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Can Biznik replace the need to join your local Chamber of Commerce?
I personally do not think that Biznik is here to replace your local Chamber of Commerce. I think it fills a huge void and does so admirably.
As I look back at 2008 and plan and budget for 2009 I'm evaluating where my marketing dollars are going. For my budgeting purposes, I look the at membership fees to join Chamber of Commerce as part of my marketing budget.
When I first joined my local Chamber of Commerce, one of the reasons I joined was the possibility of finding clients and customers. If that was my only criteria for joining I probably would not renew my membership.
The Chamber of Commerce for me has been very beneficial in many different ways. I think one thing that the Redmond Chamber does exceptionally well is representing local businesses when it comes to interacting with the City Officials and other local government organizations. While this may not be percieved as a direct impact to you and your business, it really is an important job that goes unnoticed and somewhat unappreciated. Having a group focus on economic vitality in your local area is very important.
The other thing about the Chamber is giving back to the local business community. I have joined different committees and found that to be a valuable experience. I would have never come to know these people had I not participated in the committees. If you're a person that just wants to join a Chamber and go to the monthly "business after-hours" event and thinks that you're going to get a lot of business from this kind of participation then I would recommend that you not join the Chamber. I think there are a lot of cheaper and better options.
The one thing that I do not think most Chambers do well is building community on the Internet. Some of the Chambers like to tell you that you will be getting advertising by having your business listed on the Chamber of Commerce website. I've got to call it like I see it and call a spade - a spade. The Internet is something that most Chambers do not understand. Just having your company listed on their membership directory doesn't drive business to you. While it doesn't hurt to have an inbound link from a Chamber website, it might not be giving your SEO much lift. Biznik understands SEO. Having your profile on Biznik definitely provides a big SEO lift. From my perspective, Biznik has a focus on people, not a company. While you can take your Biznik profile and promote your company, it's still more about you with a lot less emphasis on your company. I would say this works because people do business with people that they like. The Biznik profile provides some transparency about each person. I think most people put less weight on the company name and more on whether they like and trust a person.
I think it's safe to say most Chambers are about businesses and community. Being on the Internet with so many social networking tools available it seems like that is something that the Chambers might be missing. With Ning, it seems extremely easy to create a new social networking site. It's almost like Ning provides the tank and then you take your packet of Sea Monkeys, add water, and watch your social networking world come to life. I guess the tools themselves are not what is important. It doesn't matter so much whether the Chambers are blogging, using Twitter, or Facebook. The fact is, I haven't seen any of the local Seattle area Chambers using any of the social networking tools.
Do you think that your local Chamber is doing enough to build community? Is it important to you that they build community on the Internet? If you only had $300 to spend on joining Biznik or your local Chamber of Commerce, which would it be?
