How membership organisations can make themselves

fit for purpose online

white paper

JANUARY 2014

The biggest challenges are demographics and talking to different generations

The majority of our members are in senior positions and heading into retirement, we need to engage younger members

Contents1. Executive summary

2. Membership organisations – the social audit

3. Member communications and the engagement rating

4. Achieving rich engagement with the members

5. Conclusion

6. About Deeson Member Communications

We have to take a step back with

social media. Look at what we are trying to achieve strategically and decide what we

engage with

1. Executive summary

Croissants, coffee and a breathtaking view were the backdrop to our third knowledge share breakfast at the Gherkin this month.On 22 January, we gathered together high-profile membership organisations and trade associations to take part in a non-attributable conversation around membership and online challenges.Membership organisations strive to get close to their members to demonstrate their value, so they can retain existing members and attract new ones. Do the plethora of free social media platforms offer an easy and cost-effective way of doing this? Getting close to a membership means building new and meaningful relationships with them. But how effective is social media in building these relationships? Social media has raised everyone’s expectations about online relationships – we all expect to be treated as individuals and for our needs to be respected. High street brands can do this in the context of one-off purchases, so why not a membership organisation in helping develop members’ professional careers over many years?In reality, membership associations are struggling to convert conversations in social media spaces into truly deeper relationships with their members. Even if an organisation manages a closed group for its members on a professional platform, such as LinkedIn, it’s hard to consistently use these to add value, either from the member’s point of view or the organisation’s.

The white paper contributorsAssociation of Colleges (AOC), British Medical Association (BMA), College of Emergency Medicine (CEM), Engineering Equipment & Materials Users’ Association (EEMUA), Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), Society of Radiographers (SOR).

Member engagement is

not digital at the moment

We use Twitter only as a

broadcasting tool

2. Membership organisations – the social audit

Platform popularity: • All use Twitter, with some creating different

accounts to reach specific audiences• Most use YouTube to host their videos, a third see

it as a communication channel in its own right• Only one third makes significant use of LinkedIn• Only one organisation uses Facebook• Half have own communities online

Twitter is used for messaging, not customer service

Owning the agendaMost of these organisations use social media primarily for messaging and brand management. Less than half use these tools to support their retention and acquisition needs or to foster networking and debate. The deeper engagement is occurring on the owned communities. Why should it be so hard to make social media activity pay for itself in a member organisation? In most organisations it’s the marketing department that owns the social media agenda, possibly supported by an external digital agency. But should this activity just sit within the marketing team?Marketing is essentially there to communicate the value of a product or service to customers and social media provides a great route for innovative campaigns and getting the message out to the audience. What the membership needs on social media is a responsive service which involves the whole membership organisation, with a focus on customer service. They need support from the policy, training, events, communications and member services teams.

Case studiesThe Institute of Leadership & Management has a proactive LinkedIn group which is member-only, a closed tutor group, and an open group for prospecting. For the Society of Radiographers, Twitter and YouTube are the strongest platforms. YouTube links to their major events, such as conferences and protest marches.The British Medical Association is reviewing its internal processes and structure, having recently launched its owned community. Within the Communications Directorate a simple name change now sees the news team sitting in the ‘member engagement’ department alongside the social media team, which also runs the BMA’s owned community.

Our whole ethos was towards

broadcast but now that is changing

Twitter has become the main way of

campaigning

We use LinkedIn for

broadcasting

3. Member communications and the engagement rating Trade associations and professional bodies have varied audiences. These include members of the public attracted by campaigns, curious students needing support and qualified professionals in niche specialisms.Effective engagement with these audiences needs a clear understanding of their motivations. Questions need considering to fully understand these audiences and profile their needs. Why would they want to be involved with a membership organisation? How do these reasons match the organisation’s current and future objectives?Many organisations consider their engagement much higher than it is in reality. We asked each organisation to examine their overall audience engagement online and rate their current external communication. They were also asked to peg where they want communications to be in the next three years.

The engagement scaleThe four stages of engagement that were explored:• Stage 1 – No engagement The organisation is purely

broadcasting – they don’t know who’s reading the message and even if they are reading

• Stage 2 – One-way communication The organisation is communicating to a first tier. These will be ‘gatekeepers’ for trade associations and member email lists for professional bodies

• Stage 3 – Light two-way communication The organisation uses social media to broadcast and respond to members, prospects and other parties, such as the media, key opinion leaders and the public. There is low-level interaction (comments, likes, subscribes, shares, retweets, @mentions and posts) and only occasional value is identified

• Stage 4 – Deep two-way communication The organisation is proactively engaging with members, prospects and other audiences. This is through its own on-domain community, as well as social spaces. A community manager is managing comments and demonstrating value back to the organisation

The problem for us is we reach a learned view on a situation or policy and a discussion in real time might not represent

that informed view

We intend to use polls, surveys and

commenting to solicit feedback

from our members

The engagement results for 2014Our poll revealed that current external communications by organisations is achieving a low level of engagement among members: • 50% are achieving one-way communication• 50% are achieving shallow two-way communication• None think they have achieved deep two-way

communicationConsidering most professional member organisations have yet to fully integrate online and social networking and community into their businesses, this is not an unexpected response.

The engagement projection for 2017Move forward three years and these organisations want to be at a different stage:• 20% are looking to move from stage 2’s one-way

communication to stage 3’s light two-way communication • 80% are looking to move to stage 4’s deep two-way

communication.This ambition to jump ahead in engagement within three years demonstrates the challenges ahead. Here were some key points raised:• Some websites are not fit for purpose from a user

experience, let alone becoming useful transactional hubs for members to interact with membership organisations and with other members

• Membership organisations need to think more strategically and use technology to work towards their organisation’s business goals

• Content needs to be more interesting, relevant and shareable. In particular, all organisations recognised the importance of developing their presence on video sharing platforms

• Organisations are experimenting with new ways to ask for membership feedback, such as polls and questions on social media

• Member contributions to debate or website/magazine content needs to have prominence and not be regarded as second-rate

• Not all debate can be public and that’s where an owned community is far more valuable than social media platforms

Our membership is so broad, we need to use communities for very specific groups,

such as groups of learners

There’s a case for pushing out

and not expecting a response

4. Achieving rich engagement with the membersAchieving deep two-way communications with members requires initiatives for interaction, relationship-building and collaboration with the multiple teams of officers and committees that make up a membership organisation’s head office. Such initiatives are far better handled on an ‘owned community’ platform than an external social media one. Such platforms allow officers across the business to help make the organisation a vital part of their members’ day-to-day working lives. To stimulate discussion, the table below was used to illustrate the main activities of any membership association, who is responsible for them, and the ideal platform on which they can be developed.

Ideal platform

Activity Department Social media

Owned community

Your objectives

Reputation management with public

Marketing Y Reputation management

Public relations PR, Marketing Y Brand awareness

Brand extension Marketing Y Brand awareness

Real-time news for public Press, comms Y Brand awareness

Thought leadership with public Comms Y [Y] Brand awareness

Promotion of products Marketing Y [Y] Prospecting

Engagement with prospects Business development, Sales

Y [Y] Prospecting

Peer-to-peer self-help and discussion

Comms [Y] Y Efficiency gains

Member self-help Members Y Efficiency gains

Identity confirmation through link with CRM

IT Y Efficiency gains

Product innovation Business development

Y New business opportunities

Reviews of products and services

Events, publications, training etc

[Y] Y New business opportunities

Premium (paid) services including tailored content associated with suppliers

Business development

Y New business opportunities

Real-time news for members Press, comms Y Improved internal communications

Thought-leadership with members

Comms, policy, governance

[Y] Y Improved internal communications

Knowledge exchange and professional development

Policy, training Y Improved internal communications

Member-to-member networking

[Y] Y Collaboration between members & officers

Committees, SIGs, local groups etc

Member services, regional services

Y Collaboration between members & officers

We need the right tools and then interact

on the basic stuff before moving into a much richer engagement picture, which

will take a few years

Case studiesThe Institute of Leadership & Management has a one-size-fits-all membership offering, leaving it up to members to find what they want. To address this a new communication strategy will see the use of social to position the organisation as the hub for member activity and networking, using the organisation’s site as a conduit to social media platforms to help segment the audience.The College of Emergency Medicine is considering not having a comms team as everyone thinks engagement is just a comms’ team job – in other words encouraging silo working and doing things that are not relevant. The College is thinking of embedding communications within the whole organisation.

5. Conclusion

To move forward, we found that:• Social media is just one tool in the membership engagement toolbox and it needs to work in conjunction with the

organisation’s overall strategy• There needs to be a better appreciation from the top down about just how social media and an owned

community in particular, can further the objectives of the organisation• Making the business case for investing in social media and owned communities includes delivering a coherent

communications strategy• Relying on inertia to keep the membership fees flowing is not sustainable in a social media age that takes

networking and sharing as a given • Internal siloed-working is not compatible with external deep two-way communication.

Points to consider:• Social communication means moving beyond broadcast and allowing genuine two-way exchanges between

people at every level in the organisation• A fragmented approach within the organisation to external communication will not ultimately satisfy the individual

member. Fragmentation is frustrating both for the officer and the member• Social tools can address fragmentation. They not only allow management to communicate what they are

planning to do and why they are planning to do it; crucially they also invite the rest of the staff to explore, together, how they understand these plans will be worked out across the organisation

• Social knowledge, the business-critical knowledge that resides in our brains and memories, requires social forms of communication to surface it

Over the next few weeks, we will be writing a series of blogs to cover some of the points in the conclusion and to suggest ways forward. Follow us on Twitter @DeesonMC for updates or keep an eye on our blog deeson-mc.co.uk/blog

In some parts of the organisation members

are seen as an inconvenience

Our experience is there is not always the time to communicate very deep two-way

6. About Deeson Member Communications

Deeson Member Communications is an integrated digital, communications and publishing agency for member organisations.We devise and deliver social media, websites, publishing, content, marketing and strategy for our clients. Our solutions engage, inform, retain and attract members.Clients include: College of Emergency Medicine, Political Studies Association, Royal Meteorological Society, Institute of Economic Affairs and Society and the Society and College of Radiographers.

Join us at our Gherkin eventsThe Gherkin breakfast briefing is a quarterly event to discuss the key issues facing membership organisations. The next event is in April 2014. To join the waiting list, contact emilyt@deeson.co.uk. These events are attended by senior representatives, up to CEO level, from high profile membership organisations and trade associations. Places are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

ContactIf anything in this white paper has resonated with you and your organisation, our team would be happy to help. Please contact:Geoff White, Business Development Manager geoffw@deeson.co.uk

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