Welcome to The Healthcare Marketing Connection! This week we are taking a look at your local Chamber of Commerce and leveraging relationships with other businesses in your community.

This week was fun and crazy here. I was fortunate enough to go to the Democratic National Convention with my daughter Monday. Downtown Denver was packed with people, many of my friends have been volunteering at the convention all week and photos of famous people are flying around blogs like crazy! A few tidbits from my friends...Some folks played poker with Ben Affleck; Katie Couric has been spotted and was reported to be very friendly.

Shelby and I didn't meet anyone quite that famous, but were introduced to Jim Demers, a lobbyist from New Hampshire. He was very friendly and I have some photos of our excursion on my blog if you want to check it out. What made the biggest impact for me? The police presence was overwhelming. They were loaded up with big, big guns and oxygen in backpacks. I understand there were less protesters than the city planned for - we saw some, they were kind enough to block the road and Shelby and I had to walk all the way across downtown in our heels.

Have a terrific Labor Day weekend!

To your success!

Kelly

Five Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Chamber of Commerce Membership

Most communities have a Chamber of Commerce and many of us are members just because we thought we should be. We see other businesses in our community with the chamber stickers in the window and think we're not valid until we have one. The fact is not all chambers are the same.

Chambers of commerce come in all different sizes and have different types of benefits available to their members. But as different as they are, they all have one thing in common - their mission is to connect businesses with each other. Their main purpose in the community is to help your business grow.

Joining a chamber of commerce sounds great, doesn't it? It sounds like an easy way to connect with other business owners and the community. If only making money and connections were as easy as joining...

First things first, you can't become a member of the Chamber of Commerce and then not do anything. You are just throwing your money away. You have to commit to being involved and taking the time to manifest the benefits available to you.

Here are a few basic things to do to maximize any chamber of commerce membership:

• Investigate all the benefits before joining. If you are already a member take the time now to review the member benefits - what haven't you taken advantage of? Take some time to uncover the different marketing options available to you as a member. Ask the person that signed you up what the best events are for you to attend. Is free advertising included in your local paper? Are ribbon-cuttings standard procedures for new members?

• Attend networking events. This doesn't mean that YOU specifically need to attend every event. You may have someone in your office attend more frequent events, and you attend ones with the "high-rollers" in your community.

• Include educational articles in publications. Does the chamber have a publication they send out to members? Don't necessarily jump right to advertising in the publication if they have one. You want to ask if they accept educational articles that would benefit all of their members first. It's usually free to include these and they are read more often (and are more believable) than ads.

• Encourage strategic introductions from the staff. If there is a specific business you want to form a relationship with, ask your chamber representative if they can sit you with someone from there or introduce you. Be strategic and network. Don't waste your time with the people that don't do anything but attend events. Move forward and be purposeful in your connections.

• Get involved in a worthwhile committee, but be particular about which one. Larger chambers will have different "levels" of committees you can get on. Be picky. Ask who the other members of the committee are. Are they the movers and shakers in your community? Are they business leaders you want to forge relationships with?

Don't just become a member of your Chamber of Commerce just to do it. Be strategic, ask smart questions, and be picky about who you spend your valuable time with.

(c) 2008, A Marketing Connection

Want to use this article in your ezine or web site? No problem! Just let me know at info@AMarketingConnection.com. I'll send you a short bio to include at the end of the article.

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If you have any other great resources you'd like me to share with everyone, let me know and I'll check it out. Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com

Boulder Writers Alliance (BWA) - September 23rd - I'm speaking on "Tips for Freelancing Success" at the BWA Expo: www.BWA.org.

If you have any other great resources you'd like me to share with everyone, let me know and I'll check it out. Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com

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Disclaimer: A Marketing Connection, Inc. does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the recommendations or advertisements, or the quality of any products, information, or other materials displayed, purchased, or obtained by you as a result of an offer in connection with any ad in The Healthcare Marketing Connection. We recommend, as always, that you do your own due diligence before purchasing any product.

To learn more about healthcare copywriting and marketing, visit my Web site at www.AMarketingConnection.com/article_archives.shtml. There are tons of fr ee articles on a variety of helpful topics.