Please introduce yourself and your website.
Hi! I’m Mike Schlossberg, Assistant Vice President for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Our website is lehighvalleychamber.org.

We also have a blog , a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel and a LinkedIn Group.

What was the biggest success so far?
Well, it depends on how you define success. We have used Social Media to recruit new members and retain existing ones. We’ve also communicated with portions of the Lehigh Valley community that we have never connected with before.

To quote Tony Iannelli, who is the President & CEO of The Chamber, “This is not your father’s Chamber.” We use Social Media, and have dedicated staff and financial resources to it, because the times require it and we have to evolve or cease to exist.

We have also held multiple training courses for our members in how to use Social Media – this has helped them get used to this field, and help use generate revenue.

Can you tell us some basic data (how many posts, when did you go live, visitors, subscribers,… )?
Sure. We’ve made over 500 blog posts in a little more than a year (now averaging 1,500 hits a month and climbing), have over 2,100 Facebook Friends, over 500 views on YouTube, over 600 followers on Twitter and over 500 members in our LinkedIn group.

Tell us a little bit how you manage the community around your site.

It is a constant and relatively time investment process, the normal upkeep. I try to be active and consistent – we always post 2-4 entries a day and try to check in on all of our profiles (and comment/respond where necessary) at least once a day – and usually more! The time commitment and tracking what we do, as well as the return on investment, can be a trick.

How do you promote your site, what works and what doesn’t?
Cross-pollination is huge. We link to our Facebook on Twitter, our YouTube on LinkedIn, and everything in between. We also fold in our website – and here’s a real simple one – we put links to our Social Media channels in our E-mail signatures.

Once you get enough momentum and get enough people to repeat your posts, the momentum builds naturally. Reaching that critical mass is the harder part.

You are a Twitter expert, what are your best tips?
1)     Perhaps most important, I don’t just talk about myself or my company.  No one wants to hear about nothing but “me me me” – Social Media is about relationships and listening, not self-promotion and talking.  What I strive to do is provide our followers with value added content – information related to local businesses, politics, etc.  In the course of doing so, I position our company as experts and leaders in the field – and, as a result, we gain influence, respect, and ultimately more business.

2)      I do not automatically DM anyone when they follow us – I think it’s annoying and spammy.  It just doesn’t work and is ineffective.  Sure, maybe you’ll get a small amount of business up-front (VERY small), but in the course of doing so you lose followers and credibility – and in the longer run, you lose money.

3)      HootSuite is an incredibly effective tool for Twitter.  It does all of the standard things that you’d expect out of a Twitter client (save searches, has lists support, etc), but it also provides analytics that allow me to determine which of my tweets and links are most effective.  Furthermore, it allows you to schedule Tweets for later in the day, and as someone who is trying to provide new content throughout the course of the day, this is very effective.

Any tips for people just starting out?
To newbies: it’s a hard thing to do, especially in a business world. Take it slow, and never fall into an echo chamber where all you can think about is making an impact for the sake of making an impact.

If you are going to use Social Media, use it strategically. Make sure it fits in with your company’s objectives. Be prepared to take it slow, be patient, and ALWAYS KNOW how you can prove your return on investment.

Please tell our readers your favorite blog.
www.mashable.com – Best blog ever for Social Media, and that really speaks volumes.

Thanks for the interview, Mike!