Chambers & Bloggers - A Good Mix

In my post Social Conversations, I compared blogging and social networking to chamber of commerce’s mixers. Let's take a look and find out how blogging/social networking stack up against an organization that has been around since the sixteenth century. I don’t think you can really compare the two entities fairly, however there is one important statement that fits both worlds.

The basic mission of a chamber is to create and promote a climate where business can operate in a productive and profitable manner.

Responsible bloggers do encourage and support a climate where writers, designers, copywriters, coaches and many more entrepreneurs can be productive and profitable. Instead of meeting face to face, we meet screen to screen providing factual information and motivation for learning. We are all citizens of this blogging community and communities are what their citizens make them.

Internet marketing has also made a huge impact on chambers of commerce. Click here to see a video of how this North Sacramento chamber markets to prospective new members via YouTube. Their energetic message, Lead, Serve, Inspire is riveting.

Entertainment is sometimes used to liven up a chamber mixer. Bloggers have access to all kinds of entertainment as well but this local chamber really knows how to get your blood pumping. Sign me up! I think the content of this conversation is self explanatory. Chambers of Commerce have joined the global bandwagon too.

I hope this helps those of you, (who are like me), to understand what people are talking about when they have conversations about conversation. The conversation is the glue that holds relationships together. I think I’m getting it now.

I highly recommend that you join your local chamber of commerce. All you need to do is spend a total of two hours a month handing out business cards and meeting other people who probably need your services.

Write it down,

Carma

Social Conversations

I have to come clean. I don’t know about you all but in my opinion if you blog, you are a social networker. Dawud Miracle’s post on social networking also got me thinking about this popular tendency to promote the art of Conversation. Social networking and conversation go hand in hand. Does that make sense to you?

I read a lot of posts talking about joining and promoting conversations and also how important conversations are to relationships. But I seem to have trouble finding out what the conversation is about because people are having a conversation about having conversations. To be perfectly honest here, there have been numerous times when I want to ask the question…What?

I know I am being a little “tongue-in-cheek” here but if I get confused then there must be thousands of others. Here is my analogy and how I understand the issue of Conversations and Social Networking as it relates to the blogosphere.

I belong to a chamber of commerce and go to the mixers. This is an activity that combines social interaction with business just like blogging does. Local chamber mixers are about business people social networking and blogging is about people social networking with business as the underlying interest.

I think places like My Space and Twitter should not be compared (if they have been) to social networking in regards to business. My daughter uses My Space to keep in touch with a lot of people and family members. These sites are for fun, a little diversion and much like an old fashion telephone party line.

This may sound simplistic to many of you but this is how I have been able to understand what people mean when they start talking about conversations and social networking. I was afraid I was doing this blogging thing all wrong because I didn’t know what the subject of the conversation was about. I would search for hours trying to find something to relate to and when I did, I posted faster than you could snap your fingers while twiddling your thumbs.

In my next post I would like to expand on the analogy between chamber of commerce mixers and blogging.

Write it down,
Carma