Black Country Chamber of Commerce has announced that it is the new host of the Twitter chat hour #blkcountryhour.

The chat hour is intended as a way for the local community and businesses in the region to get involved in social media to promote the great things that they are doing. It takes place every Tuesday evening between 7pm and 8pm on Twitter.

A Twitter chat hour is an online networking opportunity with a host to pose questions, prompt responses and encourage interaction between the Twitter users involved. Anyone is welcome to take part using the hashtag #blkcountryhour.

The chat hour #blkcountryhour was established three years ago by Phil Fellows of Swinford Graphics, a Stourbridge-based design and print company. It has since gone from strength to strength, attracting many local businesses to take part.

During this time Swinford Graphics has also grown and due to the success of the business Phil now feels that he can no longer offer the time that #blkcountryhour deserves to enable it to keep growing and developing. Therefore he recently contacted the Chamber to ask if it would like to take over the popular chat hour.

Instead of halting the hour Phil wanted it to go to a good home that supports his initial reasons for setting it up and the Chamber seemed to be the natural choice. The original aim of the hour was to get more local companies working together and investing in the Black Country through a different medium and the Chamber fully supports this aim.

Phil Fellows commented: “When I discovered that Black Country Chamber of Commerce were considering creating a new Twitter hour I had no hesitation in contacting them with a view to taking over the running of #blkcountryhour. Over the past few months, the team at Swinford Graphics have found it increasingly difficult to afford #blkcountryhour the time that it deserved and so to enable it to develop and grow further from its current well established position are both delighted and proud that its legacy is a new home with the Chamber of Commerce.

“I am extremely confident that the hour will be developed further by the Chamber team and look forward to participating in the hour going forward rather than being involved in the role as one of the administrators. Black Country Chamber have been hugely supportive of not only our business but many other Black Country businesses too and I look forward to that relationship continuing and developing further in the future.”

Corin Crane, chief executive of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, added: “The Black Country is full of brilliant businesses, entrepreneurs, creative thinkers and residents and at the Chamber we want to work with them all and shout about how great the Black Country is. As a Chamber, we are committed to increasing our digital presence in the most effective ways possible and the opportunity to be involved in an established online community group like this was too good an opportunity to miss. We would like to thank Phil for his hard work in establishing the hour and look forward to welcoming him back to participate as our expert. Come and take part on Tuesday and you can even ask me a question!”

The Chamber has said that it is delighted to be taking on such an established chat hour to support the local community in promoting key events and activities taking place across the region.

For more information or to get involved please visit www.twitter.com/hashtag/BlkCountryHour. And don’t forget to follow us @thinkSandwell on Twitter for news updates and opportunities.