Social media has become a dominant means of communication between people, but is it really a valuable tool for communicating to association members? Absolutely. Social media provides opportunities to engage with your members, build a sense of community within your industry, and even reach out to the general public with industry issues.
If your organization is not yet supporting or engaging with members to its full potential, consider these 5 ideas to bump up your social media presence:
1. Share Your Members’ Updates
Support your members and fill your social channels at the same time! A simple way to jump start your member engagement is by sharing their updates on your social platforms. Any type of member news, announcements, promotions, etc. that may be of value to the rest of your membership are definitely worth a share. Be sure your members know they can send you their press releases and add you to their marketing lists for easy content ideas.
2. Recognize and Celebrate Your Most Dedicated Members
Let’s face it, we all love to be recognized! We also know that our members are the reason we go to work every day. Use your social channels to give them recognition for outstanding volunteerism or dedication to the industry, and of course don’t be shy about thanking sponsors for your events numerous times!
3. Make it a Dialog
It is just as important to have a dialog with your members as it is to share quality content. If you receive a comment on any of your posts, comment back! If you are mentioned in a post that someone else shared, you should either like, share, comment, or maybe all of the above. The same goes for interacting with your members’ social posts even if you are not being mentioned. You want to make sure that you are up to date with what is going on around your social accounts and supporting your members by interacting with their feeds in every way possible.
4. Create Content for Your Members
As an association, you are uniquely positioned to create valuable content that can impact your entire industry. Take this opportunity to share it with your members as a resource for them. This content can be anything from social media calendars, sample social media posts, infographics, etc. You can help your members fill their social calendars and be a great resource.
5. Reevaluate Where Your Members Are
Have you recently reevaluated where your members are on social media? Facebook and Twitter used to be crucial for consumer engagement, but maybe your members’ audience has changed. If they’re paying more attention to other channels like TikTok, decide if it’s worthwhile to follow them. Are they B2B? It’s likely LinkedIn is still a prominent tool in their social arsenal. Evaluate these platforms to decide whether or not your association should redirect its focus. You want to stay up to date with where your members are engaging to provide the most value as their association.