It's been said that you can get statistics to say whatever you want them to say. If you're trying to prove a point, you can find or create numerical proof affirming your argument.

For example, I want to make the argument that being a member of my chamber is important, helpful and relevant to my region's businesses whether they attend events and meetings or not. I believe that people who invest their time get a different ROI than those who quietly renew their membership each year. Both receive an impressive return on their investment.
Here's a new fact for you: Chamber members are smarter than non-members. You read correctly. I'm saying that if you're a member of my Chamber, you are simply more intelligent. Of course, I can prove this with numbers.

If you're a member of the Salem Chamber, your odds of getting more business, better connections and extra visibility are higher than others. Alexa, The Web Information Company, ranks SalemChamber.org among the highest trafficked chamber of commerce web sites on the world wide web. World, that's pretty big. They say our pageviews are up 1060% in the last 90 days, and our reach is up 510%. Our Alexa ranking is up nearly 2 Million spots, now in the 500k range over the entire web.

It's not bragging to state facts, so here come some more. Alexa puts SalemChamber.org ahead of Los Angeles, Phoenix, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Dallas, Chicagoland, Nashville, and about 7,000 other chambers of commerce in the US.

Google ranks SalemChamber.org's content Number 1 among local chambers of commerce in searches. Slightly ahead of SalemChamber.org is USchamber.com. Number 1 is a small number, I admit, but it still supports the argument.

What's changed in that period of time? 3 months ago, we installed an automated feed from SalemChamber.org's RSS to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. 6 months ago, we launched our online social network, Face2Face. 1 month ago, we took the word "Blog" out of our blog so that members actually know what to do with it now. Submissions have increased four-fold.

In the words of one member, Marcine Hays of Oak Park Family Dental, "I'm so impressed. I just sent one Face2Face email regarding Snap-on Smile, and that put me #1 and #2 in the Google search."

If you're interested in getting this kind of power for your chamber, check out CONVERGE, a new service from Fast Chamber. I know how to do this for your chamber, too. I'd hate for this to go to waste!