Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce

Content Specialist

February 2021 - present

As the Content Specialist at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, I have regularly connected with local community members & leaders and have taken on various projects and tasks in communications, personal relations, digital marketing and content creation.

 
 

Content Creation

As the “Content Specialist,” I specialize in creating - you guessed it! - content for the Chamber and its programs.

On a weekly basis, I write original content and gather content from local affiliates for two newsletters: the Chamber Convener (7,500+ subscribers) and The Summit (350 subscribers).

  • The Covener goes out on Wednesday evenings and includes information on upcoming events, local policy and news that affects Chamber members, spotlights on local businesses and other Chamber updates.

  • The Summit goes out to a targeted audience of business policy minded individuals and includes information on local, state and national businesses and government news and promotes policy events.

I collect information from local press releases and news articles for our Business Buzz blog weekly and edit and write introductions for weekly business spotlights.

I regularly photograph an array of Chamber events - ribbon cuttings, Policy on Tap panel events, 5k races, networking events and award ceremonies. Additionally, I take original videos for reels and other promotions.

Lastly, I produce, edit and distribute the Venture Asheville podcast Talking ‘Ship. Read more about that below!

Social Media & Website Management

In addition to creating a lot of the content shared on social media and other online channels, I also manage several social media accounts.

During my tenure, we began “Member Mug Shots” which has evolved into Fresh Face Friday. On the first Thursday of the month, we meet with new members (who joined the month prior) and take photos with them and a Chamber mug or other Chamber-specific imagery. We then post “Fresh Face Friday” on the first Friday of the month welcoming the new members.

Additionally, we’ve started using reels to promote different events, including our Business After Hours series. Currently, we’re working on gathering and promoting the Chamber’s 125th anniversary.

Keeping the website up to date - with new photographs, updated copy, and original blog content - is also my responsibility. The Business Buzz, spotlights, policy agenda items and other blogs are updated and compiled regularly,.

Talking ‘Ship Podcast

Jeff Kaplan, the Director of Venture Asheville, had been wanted to start a podcast for a while and luckily he found the radio/podcast nerd in me.

We began recording in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, but we’ve lasted three seasons and got sponsorship from HomeTrust Bank for the third which began airing in mid-March 2023 and will air through mid-May 2023.

Together, Jeff and I host local Asheville-famous entrepreneurs and leaders - we’ve spoken with Cristina Hall Ackley and David Ackley of Ginger’s Revenge, Jael Skaffington of French Broad Chocolates, Benjamin Colvin of Devil’s Foot Beverage Co. and our coworker, EDC Senior Director Clark Duncan. We dive into the local economic landscape, their stories, their insights and why they’ve chosen Asheville.

After we record, I edit the podcast (both video and audio) with Adobe applications and get it out into the world.

Subscribe on Spotify here! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here!