A guest blog by Nick Jones of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. Sounds pretty boring, eh? Makes you think of men in grey suits sitting around congratulating each other over brandies, maybe?
Well nothing could be further from the truth. Liverpool Chamber is the city’s largest, oldest and busiest business support organisation. We run over 100 networking events a year, provide vital support to companies large and small and are the voice of business in local and national government.
We like to think we are innovative, approachable and vibrant. But how do we let everyone else know?
Time To Get Social
One of the ways we chose was, alongside traditional marketing, social networking. We already had a website, a blog and a weekly e-newsletter. But these didn’t help us reach out to new contacts or really engage with Liverpool’s business community and beyond. So like everyone else, we signed up for Facebook and then Twitter.
Facebook has been great for growing a whole new set of contacts and letting people know who we are, but it’s been Twitter that’s arguably had the most positive impact.
Since signing up 18 months ago, we have organically grown our followers to around 3000. That doesn’t sound a lot, but we’ve never automatically followed, or bought in lists. What would be the point? We want to connect with real people who are actually interested in what we say, not random strangers in Alaska (no offence to Alaska, I’m sure you’re all lovely).
Brown Or Red Sauce On Your Bacon?
Our account is managed by our E-content Officer to ensure a consistent voice and message. We have deliberately taken an informal approach to our Tweets. Nothing looks so unappealing (to us, anyway) as a feed of nothing but self links and self promotion. If we want to chat about music or bacon sandwiches now and again, we will.
This has paid dividends. We have followers (and follow) people from all disciplines and industries, not just business. We are therefore able to let more and more people know exactly what we get up to and how they can get involved. By ‘pitching in’ and getting involved in the Twitter scene, we have gone a long way in changing how we’re perceived.
In practical terms, this has meant new members, increased event attendance and an entirely new set of people who can listen to what we say.
We have also positioned ourselves as ‘social networking evangelists’ in the city. We understand Twitter’s potential and are keen for others to get involved. We’ve run a series of events on how to use Twitter for business. We have also helped individual members set up their Twitter and Facebook accounts. We also tweet (and retweet) useful articles, blogs and fellow-users, helping to spread tips and tricks to others. This means for many we are now the go-to organisation for practical (and free) advice on how Twitter can help business.
A Golden Land Of Opportunity And Adventure
But it’s not all about getting down with the kids and showing everyone how trendy we are. We’ve been able to connect with other Chambers across the UK and internationally. We’ve enjoyed mutually beneficial exchanges with Manchester Chamber (no inter-city rivalry for us!), London Chamber and the British Chambers here in the UK, plus others as far afield as the US and New Zealand. To be part of a global community we knew was out there but had no easy way of communicating with is a real boon for us, especially since Liverpool has always been such an outward-facing city.
And let’s not forget Twitter’s main strengths for any business – becoming more responsive to your customers. We now communicate in real time with our friends and members. If they need to know what’s happening and where, they can find out straight away. If they want to get more involved in our activities, we are now extra-easy to approach. And on the rare occasion someone isn’t happy, that can be fixed quickly, and, perhaps more importantly, be seen to be fixed quickly.
In short, we love Twitter. It may be gossipy, addictive and often irrelevant, but so is much of office life. In the end, its positives far outweigh its (possible) negatives. If any company wants to reinvigorate its PR and marketing, increase its networking potential and become a better listener, they know what to do. Just do it in under 140 characters…
Nick Jones
E-content Officer
Liverpool Chamber
http://twitter.com/LpoolChamber
nick.jones@liverpoolchamber.org.uk
Thank you for sharing this wonderful article..