If you follow the Claremont Chamber's Instagram @claremontchamber , you might have saw a poll on there asking what topics we should write about for the blog, Commerce Talk. There were three options in the poll: Marketing and Networking Tips, Recap of Events, and Member Spotlights. The highest percentage was Marketing and Networking Tips with Recap of Chamber Events as 2nd, and Member Spotlights as 3rd. If you ask a Chamber Member the benefit of a Chamber, they will probably tell you Networking as the one of the biggest benefits and Marketing would be the second benefit listed, so the result was not very surprising that Marketing and Networking tips was the winner. 

Sales and Marketing has always had a close symbiotic relationship; you pitch your product with the help of marketing material in hopes of being able to sell the product. Symbiotic relationships in nature allow those who are not the biggest and strongest creatures to be able to coexist and thrive, showing that working together is better than working alone. Networking and marketing also have a close symbiotic relationship with each other. Networking is pitching yourself instead of a product. You are creating a community of professionals within a field, our's being commerce. Marketing remains the same, but instead of marketing material for the product, you have business cards. Marketing should be treated as an extension and a reflection of you while networking. For an example, if you are a serious person who works in finance, I don't expect your marketing to be silly or any comic sans used on your business card.

In the end, regardless of your marketing, people want to create authentic and geniune connections while networking. If you treat networking as community building, instead of product or service selling, you will have better luck and greater satisfaction out of a Chamber event. Community has been prevalent and important since the dawn of humanity, and technology advances does not change that fact but only changes the appearance of community building. A community can only truly function if there is reciprocation between all parties; a symbiotic relationship between micro levels for a macro level. At the Claremont Chamber of Commerce, we strive to represent where commerce meets community. 

With the poll in mind, we will aim our blog posts with teaching and giving tips on how to network and how to market effectively in Claremont and the surrounding areas of the San Gabriel Valley. We will also be recapping our Chamber events and creating a sense of FOMO for those who were not able to attend. Thank you for all who answered in the poll. Hearing from our community is what builds us to be a successful Chamber in Claremont.