JAN 18 BACC BUZZ

Bridgewater and Area Chamber of Commerce

Newsletter for January 19, 2010

Upcoming Events

Home Based Business Associations meets on Thursday, January 21, 2010 from 4:00 to 5:00 at 220 North Street, Bridgewater. The topic for this meeting is Advertising. If you are a member of BACC you are automatically a member of HBBA at no additional cost. If you are interested in attending but do not yet belong to BACC please contact bacc@eastlink.ca

Public Meeting in Bridgewater on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at the Days Inn on North Street. The Honourable Graham Steele, Finance Minister for the Province of Nova Scotia will be conducting a pre-budget meeting to hear the views of the people of the area. Please go here to register for this event.

Community News and Views

Casual Day for Health

Everyone loves to wear their more casual clothes to work every now and then. Many businesses offer their employees the chance to dress casually on Fridays for a small charge and then the money is donated to a charity.

The Health Services Foundation raises money for critical equipment for South Shore Regional Hospital and Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital. We are asking businesses to allow their employees to dress casual on February 19th with proceeds coming to our local hospital. As an addition perhaps you want to offer your staff other ways to raise money for their local hospitals.

The Foundation will provide stickers for staff to wear indicating they are dressing casually in support of their hospitals, as well as posters for business and collection envelopes. We hope you will join us in making this event a success. If you have any questions or to register your business participation please contact Bernadette Jordan at the Health Services Foundation 543-8065 or bjordan@ssdha.nshealth.ca

The Health Services Foundation donated close to $1,000,000 to our hospitals in 2009. Equipment purchased included a bladder scanner, a stainer for the lab at SSRH, a heart monitor for the OR, a bursary program for medical students, and a Pulmonary Functions System for Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital. These are just a few of the many things we have supported.

The Missing Marketing Tool by Joan Stewart

======================================

At a small networking breakfast I attended last week, I met five people who were either job-hunting or were there to talk about their businesses. They brought their resumes, engaging personalities, impressive marketing materials and succinct elevator pitches and shared them with our table of 10.

But all five were missing a critical marketing tool that could have landed them a job or set them apart from their competitors. Not one of them had a blog. For more than an hour, the conversation centered on how each of them can reach their target audiences.

By the end of the breakfast, I lost it.

“Everyone at this table should be blogging!” I yelled. With nine pairs of eyes riveted on me, I explained:

–A blog establishes your credibility and expertise.

–It’s like a giant magnet that pulls in traffic.

–It can impress visitors and turn them into buyers.

–Many of your competitors are blogging.

–Unlike Twitter, you can use your blog to discuss topics in- depth.

–You can engage visitors and carry on a conversation with them in the comments section.

–A blog can give you a huge online presence, even if you can’t afford a website.

–It can help you gain more traction than publicity in
traditional media because, unlike most media people, bloggers love to link to each other. Get in front of just one influential blogger and you can be all over the Internet within minutes.

Finally, they got it.

If you’re already blogging, good for you! If you aren't’t, it’s not too late to start.

Reprinted from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet “89 Reasons to Send a Press Release.”

Thank you to the Home Centre for their generous support and sponsorship of the annual Christmas at the Inn, the Christmas open house for members and guests of the Bridgewater and Area Chamber of Commerce. Everyone who attended enjoyed the good food, and good company.

3rd Annual Curling Fun Spiel

January 16th

This annual event was a great success, with 14 teams made up of experience curlers and the not so experienced.

Thank to everyone who made this event a success. A special thank you to our generous sponsors. The delicious pizza was provided by Pizza Delight and the soup was donated by Two Chefs Restaurant.

Congratulations to the winning teams, pictured below

First Place - Michelin Team one

Second Place - O'Regans South Shore

Third Place - LQRDA