The YourMembership.com Blog

The One Thing You Need to do to Attract Millennials

May 22nd, 2013 | Posted in Member Engagement + Retention

g9510.20_Millennials.CoverTIME Magazine published a recent article entitled The Me Me Me Generation. The subhead read “Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents.” The secondary subhead read “Why they’ll save us all.” Before the rage of the Millennial reader befalls me, I want to throw out the two statistics this article touts. People in their 20s are three times more likely to have narcissistic personality disorder than the generation that’s 65 or older and according to the National Institutes of Health, 58% more college students scored higher on the narcissism scale than previous generations. If you want to know how that will affect your member organization… Read the rest of this entry »

Want a Successful Online Community? Think about People

May 15th, 2013 | Posted in Member Engagement + Retention

Group of Friends with Arms Around Each OtherWhile it may seem weird that a technology vendor (with online communities, might I add) would share this post, we want our clients, and those entertaining the idea of becoming our clients, to be successful. This means giving them advice on how to make the most of our products and features. But this post is written so well and details how you can achieve a successful online community through considering relationships, that we just had to share. We think you’ll agree. Sometimes the success of technology, and technology adoption, is not in the features but in the planning behind/creation of the relational framework with your members.

 

If you’d like to read more about making your online community the best it can be, check out these articles:

How to Get the Most Our of Your Online Community 

Feature Adoption is Key to Online Community Success

 

Member Engagement: you’re already aces

May 10th, 2013 | Posted in Member Engagement + Retention

Member engagementEngage has become quite the buzzword. You can’t go to a conference or read an article about membership or member organizations without someone telling you about the importance of engagement. We even do it here. A lot. But engaging your members has become one of those phrases that has lost its meaning to many and I worry it is going the way of synergy. So why do we talk about it at YourMembership.com? Because at the very definition of the word it’s one of the most important things you can do. It means reaching out, making your members a part of your organization and processes, making them feel vested in the outcome. According to Merriam-Webster it means “drawing favorable attention or interest.” So why do many of us have such a hard time with the concept? Because we over-think it.

As member organizations, you built a community of individuals who share the same passions and interests long before technology and social media. You organized, cultivated and educated your membership. Engaging them has never been your problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Five Content Ideas for Associations

April 30th, 2013 | Posted in Member Engagement + Retention, Social Media and Business Trends

contentYou can be the best writer in the world but if you don’t “listen” and “watch” and know your audience, your content will always fall short. Creating top-notch content is as easy as predicting the end of a romantic comedy. But to do it, you have to stop producing what you want to produce and concentrate on what your members want to consume. A good listener should never run out of content but just in case you’re feeling a little stymied right now, here are five superstar ideas to get you started:

1. Who’s calling, please? Ask the next person who calls your office on the phone how they got into the industry (assuming your association represents an industry) they’re in. When they tell you their story, ask them if they wouldn’t mind if you weaved that into your next newsletter, blog post, etc. After you write about it, encourage others to share their stories with you. This will do two things – make a member feel special and reduce your phone calls significantly if your members think you will put them on the spot with a question like that. Read the rest of this entry »

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