I am not surprised at the interest in the idea of a Blog Chamber of Commerce. This is due to the overwhelming need to promote and market business and related blogs.
While knowledge of blogs and blogging is commonplace for us, even very internet and marketing savvy people are not aware of the blog potential. Instead of support, the idea of blogging is often met with apathy at best and contempt and derision at worst.
Clearly, the message of how blogs can help businesses of all types and sizes has not got through. The rest of the online business community, where blogs are not used, are blissfully unaware of the blog possibilities.
In effect, we are preaching to the choir.
We all fully understand the principles of blogging. Our concerns are all about improving our blog's quality, increasing its readership, and using it in our businesses in general.
Not everyone on the internet is at that level of awareness.
We know blogs are powerful marketing tools. The blog potential for changing the way public relations is performed is well known.
Blogs are almost unrivalled for developing a two way conversation with current and future customers and clients. For search engine optimization, and getting a website to the top of the search rankings, blogs are the expressway to the stars.
Not everyone knows those facts, as we do.
No one has told them, and so many myths, misconceptions, and distortions exist.
Instead of support and shared interest from much of the mainstream marketing, business, public relations and media communities, we receive condescending pats on the head.
It's time we stood up and were counted.
Those ideas and many more are why we need a Blog Chamber of Commerce.
As Chamber of Commerce members, bloggers would have a strong membership voice backing them up in the media and in the wider community.
A Chamber of Commerce, by its very definition, carries an image of strong pro-business principles, and support for entrepreneurship in the community.
Members would proudly display a Blog Chamber of Commerce button on their sites, linking to a central Blog Chamber of Commerce Blog, and to other Blog Chamber members. Working to add members to the blogging cause and to the Chamber, to increase awareness of blogging, and supporting other bloggers in their efforts, would be their mission.
Bloggers elegible for membership would include business, marketing, public relations, corporate, small and independent business, legal, professional, real estate, accounting, consulting, employment, educational, medical and dental, finance, search engine optimization, economics, writers of fiction and non-fiction, and any blogs in support of internet business in general.
The Chamber, among other intitiatives, would send press releases to the various press release sites, as well as to media outlets. Getting the message of blogging to the wider community would be paramount for its success, and for all bloggers.
Forming a Blog Chamber of Commerce also displays that business and professional bloggers are serious business people. It shows that our blogs are an integral part of our business. They are not a hobby, although they are also fun to maintain.
Dispelling the myth that all blogs are online diaries and personal journals is a great place to start. While we all read and support a vast number and types of personal blogs, they are very distinct from business oriented blogs.
When the wider public discovers the power of blogging, and increase their levels of business and profits as a result, the entire economy benefits. More people are employed and money is spent at other businesses, many of them Blog Chamber of Commerce members.
The Chamber could use the standard accepted model of non-profit management. The first step would be to recruit members and get them involved in the Chamber activities.
A Board of Directors would be elected by the membership, with terms of office set in advance. A new Board would elected to replace the outgoing Directors, at regular intervals.
The Board of Directors would agree upon policy direction, on behalf of the membership, to ensure that the blog message got through to interested parties.
Volunteers would be requested to perform various duties on behalf of the Chamber.
These duties could include writing press releases, helping to form policy initiatives, spread the word of the Chamber and benefits for members, and organize Chamber functions for the membership and the wider business community. Some functions and events would most certainly be fund raisers for the organization.
The Chamber of Commerce could elect to support many of the already existing blog initiatives taking place around the internet. By throwing its support behind other blogging groups, who could also become Chamber of Commerce members, those organizations would receive wider participation and promotional benefits.
The possibilities are endless, for the value of a Blog Chamber of Commerce, and its service to the blogging community.
