Episode 118 · April 27, 2021

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April Bragg shares how Robins To-Go connected local businesses and residents, with practical lessons on Facebook moderation, community needs and member value.
About This Episode
April Bragg describes launching Robins To-Go as a resource for local business offerings and pandemic information. At the time of the interview, the group had grown past 10,000 members within a month and was approaching 20,000 active users. She explains approval rules, volunteer moderation, staff rotations and the shift toward recommendations and business discovery. Examples include truck-parking coordination, the Robins Works employment group and a planned BOSS group for business decision-makers. She also discusses member recognition and roughly 55 new chamber members attributed to the group.
What You'll Learn
- Identify a specific community need before launching a group.
- Set clear rules, approve members and posts, and plan moderation coverage.
- Use participation to discover needs that may lead to new partnerships.
- Create focused groups when important posts get buried in a larger community.
- Continue delivering value to members who cannot attend in-person programs.
About April Bragg
April Bragg is president and CEO of the Robins Regional Chamber in Warner Robins, Georgia. She has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, media production, governmental relations, business support, and community development, and she has led the chamber since 2014.
Episode Chapters
00:19 — Introduction and guest background
05:48 — Robins Regional Chamber overview
08:55 — Why Robins2Go was launched
13:22 — Setting rules and moderating the group
16:58 — How the group’s content evolved
23:21 — Community needs surfaced through the group
25:42 — Truck parking solution leads to economic development
28:08 — Robins2Works and the next Facebook groups
30:19 — Serving members who won’t attend in person
33:01 — Retention, recruitment, and final advice
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Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Robins2Go
Moderated community group created to share COVID resources, local business offerings, and community information.
Link not yet available.
Robins Works
Job seeker and employer group launched from needs surfaced in Robins2Go.
Link not yet available.
Boss
Private closed group for chamber members and decision makers; stands for Business Owner Sharing Solutions.
Link not yet available.
App My Community
Sponsor mention tied to chamber mobile app solution.
Link not yet available.
An Idea Worth Borrowing
Find the need and fill it
Launch a focused online community when a clear gap emerges, then keep it useful with rules, moderation, and member-driven content. The biggest value often comes from solving a specific problem the community already has, not from building a group for its own sake.
• What need in your community is not being met by your current programs or meetings?
• How could a moderated online space help members solve that need quickly?
• What simple rule or routine would keep the space useful and positive?
Read the Full Transcript
Read the Full Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.
Episode 118 — Building an Online Community with April Bragg
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: April Bragg
Automated QA: Passed
00:00.83 Brandon Burton
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
00:14.166 Intro Voice
And now your host listens to podcasts to learn about marketing. He's my dad, Brandon Burton.
00:19.246 Brandon Burton
Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I am your host, Brandon Burton, and you're joining us today for episode 118 of Chamber Chat Podcast, where it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your chamber members and your community. I'm excited today to have April Bragg with us, the president and CEO of the Robins Regional Chamber in Georgia. April is a dynamic leader.
And marketing expert with over 20 years of experience helping small businesses and nonprofits develop effective strategies and planning models to grow their organizations. April's professional experience covers a broad spectrum, including media production, governmental relations, business support, and community development. In 2014, April became the president and CEO of the Robins Regional Chamber. Over the past 10 years,
This community builder, business champion, and self-proclaimed chief memory maker of the Bragg Bunch has established herself as a valued resource by her peers in the chamber industry. She's a natural leader and trainer with an innate ability to bridge the knowledge gap between those who do and those who know how to get it done. April's greatest strength lies in creating vision, building support, and developing partnerships to achieve ambitious goals.
A lifelong learner, this Georgia certified chamber executive is a 2014 graduate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organizational Management, a member of the 2017 Leadership Georgia class, and the chair-elect of the Georgia Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. Thanks to her degrees in theater and marketing, April has never met a microphone or a camera she didn't like. She loves sharing her chamber story and the stories of her members with the world. April.
Thank you for joining us here on Chamber Chat Podcast. Please say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting so we can all get to know you a little bit better.
02:24.802 April Bragg
Well, Brandon, thank you so much. it is exciting to join the ranks of your esteemed panelists. I have a number of mentors and friends who have participated in episodes.
before me and I'm just thrilled and delighted at the opportunity to spend some time with you sharing what what I'm passionate about. And so hey everybody, I'm April Bragg, President CEO of the Robins Regional Chamber. And it's a privilege to be here with you today. So in as way of introduction, I thought I would share a little bit about my background and how I got here briefly. So growing up, my family owned and operated a flower and wedding shop in my hometown of
Dublin, Georgia. In fact, even as early as preschool, I used to get picked up every day by the flower delivery guy. And I spent my afternoons putting toothpicks in the backs of flower heads. And those flowers were then put in a basket and then stuck into an oasis on a platform that in my four-year-old mind looked like an overturned canoe.
Well, it wasn't until many years later that I realized those flowers were the foundation of a casket. Yeah. And and at the time, you know, looking back, that seemed like busy work to keep me out of trouble or from playing with the helium tank. but really, you know, on my quote, first job, I'm reminded of the impact every worker has on a business and even beyond the the four walls of those businesses. So
03:37.122 Brandon Burton
Yeah.
03:59.342 April Bragg
I can't think of a better way to understand and appreciate the sacrifices of small business owners than growing up in one. And I'm so thankful to have had that tremendous privilege. I remember coming home early from vacation because the mayor's wife had passed away and they wanted us to do the flowers for the funeral. I learned the importance of employee culture. You know, the employees there, we had as many as 15 or so. They were like extended family.
For us. We even hosted them every year for Christmas breakfast in our home. My sisters and all I all worked there through high school selling pageant, prom, formal, and wedding attire. And I think in the back of my mind, I always thought I would go home after college and join the family business. But God had other plans. And during college, I fell in love with the community I was in in Milledgeville and the people there, particularly the middle school band director.
And remember in my bio you read remember in my bio that you mentioned I was a theater major. So naturally I took a job in sales at the local newspaper. You know, it sounds much worse than it actually was. in fact, I truly credit both my theater degree and that first advertising sales job as the foundation that prepared me.
04:56.942 Brandon Burton
See where this is going.
05:20.642 April Bragg
For my work in the chamber career. But we can talk about that more at the end if we have time. But I'm excited to be here and have lots to share.
05:28.83 Brandon Burton
Yeah, awesome. I I love it. And I think you're right with your background, I think it prepped you just right. So it's a a good combination. So share with us a little bit about your chamber and maybe the size, location, budget, just kind of what you guys are about to give us a little more perspective as we get into our topic today.
05:48.59 April Bragg
Absolutely. So the Robins Regional Chamber is situated in what we like to call the heart of Georgia, in Warner Robins, Georgia, which is the home of Robins Air Force Base. Robins is the largest industrial complex in the state, boasting a $3.38 billion with a B dollar annual economic impact on our state and employing nearly 25,000 people, with over half of those being civilians. Our chamber has a membership of 750.
Our community is about 150,000 population in our county. And we do have another chamber in our in our footprint. We represent a lot of mom and pop businesses, corporations, as well as aerospace companies here. We have a staff of five and a board of 21. And this has been the most exciting seven years of my life leading this organization.
You know, we are a 3C chamber charged with taking care of business in the Robins region, whatever that looks like. Our CVB and Development Authority are tremendous partners to us, but are separate organizations that we collaborate with on development projects and community wide issues.
07:03.894 Brandon Burton
That's perfect. That that really helps us understand where you're coming from as we get into our topic, which kind of settled on the idea of talking about building an online community and how you guys recently did that there at the Robins Regional Chamber. We'll get into this discussion of this topic right after the short break. Are you looking for a year-round affordable and timely shop local campaign for your chamber or CVB? Look no further.
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receive 10% off your first year of an app my community mobile app. All right, April, we are back. so as I kind of teased before our break, we we're talking about building an online community. So tell us a little bit about what led up to you guys creating an online community, kind of the the thoughts behind it and the maybe the necessity that came out of it.
08:55.822 April Bragg
Absolutely. So Brandon, I will be the first to admit that having a Facebook group is something that I said I would never do, that I never wanted to wade into, because in my mind they represented either drama or a tremendous amount of work to attempt to foster engagement that we really had very little control of. So March
2020. We have just wrapped up a very tenuous GACCE staff development conference. and in the days leading up to the conference, I actually chaired that conference. We began receiving withdrawal notices from attendees due to the coronavirus. And we had we met as an executive committee and decided to press forward with the conference. And I'm so glad looking back that we did.
Because it really was the last time that we had to get together with our peers before everything sort of hit the fan, if you will. During the two and a half day conference, we had three interruptions from the governor going live with press conferences, updating us on new developments and COVID case counts and things. And so we all knew as chamber professionals that the world we were returning to in our communities.
was nothing like what it was when we left. So as we moved into, you know, our return home, I called my chairman and we notified the executive committee that we need to to to meet that Monday morning with our staff. That call was quickly followed by dozens of conversations with all of our top upcoming event sponsors to let them know that plans would be changing and that our number focus
number one focus right now was just to take care of business, whatever that looked like. At this point, we had no idea what we were moving into, but we knew whatever it was, we had to be 100% committed. So that weekend we spent time developing our COVID risk mitigation plan on Monday, we presented that to our staff and board, you know, kind of sharing with them what our new normal was for the foreseeable future. And over the next several days and weeks,
11:19.328 April Bragg
Saw my counterparts across the region and across the country reducing their chamber hours and furloughing staff. And this was a complete paradox for me because how could we as a member-driven organization cut back at a time when our businesses and our community needed us more than ever? It was also very clear early on that there was a tremendous gap, especially locally in our community, between the information that was being circulated.
and an understanding of just what that meant for us here in Houston County. And I felt deeply convicted to do something, even if I had no idea what that something was or how it was going to work. So on March 18th, we launched a Facebook group called Robins2Go. You guys can go check it out in hopes of creating a go-to resource for information about COVID resources, local business offerings for curbside and delivery, even PPP and toilet paper.
and at the staff meeting that morning, I told our team that, you know, if we ended up with, I don't know, 1,500 to 2,500 members, we would consider that a tremendous success. And boy, did I underestimate our potential. So within a month, we had surpassed 10,000 members. And today we sit just shy of 20,000 active users who all live, work, play, play, and belong in our community.
12:44.352 Brandon Burton
Wow.
12:46.228 April Bragg
It's unreal.
12:48.298 Brandon Burton
20,000. That is unbelievable. so I yeah, I mean it became a necessity, right? I mean, a a way to communicate, get information out there. I mean, everybody needs to know where to get toilet paper. So I mean I I I joke about it, but that was a serious deal. So did the the horror stories and the nightmares of having a Facebook group
come to pass or did you work through them? How did that you know, how did that happen for you guys?
13:22.2 April Bragg
So we definitely worked through them. So in the early days, we didn't know what we didn't know. And we very quickly learned that we needed to put some safeguards in place, some parameters and procedures. The driving force behind this group was to connect our businesses with their customers to address community needs and to share information in a positive way.
business friendly environment. And so early on we set ground rules. If you're gonna, you know, throw shade or, you know, provide negative feedback, you've got the rest of the internet to do that on. But this is safe space. We also wanted to make sure that everyone who engaged in our community was part of our community. So within a few days, I guess within the first, you know, two weeks, we changed it from
Completely open. Anyone could join to protecting that where members had to be approved. We then, after after probably another month or so, moved it to a moderated platform, which required us then to approve every post that came into the group. So in the beginning, we were getting as many as five or six hundred posts a day.
In the group. And you know, we all had full-time jobs on top of this. And the thing that they don't really tell you about a Facebook group, I mean, it it should have been a no-brainer for me, but with everything else going on the world, I had failed to realize that our group operated 24-7, whether we wanted to or not. And so we were able to engage a handful, I think we had about 10.
Community members who volunteered to help moderate our group in those early days of COVID and in the early days of our group, and many of them taking the graveyard shift just so we could sleep. So now, of course, the the pace has slowed down. The the barrage of information has certainly come to a more manageable pace. But we actually have one of our staff members who moderates the page during the the workday from nine to five. And then we have a rotation where we set up
15:37.314 April Bragg
You know, the each member of the team takes either Monday through Thursday evenings from from five until around 9 p.m. or the Friday, Saturday, Sunday weekend. And so we end up, you know, hosting the group about once a month, which isn't that bad, you know, if you think about it, managing it, but it it doesn't turn off. The good thing is is we don't have to approve nothing gets approved, but people can still comment in the middle of the night. So we still have.
you know, the occasional rant that will happen, but it's been amazing when you when you set when you cast a vision and you're very true to sticking to the rules that you set out and enforcing those in a way that people can support and champion. They become, you know, unofficial moderators and and will report content or shut people down. And it's really been quite interesting to see that evolution over the last 12 months.
16:34.848 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So how have you seen the discussions kind of shift as you as you guys kind of monitor the the the topics that are being talked about in your Facebook group? Yeah. because at first it was very, you know, PPP and and you know, safe practices. I'm sure now it's kind of gotten away from those initial discussions, but what kind of topics do you see now?
16:58.506 April Bragg
It has. And you know, and that was that was a concern of ours in launching something like this is what happens when the pandemic's over and people don't need that information, you know, immediately or aren't seeking that information on our platform. But I think what we were able to to build, and and when I say that we we built a platform, I mean we didn't just throw a logo up.
And and start a group and tell all of our friends to come join it. in the early days, I was doing routine live video. we were putting business interviews in there, a lot of different things. And some of that we continue to do just a lot less frequently because the group sort of runs itself in terms of of content. But what we have found is there's been a very natural transition in the content and focus of the group.
know initially it was on those more immediate needs, but still today, 13 months later, we have people who've lived in our community for 20, 30 years that are discovering restaurants that have been here forever, or have found a new favorite hardware store or you know, another service provider that that they were unfamiliar with because of the recommendation of a peer.
I'll never forget one of our our businesses had had closed because a a truck had had run through their their convenience store. It's a convenience store that that also does fried chicken and a a car had just run through the front of the store and they had closed up for a couple of months prior to the pandemic hitting. And then, you know, they reopened and the whole world shuts down. And between
His his efforts and and Robins to go, he attributes his 75% of his sales over the last 12 months to the engagement that he built in this one Facebook group. Now he posts routinely every single day. But to hear success stories like that from our business community has really been a driving force in our continued commitment to providing this engagement point. you know, it's
19:17.022 April Bragg
awareness of the the chamber and what we were doing. You know, Brandon, I know you you've got a background in this and you understand and know the important vital work that the chambers do and provide in our community, but oftentimes that's behind closed doors or maybe one step removed, our members at least know what's going on. But we've been able to leverage this platform to share with our entire community and showcase what we're doing, not by telling them what we're doing.
but by them being an active participant in a service that that they value and and provide. And so, you know, any any given day, it's a good healthy balance of businesses promoting their current specials, residents and even visitors popping on to share a positive experience about a local organization or business.
you know, us becoming aware of and helping to, you know, gather support for needs that have have surfaced that are in the community.
20:22.24 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Yeah. You never know when somebody's gonna drive through your place of business, you know, through their wall. And that is an amazing success success story, though. I love that you guys chose a name, Robins to go. You didn't say Robins Regional Chamber Facebook group because who would want to join? I mean, no offense, but right, I mean, you need to be relatable to the community and and the businesses and everything. So I love that the name reflects the community.
And it it's not necessarily, hey, look at us, but look what we can do for you.
20:56.27 April Bragg
Absolutely. And we've been very intentional about the focus being on the community, about the focus being on members. And the name was actually a true labor of love because as you can imagine, you know, in the beginning it was about things you could get to go, right? and so as things evolved, there was a a very healthy discussion in the group, but it's actually still there if anybody took the time to search for it and look, but
We labored over five or six potential names to change the name of the group too, because we were, you know, members of the group were saying, you know, everything we're open again. It's not really to go. The name doesn't fit. But as we, you know, as time moved on, it was clear that this was the go-to group. And so we were able to stick with it and it it's been amazing just to watch. I will, I was in the drive-thru at Sonic.
Getting a milkshake from my son the other day. And the cashier in the window said, my gosh, you're the Robins to Go lady. She doesn't know me from the chamber. She doesn't know me because my husband's the middle school band director. She knows me because of Robins2Go and the benefit that that group and that page has brought her. And that happens at least three or four times a week. And so it's exciting to see just how granular the impact.
has been of of this particular effort.
22:22.998 Brandon Burton
Yeah. And now you're a a local celebrity too. So you know, if outside of pandemic times for a chamber, I mean we're still kind of in the midst of it, depending on where you're at and what state and everything, but we're not in the throes of, you know, all the information being thrown at us, you know, every every 10 minutes it seemed like at the beginning and in March were
You know, governors are making their statements and different entities are shutting down and businesses. I mean, it was every time you turned around, there was new information and some of it conflicting. So being able to have that source, I mean, seemed to be great timing for you guys to launch this. But if a a chamber were interested in, you know, hearing your success with it and interested in starting a face Facebook group now, I
Do you think it's worth trying to dive into now? And and how would you with the experience you've had if you were starting it now, how would you approach it?
23:21.216 April Bragg
Yep. So actually, Brandon, one of the main successes of this group is that it has helped us identify needs in the community that we previously weren't aware of. And so going to give you a quick example and then remind me to tell you where I was going with that, with the creation of a group. So we received a message through the group last April or May. the you know, we were we were kind of in shutdown mode.
The time. But the question came from the wife of a local truck driver. And she was asking about truck parking. At that time, it was very common to see 18-wheelers parked on the side of the road, lining exit ramps and in grocery store parking lot, all places they weren't supposed to be. These truck drivers were driving more routes and longer hours with nowhere to park in order to get needed supplies to consumers in the area.
With us being in lockdown, you know, I don't know a lot about truck driving and parking requirements, but I did know we had a lot of empty parking lots, including a number of large churches in the area. So I reached out to our counterparts at the technical college and they were able to connect me with their CDL instructors who went out to our local churches and actually measured the parking lot. So we coordinated with the churches and they agreed to allow overnight truck parking.
We had them measured and came up with specific criteria and with something as simple as a Google map, we were able to share a link, literally a link with one man. and he was able to put it through the truck driving community in the southeast. So truck drivers do knew which lots had availability and how much vacancy they had.
it didn't take long for that to get picked up on the local news. And the friend of a guy who actually owns a company doing this, providing parking for 18 wheelers got wind of it. And as a result, made contact with me. Fast forward, we don't have trucks parking in in church parking lots anymore. but this company contracts with local local municipalities.
25:42.796 April Bragg
to utilize unused land that that's in the the you know the city or the county that they have on their books and they lease the land they secure it they provide you know access and are able to monetize very nominally overnight truck parking and now we already have two established lots here in Houston County and they are in negotiations with other local municipalities in our region
to set up three more. And those that all came out of something that we otherwise A never would have been apprised of, but B never would have had the the wherewithal to to step into that space and and work through you know a solution that that ended up driving economic development in our community. So so back to the the starting a group. Yes. We're actually have started we started one and in June we'll be starting our second
additional Facebook group and all out of needs that surfaced through the engagement in Robins2Go. So the first is called Robins Works. So I'm sure like most of your listeners, Chambers for at least the first time in in my 10-year career are faced with having to help employers both find workers who seem to not want to work, everybody's hiring, right?
but also the those that do show up for work, we're seeing tons of bad reviews online that people are trying to to post or share a bad review or bad customer service experience from businesses that we know pride themselves on customer service and in making contact with them. They share with us the struggles about hiring hiring and training the hourly employees, getting people to finish their shifts and then just rude customers.
The employees who do show up. And so morale is low, you know, people are working longer hours and working harder. And so we started this group called Robins to Works as a way to connect employers with job seekers because we also have, you know, we still have people actively seeking work, we just didn't know who they were. Our members were posting in Robins to Go, but as you can imagine, we have 150 plus posts every day, we have thousands of comments every day.
28:08.002 April Bragg
Those help wanted posts were getting buried because it wasn't a sale on sunglasses or buy one, get one free cupcakes, right? Yeah. And so we started this other group in order to address that. And we launched it 23 days ago. So we launched it on April the first. really thinking that group wouldn't grow beyond three or four hundred because we knew it was a very targeted audience.
That we were looking for, we partnered with a local staffing company who is our presenting sponsor for that. So in addition to us driving content and engagement, they are both for employers and job seekers. They are driving content. We've got our development partners, Department of Labor, Development Authority, Technical College, all of them in there providing information about job fairs and resources and training programs. we're now sitting at about 890 members.
With roughly 50 coming on every week. And it's amazing when we read through the screening questions. the job seekers are are legitimately looking. And we've already had a few success stories of people who have hired from individuals that they connected with in the group. And so that's been a really exciting endeavor. We're gonna have monthly Facebook Lives.
Our first one is going to go live in a couple of weeks, and we're going to be highlighting a few employers who are doing creative things in order to keep their existing employees and recruit other hourly wage workers. So just excited to see that evolution that has come out of Robins to Go. And then the other one, and Brandon, I think this is probably our biggest area of focus as we return to.
in-person meetings and events. Well the knowledge that we have gained over the last 12 months about who is engaging on Robins2Go is that especially our members that engage in Robins2go tend to be restaurants, retail, residential service type organizations.
30:19.736 April Bragg
People that due to the nature of their job will likely never set foot in an in-person chamber meeting. Yeah. We still have to service them. We still have to drive value. We can't, you know, give them this one year of exceptional service, regardless how long they've been a member, and then pull it back because we've got to go focus on our our in-person crowd now. And so in an effort to continue to
provide them some of the benefits that they could get from our in-person programming. We're going to be launching a group called Boss, and I stole the name from my good friend Henry Florsheim out in Wichita Falls. It stands for Business Owner Sharing Solutions. And that will be a private closed group exclusively for chamber members. And then beyond that, it's it's designed for decision makers, so owner operators.
executive level management to talk about, you know, HR issues or even things as basic as when the folks come into town or start making calls asking you to support one of the local high schools in a you know printed calendar that they're doing, but turns out none of the money is actually going to the school, they can use that as a private network to bounce those, you know, that information off of one another. We've also seen informal networks
emerge for getting supplies and PPP as we've had supply chain disruption and we feel like this private Facebook group is going to give them an even greater audience of peers to share that knowledge with, to ask for resources with. And we're really excited to see where that takes us.
32:01.9 Brandon Burton
That is great. I would because I was curious with just members joining Facebook groups, not necessarily chamber members, but just members, you know, for the Facebook groups. And it sounds like they're still, I mean, if there's a need in the community, they will find the group and they will join, they'll be active. Absolutely. And I I I love that the if this becomes a resource, not that you're looking for more to do. I mean, you've got plenty to do, but
But it keeps you plugged into the community. It keeps you relevant as to what's what the needs are and to be able to help provide those solutions. So I think you're you're teaching us a lot from what you're learning through the through this group setup. so I know we need to start wrapping up here, but I wanted to ask you based kind of on our discussion, your experiences here, what would be one tip or action item that you would suggest for a chamber champion listening that they could do to help?
take their organization up to the next level.
33:01.068 April Bragg
Very good. Before I answer that, you when you said members that last time, it made me think that I I haven't shared this. So, you know, one of the great benefits of the group, of course, is been being able to highlight our existing chamber members. So because we moderate the group and have to approve the post, as soon as we approve a post from a chamber member business, we go in either as me as myself or as the the chamber page and and put a a decal.
a sticker that says proud member of the Robins Regional Chamber as the first comment on that post. And our chamber members love it. if one ever slips through that we miss, they will gently let us know that we have missed that, or another member will go in and put the sticker on, which I think is fun. And it's just a graphic that we made in in Canva that we, you know, we plug in there as an image, but it gives them a sense of pride. It reminds them that, hey,
You're the ones helping us be able to provide this service. But we have also gained about 55 new members since June of last year through Robins2Go. People that said, hey, I want to be a part of this, or I finally get and understand the value of the chamber. So it's also a great recruitment and retention platform for us. So if I'm thinking about, you know, what someone, you know, an action step that they could do.
The biggest thing I would say is find the need and fill it. And, you know, as I mentioned, as we return to in-person events and hopefully, you know, our counterparts across the country are able to do that sooner than later, a far larger percentage of our members are never going to be served by our in-person activities. And so as we evaluate our steps forward.
I believe our greatest opportunities as organizations lie in engagement beyond. And so whether that's creating an online community like a Facebook group or a podcast like we're doing today, that you're able to drop in the inboxes or you know, get subscribers through your membership or or videos and and all the different ways that you can utilize video, either live interviews or or in person, I think that's
35:20.728 April Bragg
our greatest frontier and just find the need figure out a way to to step into that gap and like you said people will find you if there's a need and you're providing solution the right people are gonna find out about it
35:34.422 Brandon Burton
Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned podcasts because being my background where I'm at, if I was sitting in your seat with my experience doing the podcast, I would be using that tool of a Facebook group for content. And I'd be pulling out members and saying, Will you come on the podcast? Tell their story, tell what's going on. I mean, such a valuable resource. And then you could also use that platform to help distribute the episodes too and you know get people to listen and subscribe. So
Anyways, that that's my little shameless plug, chamber chatpodcast.com slash pivot to learn how to podcast at your chamber. So so for anybody listening who would like to get in contact with you, follow up with how you did it, you know, with your your Facebook group, or maybe steps on what they could do, you know, to to get started themselves. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you to to maybe further this discussion offline?
36:28.664 April Bragg
Sure. Well, since our discussion is about online community, first I'll let everybody know you can find me on Facebook. I have both a personal profile and professional page, April Brooks Bragg. That's like a book bag with no Rs. So April Brooks Bragg on Facebook. or you could email me at Abrag, B-R-A-G-G Like the Fort at Robinsregion.com.
36:53.08 Brandon Burton
Right. And I will get that updated in the show notes for this episode. And also I'll plug the the Robins to go Facebook group on there too. So if people want to go on and check it out and see how you guys are doing things, that would be a good place for them to find it. And that'll be at chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode one eighteen. But April, thank you so much for coming on.
Chamber Chat Podcast with me today. It's been a pleasure visiting with you. I'm so happy for the success you guys are seeing as a Facebook group and being able to most importantly serve those businesses in your community when it was such an important need at that time.
37:29.816 April Bragg
Brandon, it's been such a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
37:35.072 Brandon Burton
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38:11.214 Brandon Burton
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