Operating a professional association is a big responsibility, and you’ll feel like the only one contributing if your members aren’t sufficiently motivated or engaged. Here are some methods you can apply to your professional association that will help to better engage members and encourage more active participation.
Implement an Online Infrastructure
It goes without saying that in today’s digital age, online connectivity is a valuable tool for many businesses and organizations. Setting up a clean, streamlined, and efficient website with an extranet user management platform that serves as a central hub to your professional association’s latest endeavors and related content is a highly effective way to engage members and even attract new recruits. A privatized online community featuring forums, special members-only videos, photos, text-based content, and other features can help to entice visitors to learn more and become more engaged.
Incorporate Video
Many would rather watch an informative yet alluring video instead of a dry, sleep-inducing slideshow crammed full of statistics and data. Incorporating video into your engagement strategy will help perk up a few ears and generate more interest. Including members-only vlog entries or video guides that inspire or engage viewers will help to encourage members to get more involved.
Another fantastic way to utilize video to form a stronger connection with your members is via webinars. Instead of scheduling in-person training sessions that might not be applicable to a member’s availability or location, making webinars available on demand can not only help keep members interested, but also bring in more revenue for your organization if you convert it into a paid service.
Social Media Integration
This is where your professional association can be energized through interaction with the rest of the world at a personal level. Setting up official Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn pages and populating them with relevant and interesting posts or content will draw more eyes towards your organization. Members will be engaged through the increase in public interest — nobody can deny that seeing likes, follows, comments, shares, and reactions build up over time is exciting and deeply motivating.
Connecting social media accounts to your organization’s website is a great way of linking two powerful methods of engagement together. With a surge of public interest and newfound attraction drawn from social media pages to your professional association’s website, members might feel inspired to contribute post ideas, blog posts, share the organization on their own social media channels, and contribute in other ways towards the organization’s mission or vision. This could also inspire visitors to apply and join the team, and fresh blood just might be the kick your organization needs to rejuvenate itself.
With a team of inspired, motivated, and fully engaged members working with you to achieve goals, a professional association can be the total opposite of mentally draining. With some hard work and determination, applying these methods will help to re-energize your organization through members who feel driven to contribute.