MidwayChamber.com

How to suggest the MIDWAY CHAMBER Facebook site to your friends

The directions are the same for any Facebook fan page.

1. Go to the Midway Chamber on Facebook.
2. If you are not logged into Facebook, you will have to log in to go any further.
3. If you’re not already a fan of the Midway Chamber on Facebook now would be a good time to join! You’ll get exclusive content and pictures in addition to the opportunity to network with other Midway Chamber members.
4. Below the Midway Chamber logo in the left hand column, click on More to expand the menu.
5. When the menu expands, click on the Suggest to Friends option
6. A window will pop-up with a display of all of your Facebook friends.
7. Either type in a particular friend’s name to find them one by one, or scroll through all of your friends’ profile photos and choose those that you would like to suggest the Midway Chamber page to by clicking on their profile photo.
8. A check mark appears in the lower left corner of the friends you click on. Photos of friends that are already fans of Midway Chamber will be faded.
9. When you are done selecting the friends you’d like to send the suggestion to, click on Send Invitations.
10. Each of your chosen friends will receive a suggestion to become a fan, with a link to the Midway Chamber fan page.
11. When they accept your request, they will become official fans of Midway Chamber’s Facebook page.
12. With each new fan, the opportunity to expand our individual networks grows and grows, so come back and check out all of the new fans often!

Here is an opportunity for any chamber members to do some free advertising on the Midway Chamber Website! If you already have a twitter account and are fairly well versed in how to use twitter you can go ahead and skip to the bottom of this article. For those of you who are new to twitter keep reading.

The first thing you’re going to need to do is get a twitter account. Go to twitter.com and make an account. It’s free and takes just about no time. I’d also recommend filling out the rest of your account. The more attractive your twitter site the more likely it is that people will want to interact with you. You can check out www.twitter.com/midwaychamber as an example.

The next step is to start following some people. Since you’re already at the Midway Chamber’s twitter page, why not follow us? Then check out some of the people we’re following or that are following us. You will definitely recognize some familiar faces and names. Follow them too. Now if you click on Home at the top of your screen you will see a feed of all the people you’ve started following.

While this is great, social media is more than just a news service (though Twitter is becoming the fastest way for news to get out – the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the airline crash in the Hudson river were broadcast around twitter before any conventional media) and you should use twitter to communicate a message to those who have chosen to follow you.

Keeping a balance between broadcasting, receiving, and interacting with followers is important. There are many schools of thoughts on this and I can’t answer what balance is appropriate for you or your organization, but it’s something to consider.

There is, however, a widely adopted consensus that using a third party application to use twitter is the best way to use twitter, and I would wholeheartedly agree with this. The Midway Chamber uses a program called TweetDeck which is very popular amongst twitter users. Other popular clients are Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop, and the newly popular Tweetie (Mac Only). There are a slew of other programs and tools you can use to interact with twitter. Search Google and you’ll find more than you could possibly imagine. But a basic one you should familiarize yourself with is search.twitter.com

Try searching for #MCCE. This is what is called a hashtag. It’s a way that people group twitter messages together. In this case, #MCCE refers to Midway Chamber of Commerce Events. As you can see there’s not much there…That’s where you all come in.

For those skipping to the bottom, start reading…

Do you have an event coming up that you’d like to share with other chamber members? Post it with twitter and make sure to include the #MCCE hashtag. Now go to the Midway Chamber Live Page – You should see your message in the Midway Chamber Events box. And so will anyone else that checks us out. You’ll also notice that we’ve created a #MCCD hashtag for anyone looking to share a deal with Midway Chamber Members. Check back often to see other deals and events coming up!

These tools are works in progress and I am definitely open to suggestions from all of you on how to improve these features. Or maybe there is a feature you’d like to see us have available for you but don’t already…leave me a comment and I’ll see what I can do. If you have any questions on the material I talked about let me know and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

If you visit www.midwaychamber.com you’ll notice a couple of new things on the website. I am going to briefly summarize all of the new content and how you can use it to help your business grow, network with other chamber members, or just get some news on the chamber and the community. The best way to learn about these features is to check them out! And you can always email Travis with questions. Let’s start by looking at the chamber’s homepage.

New Chamber Home Page

There are three new features with links conveniently located on the home page.

Online Newsletter – Midway Avenues has moved online! If you didn’t receive the first edition yet make sure you sign up! A complete archive of our newsletters will be kept available online. By moving our newsletter online news can be more easily shared with others, you can discover more information by clicking on links embedded in the newsletter, and it’s always readily available! Currently sent out monthly.

Chamber Blog – Contains an archive of chamber news and events. Comments section for those who want to interact with Chamber Happenings. You can also sign up for the RSS feed to stay on top of what’s happening.  Updated with full stories weekly, mini stories 3+ times a week.

Social Media Center (Midway Chamber Live) – A One Stop Spot for everything MCC. This page contains links to other places on the web you can find us (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) and has local news, chamber news via twitter and our blog, and other news sources to keep you up to date. You can also use this page to post events or deals you want to advertise to other chamber members. Updated Hourly.

Midway Chamber Live

How to Use these New Features:

There are a number of ways to use these features and how you choose to use them is based entirely on your needs and wants from the chamber.
•    You can choose to continue to receive the news as you always have. If you do nothing at all you should at least be receiving the new newsletter. We will not be mailing newsletters anymore so you should take the time to sign up.
•    You can choose to expand the amount of news you receive.  Subscribing to the blog RSS feed, following our twitter feed, and periodically checking out Midway Chamber Live will give you access to more events and deals than only receiving the newsletter will do.
•    You can choose to interact with the news, make chamber news, and interact with chamber members. This can be done on all different levels and can take as much or as little time as you’d like it to.
o    Try making a comment on the blog about something you feel you have insight on.
o    Use Twitter to share news, events and deals with members: Use twitter to send a message with the hashtag #MCCE, or share a special deal with chamber members by using #MCCD. These hashtags show up on the home page of Midway Chamber Live. (I will be writing a blog post on using twitter in the coming week for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about)
o     Use LinkedIn to connect with hundreds (and hundreds) of chamber members. The Midway Chamber group has a forum for discussing news and ideas with other members. Receive and write recommendations, share presentations, and much, much more.
o    Use Facebook to connect to the largest online social network in the world.  We just recently launched the Midway Chamber Fan Page and you can connect with people there as well as view, comment on and save pictures from lunches and events.

Social Media and Networking is already a huge deal and it promises to only get bigger. We at the chamber want to provide you with opportunities to embrace this technology and are here to help you in whatever way we can. And as a huge dork, Travis will continue to update and enhance our online services, so if you have any suggestions, he’d love to hear them. If you have any questions about any of the materials covered in this brief flyer, fell free to contact Travis at 651-646-2636 or oneil@midwaychamber.com.