Let’s break it down!
Alright, that is pretty clear… I mean I hope it is. If you don’t know what that is I’m not sure how or why you have an association at all. (Smiley Face - I don't do emojis. Now that they have thier own movie I feel like it;s just gotten out of hand.) Members are your life blood. They are your reason for being. Getting and keeping members a part of your organization is critical for your association’s survival.
So, you need to find a way to attract new members and to make them want to stick around. You need to keep them interested… you need to keep them engaged. Oooo... what a perfect segue...
A simple way to look at it would be:
To figure out what engagement looks like to you, you need to figure out what actions you want your members to be taking? Are you hoping for more volunteers on a projects, increasing leadership on boards and committees, more social media involvement, email mentions about your association? Knowing what you want your members to be doing is key.
The next step is - how do you get them to take action? The easiest way to do this is to provide them with something that excites them. As Bonnie Raitt once said, “Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About”. Something new, fresh, useful, etc. Here are a few examples of unique experiences that can get your members talking:
These are just a few ideas. Once you have these new ideas in place, it’s also a great idea to create avenues to keep the conversation going such as additional networking opportunities or even online blogs or forums.
Membership Engagement, though it can mean different things to different associations, is obviously incredibly important. The bottom line is that the focus needs to be on your members. Knowing what they want and knowing how to keep them happy is going to keep your association chugging for many years to come. Good Luck!