Member engagement doesn’t happen randomly. Associations with increases in overall membership are “also more likely to have a strategic initiative in place for increasing engagement,” according to the 2015 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report from Marketing General.
Those that have been most successful – according to this study – cite participation in public social networking as the engagement strategy that has been most effective for driving engagement – more than young professionals programs, webinar attendance, and members-only website areas.
This makes sense. You can offer all the value-adding programs and services you want, but you won’t get very far unless you aggressively promote them, and social media has become a go-to tool for doing just that.
According to the study, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the most-used platforms by hopeful associations looking to find new ways of connecting with members. Most of them have learned that the saying “if you build it they will come” doesn’t apply in the realm of social media. You have to actively build and nurture your social media page with timely, relevant content that’s helpful to your audience in order to increase exposure.
Association executives shared some of their best practices from their social media experience, including:
- Ask volunteers to post on a regular basis to keep content fresh
- Create Facebook groups based on interests or industry
- Ask questions and actively stimulate discussion
- Plan and post regular, original content – and make it relevant
- Be more aggressive in encouraging members to participate on social media platforms by promoting more prominently on the website, in emails, and in monthly communications.
- Follow and comment on influencers on Facebook
- Instead of measuring “likes” or the number of people who join your community, look to increase how much interaction your posts are getting
- Encourage members to post to Facebook and Twitter at events and conferences
- Post Videos on YouTube as regularly as possible
- Thank new and renewing members publicly on Facebook and Twitter – these posts are often liked and shared
- Offer to help members at large conferences set up social media accounts
- Showcase member-only content on public social networks to reinforce to non-members your value proposition
- Vary your content – articles, videos, podcasts, quick quotes, and anything else you can think of that’s unique and original
One thing to add … don’t make your content all about you. People get tired of seeing promotional content constantly – and eventually, Facebook won’t even show your posts in your fans’ newsfeeds. Try to make the majority of your posts serve your members’ and prospective members’ interests – it’ll make them more likely to read the occasional post promoting your next event.