By Duncan McCreery, MemberClicks Director of Customer Experience

This being my second straight year attending ASAE, I must say that I had a much more difficult time choosing among sessions to attend than I did in 2010.  While I went back and forth on a few tough choices, one that never left my list dove into the tactics and strategies behind member engagement programs.  Standing shoulder to should in the crowded room made it clear that I wasn’t the only one who had made this session a priority – and for good reason.

First, let’s start with the definition of engagement offered during the presentation:

Repeated interactions  that  strengthen   the  emotional,  psychological  or physical   investment  a  customer  has  in  a  brand.    The  process  of  moving new  customers   and  members  from  observers into users  of  the  resources made  available  by   your  organization.

Now this definition is really important because we’re talking about an approach to engage what is likely a diverse pool of current and potential members.  To truly engage members, we need to communicate that the organization understands the primary needs of each membership segment and that the organization’s offerings serve those specific needs.

When prompted for engagement program examples, several of the session’s attendees described programs where staff members systematically called each member to talk about the organization’s latest happenings or to solicit feedback from them.

Whether specific individuals did this full time or the work was spread across several departments, it sounded like the organizations with 50+ staff members had a lot of success with these programs.  It made me think how a small staff could take this concept and make it work without having the same amount of man-hours to invest.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s all about getting more bang for the buck.  If you can be strategic about taking full advantage of the touch points you already have, you can accomplish the personal touch and deliver the targeted message without having to launch a new program that requires 50 people to make phone calls.

The key is to speak to the needs.  If you’re aiming to grow the ranks of your student members, make sure, for example, you’re offering networking events that include young professionals and students.

Our presenters offered some great examples of targeted communication from the for-profit world included below.  As you’re watching these ads, ask yourself who your intended audiences are and how you can best deliver the message to them.  In these examples, how does Toyota demonstrate they understand the needs of each audience?

As you think about applying or revising your small-staff’s membership engagement strategy, here’s one quick way to get started:

1. Write down each of your membership segments
2. List out the primary reasons why people from each segment join the organization
3. Send surveys to each of the membership segments to find out what you do well and what they would like to see
4. Re-examine your programming and communications to make sure that the needs of each segment are covered regularly
5. If there’s a gap, target communications to that group with information and events specifically for them

If you have any examples of what your organizations is doing with its membership engagement strategy, please feel free to share!

Do you know what your strengths are? Do you know what your weaknesses are?

Knowing both is crucial to your career success. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and it’s important to find a role that plays to your strengths while letting you work on your weaknesses.

How do you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, though?

Signs of a strength:
1. You have success doing it.
2. You have an instinct that tells you to pursue it.
3. This activity leads to growth.
4. You feel accomplished after you have completed it

Signs of a weakness:
1. You have a lack of success doing it.
2. You have a lack of natural instinct for the activity.
3. This activity leads to no new growth.
4. You recognize that there is a lack of need for the activity

Take the time to reflect on your work and tasks. Are you truly taking advantage of your strengths? I think it’s important for us all to be aware of our weaknesses so we can grow in our careers, but I don’t want to spend my days doing tasks I have no instinct for, and I’m betting you don’t either.

I think small staff association professionals have an advantage here. You get exposed to so many different aspects of association management that determining your strengths and weaknesses can be much quicker. On the other hand, you may have to devote more of your time to tasks that are not your strengths due to a lack of manpower at your association.

What do you think? Is your role comprised mainly of your strengths?

This post was inspired by Kathy Spangler & Carol Vernon’s “Putting your strengths to work deliberately” session at ASAE’s recent annual meeting.

Image source

By Greg Parker, MemberClicks Solutions Advisor

“Innovation” and “Competitive Advantage” – how often are these terms thrown around in any and every business setting? We expect it in San Jose. We expect it in Manhattan, but in St. Louis…really? At ASAE’s recent annual meeting, that’s exactly what we heard.

Multiple educational and breakout sessions spoke to these topics, but the one that truly nailed it was the closing session by Peter Sheahan.

Peter spoke to the trend of members’ expectations “going toward narrative and away from facts.” He said, “you’re in the business of storytelling far more than you’re in the business of fact-telling.”

” Ninety-three percent of decisions are based on emotion,” he said. ‘We make decisions, and want to hear stories and emotional narratives more than we want facts.” The question begs, what story are you telling? Better yet, what story do your members want to hear?

If you can find your story, chances are you’re on the road to innovation. Sheahan will tell you that innovation is rarely “sexy.” True innovation isn’t where the “sizzle” is…

The story is the key, that’s where you find the “sizzle.”

According to Sheahan, “The hardest thing about staying awesome is the gravity of success.” You’ve paid your (metaphorical) dues and even though there may be room for improvement, things are going pretty well. That’s gravity talking. Success creates complexity which in turn creates specialization and ultimately isolation. Stories aren’t born in isolation. So where does one look for the story? I want my sizzle!

According to a brilliant friend of mine, Lara Hodgson, there are several keys to tapping into that story.

1.  Innovation is more about what you notice, not what you know. Look at your organization and ask, “What are the unique characteristics or benefits that we offer members?” Then turn those around and list the specific problems or needs that those benefits meet. That’s the beginning of a great story. As you continue the process, you’ll begin to notice areas where you can improve, and dare I say, innovate.

2.  Your best ideas happen when you lack resources. Anyone can be innovative when money, time and creativity are in abundance. It’s when your back is up against the wall that you really start to get creative. Don’t just break that glass in case of fire, (if all you have are fires, then use them to your advantage…and call me for some ideas to help) but mentally put yourself in places of break the glass in various situations.

3.  Your greatest idea may not be in what you are expert in. In a recent interview, Apple founder Steve Jobs said that getting fired from Apple (after his first run), was the best thing that ever happened to him. During that time, he purchased a small, no-name company called Pixar. How’d that work out for ya? Get out of your comfort zone. Look for ways to improve the process in a new area. A new set of eyes is always a good thing!

Find your story, tell your members, enjoy your sizzle!

By Elyse Savaki, MemberClicks solution advisor

One of the many great sessions on the new Small Staff track that I attended at ASAE this year was this session on generating non-dues revenue.  And one of the things that I loved about this session, is that is focused exclusively on an area of non-dues revenue that seems to be largely overlooked in the needs-based conversations that I have with small-staffs on a daily basis: Sponsorship Dollars, ie: Strategic Partnerships.

And when sponsorships do come up in conversation with my customers, they’re often doing it in a very small way.  This brings me to my first major take away from this session:

·  Small-staffs have a LOT to offer!

Well, of course they do!  But too often organizations (even larger ones) short-change themselves by thinking we’re only have x number of members, or we only do y.

·  Your impact is bigger than you think.  Your members have families, friends, and professional networks—promote the extent of your organization’s reach, not its membership size.

·  Your members are more than their profession/affiliation with your organization—did a little more into the demographics to expand your value.  Are your members mostly male, female, just out of college, just about to retire, etc?

Another big benefit your organization can offer to sponsors?

·  Lending your credibility to them. Think about it like this: Are you more likely to respond to generic bank/insurance/printing service solicitation, or are you more likely to give credence to one recommended by a friend?  Same goes for your members—be that referring friend. This is a very real need that your potential partners have!

·  A caveat here is to be sure that you are partnering with companies that you trust with your organization’s reputation.  Because you are lending your reputation to them, make sure that they can be trusted with it.

Now that’s all well and good, but how do you know who to approach (and for what!) in the first place?

1. Identify who your members are (demographics), and who would be interested in them

2. Do a bit of preliminary research to identify companies that have formed other strategic alliances (look for companies that value these types of partnerships to economize your time)

3. Look into their activities—past, present, and future.  Ultimately, we’re going to craft a package that will speak right to them.  Knowing their objectives and marketing initiatives helps us be effective here.

Once you’ve made those identifications, it’s time to put together your prospectus.  There were several tips great tips on this:

·  Create specific opportunities (not just a generic ad space on your site)

·  Look for ways to extend those opportunities throughout the year—Maybe the sponsorship includes a series of smaller events throughout the year, or being the sole sponsor of all of your educational emails throughout the year

·  Limit the number of opportunities available (make it exclusive!)

·  Offer a custom sponsorship, tailored to the purchasing company

And the next step here which was just ingenious:  Send this prospectus to your prospective partners while it is still a work in progress, and ask for their opinions!  This serves a dual purpose—it helps to build critical relationships for your organization, and it also asks potential partners to get involved in a non-threatening way right up front.  We all know those old truths that people love to be made to feel important, and they love to share their expertise.  So go forth and let your future partners know how much you value them.  Having a part in the process makes them so much more likely to sign on when the time comes to make the ask, and there is no better way to get valuable feedback on any project than going straight to the source.

Happy Friday! As usual after ASAE’s Annual Meeting, there are plenty of great recap blog posts and reading through them will probably take a little while. However, I’ve got five here that should be moved to the top of your reading list!

1. Jamie Notter reminds association executives that you are not the center of the universe. Associations are not entitled to exist. People are allowed to post perspectives and insights on Twitter, blogs and other social media channels that associations have no control over.

2. Jeffrey Cufaude re-posted a blog post from last March reminding ASAE attendees that, while you are filled with passion and new ideas, others in your office aren’t. So don’t necessarily try to implement every exciting new idea you learned at the conference right away.

3. In a guest post at the Acronym blog, Peggy Hoffman talks about getting her I on. What I is that? Innovation, of course! She shares learnings from a session called Collective Intelligence: A Community Innovation Challenge, and this blog post is definitely worth a read.

4. Shelly Alcorn reflects on her experience at ASAE at the Association Subculture blog. She discusses how she’s not necessarily as social in person as she comes across online – something I think a lot of people experience.

5. Maggie McGary asks how empowered you really are to implement one big idea you learned at ASAE. Of course, when you’re surrounded by lots of like-minded professionals, it’s easy to say you’ll make changes. But once you get home … do you? The comments on this post are especially good. Definitely chime in to the conversation!