To help associations truly stand out from the crowd, here are some tips for using social media channels to aid significant membership growth and retention.
Be Social
When you go to a social event, do you stand on a pedestal declaring snippets of information about yourself and ignoring everyone else in the room? …We didn’t think so.
Social media is meant to be, well… social. Instead of only talking about your association and how wonderful it is, use your social media channels as an opportunity to promote others. For example, could your blog spotlight some of your more noteworthy members? Not only would this give you the opportunity to share an interesting and relevant story with your existing members, it also builds a stronger relationship with a key member of your association.
Listen
Instead of spending all your time posting, spend it scrolling through posts by members, followers, and potential members to see what they are talking about. When something significant is happening, act on it. Send a card, post a note, share their successes, offer help, answer questions, etc. Whatever is happening in your audience’s world, see it as an opportunity to take positive action and grow those relationships further.
Go Live
Sharing live video during an event goes a long way towards both promoting your association and keeping members who couldn’t attend in the loop. You can leverage this effective tactic by live streaming important parts of the event, including speakers, questions and answers, demonstrations and more.
Not sure how to live stream? Here’s a useful guide that can help.
Track Success
Far too many organisations only look at cryptic results, such as ‘likes’ or ‘followers,’ when measuring their social media success. These are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to truly understanding return on investment.
The things to really concentrate on when determining social media success are engagement and conversions.
Engagement refers to the number of users who engaged with your content in some way, either by following the link, ‘liking’ the content, commenting or sharing, etc. Conversions can be anything from a hard sale (like signing up as a new member), to submitting an enquiry or signing up for the newsletter.
When planning your social media strategy, review the posts and content that generated the most engagement and conversions. Then, create more like those and avoid the types of content that generated little or no engagement.
How can you find out which content is working best for you? Here are just a few of the tools available.
Share Your Knowledge
One of the biggest reasons that members will join your association is leadership. Social media is one of the areas you can offer that insight. Teaching your members about effective use of social media will not only ensure that they are better equipped to handle any social media difficulties that may arise, but also, makes them more attentive to everything your association does on social media. They will be looking to you for cues.
To find out more about how Molokini helps associations with their social media efforts, get in touch today.