The Case

Like pretty much all organizations and businesses, the Livermore Valley Chamber of Commerce wanted to expand its social media following as part of marketing to prospective members.

As a business organization, we focused these efforts on LinkedIn, which also happened to be where they had the smallest following, behind Facebook and Instagram.

Another reason the leadership wanted to grow their following was as a way to appeal to potential sponsors — usually larger businesses that make a bigger investment in membership in exchange for visibly supporting the business community and generating goodwill.

My Approach

I’ve always found that people on social media are people, so you have to appeal to their needs and wants — it’s basic psychology that has to be the foundation of all successful marketing strategies. In some ways, entertain them.

What do people like to see? Well, themselves, to be honest. But *other people they like* is a close second. While the chamber’s staff and board were hesitant about this — they’re used to promoting their events and benefits, mostly — they understood my approach. However, the staff had seen that play out multiple times, as we regularly review our metrics.

We began a more concerted effort to move away from graphic assets made for every event and even shifted from relying on professional photographs. I know from experience that graphics don’t perform best on social media; there’s a tested hierarchy, and that’s near the bottom.

For events I attended, I became more consistent in creating casual, in-the-moment-type videos to share.

When possible, I created videos of staff members or board members inviting viewers to our next major event or discussing why their firm sponsored the chamber. In most cases, these are people who are well-known in the local business community.

One of our members, a videographer, offered to create videos at events he attended.  Those became some of the best-performing posts every month, because people got to see their friends and colleagues who were at the event.

We immediately began seeing evidence that this was a promising strategy. For some time, our posts using professional photos a few days after the event are frequently the best-performing posts of the month. And they still sometimes were, but those were eclipsed by video-based posts.

We received feedback that these videos even induced FOMO in some people — they were sad they hadn’t been at the event that looked so fun and where “all the cool kids” had gone.

The biggest challenge was getting board members and some of our most involved volunteers, known as ambassadors, to help by sharing our posts. Many of them said they weren’t on social media, or weren’t active even if they had an account. However, we now have a few who regularly share our content and create their own, which has provided a substantial boost to the number of people who see our content.

We also adjusted our schedule for posting on LinkedIn, based on what our data was telling us. I researched more hashtags for LinkedIn (often very different from those used on Facebook or Instagram) and posted more consistently in a local group for the chamber. We knew that many people in the group weren’t following our page, and we wanted to reach both audiences.  

I made sure to engage with everyone who commented on our posts. When individuals or organizations shared posts, I commented on their posts to say thank you. I was sure to monitor our accounts to answer questions quickly and provide links to our calendar when appropriate.

The Results

Over the last year, the chamber added 72% more followers on LinkedIn. That’s roughly double the rate often considered reasonable for the size of its audience a year ago.

And our impressions have grown to 4X to 7X our followers.

Another one of the best-performing posts was one welcoming our new board members, making use of professional headshots that we had taken for our website.

But it’s not just individual board members and staff we highlight! Another very popular post was about the winner of our Ambassador of the Year Award — someone who has been active in the business community for a long time, so many people know her.  And she was grateful for the recognition of all the time she spends supporting the chamber, so we also made a long-time member feel valued.

Over the last several months, the most engaging video showed the board of directors being sworn in, with a particular focus on the new chair. The video received about 6X as many comments as most high-performing posts on LinkedIn. The amount of time the video was watched was about 10X our average, and it received 5X as many reactions.

The chamber staff appreciates how these efforts have not just grown our following, but elevated the organization’s role in the community — connecting people when we need it more than ever and showing potential members more reasons to be part of it.

In a meeting, the CEO even said I’m one of the best investments they make. The more the chamber gets seen, the greater the benefit for its members in terms of increasing their visibility in the community.

Want great results like that for your organization? Let’s talk!