As executive director of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber, one of the phrases I have been repeating incessantly is “We’re really good at converting the converted, but we need to get better at converting the unconverted.” Which essentially means, those that know about our region and why it’s incredible, are already on board — how do we reach those who don’t know yet and get them on board?

The challenge of converting the unconverted breaks down into two major roadblocks: attention bandwidth and messaging mix.

Attention bandwidth fascinates me because I think it explains many different aspects of how we live our lives in 2018. The concept is that each of us has only a finite amount of attention to give to all aspects of our lives. Between our bosses, colleagues, husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, best friends, acquaintances, sons, daughters, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, text messaging, live streaming, sports, movies, music, chores, driving, errands, classwork, bill paying, and more, we are overloaded with messages.

We can only focus on so many things before we literally run out of capacity. Therefore, one struggle for getting a new message to a new audience is fitting it into the bandwidth a person has for new information.

The second road block is messaging mix. We all have a variety of ways in which we receive messages and information. Every person has their own unique mix.

For example, say there was an earthquake — what are the most likely ways you would get that information? For some it may be they’d hear it from a friend. Others may see it on the news, or hear it on the radio, or read about in the newspaper, or on Facebook.

For me personally, I would say 40 percent of my information comes from personal interactions, 30 percent from the internet or Facebook, 10 percent from television, 5 percent from the radio, and the remaining 15 percent from a mix of all other sources.

That’s my personal messaging mix with personal interactions being higher than most due to my profession, and television being lower than others. So, the second road block is, how do we get our message into people’s messaging mix?

The key is you have to meet people where they are at. Few, if any, chambers of commerce in the state are using much video right now. Yet, when I log on Facebook, videos are the top items in most people’s news feeds, so what could we do? Member videos was the answer. It fits into the bandwidth of what they are paying attention to, and in a way that is already in their mix.

By the way, the numbers are staggering. Facebook has 2.23 billion monthly active users. A total of 1.3 billion people use YouTube. Almost 5 billion YouTube videos are watched every day. By creating the SMMC Member Video Program, we post the videos to YouTube and promote them on Facebook, maximizing our audience.

The program is pretty simple, but it has a few unique twists. For starters, if you are looking for it, you can search YouTube for “Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber” and you can find our channel and become a subscriber. Our first video was loaded onto the channel last Friday and we’re gathering submissions for videos from our members to host on our channel. It’s a great way to promote yourself to a new audience.

Within the next month we’re hoping to get up to 25-30 member business video submissions uploaded onto the channel, and hopefully have more than 100 by year’s end. These business videos will be featured in our weekly e-newsletter, be on our SMMC website and promoted on our SMMC Facebook page.

Now a tourist looking to visit or relocate doesn’t just read about our region, but actually gets to experience it.

Though we are accepting all styles of videos for member submissions, we’re mostly looking for “How to” business profiles. Any do-it-yourself contractor or homeowner will tell you they have watched numerous “how to” videos on YouTube. “How to” videos are becoming one of the largest growing segments on YouTube and we feel like our profiles will get a boost from that angle. Why?

Because it expands your audience. If a business does a simple 2-3 minute video that profiles their business, that is all well and good, but it doesn’t have that hook for why people need to view it. Sure you will get those people looking for that particular business or industry type, but no others. The audience is limited in that sense.

To expand the audience, make it a “how to” video and you can pull in many more potential viewers. The SMMC created six videos that we are rolling out over the next six weeks, specifically using this “how to” style. The video series is called the Midcoast Member Minutes.

The inaugural video is “How to Make the Perfect Dirty Martini” and it features Chris Leen, the bar manager at the Coast Bar & Bistro, inside The Daniel in Brunswick. That video shows how to make the drink, but it also showcases the location, the skill of their staff and even ends by giving the contact information for The Daniel. It becomes a “how to” and a business profile all in one video. Now, people searching drink recipes, martinis or Brunswick businesses will find it. Not to mention, with engageable information like this, viewers are more likely to share the information or re-watch it with others.

That’s how we’re trying to convert the unconverted. Creating videos that we can use to educate people with what our businesses do, but also promoting the area.

Any member business interested in submitting a video, please reach out to me directly and I can get you the details. Also, there is no charge for this program for our members. The cost of posting and promoting your videos is included in your membership dues — so send your video submissions today.