Lunchtime on Wednesday represented a significant milestone for the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce. They packed the event center on the campus of St. Martin’s University with over 200 people, their largest crowd ever – all to learn about “how Social Media could help them differentiate and build revenues” for their businesses. We were graciously hosted by the new incoming chairman, Casey Cochrane, who had the house laughing while focusing on many different topics.
The diverse audience created an electric environment by having a range from small businesses – some of whom we had a chance to talk with – such as Cabinets by Trivonna, Puget Sound Health Partners, HarleQuin Productions and Cascade Mini Excavating (to name a few), to the Business Examiner and even Puget Sound Energy. There were also more bankers in one room than I have seen in a very long time, including Frontier Bank, Heritage Bank, Key Bank, Olympia Federal Savings and Thurston First Bank, just to name a few. They even did a “bankers raffle” to recognize all the support the bankers have given to the chamber – don’t ask me how that worked – still trying to figure that one out myself.
Our message was simple – Social Media is the next tsunami in communications – Faster, Deeper and Cheaper than any form of “traditional media” they are using today. This is a “dream come true” for small and middle market businesses as the cost for all the Social Media tools is exactly the same for them as it is for Proctor and Gamble – FREE! The crowd was stunned by some of the stats and the rapid growth of Social Media in the business world. All in all, a great experience for us and one that opened the eyes of the majority of people attending – Thurston County, you are now ENGAGED…
Blaine
The value of exploiting this technology is great. Tapping into it’s potential and having a return on that time investment is what I am watching for. You can’t beat free and when you consider what we used to pay for yellow pages and the like… my head swims.
~ Vince