Good Morning!
March 10th, 2016

"Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable." 
-  Coco Chanel

In This Issue
African American Leadership Conference
Parkers Crossroads Lectureship Series
Social Media Techniques
Board Member Spotlight:
Sandy Stanfill




Company Name:
Jackson State Community College - Lexington Campus

Position:
Director

Work Phone: 
(731) 968-5722

Why did you join the Chamber?
To become more involved in the community and to help support local businesses.

Why do you serve on the Board of Directors?
To give back to the community and help make a difference.

What do you feel is the Chamber's role in the community?
To promote business, promote the area and provide support for economic growth.




Author Dr. Charles Cox
To debut Parkers Crossroads Lectureship Series March 19


Charles Cox, M.D., author of "Monument to Healing: Two Soldiers and the Good Death, 1862, 1914" will speak at the inaugural meeting at  10 a.m. March 19 of "The Parkers Crossroads Battlefield Kennerly - Cupples Lectureships" held in the Activities Building at Parkers Crossroads.
The lectureship was established in memory of Jim Cupples and in honor of Dan Kennerly. Both men were instrumental in preserving the Parkers Crossroads Battlefield.
Dr. Cox will speak on his book and research, including the significance of the railroads in the war, and then open the floor for questions.
The meeting will break for lunch at  noon and then attendees will tour of a specific area of the battlefield at  1:30 p.m. The complete battlefield tour normally takes several hours.

 
For more information, contact 
Deborah Teague, Parkers Crossroads Battlefield President, at (731) 845-3114.


Announcing the African American Leadership Conference Coming Tuesday, April 19......Register Now!





WestStar would like to extend a personal invitation to attend the 18th Annual African American Leadership Conference.  This conference is scheduled for Tuesday, April 19, 2016, from 8:00 - 2:00 p.m. at the Jackson-Madison County General Hospital, Jackson. 
 
Please contact the Chamber of Commerce for a  registration  form.  We encourage you to register early.
 
The deadline for registration is Wednesday, April 13th . 
 
This conference is designed to appeal to the African Americans in leadership positions and diverse work environments throughout West Tennessee.  We encourage you to register and be a part of it.  We have kept the cost low again this year.  Conference fee if $35 per person.  High school/college students are highly encouraged to attend at a low cost of  $20.
 
Please contact us if you have questions.

Virginia Grimes, Coordinator
WestStar Leadership Program
The University of Tennessee at Martin
554 Administration Building, room 321
Martin, TN  38238
731-881-7298 (office)
731-881-7019 (fax)
http://www.utm.edu/weststar
 
 
This conference is made possible by WestStar Leadership in partnership with the City of Brownsville, City of Covington, First South Bank-Brownsville, Hardin County, Crockett County, USDA Rural Development, UT Institute for Public Service, and West Tennessee Healthcare.


Social Media Reputation Management Techniques



For many businesses, social media is one of the number one forms of communication and contact. Users and customers go to corporate social media pages for reviews, information and often to gauge the quality of customer service a brand offers. Needless to say, ensuring your pages show your brand in as positive of light as possible is a must.

Social media reputation management techniques are something that should be considered and implemented for businesses large and small. So, here are some tips on how to do so.

Create Webpages under Your Business Name
One of the best things to do is to create a fan page and other types of pages across all of the most well-known social media platforms. This is the best way to give your business some visibility over the internet. On top of this, create a blog so that you can post new information every day. Build a relationship with the leading bloggers in the market (who already have an audience) so they can promote your content for you. The best thing to do is to share your content with the top authority websites to create a better  digital reputation.
Another vital thing that businesses should think about is building consistency with the content you are putting out. Consistency in all online publishing is essential as it's the best way for visitors to remember your business.

Use Online Tools to Monitor Mentions
There are lots of software tools that you can use to let you know when people are talking about your business online. They will help you to track the ranking of your brand name, and to notify you about when and where the mentions were made. This is the best way to save yourself time and help you to deal with how to manage your image online. There are some great tools such as Mention.net which will help you with this. This makes tracking these things easy.

Interact With New Audiences
Another important factor is that you connect to new people by sending out good content to the top authority sites. You can do a few things to make this happen. For example, you can send out press releases, do some guest blogging and keep putting out more content. This is the way to bring more attention to your business name.

Use Social Media and Reply to Comments
You need to do more than just search through social media comments. It is important that you respond to the messages that are sent to you, or mention you. The best companies take their reputation seriously, which is what you should do. And, this is the best way to reduce any impact from negative comments that are served online.

Use SEO Best Practices
Managing your online reputation means taking charge of the positive comments that are made about your business, as well as suppressing the negative reviews. Follow these tips and you will be able to improve your online reputation so you can keep growing.

Ensuring your business understands how to make the most of social media and keeping its reputation untarnished on social media is important. So, take these tips and use them to do just that.




Contact the Chamber to learn about exercise groups around lexington to help motivate and support you with your health goals!



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2016 Mission Statement:

Provide support to our local government leaders, as we work together to promote the best interests of the business community. Provide support to economic and industrial development. Promote local tourism through Community Activities and t he Retired TN Program to improve the quality of life in our community and the region.