A key duty of any chamber of commerce is information sharing. At our very core it’s what we do. We promote our businesses, local events, our communities and we share all that is happening with the world.

This week, a member business asked me what our advertising options were for their business. I figured it would be some good information for everyone to know as we don’t always toot our own horn about all that we do. But, if we don’t toot, you’ll never hear it — so here we go a-tootin’:

 SMMC News & Notes E-Newsletter:

Weekly on Friday morning, or Thursday afternoon, the chamber releases our SMMC News & Notes, our weekly e-newsletter. Compiled from news submitted by member businesses, business articles from statewide media and chamber project updates, this piece gives a comprehensive overview of events and activities over the coming 7-10 days.

Typically, the e-newsletter includes a title story of the week, a section of Chamber Updates, a section of Member News, an In the News section for shared media that is relevant to the businesses and the seven-day calendar of event listings.

This is a dense piece often running between 1,700-2,500 words and including several embedded blogs, pictures and story links for even more information. We ask everyone to treat it like a newspaper, where you read the headline and the first paragraph and more information is available beyond that.

Members can submit information at any time, and the submission form is on the chamber website homepage at midcoastmaine.com. The SMMC uses Constant Contact as our service provider.

 SMMC Website:

Speaking of the SMMC website, the chamber website has thousands of words of area information, an online full-year calendar of events, descriptions of the communities in the region, a business directory of members by industry, chamber membership applications and even some advertisements of our members.

The SMMC Marketing Team is discussing ways to upgrade the look and feel of the site this fall with anticipated changes being implemented in 2019. However, each member can control their own directory listing with a dedicated login and password to keep their information up to date.

Also, member businesses can submit stories to our e-newsletter, create a blog post for our website or submit their own events to be added to the online calendar. It’s a great way to stay informed and share information.

 SMMC Facebook Page:

Follow the chamber on Facebook by searching Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber. With more staff dedicated to our social media, we’re both getting more information to share, and gaining more followers, as we are posting more regularly.

With more chamber programs active now than at any time in the past four years, there is just more news to share and our page is becoming a great way to stay reminded about what is going on and what events you cannot miss.

 SMMC Youtube Channel:

Our chamber does video too! When you log onto Facebook — what are the first things you see? Videos. They’re everywhere yet no chamber in the state is utilizing video to promote their businesses.

We just launched the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber channel a month ago and currently are accepting and formatting videos to share on the platform. You can become a subscriber to the channel and receive a notice every time a new video is posted.

This is very new for us, but we are currently working on a social media blitz to direct viewers to this channel, including developing a dedicated page on our website to highlight our videos once our inventory gets large enough.

Right now the e-newsletter contains a “video of the week” and we will be extending that featured video campaign to other platforms soon. The videos on the channel now are from local events and activities as well as a member video profile series called the Midcoast Member Minutes. These profile videos are “how to” videos featuring some of our businesses. Better than just a normal business profile, the “how to” slant gives viewers valuable information while also getting a feel for the business and the services they provide.

For instance, you can see “How to Make the Perfect Dirty Martini” or “How to Make the Perfect Manhattan” from our Coast Bar & Bistro videos that we did with bar manager Chris Leen.

 Event Sponsorship:

The SMMC runs numerous events throughout the year including the Hacker’s Ball (golf tournament), the Big Night Out (awards dinner), WILL Power (Women In Local Leadership events), Members Helping Members workshop series and the SMMC Presents speaker series.

Each of these events have sponsorship levels to get your business name out in front of hundreds of attendees annually.

 Eat, Play, Stay & Other Chamber Publications:

The SMMC companion guide, called the Eat Play Stay is going into production for its second edition this fall, and features travel and tourism information for our 16-community region along with business advertisements. A total of 50,000 copies are printed and distributed across the state and throughout the country.

Additionally, the chamber sells co-op ads in the Maine Invites You the State of Maine Travel Planner and the SMMC also produces a June-December event calendar called the Midcoast Calendar of Events which will have advertising opportunities in 2019.

 Word of Mouth at Networking Events:

Lastly, a great way to get your news out to the world is to attend a chamber networking event and spread you own news. 12 @ 12 is a monthly lunch series where 12 members get together at a hosting business at noon to break bread and meet each other. Chamber After Hours is the monthly open house event sponsored by a hosting business from 5-7 p.m. (next one: Sept. 20 at New England Fitness, Topsham). Or you can always meet someone at our ribbon cuttings, Midcoast Edge events or more.

Check out either the website, Facebook or YouTube channels to find out more about those events.