How Associations Can Leverage Social Media

Here at the Moery Company, we are always looking for an edge in how we can recruit new members and sell more sponsorships for our association partners.  The formula we often use is similar to what we use to recruit new association partners.  One area we have been doubling down on in the past couple of years has been the use of social media.
Let me tell you a few things we do as a company:
–          Every single employee is expected to write a blog on a quarterly basis, just like the one you are reading now.
–          These blogs are then recorded as Facebook live videos and podcasts.
–          Each employee at TMC is required to post weekly on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
By doing all of these things, it has enormously increased our social media footprint.  We have more people opening, reading, forwarding, retweeting, and sharing our content than ever.  Chances are some of our partners reading this first learned about us by reading some of our content and not from a cold call or referral.
So how does this translate into a plan for your association?  I currently see many associations retweeting stories, discussing their advocacy work, and talking about industry trends.  I think this is just the surface of what you can do with this medium because frankly, this is where your younger members are.  They aren’t reading your magazine or visiting your website.  They are following you on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
I have a few areas you should consider adding to your social media campaigns:
–          Create and promote your thought leadership.  80% of the information you are posting should be original content, and 20% should be someone else’s content.
–          Use social media to promote membership, events, and sponsorships.
–          Promote and highlight new members or members who have renewed.
–          Require employees to engage and promote your content.  That employee out of college may have 1,000+ followers, and that post can spread very quickly, and you never know who may read it.
–          Turn on a Facebook live video in your office.  Your members would appreciate seeing the association at work and putting some faces with names.  And don’t strive for perfection here, a live, unedited video adds to its authenticity.  (And if something goes poorly, you can delete it right away!)
If you are looking to stay ahead of the curve, I encourage you to consider some of these steps.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me –mike@moerycompany.com.
Mike Thomas is The Moery Company’s Senior Vice President, Sales. Follow him on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn. Any questions? Let’s connect