North Mason Chamber of Commerce :: Chamber Offers Internet Social Networking Class August 7

The North Mason Chamber of Commerce is taking on a nationwide leadership role in championing Internet Social Networking for its members and the community.

According to Frank Kenny, North Mason County Chamber President & CEO, "Chambers are uniquely positioned to bridge the 'Internet Gap' between businesses and residents. Once we multiply our innovative Internet member-networking site against the exponential reach of Twitter, we will achieve a tipping point for community relationship building and information sharing. In five years, if one doesn't have an established presence on these social networking sites, it will be comparable to saying you don't have email. I don't want my members left behind. Let's lead."

Kenny's goal is to make the North Mason Chamber the #1 Social Networking Chamber on the Internet in the country and to share the knowledge of how to social network nationwide.

To that end, Kenny conducts monthly Internet Social Networking classes for North Mason Chamber members and the community. The next class will be held Friday, August 7 at noon at the chamber's office, 23910 NE SR-3 in Belfair at the mid-town stoplight.

Kenny recently spoke at a meeting of the Washington State 35th District Republicans and taught a sold-out Internet Social Networking class to the Washington State Chamber of Commerce Executives Association June 12 in Yakima.

Mike Boyle, Chairman of the Board for the North Mason Chamber said, "One of the reasons our Chamber membership has increased more than 70% over the last year is that we are bent on seeing that our members have the most modern and effective tools available. Our committees utilize online groups on the members-only-networking site where information is shared and daily progress is made. Frank and his team realized the potential here for our Chamber to take a leading role in introducing Internet Social Networking nationally. It is good for our membership and good for the community. Now I have to worry about growing too quickly. I guess that is a good problem to have."

The staff of the Chamber actively monitored and investigated the Web 2.0 phenomenon for years before deciding that the opportunity to lead was just too important to turn down. During the winter months of 2008, the Chamber launched its own blog, blogs.northmasonchamber.com, on the powerful Wordpress platform. Since then they have successfully created and launched MyNorthMasonChamber.com, an Internet based member-networking site that has garnered over 25,000 views in just 10 weeks. They have an active presence on Linkedin, Youtube, Blogger, and perhaps most importantly Twitter, where Kenny is at a 99.3% ranking according to Twitter.Grader.com.

The natural progression, according to Kenny is the wide adoption of Twitter by members and the community. He said, "Our networking site took right off with 88 members being early adopters. We have over 100 member videos posted, 300 member photos, events, blogs, and 15 groups. The next step in the evolution is to launch Twitter for our members and the community."

The North Mason Chamber has grown its membership by over 155 in the past year and now has more than 365 members in Mason and Kitsap Counties and is one of the state's leading organizations when it comes to employing the new and quickly growing Internet Social Networking tools.

Contact Kenny at frank@northmasonchamber.com or 360-275-4267 with questions.