Lebanon Valley Chamber creates catchy song to promote membership

The Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce is making a foray into the music industry with a song and video that, while they might not set charts on fire, still might qualify as a legitimate earworm.

Chamber president and CEO Karen Groh said the video, which features chamber members singing parts of the new song, “presents chamber members in a different light and showcases the variety of chamber member businesses.” The new song and video take the chamber’s recent tagline “Join the chamber — it just makes sense” to another level.

The chorus has been playing on the radio. The video itself has been posted on the chamber’s social media (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn page, reposted on Groh’s personal LinkedIn page, the chamber’s new TikTok account, and the chamber’s YouTube channel.

Based on the number of views and reposts, Groh said, it’s a hit. She said the video was posted on the chamber’s Facebook on Tuesday, Sept. 9, around 3 p.m., and as of Tuesday, Sept. 16, it had 14,800 views. Groh said boosted views are over 80 percent of that figure. It’s had over 550 views on Instagram, 530 views on the chamber’s LinkedIn, and 580 impressions on Groh’s LinkedIn repost.

A workshop at the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives’ annual convention in July sparked the idea for the song and video.

“Some chambers of commerce host community events, and the presenter spoke about one of those events. In addition to hosting the event, the chamber created a song for the event. I liked the idea of having a song,” Groh said, “I’m not a musician, but I thought about what I’d like to say — the lyrics — and I worked with a computer program to generate the music. It about three days to do create the song; I did it over a long weekend.”

For the video, she invited members to participate who she knew would be a bit outgoing. She also dropped by member businesses. Groh said it took about three to four weeks to collect the video clips and mix them together.

“I put it together in bits and pieces. I wanted to include as many members as possible,” she explained. “The video gives members another platform to be showcased in the community. It’s also a way to relax the image of the chamber; some people think a chamber is all about people in suits talking about serious things. We do a lot of professional events and focus on some serious topics, but we also have fun.”

Groh said she and chamber staff love working with chamber members. “They give us so much positivity,” she said. “One thing that struck me when I was putting the video clips together for the final video was seeing all the smiling faces. I love that!”

An article on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website said, “Approximately 4,000 local chambers of commerce across the United States seek to support job creation and the economic development of local communities. Their impact is enormous: In 2023, more than 33,000 people attended chamber of commerce events. From tackling workforce challenges to advocating for business owners, chambers of commerce around the country were engaged in supporting their local communities.”

Groh said her background is in marketing, so she’s always looking for different ways to engage members. “Now that we have the song and the video, I’d like to do a holiday-themed version sometime later this fall. We’ll use the same song with a tweak or two and have some new video clips,” she said.

So, stay tuned!