Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July from the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce!

New Young Professionals Survey!

Young Professionals (ages 21-39), as our YPG expands, we are looking at adding additional programs/events.  Please take our survey so we can find out how to provide the programs and events that you want!  Click here to take the survey.

Adventures of Pinky: DTC Luncheon

Today was the DTC Luncheon with speaker Marie Belew Wheatley, CEO of American Humane Association.  Founded in 1877, the American Humane Association is the only national organization dedicated to protecting both children and animals. A nonprofit membership organization, American Humane is headquartered in Denver.

Marie was such a great speaker!  The first person in her family to go to college, Marie had to overcome so many obstacles to get to where she is today.  She talked a lot about the importance of mentoring and being mentored.  One of the key points she highlighted in her talk was about finding something you have a passion for and working in that field.  She was so interesting and inspirational!

-Pinky

Adventures of Pinky: Business After Hours with DCPA

 On Friday, I attended the Business After Hours hosted by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts at Baur’s Ristorante.  We mingled, drank wine, had excellent appetizers, drew for door prizes and saw a performance of “Quilters” at the DCPA.  It was such a great event! 

Catch me later this week during the DTC Luncheon!

-Pinky

Do You Twitter?

The Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the Young Professionals Group have both recently began Twittering.  Do you use Twitter?  One of our main goals for both Twitter pages is to highlight members in the news, so send us your news stories and we will highlight them on Twitter.  We also want to keep members up to date with event updates, breaking Chamber news, special offers and topics of interest to members and young professionals.

Young Professsionals: twitter.com/cwccypg

Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce: twitter.com/cowomenschamber

Want to learn more about Twitter and other social networking platforms?  Attend our Leadership Workshop: Take the Leap into Social Networking on Tuesday, June 30.  Click here to register.

Award Nomination Deadline Approaching

The Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce is accepting nominations for the Young Professional of the Year Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, and CWCC Company of the Year Awards for small, medium and large businesses until July 15.  Nominations are open to the public.  Honorees will receive the awards during the CWCC Annual Awards Luncheon in October.

About Young Professionals Award
The Young Professional Award recognizes the efforts of an outstanding young professional woman who demonstrates significant accomplishments in her career and has contributed to the business community.  This emerging leader pursues excellence and possesses leadership skills, creativity, and demonstrates role model qualities.  Additionally, she works to improve the quality of life of others through community service.  To be eligible, a candidate must be a professional woman working in Colorado and must be 39 years of age or younger.  Click here for nomination form.

About Lifetime Achievement Award
To be eligible, the nominee must be a member of the community for a minimum of five years.  The nominee must also demonstrate significant leadership skills and has made an impact on women in her community.  Additionally, the nominee must have contributed a body of work that has made an effective change in a specific segment of her community including: environmental, community, business, and social.  Click here for nomination form.

About CWCC Company of the Year Awards
The CWCC Company of the Year Awards honor companies that create a workplace culture supporting the highest levels of personal and professional accomplishment for their female employees.  The companies encouraging them to excel in the company, devote time and energy to their community in a meaningful way, and forge paths of leadership for other women to follow.  The award recipients must meet each of the following criteria:

• Size Criteria: Large Business: 500+ employees / Medium Business: 51-499 employees / Small Business: 50 employees or less
• Assist women in reaching their full leadership potential, through training, promotion, or programs specifically directed to support women employees
• Contract with women owned business for supplies and services

Click here for the nomination form.

Don’t Miss Next Thursday’s DTC Lunch

Marie Belew Wheatley, CEO of American Humane Association will speak about her life and her over 20 years of experience working in the non-profit sector at the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce DTC Luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jul. 2 at Maggiano’s DTC, 7401 S. Clinton St. in Englewood, CO.

The luncheon is sponsored by Wealth Concepts, LLC/Mass Mutual Financial Group.  The cost is $27 for CWCC members and $37 for non-members and walk-ins.  Register online at http://www.cwcc.org/.

Wheatley currently serves as president and CEO of the American Humane Association, the only national organization dedicated to protecting both children and animals.  Since joining the organization just three years ago, she has used her business skills and financial management approach to revitalize the 130-year-old association and reestablish its leadership as the “voice for the voiceless.”

She joined American Humane in February 2004 with more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, including, most recently, serving as the Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Development Officer for the American Red Cross, Mile High Chapter.

In addition to her accomplishments at American Humane, she has been recognized as a leader and an active board member and volunteer for a broad array of national and community organizations. 

Click here to RSVP.

Adventures of Pinky: Downtown Lunch

Yesterday, I attended the Downtown Lunch featuring guest speaker Judy Taylor.  Judy is such an amazing speaker with such an interesting story.  What really struck me about Judy was how many times she has reinvented herself; from teacher to sportscaster to journalist to magazine founder to consultant.  She is so funny and has such an interesting background.

Catch me during my next adventure!

-Pinky

CWCC Participates in SADBOC Trade Fair

The CWCC participated in the SADBOC Trade Fair and Western Lunch BBQ on June 16. 

The Rocky Mountain Small and Disadvantaged Business Opportunity Council (SADBOC), is a non-political, nonprofit, informal, all volunteer council that works to enhance the marketability of small; small disadvantaged; veteran and disabled veteran-owned small business; hubzone small business; minority; and women business enterprises in the Rocky Mountain Region. 

Visit www.sadboc.org.

Guest Column: Marketers Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Social Media

Marketers Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Social Media

By Ken Barber
Director of Digital Marketing, Integer

The social media trend is still a foreign concept for many businesses. Media has typically been a one-way channel used to push messages and requests to consumers. How could it possibly be social?

Well the times they are a changin’, to borrow from Bob Dylan, and marketers now must contend with a new media option that is more of a dialogue with consumers than a one-way lecture. Wikipedia, the popular collaborative encyclopedia website, defines social media as “a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many); a democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.” 

Allowing large groups of individuals to freely share their content with each other is the underlying principle of social media. Examples include blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), message boards, consumer review sites (e.g., Yelp), photo and video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), online networking sites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn), and other common-interest community sites (e.g., MeetUp).

Marketers initially shied away from social media participation due to limited reach and a narrowly focused user base (mostly young, tech-savvy consumers). This is no longer the case. Facebook boasts more than 55 million active U.S. users and has reported that women over-55 are the fastest growing demographic group. YouTube videos can receive tens of millions of views, outperforming Super Bowl ads. Even the popular trend of posting online status updates (e.g., Twitter) is now performed by more than 10% of U.S. online adults and growing exponentially.
Imagine a consumer has an unpleasant experience with Brand X. He quickly posts details of this experience (descriptions, images, and cell-phone video) to his favorite social networks. The story spreads like a virus across that person’s network. It finds other people who are dissatisfied with Brand X and gives them a reason to join the conversation. They post it to their networks, the pattern repeats.

After a few weeks, the ‘Down With Brand X’ Facebook group is formed, 1 million people join, and the members announce a boycott of all Brand X products. The mainstream media picks up the story and expands the reach even further. Scary? Yes. Realistic in the world of social media? Absolutely.

Consumers have received a tremendously powerful gift in the form of social media and are not afraid to use it to expose brands that disappoint them. Marketers who participate in social media have the opportunity to connect with consumers on a more frequent basis and in a more personal setting, making it easier to learn about and respond to a consumer crisis before it spirals out of control.

Social media participation can assume various forms depending on your marketing goals, available resources, and comfort level with a more open communication environment. Popular approaches have included creating a Facebook page for your company, starting a Twitter account for your CEO, adding a discussion board to your website, or posting entertaining product videos to a branded YouTube channel and seeking community feedback.

Social media are incredibly transparent, so even small missteps by a novice social marketer can be quickly discovered and communicated across the network. Below are some best practices to increase your chances at success.

• Listen Well. Starbucks launched the My Starbucks Idea website to solicit ideas on how to improve the company and then posted the ideas that were implemented. Remember the two-way nature of social media.
• Facilitate the Conversation. Nike showed its love for runners by creating an online community where runners could find, post, and share their favorite runs.  Comcast wanted to create a more real-time, personal discussion about customer concerns and created a Twitter account that has attracted 16,000 followers.
• Focus on Content. Urban Outfitters asked fans to post photos of them wearing UO clothing to a popular online photo-sharing community. The store received interesting content to help drive traffic and sales while fans received inspiration on how to wear the clothing. Always ensure content is interesting or helpful and is updated frequently. Don’t be afraid to seek content from your community.
• Be Honest. Today’s empowered consumers are adept at sniffing out a fake. Authenticity is one of the key tenets of the digital age.  Be transparent. Respect your audience and admit when you’re wrong.
• Be Responsive. The clock seems to tick faster in the social media world, and silence on an important issue can be interpreted as guilt. Kryptonite learned this lesson in 2004 when they were too slow to respond to multiple blog postings about major product defects.
• Measure Differently. Evaluate your effectiveness based on the level of interaction you create with your community, not just impressions.  Look at metrics such as the size of your direct community and the amount of brand-related content contributed by your fans.

Social media represents a fundamental shift in power from businesses to consumers. Instead of worrying about this loss of power, embrace your new empowered consumers by participating in their existing discussion or creating new communities where they can interact. Whether you like it or not, your consumers are online talking with each other about you, your products, and your industry. Why not be a part of the conversation?

Ken Barber
Director of Digital Marketing, Integer
kbarber@integerdenver.com
303-393-5516