
Saturday, March 21st | 12pm - 5pm
AMERICAN LEGION BIKE NIGHT
Bikes, live DJ, raffles and prizes
3 Sisters Speakeasy
Saturday, March 21st | 7pm
CHRISTIAN CHILDREN PARADE
Kissimmee Lakefront Park - Lighthouse Lawn
Saturday, March 28th | 1pm - 4pm
CATTLE DRIVE
On Broadway - Downtown Kissimmee
Monday March 30th | 3pm - 4:30pm
You’ve probably heard about people wanting to know, like, and trust those they do business with. And maybe you heard how social media is a great way to make that happen. After all, posting to social media brings out your business’ personality.
But some businesses have difficulty being themselves or simply don’t have the time to dedicate to social media consistently.
Luckily, social media isn’t the only way to put a more personable face on your business.
Another way to do that is through chamber membership. Here’s how the chamber helps members like your business become more known, liked, and trusted.
If you want people to do business with you, they must think about you. No matter what you sell or what service you provide, you won’t do any business if people don’t think about you when they’re in the market to buy what you offer.
Sure, there are moments of emotional purchasing fueled by driving or walking by (how many of us actually leave our house for Cinnabon? Nope, most of us catch a hint of those delicious flavors and buy on impulse), but even in those circumstances of emotional purchases, the buyer needs to know what that business is selling in order to make an impulse buy.
Chamber membership helps businesses become more recognizable in a variety of ways. These include:
Sometimes the community knows what you do but doesn’t know enough about you to trust you. In these cases, a chamber membership is invaluable. According to the Schapiro Study, “Chamber membership has consistent and powerful benefits for small business members—if consumers are aware that the small business is involved with its local chamber.”
In that study, they found that if respondents knew a small business was a member of its local chamber, the business saw a 49% increase in its consumer favorability rating (like), a 73% increase in consumer awareness (know), a 68% increase in its local reputation (trust), and an 80% increase in the likelihood that consumers will patronize the business in the future.
Chamber membership goes a long way to helping businesses develop a trustworthy reputation. Many people see chambers as business entities or similar to the Better Business Bureau. While neither is true, these individuals apply the same feelings of community membership and upstanding reputations to the chamber members as they would a good rating from the Better Business Bureau.
The chamber can also help people trust you when you choose to associate or sponsor a well-loved community/chamber event. For instance, let’s assume the July 4th Parade has a large following, and your business is a chamber partner or naming sponsor for that event, the reputation of the event spreads to your business as if you were hosting it yourself. It improves the trust people have for you.
We’ve covered how chamber membership improves your business reputation but being a chamber member can also help you market the most trustworthy parts of your business.
Here’s how the chamber can help you amplify your message.
Likability is probably one of the easiest parts of the “know, like, and trust” formula for more sales but it is also the one most businesses feel awkward about. They often go about it through social media and their attempts to become more friendly come off as just being salesy.
When that happens, it’s often because they haven’t attributed the same skills needed for an in-person conversation to social media. Just like in a face-to-face conversation, on social media you don’t want to:
The ease of becoming likable (or someone seeing you as likable, because of course you already are, right?) in person is that you can read your audience’s nonverbal queues. If you see them disengaging or uninterested, you can change the conversation back to something they’re interested in. You can tell if they’re enjoying themselves and adjust accordingly.
Getting more involved in the social opportunities at the chamber can give you a lot of time to build on the likability factor. People must first know who you are to later be able to like you. Multiple chances to meet in events through the chamber can make networking easier and less awkward because you’re not playing to an unknown crowd. You learn a little bit more about them–and they about you–each time you meet.
Other ways the chamber helps members to improve the likability factor include:
If you want more business and are struggling with just how to do that, the issue may be that people either don’t know you, trust you, or know you well enough to like you.
Maybe you’ve been working on those things and trying to humanize your brand on social media. While that’s a great idea, connecting online can be difficult for some people. If you’re one of those people, or if you’ve tried connecting online and it’s not giving you the traction you’d like, consider how a chamber membership may help you become better known and trusted–and thus liked–in the community.
As another bonus, the chamber may be able to show you how to connect online as well. While social media may not currently be working for you, that doesn’t mean it won’t. The chamber can help in many ways.
You can talk to our Director of Business Development to understand just how the chamber can play a role in helping you get more business. The options might surprise you.
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Written with the help of Christina R. Green teaches small businesses, chambers, and associations how to connect through content. Her articles have appeared in the Midwest Society of Association Executives’ Magazine, NTEN.org, AssociationTech, and Writer’s Weekly. She is a regular blogger at Frankjkenny.com and the Event Manager Blog.
She’s a bookish writer on a quest to bring great storytelling to organizations everywhere.
