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!

Happy Friday! Some of the team is already in Los Angeles, some of the team is heading there today and the rest of us will be there tomorrow! Phew! I’ve got six hours on a plane ahead of me and I’m hoping the in-flight movie is entertaining.

I wanted to take this edition of the Friday Top Five to highlight some blog posts from the week that aren’t ASAE-related. So many small staff associations either aren’t a part of the ASAE community, or are not able to be at the Annual Meeting and Expo. Therefore, here are a few of the posts that stuck out to me this week. Enjoy!

1. KiKi L’Italien wrote about how she does not believe the traditional association model is all there is. Her love for associations and nonprofits is clear throughout the post, and she remains optimistic that creativity and positivity in associations can help make the world a better place. If you’re looking for someone passionate about associations, KiKi’s your woman.

2. Jamie Notter shared a thoughtful post about how all strategy is personal. Every person — every board member, every volunteer, every member — has a different reason for wanting to belong and contribute. Jamie recommends being clear about your own personal meaning, and being careful to really listen to your membership.

3. Over at the Acronym blog, Kris Predergast continues her series on permaculture and associations, this time delving into the idea of slow chapters. She describes a network of slow chapters which can be diverse in size, activities and focus. Kris writes, Slow chapters feature more specific locally available knowledge, practice, and cultural preferences.

4. I loved Jeff Hurt’s post this week about why learning to disagree without being disagreeable is hard. It’s true that we all won’t agree with each other 100 percent of the time, but it’s important to be tactful and respectful of others’ opinions. However, it can be difficult — physically so — to disagree with others once we’ve formed an opinion.

5. Seth Godin’s latest post isn’t directly related to associations, but I love the sentiment: Finding inspiration instead of it finding you. Seth writes about how we can ostensibly train ourselves to brainstorm and be inspired if we begin to do it on a regular basis. Great ideas for association professionals who want to start something new.

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend! And I’m looking forward to meeting ASAE attendees this weekend!

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A few months ago, I had the pleasure of serving on a panel for one of ASAE’s Component Relations webinars: “Using Social Media for Chapter Events.” It was such a fantastic learning opportunity for me that I wanted to give back even more to the association community.

So, later this month, on Tuesday, May 25 and Wednesday, May 26, I’ll be hosting two webinars on incorporating social media into your organization’s communications strategy. (Click the date to sign up!) I’ve learned so much since I started blogging with MemberClicks and I truly believe that no matter how small your organization, it’s possible to successfully utilize social media tools.

I’ll be talking about a few specific things, such as how to find the social media “superstars” already within your organization, the time commitment necessary for social media (it’s not as much as you think!) and a few tips for using social media for events.

If your organization is lacking staff members and short on time, I promise this webinar will be worth your while. (Both sessions will cover the same topics, so there’s no need to sign up for both.)

I’m looking forward to the discussion, and hope you’ll join us!

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Have you asked your members how they prefer to receive information?

Let’s be real. Whether you’re an active participant in social media or not, you’re probably still on information overload. People can get news and updates from more sources now than ever before. There are tons of outlets – it’s overwhelming!

Blogs, RSS, Twitter (including text alerts and all the smartphone apps), Facebook (online and via cell or smartphone), text messages, e-mail, phone call, direct mail, newspaper (online or in print), magazine (online or in print), television, YouTube … I’m exhausted just thinking about it! (And I’m sure I left many, many options off that list!)

I want to expand a little bit on my post last week about predictions for 2010. I said, Organizations will stop adopting social media just for the sake of it. Associations don’t have to be everywhere, all the time. It’s so crucial to realize what’s worth your time and what’s just going to waste time.

If your organization audits its communication strategy around this time of year, be sure to ask members how they like to receive information. If a significant portion chooses a certain option (such as Twitter), consider adding it to your organization’s strategy. If there’s no interest, don’t waste your time there. Maybe your association doesn’t even need to have a huge social Web presence. (I would argue that going forward, it will be necessary eventually, but there’s no need to rush it if there’s no demand at the moment.)

Asking your members what they want – it’s as simple as taking a poll – can be very educational for association staffers. Encouraging two-way communication is a great first step to engage members who have become unengaged. Offering information through different online avenues can be somewhat time-consuming, but isn’t it worth it if you can grab the attention of a niche group that previously wasn’t too interested in the organization?

Does your association have a unique method for distributing information to members?

(Image via Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com on Flickr)

For the life of me, I could not decide what to write about today. I know, I know … possible topics are endless, but after catching up on the weekend’s blog posts, tweets and finally watching the whole Kanye West/Taylor Swift debacle from last night’s VMAs, I felt a bit … spent. I decided to briefly catch up on news from New York Fashion Week for inspiration, and saw this result during a Google News search:

That headline screamed out at me. High on ideas, but low on business: could that apply to your association?

Too often, people write about how important it is to think outside the box. But sometimes having too few ideas isn’t the problem.

Maybe your association’s problem isn’t a lack of (buzzword alert!) innovation. Maybe you have tons and tons of amazing ideas, but are having trouble executing them. Maybe, for whatever reason — lack of manpower, lack of money or lack of board support — your association just can’t get things going.

To get as much support as possible, it’s crucial to explain why your idea will benefit the organization and how it will bring value to your members. Don’t get discouraged. I think a sometimes-overlooked and -underrated part of implementing an innovative idea is a clear strategy. Identify what tasks are necessary to achieve the goal. There may be three tasks, or there may be 30. Have a defined straetgy with a timeline designating certain tasks to certain people. Maybe you don’t complete each objectives within your specified timeline, but don’t get discouraged.

One of the most important things you can do is keep track of your progress and compare it to your strategy. If you get too far off-course, maybe it’s time to reevaluate and redefine your plan. There’s nothing wrong with a little revision here and there. As plans unfold, reality can set in. However you adjust the plan, though, don’t let your association be all ideas and no business.