No More Secrets: Fixing Your Chamber’s Communication Blind Spot
When you’re deep in the day-to-day work of the chamber, it’s easy to assume your members know what you’re up to. But here’s the reality: if you’re not actively communicating your wins, your progress, and your value—most of your members won’t see it at all.
This is what we call the communication blindspot.
You’re so close to the work that it stops feeling like news. But what’s routine to you might be a game-changing update for a member. And if you don’t share it, who will?
Worse yet, silence sends a message you don’t intend: that nothing important is happening. That there’s no reason to engage. That the chamber isn’t making a difference.
Read on to learn how to find your communication blindspots—and fix them for good.
Error By Omission
You and your staff are knee-deep in a project. You’ve been working on it for weeks—or even months—and it’s no longer new to you.
Maybe you made some upgrades to a program or service. You included a blurb about it in your newsletter and checked the box—communication complete. But here’s the thing: your members aren’t reading everything you send out. We like to think they are, but they’re not.
So take every opportunity to communicate your wins. Repetition isn’t a bad thing when most of your audience missed the message the first time.
In larger chambers, this problem is even more common—often rooted in a lack of internal communication. Staff members become so focused on their own projects that they forget to share updates—or worse, they withhold them, creating information silos. This is especially common with economic development and advocacy issues.
Advocacy efforts are often sensitive, and the staff responsible may be understandably protective of how language is used to describe the chamber’s position. But the solution isn’t silence.
Instead, equip your team—staff, board members, and volunteers—with clear, approved messaging so they feel confident when members ask questions.
Missteps & Missed Opportunities
The same goes for economic development news.
Yes, confidentiality is sometimes necessary in the early stages. But once projects are public, you need to be ready to tell your members about them. These are mission-aligned wins that counter the perception that “you have to be involved to get value” and show that your chamber is making a real impact.
Here’s an example:
I worked with a chamber whose main method of sharing economic development wins was via targeted emails to high-level investors. Their second tactic was a news release sent to local media.
Great start—but a major gap. It’s smart to connect with investors and top-level executives, but what about the rest of your members?
This chamber was depending on a third party (the media) to get that information out. Fewer than 10% of their members were on that investor list.
Be The Source Of Your Own Good News
News releases and other mass media outreach are great tools and should absolutely be part of your communications plan. But you have a direct line to your members—use it. They should hear your good news from you first.
Economic development successes are exactly the kind of thing you want to be sharing with your members.
Don’t rely on someone else to do it for you—especially a media outlet. You can’t control that message, you can’t guarantee they’ll cover it, and you won’t know whether your members even see it.
Another misstep: assuming you know who wants to hear what.
By only sending these wins to investors, this chamber was assuming the other 90% of members didn’t care about economic development. But our research showed otherwise: members did care. They placed high importance on the chamber’s role as a business advocate and key player in economic development.
By failing to communicate those wins to the broader membership, the chamber missed major opportunities to reinforce relevance and strengthen perceived value.
Omission Is Often A Team Sport
Omission is also a problem when staff or board members are uninformed or ill-informed.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this happen: a staff or board member is at a networking event, a member asks what’s new at the chamber, and they have little to say. It’s either a vague answer about staying busy or, worse, a “not much—same old, same old” response.
They’re not trying to make it sound like the chamber isn’t doing anything—they’re just caught off guard and don’t know what to say.
This one’s easy to fix. Start thinking of every staff and board member as part of your public relations team. Arm them with information. Give them a few simple talking points to share when asked, “What’s happening at the chamber?”
Share a preview of a new program launching soon, a recent member success story, or a big job announcement. Make it a routine part of your monthly staff and board meetings to give them at least one thing to talk about that month.
You might be thinking, “We already do a chairman’s report,” or “At our staff meeting, we go over what’s going on.”
That’s not enough.
You need to tell them specifically:
Here’s something we really want the membership to know about this month. If someone asks you what’s going on at the chamber, here’s what “Here’s something we really want the membership to know about this month. If someone asks you what’s going on at the chamber, here’s what we’d like you to say.”we’d like you to say.
Make sure they understand the talking point and why it matters. This will not only improve your external communication but your internal alignment as well.
If You Don’t Tell Them, Who Will?
Your chamber is doing meaningful work every day—but if your members don’t hear about it, they won’t see the value. Strong communication isn’t just about promotion—it’s about connection, trust, and visibility.
- Close the gap.
- Share the wins.
- Equip your team.
And remember: if you don’t tell them, who will?
