ISSUE
MountPleasant BusinessReport
BI-MONTHLY BUSINESS REPORT
07
January/February 2014
this issue From the CEO P.3 Be Social with the Chamber P.4 2014 Membership Banquet P.4 Renewing & New Members P.5 Member Spotlight P.6 Ribbon Cuttings P.8 Value of Volunteering P.10 Mount Pleasant Economy P.11 Social Media Marketing P.12 Total Resource Campaign 2014 P.13 Chamber Calendar P.15
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Faustine E. Curry | President & CEO
Mission: To build economic prosperity by engaging businesses and the community.
Vision: We will be "Everything Texas."
Values: T.E.X.A.S Trust Economic Prosperity X marks the spot
These past several months have been a roller coaster of activity for the Mount Pleasant Chamber. The Chamber has been involved in projects from the staff and board participating in taskforces, leading regional Chamber meetings, showcasing Google University, to hosting a familiarization (FAM) tour for the Texas Travel Industry Association. While these activities are critical to moving our community and region forward, it can be confusing as to what exactly is the Chamber’s mission and purpose. The next challenge becomes how we effectively communicate our purpose with our members, partners and the community. Just recently our board of directors reviewed the Chamber’s mission to ensure the organization remains focused on member priorities. Based on this discussion, our mission is to continue to build economic prosperity by engaging businesses and the community. While every word in that statement was carefully chosen, perhaps the most important words are “economic prosperity”. Why? Because while the answer to “what” we offer includes programs, services and other offerings, the “why” is because they serve as a catalyst to help strengthen the local economy which in turn means JOBS. Mount Pleasant needs to ensure the next wave of economic progress. We recognize that our local economy will need to rely on helping existing businesses and attracting new businesses to fuel growth. Businesses of all sizes will need to be bold and entrepreneurial to seize growth opportunities. The Mount Pleasant Chamber is committed to being a driving force to engage businesses in moving forward. Mount Pleasant. Everything Texas. The strategic plan for the Chamber was developed through the efforts of the Board of Directors as they embarked upon a new 3-year strategic plan. Implementing this plan will require a long-term commitment, as building a strong entrepreneurial community will take time and patience. Success will not be easy to gauge and promote. The plan is designed to provide a clear strategic direction for the organization. It is not meant to be static. It is flexible so that we may respond to lessons learned and to new issues. Each year, the Chamber staff will develop a business plan with tactics to advance strategies set forth in the strategic plan.. To learn more about how to plug into the Chamber please reach out to myself or Annabelle Guzman at 903.572.8567.
Awareness Sustainability 3
2014 Membership Banquet Officers: Shannon Norfleet, Titus Regional Medical Center Richard Witherspoon, Herschel’s Restaurant David Hooper, Echo Publishing Brian Niblett, American National Bank Martin Bell, Guaranty Bond Bank Faustine Curry Mount Pleasant/Titus County Chamber of Commerce
Directors: Beverly Austin,
This year’s annual banquet is sure to inspire people to get involved and enthusiastic about being leaders in their businesses and Mount Pleasant as the Mount Pleasant/Titus County Chamber of Commerce ignites Everything Texas. The Chamber is very fortunate to have secured Paul Vitale as the keynote speaker for the evening’s events. Paul speaks worldwide about the significance of optimism, a strong work ethic and concepts vital to personal and professional growth. Paul’s expertise, enthusiasm, and ability to encourage people to exceed their potential have been described by his audiences as extraordinary. Paul will share his experiences and encourage leadership to all those in attendance at this important event, presented by Pilgrim’s. The evening will begin at 6:00 pm with a networking reception. Following the reception, dinner will be served and the program will begin. In addition to Paul Vitale’s keynote address, the Chamber will recognize businesses for their contribution to the Mount Pleasant area, the Citizen of the Year Award, the Bill Price Ambassador of the Year Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award. Contact the Chamber today at 903.572.8567 or www.mtpleasanttx.com to reserve a corporate table or individual tickets to this premier event.
www.mtpleasanttx.com
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Northeast Texas Small Business Administration Diana Kennedy, Century 21 Landmark Matt Klump, Expert Computing Brad Lowry, Pilgrim Bank Dennis Newman, Newman’s Electronics Tommy Shumate, Sisk Motors Jey Yancey, Offenhauser Insurance Mitchell Walker, Dekoron Wire & Cable Rob Hedges, Republic Services
Renewing Members 8TwentyOne Boutique Advantage Copy Systems Scott D. Allen Area Wide Movers Arnold Walker Arnold & Co PC Baker and Johnson P C CPA Bates Cooper Sloan Funeral Home Buford Redfearn Insurance Agency Butler Consulting Capps Insurance Agency Chapel Hill ISD Chapman Transfer & Storage Inc. Chili’s Tennison City of Mount Pleasant Cliffs Paint & Body Shop Inc. Herbert Cross Cypress Bank Deer Lake Cabins Dekoron Wire and Cable Divine Divas Hair Salon EDH Electric Inc Edward Jones-Durrum El Chico Restaurant Elliott Ford Lincoln Mercury Engage Concept Development Services Esslinger Kwik Kar Oil & Lube LLC Flanagan & Flanagan Grace Lutheran Church John L. Greene DDS Guaranty Bond Bank
Hamilton Jewelers, Inc. Hampton Inn & Suites James & Karen Harmon Harts Bluff ISD Homeland Title Homer Metal Buildings Hy-Marks Pet Services IntegraCare Home Health Diana Kennedy KSA Engineers Let’s Roll Lone Star Trailer Parts Los Pinos Luminant M P Insulation Co. Mason True Value Hardware McKelvey Enterprises Inc. Minadeo Eye Center Mount Pleasant Burgers & Fries Mount Pleasant Cinema 6 LP Mount Pleasant Country Club Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune MPEDC Mount Pleasant Optimist Club MP Seventh-Day Adventist Church NeTseO Trails Council Newman Electronics, LLC Niblett Rental Properties North East Texas Credit Union Northeast Texas Community College
NETWO George O’Neal PDI Plastics Pilot Club of Mount Pleasant Pizza Hut Pleasant Springs Healthcare Bill Price Priefert Manufacturing Co. Inc. Redfearn Real Estate Russell & Wooten P C Craig & Renea Rutledge Sandlin Motors Inc. Lonnie Smith Stanley’s Landscape Manangement, LLC Stansells City Cleaners & Laundry Inc State Farm Insurance-Pirkey State Farm Insurance-Welborn Stephenson Dirt Contracting Super 1 Foods The Space Place Storage Center Titus County Fair Association TLC Realty Top Hat Industries Inc. Trinity Baptist Church Herbert Watkins Wholesale Electric Supply Co. Inc. Willie Williams Wood Air Conditioning Inc. Workforce Solutions Northeast Texas
New Members Hoover’s Jewelry
Stansell’s Construction
Thurman’s Pro-Med Pharmacy
Sassy J’s Salon
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Best Fender Products Inc.
Member Spotlight Column Diana Kennedy is an owner and broker at Century 21 Landmark in Mount Pleasant, Texas. She has been in the real estate business for many years being both on the front line selling and as a mentor for up and coming realtors. Diana’s motto is to put buyers and sellers together! Diana was born and raised in Mount Pleasant. As she likes to say she is a “proud BIMP.” For those that may not be from Mount Pleasant, a BIMP is a person that is born in Mount Pleasant. She and her husband Larry, have 3 daughters and lots of beautiful grandchildren. The grandkids refer to Diana affectionately as “Duckie.” Diana shows huge pride in her family, work and community. She volunteers in many organizations in Mount Pleasant. Diana is a past Chamber Board Chairman and currently serves on the Chamber Board. She is also a Chamber ambassador. Diana is very involved in First Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant where she has taught Sunday school, led bible studies and sang in the choir.
Diana Kennedy Century 21 - Landmark Associates
Diana believes that giving back to the community that you love only makes it a stronger place for all. She strengthens the community through her work with organizations and her continuous promotion of Mount Pleasant. Each time Diana meets with a prospective home buyer, she feels it is her duty to put Mount Pleasant’s best foot forward. To contact Diana, call Century 21 at 903.572.1151 or stop by the office at 1316 South Jefferson.
www.mtpleasanttx.com
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Ribbon Cuttings
www.mtpleasanttx.com
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Value of Volunteering
What is a volunteer? What is the value of volunteering? Volunteering is about giving, contributing and helping other individuals and the community. Volunteering means working with others to make a meaningful contribution to a better community. People volunteer for a variety of reasons. They may want to gain experience, acquire new skills, meet new people or expand their network of contacts as a way to get a new job or start a career. Others just want to give back to their community, help a friend or promote a worthwhile activity. They do it because it makes them feel good. It gives them that warm, fuzzy feeling in their heart. Volunteering is rich and diverse. Volunteering is not just about organizing hundreds of volunteers for large events like Everything Texas Fest, Fright-tober, Chamber 101 or Leadership Mount Pleasant. Volunteering can also be helping on small projects or providing ideas and skills that others may not have.
“Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted, counts.� - Albert Einstein
Maybe the biggest benefit people get from volunteering is the satisfaction of incorporating service into their lives and making a difference in their community. Benefits such as pride, satisfaction and accomplishment are worthwhile enough reasons to serve. Additionally, when we share our time and talents we make new connections and friends, strengthen personal and professional relationships, strengthen the community and improve ourselves and others.
Volunteering is spontaneous acts of kindness like helping neighbors shovel their walks, coming to the aid of a stranded motorist or helping an elderly person cross a busy street. These large and small acts, given freely, are what bind communities together. Volunteering is helping, not hiring; giving, not taking; contributing, not counting. Your Chamber has many opportunities for volunteers wanting to get involved. Contact the Chamber at 903.572.8567 or info@mtpleasanttx.com
www.mtpleasanttx.com
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Mount Pleasant Economy & Social Media State of Texas
Titus County 6.7% (Nov 2013)
6.1% (Nov 2013)
6.1%
If you’re sidestepping social media marketing because you get your business through word of mouth, there are two things you need to hear in 2014:
Social Media & The Chamber
1. Congratulations for providing excellent service. 2. You are losing new business opportunities. Your work is so good it’s moved customers to recommend you. But even with this great reputation, you are still short selling yourself because you aren't using social media for marketing and networking to let more people know about you. The good news is it’s never too late to talk about it through social media tools.
Think Twice About Facebook In spite of media backlash, Facebook remains the king of social media. Pew says 67% of adults who are online use Facebook. New research indicates that Facebook is now the most trusted online source people use to get recommendations for products and services. Facebook’s business pages provide helpful statistics and insights about who’s been checking out your page and Liking it. However, you or an employee must check your page pretty often for two reasons:
Make sure no one is posting inappropriate comments. (You can remove and report inappropriate posts.) Answer questions visitors leave for you; many could be leads for new business.
Before you start a Facebook page, look at other business pages to see the comments they attract and how they handle negative ones. For extreme examples, the Facebook pages of your state or US Representative or Senator can provide quite an education in Facebook awareness. If your business relies on word of mouth marketing to generate revenue, it’s worth your time to get involved with social media. There’s no better way to increase the word of mouth you’re already benefiting from.
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How to Use Social Media to Market Your Business Let’s look back to the year 2003. Back then, social networking typically meant attending a chamber mixer, where your primary goal was to hand out your business cards to as many people as possible. Fast forward a few years, and the term social networking has taken on a whole new meaning. You now have businesses scrambling to understand the modern rules of networking digitally. Social media has exploded in growth, and has become a part of your customer’s everyday lives. Whether you use it or not, people are most likely already talking about your business using social media. You can take an active role in the conversation by embracing social networking in order to stay competitive and to nurture relationships with your customers.
Using Social Media to Market Your Business
Marketing defined: create customer interest in a service or a good to increase sales. The problem with traditional marketing is that it doesn’t work on social networking sites. People don’t want to be bombarded by sales promotions. They visit these sites to communicate, not to be lectured into purchasing your latest and greatest. The key to your success in social network marketing is to engage your contacts. Post relevant content related to your brand and provide the opportunity for an open discussion.
quent the most, and set up accounts for those specific sites. Create helpful and relevant content. You can send out an occasional sales-related message, but don’t spam your clients and prospects with constant advertisements for your company. Provide valuable information that best serves your contacts and customers. Start small on social media sites and see what messages work best with your customers. Make it easy for people to share the messages you create. Encourage participation among your customers. You can create contests, request comments or initiate conversations. Bring your customers back to your site. Find ways to drive traffic to your site with your social media accounts. Include a link to your site in your profile description. Evaluate your efforts to determine how effective your social media strategy has been working, and adjust as needed.
Time Investment
Many business owners want to know how much time they need to allocate towards social media activities. The answer depends entirely on your specific needs. What do you hope to accomplish with your social networking efforts? How many social media sites do you plan to manage? How often do you anticipate posting messages? What type of messages do you intend to share? You may find that you simply need to spend 15 minutes a day updating the content on the few social networking accounts you own. Alternatively, you may conclude that you want to Ways to Market Your Business with Social Media Listen to your customers. You may find that people are respond to each email, question or message that is dialready talking about your business online. Here is the rected at your company, which may require you to hire a opportunity for you to patiently listen to compliments, com- full-time employee to manage your social media efforts. plaints or questions so that you can improve your business. Next Steps Interact with your contacts by posting comments to Once you’ve integrated social media into your marketing strategy, you will be tasked with the responsibility of mantheir profiles or content. Post links to relevant, interesting, inspiring or funny aging your accounts properly. Start off by simply listening to what your target people are saying and engage when content (such as pictures, articles, videos, etc). Invite contacts to interact with you by posting questions appropriate. After you invest a few weeks into understanding the dynamics of each particular social network, you on your main profile page. can then ease into posting your own content. One quick Share links to events or news relevant to your brand. Google search will show you that there are many tools Provide special discounts available only to your con- available for you to automate the process of manually uptacts. dating your social media accounts. Offer sneak previews of new product offerings from Does this mean traditional networking is finished? No, soyour company. cial media doesn’t replace your face-to-face interactions, rather it enhances them. Simply add your social media Getting Started links on your business card to further engage the new peoTake an internal assessment of what you want to gain from ple you meet. Ultimately, social networking online can be social networking, and determine how you can integrate an incredibly powerful tool for your business if used effecthis new medium into your overall marketing strategy. tively. Find out which social media sites your customers fre-
www.mtpleasanttx.com
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Total Resource Campaign 2014 Shannon Norfleet announces Steve Capps of Capps Insurance as chairman of the Chamber’s second annual Total Resource Campaign. This 4-week revenue generating effort kicks off on February 6, 2014 to reach a goal of $130,000 by March 6, 2014. The Total Resource Campaign will create 5 teams of volunteers under the leadership of the team captains: Brad Lowry, Pilgrim Bank; Danny Muskrat, Guaranty Bond Bank; Jey Yancey, Offenhauser Insurance; Shannon Norfleet, Titus Regional Medical Center; Troy Sellers, Luminant Power. These team captains recruit volunteers to market sponsorship to Chamber events and publications, while also seeking new members for the Chamber. Volunteers assist companies with choosing options best suited to meet the organization’s marketing needs. “The TRC offers excellent exposure for companies both at the Chamber’s events and within our signature publications,” said Faustine Curry, Chamber CEO. Teams are currently forming. “The Campaign is a great way for volunteers to meet our area’s top community leaders and business owners while working directly with many of the Chamber’s most dedicated leadership,” suggested Steve,” so call the Chamber at 903.572.8567 to take advantage of this great opportunity to get involved.
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Chamber Calendar
January Sunday
Tuesday
Monday
Wednesday
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HAPPY NEW YEAR
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Friday 3
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Thursday
Saturday 4
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10AM : Ribbon Cutting Sassy J’s
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6PM : 2014 Chamber Banquet
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8AM : Chamber 101
February Sunday
Tuesday
Monday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday 1
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5 8 AM : Tourism Committee Meeting
12 PM: TRC Training
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8 AM: TRC Kick-off
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Mount Pleasant/ Titus County Chamber of Commerce 1604 North Jefferson Avenue Mount Pleasant, TX 75455 www.mtpleasanttx.com info@mtpleasanttx.com (p) 903.572.8567 (f) 903.572.0613
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