In a webinar hosted by Personify, leading industry experts explored these personas and their member journeys. Which experts you ask? 

• Wes Trochlil, President of Effective Database Management 
• Megan Woodburn, Founder and Co-CEO at Strategic Association Management 
• Nick Ruffin, President and CEO of AMR Management Services 
• Erin Sullivan, VP of Marketing at Personify  

This blog recaps the highlights. You can watch the full discussion anytime, on-demand here.  

What are member personas and why should you care?  

A persona is a fictional representation of a person built on common traits. They’re used to help understand and predict user behaviors and empathetically speak to individuals you don’t know personally. 

In the context of your members, the same use case applies. Understanding personas helps you build interactions that different individuals can relate to. Segment audiences and refine activities for each member’s journey with your association. 

Below is a graphic of the 10 different personas that make up your association. Your members can be any combination of them. People join your association for a variety of reasons and their persona is a big part of why they join.  

Example: The Advocate 

An advocate will join because they’re passionate about the association’s mission. They want involvement and to help raise awareness. They’ll engage in activities such as fundraisers and volunteer opportunities. Their need is to fulfill their purpose as true believer, which is the core of the advocate persona.  

Membership is no longer a one size fits all.

By embracing member personas, you’ll have happier members and boost engagement and retention.  

What the experts say about member personas 

How have you seen levels of engagement evolve or change in associations in recent years?  

After the dramatic changes we saw after the 2020 pandemic, member engagement has evolved. Member expectations have shifted. Technology offers opportunities to run virtual events and build disparate communities online. 

Nick Ruffin noted “the numbers we’ve seen of attendees for a virtual, annual conference is double or triple the numbers they had ever seen in person…it showed that there was this audience that was out there, that for whatever reason, just wasn’t going to come out to a conference.”  

This demonstrates that there’s a persona of members who want to take part and engage. But, maybe just not in person.  

We can give to all members, whether they prefer to engage in person or virtually. Megan Woodburn said it best, “how are we engaging the whole rather than just who has been our typical member or typical registrant at these events?”  

Should evolving engagement trends change how associations run their business and programs? If so, how?    

YES! We’ve acknowledged shifting member expectations. Wes Trochlil noted “members and customers are now saying you need to meet me on my terms and so how are you going to do that?”  

Asking your members what’s working and what isn’t is a great way to boost engagement. Host a focus group, send out surveys and listen to your members when they give feedback.  

Megan warns us to “be cautious about listening to only the loudest voices, make sure you’re doing this thoughtfully. Make sure you’re thinking about the whole rather than just solving one solution.”  

How can we better understand and serve people of all types and engagement levels in an association?  

Nick Ruftin started this off by saying “there’s 1,000 ideas of things we can do, but we can’t afford to do all of them. You could maybe afford to do 2 or 3 of them well. Using the data of what your members actually want and participate in is where you should focus your energy on, in alignment with your strategic plan, mission and vision.”   

Of course, this is easier said than done.  

Wes drove this point home discussing situations where a segment of members seems to not care. They may always be members and have high retention. But they don’t interact, participate in surveys or volunteer. These members don’t engage in the same way you anticipated, but that’s okay. They’ll consume the content they want and participate in a level that works for them. Have your team encourage the engagement of these members and try to boost that engagement. Even if a member isn’t participating now, it doesn’t mean they won’t in the future.  

The hybrid experience is something that has proven to engage all types of members. Erin Sullivan commented, “the post-pandemic member expects a hybrid experience and hybrid is expensive to put on…so you have to prioritize which events and programming make sense to provide a virtual component for, and which ones we want people to join in person.”  

Given the past few years, how are you feeling about events and conferences in 2023?  

Confidence in the events space is extremely high according to our panelists. It seems post-pandemic that people are craving in-person interaction. Megan spoke to this saying “events are back and they’re back strong. If fact we’re seeing about a 10% increase in attendance…a 60% increase in registration.”  

People belong to an association to meet with peers, network, learn and ask questions. Bringing back in-person events provides the perfect platform for all that to happen. 

Which persona(s) do you identify most with?  

Nick, being passionate but resistant to participation, identified as a combination of an advocate and curious.  

Wes felt similar to Nick and is an influencer, giver and advocate.  

Megan agreed that she is a combination of curious, advocate and influencer.  

Erin identified strongly with the connector, as one of her strengths is winning others over and bringing people together.  

All panelists felt their personas evolved over the course of their career. They identified with different personas in different career stages.  

Looking at 2023, what opportunities and challenges do you foresee for associations?  

Taking a hard look at your association is key here.  

Is your association addressing member needs? Speaking their language and offering them relevant experiences will build strong relationships. You’ll ultimately build a stronger program with better retention. 

The technology you use is critical. If you’re not evaluating it every couple of years you may be missing new opportunities.  

Want to hear more? Learn how the American Society of Nutrition used their tech stack to pivot to online meetings and events during the pandemic.  

A huge challenge our panelists identified was a possible recession. This will impact member travel budgets for events. It also speaks to agility and organizations staying nimble in the face of change. 

Looking on the bright side, Nick noted, “this could be an opportunity for associations to network and create value for members. We all survived the 2008 recession, and we have way more resources, tools and technology now.” 

Leverage your technology stack to understand your personas  

A robust association management software (AMS) will allow you to segment member data. By evaluating demographics, preferences, job titles, event attendance and content engagement, you can better understand your association personas. Once you have an understanding you can craft programs and messages that resonate.  Below are a few great technology options to help build engagement and programs for your many personas. 

Learning Management System (LMS)  

An LMS, like Classroom, engages your learning personas. You can provide opportunities to learn and gain certifications through Classroom. Bonus: this provides a good reason for employers to cover employee membership dues!  

Members who benefit most from an LMS are:   

• Researchers
• Climbers  
• Scholars   

Online Community  

An online community, like CommUnity, enables networking and community building. Members can engage and stay informed about your association’s programs. A community is a great way to connect people on specific topics or in geographic areas. You can go as big or as small as you want and let them lead the conversation.  

We’ve heard a lot of success in online communities connecting members in disparate locations – or globally. Or for onboarding young members. If your community syncs with your Association Management Software, even better. This creates more data points you can lean into to work with those personas. 

Members who benefit most from online communities are:   

• Entertainers  
• Influencers  
• Givers  
• Advocates  
• Connectors  
• Mentors

Job Board  

A job board, like Personify’s Job Board, enables members to post and search for jobs. They can also learn about volunteer and research positions. This is great for those seeking career path growth or to grow their association or business.  

Members who benefit most from a job board are:  

• Climbers  
• Advocates  
• Scholars  
• Researchers  

Event Management  

An event management tool (we have a lot of those at Personify) will help you create events members will love. Connect people virtually and face-to-face for professional development, networking, friendship and more.  

Members who benefit most from events are:  

• Influencers  
• Advocates  
• Connectors

To watch the full conversation between Megan, Nick, Wes and Erin click the link below!  

The post <strong>Webinar Recap “The New Member Journey: Emerging Member Personas for Associations” </strong>  appeared first on Personify.

Last week, we set aside our Christmas shopping and cookie baking, and Erin Sullivan, VP of Marketing at Personify, and Ashly Stewart, Marketing Manager at Personify led a fun, forward-looking discussion about the top association tech trends the experts and data are saying will make a major impact in 2023.

During the webinar, we dove into the seven association tech trends that members will benefit from and association staff will find useful. But these trends and conversations stood out as tech tools and strategies that are already on association and nonprofit professionals’ minds.

Here are the highlights & most talked-about trends for 2023

1. Recession predictions & preparations

Even though we’re being intentional about looking ahead to the new year, it would be a mistake to think we can predict if, when or how a recession will hit. Still, last year taught us to be prepared for anything, and it’s widely accepted that there will be some disruption to the economy, even if experts disagree on the scale and severity.

During difficult times for your members, it’s important to go directly to them and ask what they need, make it easy for people to ask for and receive help and offer programs and services that align with your members’ biggest recession needs, if possible.

Here are a few ideas we talked about:

• Create a survey to send to members to ask them what kind of help they need. It could be assistance in paying for bills or groceries, finding more ways to connect with other members or help finding a job. Send and post this survey across all your major channels (emails, social, website, etc.) to gather the most responses.
• Make it easy to sign up for help or donate goods or services through special email campaigns, an easy-to-spot “Donate Now” button on your website, social platforms and your online community.
• Offer support groups using discussion forums in your online community and organize them based on what people need most.
• Consider starting a job board or sending out a weekly newsletter with new jobs and learning opportunities offered by your community.

2. Member-empowering technology

When we talk about “member-empowering” technology, we’re talking about tech that gives members ownership of their member experience. In the past, many members were content to show up to association events, fundraisers, programs, etc.

And even though you still have member types who enjoy that type of participation with your organization, one of the defining characteristics of the modern member is a high level of engagement and ability to shape their journey with your mission.

To that end, we talked about how tech solutions like online communities and learning management systems are giving members the power to make connections with other members, take learning courses and workshops, job hunt and more on their terms.

From an attendee: A webinar attendee also asked a good question about the role of social media in their association’s efforts since their members have said that’s their favorite way to interact with the mission and other members.

We talked about how it would be a mistake to ignore members if they have spoken and made it clear that’s their preferred communication and connection channel is social. So we talked about the importance of giving members what they wanted while also ensuring they’re protected from data hacks and social media takeovers that can make it difficult for organizations to run their profiles they want to run them.

The overall recommendation was to maintain your organization’s website, but put your social channels front-and-center with social icons and even social plug-ins that give a preview of your social profiles. You can also find ways to have your website and online communities to mirror the look and feel of your members’ favorite channels by adding elements like Newsfeeds, posts and more to give a similar experience to what your members enjoy seeing and using.

3. The new event VIPs

The association world is thrilled to be getting back to in-person events! And as our first in-person events in a couple of years are launched, the industry has been keeping a close pulse on how event attendees have evolved and how our event experiences should evolve as well.

One of the biggest event trends we’re seeing seems to be a result of the pandemic, though we were seeing the start of it before 2022 — and that’s the rise of young event attendees.

The data seems to show that as remote work became the norm over the past couple of years and The Great Resignation gripped the workforce, young professionals turned to associations and their events as a place to connect, network, learn from peers and experts and find new job opportunities in lieu of a more traditional office setting and culture.

For our new event VIPs, the key will the curating event experiences for them. Traditional event attendees liked to wander the event floors, whereas young members and attendees prefer to have the Netflix-like experience, which can look like sessions recommended to them based on their member profiles, event activations that align with their interests and values and the ease of event mobile apps to have agendas, reminders and more delivered straight to their devices.

Want more 2023 association trends?

If you missed the webinar last week, we got you covered! Click on the button below to access and enjoy the webinar recording, and please reach out if you have any follow-up questions or thoughts.

The post Webinar Recap: The Top Association Tech Trends for 2023 appeared first on Personify.

As the new year dawns, how can you stay ahead of the curve and make sure your association has the right tools in 2023?  

Well, 85% of nonprofits say technology is the key to the success of their organization. This means many organizations have identified tech as important to their mission and their members and are starting to think about a strategic tech plan to help achieve their goals.

Here are a few association tech trends that we believe can help make your communities stronger and more empowered in the coming year!

Trend #1: Economic concerns and recession preparation 

With inflation at a staggering 8.4% this past quarter, supply chain issues and the unprecedented nature of the past few years, the economy is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. How will the potential of a recession affect your association and its events for 2023?  

Although it’s hard to predict an exact fail-safe, the technology you use and the strategies you implement can help your members through a recession.  

Provide an online community for your members that gives them a voice. This space can give them support from other members, learning opportunities and an easy way to donate to special campaigns that can help members receive any emotional or practical support they need through a recession. Consider tech that allows you to check the pulse of your members using surveys or forms that you can post on your website and send via emails. 

Trend #2: Technology centered around your people  

Thriving organizations put their members and their team first. When it comes to budgeting for your technology stack, think about how your people will use it. Is this going to help your members develop? Does this tech strengthen your association’s mission? Will it optimize your staff’s processes?  

The association management software (AMS) you use should provide your team with automation and reliable reporting.   

During your planning for next year, choose technology that’s easy to use for your staff and intuitive for your members.  

Trend #3: Personalized giving experiences 

If your plan for 2023 includes any type of fundraising, you’ll want to give a personalized experience to your members. Utilizing a robust AMS to gather and segment your member’s data will make this easier and more efficient for your team. Members will see opportunities that matter to them based on their preferences. 

Organizations should also consider mobile giving for 2023. We’ve seen a 50% increase in donation transactions completed through mobile devices. This coupled with half of the website traffic coming from mobile devices shows how important it is to build a mobile-friendly website mobile. Implementing this technology for your fundraising is sure to help your association succeed in the coming year. 

Trend #4: Investment in tech talent and training 

Technology is essential for your staff to run efficiently, and it can also be used for training and learning purposes. Whether your organization hires full-time staff or freelance or contract workers to help manage your tech, skilled workers are a must — and if staff is limited in their knowledge, organizations will invest in training for their team in 2023.

Associations should plan to provide comprehensive training and continuous learning opportunities for the tech and data they use.

Ready for more? 

We’ve got 3 more association tech trends to share with you, including:  

• Prioritizing data security 
• Member-empowering technology 
• Curating event experiences for the new VIPs 

We want you to be prepared for 2023 with a robust and strategic technology plan. Join us on December 8^th at 12:30 pm ET for the full discussion with Ashly Stewart, Marketing Manager and Erin Sullivan, VP of Marketing in our webinar, “The Top Association Tech Trends for 2023.” 

The post 4 Association Tech Trends to Watch for in 2023  appeared first on Personify.

Are online communities a nice-to-have or need-to-have?

Starting off the webinar, Ashly and Don discuss the focal question of whether online communities are nice-to-have or a need-to-have. For a long time, the verdict was “nice-to-have”. The biggest contributor to this position? The cost of online communities. However, Don noted that online communities have evolved in recent years to a point where the cost is lower and the quality is higher!

Another concern from team “nice-to-have” is the automatic assumption that when you get an online community, no one actually uses it. Well, using the platform to its full potential often mitigates this concern – everything should be in the community and your members will want to use it! If you’re a member looking for something related to your association, it should be found in your online community. Discussion boards, event promotion, blogs, webinar registration, video recordings, meeting notes – put it in your online community.

The verdict: Online communities are a need-to-have

The biggest reason that online communities are a need-to-have is that members want them. “Our members are asking for it and not only are they asking for it, but if we don’t create a space for them, they will do it themselves,” said Ashly in the webinar. The problem with member-created communities, like a Facebook group, is that you don’t own these spaces, have no control over what is done there and they have low security. An example of low security came in 2021 when Facebook was hacked and millions of individuals’ profiles were affected. Having a dedicated space for members gives members the space they desire with the security they need.

Another key factor in why online communities are transitioning to a “need-to-have” is due to how they’ve changed recently. They are easier to use and more integrated with your current tech. As members become more remote, the need for connection to their community grows, hence the need for an online community.

Looking at some data to support online communities, Ashly referred to a 2021 Membership Marketing Benchmark Report which showed an uptick in visits to the members-only section of associations’ websites from 44% to 56%, clearly showing the growing interest in online communities.

5 reasons associations may need an online community

Aside from members wanting them, there are a few other reasons that an online community can help you.

1. Flexibility

Online communities are perfect for any size association – small, large or somewhere in between. An online community can grow and scale with your association’s goals. The options for managing an online community are plentiful as well. We’ve seen success for each of these management options:

• You can hire a full-time Community Manager role
• You can hire a part-time Community Manager role
• You can make community management a tag-team effort with your existing team
• You can recruit volunteers to manage your community
• You can build a board committee that oversees community management

One of the biggest things Don discusses about creating a successful online community is making sure everything members need/want is in the community. Rather than sending out emails or a zoom link to an event – put your information in the online community.

2. Group management and engagement

Clear segmentation is needed to allow your members to have the best experience in the online community. Having various discussion boards in your community for specific interests will give members a personalized experience, encouraging engagement in the community. The same goes for audience-specific groups, such as individuals who volunteer, attend events and new members.

The best part of having this segmentation is that members can opt into specific groups that meet their interests at any time, allowing everyone’s preferences to align with their experience in the online community.

This group management and segmentation is also helpful for staff members. They can use member data to get to know their members based on their behaviors in the community. Seeing this data allows organizations to communicate with the right individuals at the right time, increasing member engagement and building deeper, more personal relationships.

3. Additional revenue opportunities

When utilizing a member-exclusive online community, there are many ways an association can build additional revenue. You can provide member-only learning opportunities such as webinars, educational sessions, and certification programs by promoting them in the community. This is also a good place to give members easy access to merchandise or store links, you can offer special discounts and sales to those in the online community.

It’s also a great space to promote any branded items you’re selling and any events you’re hosting. Including a special early-bird price for members that register in your online community is another way to encourage members to use the space and engage with your content.

4. Better communication and workflows

Online communities should always be member-centric, but did you know they have benefits for your internal team and boards, too?

You can use your online community as a centralized location for your document storage and access. Ashly shared some data from a case study about a Personify client using CommUnity. The National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) saved $1,600 per year after CommUnity platform replaced DropBox!

Leveraging your online community as a central place for everything is vital for getting the most out of the software. Use it for storing:

• Meeting minutes
• Working documents
• Annual reports
• Content to share with members
• Anything else your association may create

The best part is that you can restrict access to certain staff members using the group management feature.

For your marketing team, an online community provides benefits as well. Instead of using a typical email to communicate with members, you can post the same content in your community discussion board. This space encourages more interaction and engagement with members, giving you a better idea of interest and engagement than tracking email opens and clicks.

5. Increasing member loyalty

Members join associations for their mission and they will stay loyal due to the connections they make and the value offered to them. An online community is an interactive and live space for members to grow loyalty to your organization. This can happen because they:

• Get up-to-date announcements on new events
• Can build connections with other members
• See others engaging (and enjoying) their membership in your organization

 It’s hard to walk away from an organization that clearly cares about its members so much.

Member-driven content is also something we’ve seen contribute to membership retention. When members can interact with each other and build connections with those who have the same interests and values as them, it strengthens your community from the inside. When you see your members producing a lot of content and interacting with each other’s creations… that’s when you know your online community is doing what it should.

Your need-to-have online community

While many are viewing online communities as essential to their organization, it’s important to make sure it aligns with member needs and behaviors. The driving factor in building your online community should be that your members need it, want it and see it as enhancing their experience in your organization.

And try not to stress about how to manage your online community. There are many options ranging from hiring a dedicated community manager to having a volunteer team. For a deeper dive into how you can do more with less, check out “No Community Manager? No Problem.”

An online community can be a huge benefit for your organization. To watch the full conversation between Ashly Stewart, Marketing Manager from Personify and Don Knox, Executive Chair for Civica Associations Conferences and Exhibitions click the link below!

The post Webinar Recap: The Online Community Advantage appeared first on Personify.

For your association or nonprofit, anticipating and fulfilling your member’s needs is a high priority to retain members and boost new member registration. So, the question is – does having an online community contribute to your member needs?  What are the benefits of online communities?

Well, when you look at the data, members of associations and nonprofits want to be involved in online communities. In a recent webinar, we talked about how association professionals saw their website’s “members-only” section grow to 56%, up from 44% the previous year. We also saw that 76% of internet users participated in an online community in 2020 and 44% said it was more important to have an online community in 2020, according to The Journey Ahead: The Future of Associations, Nonprofits and Events.  

Between these findings and the increase in emerging data about members utilizing online communities, it seems to me that an online community should be a need-to-have when considering your budget for 2023. But other than showing your board and staff the numbers, how can you convince them to take the leap?  

We advise keeping these benefits top-of-mind when building a case for your online community to your board and creating an online community your members love to use.

1. Members want online communities  

As we’ve already seen from the 2021 Membership Marketing Benchmark Report, sections of your website that are dedicated to members only are increasing in popularity and usage. This report also notes that 71% of associations experienced an increased level of engagement by their members. A recent survey of nearly 1,000 association members and staff came to similar conclusions. Clearly, members are wanting to engage with their associations and believe it is vital for associations to have a community for their members to network and connect. An online community provides better learning opportunities, more connections, and better communication. If you don’t create this space for them, they’ll create it themselves. This makes it harder for your team to influence, and you lose valuable moments to connect and further the mission’s brand.  

2. Managing your online community is more flexible than ever 

This all sounds great, right? A space for your members that you know they want, they will utilize, and provides more value to their experience. But what kind of resources are needed for this community? The good news is managing online communities is more flexible than ever.  

Here are a few ways we’ve seen organizations manage their online spaces: 

Hiring a dedicated community manager  

• A community manager will take on all aspects of your online community. They will grant access to the community, help set up member profiles and answer member questions. They will also be responsible for providing new content from the association that is relevant for members and keep them informed about upcoming events.  
• This is also possible with a part-time community manager. If you have a smaller budget or a smaller pool of members, a part-time CM could be perfect for your online community.  

Utilize your current staff

• We’ve seen that a lot of marketing roles in associations align with the responsibilities of a community manager. By tag-teaming your current staff to help with all the aspects of an online community, you will be able to save your budget and create a stronger sense of unity between your current staff and members.
• We dive deeper into this idea in our guide “No Community Manager? No Problem?”  

Put together a small volunteer team or committee  

• A small group of individuals who love the idea of a collaborative space to network and connect with others will most likely love to help with your online community.  They can be your committee members to manage the community and handle administrative duties.  

The bottom line is that one of the biggest barriers to managing online communities is now gone as organizations of all sizes have proved that online communities can be successful with various management approaches.  

3. Online communities can be cost-effective and revenue-generating  

One of the most significant benefits of online communities that should be mentioned when pitching the idea to your board is the financial opportunities. Utilizing the discussion boards for non-dues revenue opportunities like learning courses and featured jobs is easy and effective. Members are already active on the discussion boards to connect with other members, promotions and updates about the association will be easily seen by your main audience.   

An online community is also a space where you can store all your documents and content for your association. This can save you money on storage applications like Dropbox. In fact, the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) saved over $1,600 a year after using an online community to store and share all their online documents. An extra plus to keeping all your documents in your online community is that you will have full control over who accesses them, keeping members-only and board-specific content secure.  

Ready to dive in?  

To hear more about the benefits and why online communities are becoming a “need-to-have” for associations and nonprofits, join industry experts, Don Knox, Executive Chair for Civica Associations Conferences and Exhibitions, and Ashly Stewart, Marketing Manager from Personify, for the webinar, “The Online Community Advantage” on 10/18 at 12:30 p.m. ET.  

The post 3 Benefits of Online Communities appeared first on Personify.

When the question arises of how to improve association marketing and what should we be doing for our members, the solution is actually easier than you think. Going back to the basics of marketing, you consider the 6 P’s: product, price, place, promotion, people, and presentation. When considering your members, the people should be your first priority – this is where online communities thrive. 

During our webinar, we dove deep into everything marketing can do for your association through an online community — a digital place for your members to connect with one another and easily engage with your content. Personify’s own Benjamin Morton, Product Marketing Manager and master marketer: Ashly Stewart, Marketing Manager analyzed all the data and helped answer the big question: Why combine marketing and online communities?

4 Highlights from “Association Marketing 101: Online Communities” 

1. Membership Engagement in the Digital World – The Stats

The webinar started by looking at how our attendees utilize marketing tools to engage and retain their current members. The highest percentages were for email, social media, and content marketing with email marketing coming in at 90% of attendees – no surprises there.  

Ashly and Benjamin also looked at some statistics from the 2021 Membership Marketing Benchmark Report, which showed drastic increases in participation in webinars from the previous year – 83% from 53%.  They also noted the increases in member engagement in professional development meetings and visits to members-only sections of association’s websites. The takeaway from these numbers? People want to engage with members- only content and participate in some sort of online community. 

Some other numbers to note were that 76% of internet users participated in an online community in 2020 and 44% said it was more important to have an online community in 2020, from The Journey Ahead: The Future of Associations, Nonprofits and Events.  

2. Marketing + Online Community = Dream Team 

Marketing plus an online community really is the dream team for an association. It provides the benefits of a social media platform with the security you need for your members. This is a safe place for your members to engage with your content, whether it be blogs, newsletters, or webinars, and you have the control. You manage how, when, where, and why your members see your content, and ONLY your members see your content. There’s not nearly as much of a concern of hacking, like with a standard social media platform like Facebook.

This also allows for deeper insights and member feedback. With email marketing you can only see so much with open rates – an online community allows you to see WHY someone is engaging with you​ and your content. Online communities can be more measurable. Your members are in your online community with the intention to engage with your association and its content. This allows for an easy way to get direct feedback and further build that relationship with your members. Online community also allows you to test and communicate at a lower cost that some other methods. There’s no charges for posting in your community! 

3. Member Retention and Engagement in the Marketing Funnel 

Ashly and Benjamin then walked us through how associations can utilize an online community to bring members through a marketing funnel. Below are the ways that they have seen online communities help engage new members from the time they sign-up to join the community to the point that they’re contributing to the online community and telling other people about it.

Acquisition and Awareness: What avenues you can use to let people know your online community exists & all the member-exclusive benefits that come with it​. 

Consideration: What to do to inform members of how it works & highlight your top features. 

Conversion: How you can make sign-up easy and the onboarding process powerful​ for members. 

Loyalty: Creating superusers, content generators and advocates​. 

4. What Makes a Successful Online Community 

To wrap up the webinar there were some important things to make note of. Your online community shouldn’t be a “set it and forget it” effort. If you aren’t spending time in your community and with your members, you won’t see as much return. If your current online community is falling stagnant, you can absolutely relaunch it and see it thrive again – so don’t give up! 

Managing your online community is easier than you think, and you don’t have to have a dedicated community manager to see success. We have a series on this exact topic “No Community Manager? No Problem.” We’ve seen that a marketing or membership role you may already have in your association fits very well with management of the online community. But there are also options if you have a smaller staff, such as having a volunteer team to help run the community. 

A thriving online community will see engagement from your team as well as your members. Once your members start contributing their ideas and collaborating with other members, you’ll see a level of engagement you haven’t seen before. Members will even create their own content and start their own conversations! 

Looking for More from the Conversation?

To watch these highlights and to dive even deeper into how associations can utilize an online community for marketing efforts, watch the full webinar today.  

And if you have any questions about online communities or how to get your members to engage with you and your content. We’d be happy to chat with you.   

The post Webinar Recap: Association Marketing 101: Online Communities appeared first on Personify.

Did you know that a whopping 76% of internet users participate in an online community? And if that wasn’t impressive enough, the number of internet users turning to online communities for connection and information has increased over the last couple of years. We have a feeling a global pandemic and mass social distancing has something to do with that.  

But the truth is online communities have been popular since the beginning of the internet (I know, we’re dating ourselves) as the earliest AOL chatrooms and online forums allowed people to find a space of belonging, comfort and reliable information for anything they could possibly want. The author of this blog post may or may not have been a regular contributor to an X-Files spoiler chatroom back in the day. 

Associations and nonprofits were some of the earliest adopters of online communities since a big member benefit to joining a mission was a connection with other like-minded people passionate about a common cause, and they turned to virtual communities like chatrooms, then FB groups, and now, dedicated online spaces, to meet new people and get the most up-to-date resources.  

So how do you delight new members who join your association through the magic of an online community? We have some of the top ways to make a lasting impression on your new members with your association’s online space.  

4 steps to delighting your members using your online community 

Step 1: Make sure new members can easily find and join your online space. 

One of the best ways to guide new members to all the great discussion boards, hottest learning and career opportunities and new connections is in a welcome email! In this email, you can include a link to your online community and clearly outline the member benefits that come with your online space.  

Best practices would say to make sign-up easy for your online community, and thankfully, the best online community platforms offer a single sign-on (SSO) option that allows new members to gain access to the online community as they sign into their member portals.  

Having SSO is a huge draw for new members, and it’s something to highlight in things like onboarding videos! Which leads to our next step.  

Step 2: Create onboarding videos or infographics that offer a tour of your online community 

It’s no wonder that associations are turning more and more to video marketing since 78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online videos every day.  

Associations like the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) have turned to videos to both promote their online communities and provide a brief, but fun training video that walks new members through how to make the most of their time in their online space.  

If you don’t have the resources for a videographer, you can create an infographic that is also effective at offering quick, eye-catching instructions on how to sign on to and use your online community.  

Read more! See how NANP exceeded their new member sign-ups goals through online promotions and onboarding videos in the “No Community Manager? No Problem” guide. 

Step 3: Make a splash about new members in your online community 

In addition to a welcome email, adding a “welcome online community post” to your new member checklist will go a long way in making new online community users feel like they’re in just the right place.  

We recommend waiting until the end of the day to post a welcome message that lists all the new sign-ups for the day, tagging them in the post, then inviting them to introduce themselves to the group. You could also welcome new members to the online community at the end of every week, but we’ve found that, if you have the time and resources, welcoming on the same day of sign-up can make a big impact.  

You could also start a Discussion Board for new members based on the month of their sign-up (September 2022 New Member Thread) that encourages them to make even deeper connections with their cohorts. This is a great way to direct new members to the discussion boards where they can start exploring and participating in other groups.  

Step 4: Encourage (even incentivize) new members to complete their profiles  

We’ve seen that members tend to stick around the online community and are more likely to become superusers the sooner they complete their member profiles. The trick with member profiles is to find that balance between offering enough information that encourages other members to reach out to connect with like-minded people, but not requiring so much information that it discourages people from completing their profiles.  

Form fields for information like name, contact information (email and social profiles) and job title are commonly seen, but it’s nice to give them a space for interests/hobbies, their company name and, of course, the ability to add a profile picture! 

Ask your members what information is important to them and what they like to know about other members before connecting to help guide what fields should be present in member profiles.  

You can even incentivize new online community users to complete their profiles by offering a discount of your choice to your next event by using a discount code for members who publish a complete profile and/or post on the Newsfeed main page.  

Whichever is easiest for you to track and reward. 

Learn more about engaging & retaining members using an online community 

If you want more tips for engaging members, keeping them coming back for more and building member loyalty with the help of an online community, join us on 9/22 at 12:30 ET for our virtual course, “Association Marketing 101: Online Communities.” We hope to see you there! 

The post Delighting New Members with an Online Community  appeared first on Personify.

In our recent webinar, “No Community Manager? No Problem,” we talked a lot about how associations like the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) manage and grow their online community through a tag-team effort with their teams. 

One of the biggest takeaways from the webinar was how important was to create online community guidelines, especially when you don’t have a dedicated Community Manager whose sole responsibility is to manage your community.

Creating guidelines for your community may feel like a daunting task, but we’ve put together a few tips that will make community management more manageable for your team and ensure a protected, welcoming space for your members. 

1. Connect Online Community Guidelines to Your Mission 

When you made the decision to move forward with an online community, you set out to create a dedicated space for your members to connect with one another and collaborate in ways that help you achieve your organization’s mission. So, I encourage you to connect the guidelines that you develop with your larger mission to reinforce your goals and purpose. 

Here’s an example of how you can do this: 

Welcome to [community name]. We are pleased to offer a dedicated space for you to [insert goals of the community]. Our mission is to [insert mission] and we are committed to hosting a space where our actions align with our vision and purpose. We developed the following community guidelines to provide guidance on how to engage with other users in the community and what you should expect from others. 

2. Compile a List of Rules and Do’s and Don’ts 

Once you’ve connected the dots on why your community exists and how the guidelines inform users on how to interact with one another, compile a list of rules and do’s and don’ts for your users.  

Your online community guidelines should create clarity, specificity and detail how to engage with other users and admins in the community.  

This is not an exhaustive list of what to include, but we recommend that you specify rules around: 

• Spam or self-promotion 
• Hate speech, harassment, bullying, discrimination or other targeted attacks 
• Privacy and sharing of personal information, which is sometimes referred to as doxing 
• Illegal activity 
• Intellectual property protection 
• Unauthorized use of content  

Also, be sure to include links to your organization’s terms of service and/or privacy policy and details on how to get in touch with the admins or moderators to report violations and share ideas and feedback. 

3. Be Mindful of Your Voice and Tone 

Your online community guidelines serve as a guide for how folks should interact with one another, but they also help set the tone for the overall community. I recommend that you approach this process by emphasizing kindness and respect for users. Your guidelines should help create a sense of inclusion and belonging in your community, and a tolerance for differing points of view. 

This approach will not only set the rules, but can also create a community that values respect, transparency and open lines of communication. And remind users that the community is set up to provide value, enjoyment and support for those who are involved. 

If you want to see how we can evolve some of our common phrases to be more inclusive and set a tone of acceptance using your online community guidelines, check our recent Community Lab session, “How to Build an Inclusive Culture in Your Community.” 

4. Specify How Users Can Report Violations 

It’s important to share how a user can report any violations of the guidelines that you have outlined on your platform. Should they notify an admin? Is there a link or email address where they can share concerns? And how quickly can they expect a response back? 

The American Diabetes Association Support Community, a Personify customer, has a good example of how to do this on their community guidelines page:  

We’re Here to Help 

The moderation team works diligently to maintain this Support Community for advice and story-sharing, and we seek your assistance in helping us. You may report any post or item you deem as inappropriate by clicking the “Report as Objectionable?” link on the bottom-right corner of a post. The moderators will review each complaint and follow up as needed. For additional help with the Support Community, please email community@diabetes.org or reach out to any of our community administrators or moderators. 

5. Share How You’ll Enforce Online Community Guidelines 

Nicole Hodson, Executive Director of NANP, stressed how important it is to not simply create community guidelines. You must also execute them in a way that upholds your mission and values, even if that means limiting access to a member who has violated your community guidelines and contributed to harm or injury to other members.

Once you have created a set of guidelines to follow, make sure to back those up rules with action and meet with your admins or moderators to discuss the process and timelines for taking action.  

The enforcement policies can include things like: 

• What is the penalty for violations? Are there different penalties for users who violate the guidelines multiple times? 
• How many violations will result in a suspension or ban from the community? 
• Will you remove posts that go against your online community guidelines or add a comment to those posts? 
• When a community manager becomes aware of a violation, will he or she comment publicly or send a private message to the user? 
• Is there a review or approval process where admins review posts or comments for specific topics before they are live on the site? 

Here’s a good example: The Canadian Cancer Society has an online community called Cancer Connection that is powered by Personify Community. On their guidelines page, the team shares their approach to moderation: 

How we moderate  

All posts to the community show up right away. We do not screen community activity before it goes live. This is called reactive moderation, which means Moderators monitor posts and also rely on our members to tell us about any inappropriate content. Throughout the website you’ll see Report buttons that alert us to that content. Moderating in this way means that we can keep the community running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so that support is available when you need it. 

6. Revisit Your Guidelines Regularly 

Your online community guidelines should be an evolving set of rules that considers any issues or questions that arise, new ways of thinking, perspectives and more. And, as your community members evolve their thinking on particular topics or actions, you can change guidelines to better fit the needs of your community. The guidelines are intended to inform and serve your users in the community so it’s worth regularly revisiting these policies to ensure that’s still the case. 

If you’re interested in hearing more from community experts who manage communities for associations and nonprofits, watch our recent on-demand webinar. 

Watch the Session

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Last week, Personify hosted our first Community Lab event! It was a great day filled with inspiring sessions led by thought leaders, experts and super users of online communities built for association members, and the discussion forums were filled with insightful questions and ideas from the “community curious” to the veteran community builder.  

In short, Community Lab was filled with a lot of learning and a lot of fun. We call that a success! If you couldn’t join us, we’ve rounded up some of the top sessions and ah-ha moments we heard that attendees really enjoyed.  

Top moments and discoveries from Community Lab 

The opening keynote revealed the biggest opportunity for online communities for associations 

Even though “online community” has become a buzzword across several industries in the past couple of years, our opening keynote panel reminded us that, for associations, online communities aren’t new. In fact, associations were some of the first to offer online communities because associations were born out of the desire for people to be a part of a community.  

All panelists agreed that, whether in-person or virtual, you can’t separate associations from community.  

With that perspective in mind, Marjorie Anderson believes that the real opportunity for an association’s online community isn’t as a destination, but as an integral part of a member’s journey with the association. 

“There’s an expectation that if I’m part of the community, how do you then help support the rest of my [member] journey? So if I am a seasoned volunteer within your organization, and I’m part of your community, how can I give back? Maybe I want to be able to share my knowledge — how do I do that is easy for me to do that? If I’m new, is it easy for me to come in and ask a question or connect to the people that I need to connect with? It’s no longer about Community just as a destination.” 

Benjamin and Erin also provided perspective on how living through the pandemic drove people to online communities, not simply to make connections online, but for more learning opportunities through virtual events and online courses.  

Building an inclusive culture sparked the most comments we saw in our sessions.

It was amazing seeing all the chatter in each of our sessions, and our session titled, “How to Build an Inclusive Culture in Your Online Community,” inspired so many thought-provoking and supportive comments.  

What made this session unique is that it focused on how to use inclusive language to ensure all your members feel welcomed, safe and accepted when they enter your online space, so we received comments and questions like,  

“Wow, that is a really cool description of “executive dysfunction.” I haven’t heard it described that way.” 

“In considering the goal of removing binary language from the gender sphere, I wonder what options might be considered to update the terms ‘bisexual’ and ‘biromantic’?” 

“Great session, very informative.” 

Watch the session: How to Build an Inclusive Culture in Your Online Community 

Gaining member feedback was a hot topic.

Something nearly all our sessions touched on was how essential it is to avoid building or refreshing your online community for the wrong reasons. Don’t get us wrong, everyone has the best of intentions — we all want to offer an online space our members will love to use.  

But sometimes it’s easy to assume we know what our members will enjoy using in our online communities or see an online community as a fix to some internal challenges like stunted membership growth or inconsistent communication.  

And judging by some of the online community success stories that came out of Community Lab, you absolutely can increase membership growth and improve member communication using your online community…but it all depends on what your members need and ask for when it comes to their dedicated online space.  

Our discussion forums were filled with attendees exchanging insights they’ve received from members and requests for survey questions people have used to gauge their members’ community wants and needs. 

Watch the success story: Amplify Your Impact — Using your online community to increase fundraising efforts 

People are still wondering about events. 

Events have been a hot topic since the world first declared an official pandemic a couple of years ago and upended the way associations connect with members, offer learning opportunities, generate revenue and more.  

As pandemic restrictions are easing in some areas of the U.S., the chatter in our sessions and discussion forums reveals that association professionals are still asking questions about hosting safe in-person events and working through the logistics of hybrid events, but the conversations seem more hopeful.  

Attendees’ comments prove that in-person events are back, but they’re also committed to using tools and strategies like an online community to drive registrations, share pre-and post-event invites and on-demand sessions and continue the buzz of events in ways that went untapped before the pandemic.  

Watch the session: Leveraging Online Communities for your Hybrid and In-Person Events 

See how an online community platform can serve your members. 

Whether or not you attended Community Lab, we hope you enjoy watching our on-demand sessions, and if you want to see how CommUnity can help your membership and association grow together in action, reach out to us today! 

And check out more of our on-demand sessions by visiting our Resource Center.

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As we prepare for our special edition of Personify’s Mission: Possible webinar series called, “Why Conscious Inclusion Matters,” we discovered that more and more people are asking for more inclusive practices, products and experiences, and organizations are investing in ways to provide inclusive environments for their employees, members and partners.  

How do we know this? Well, the numbers speak for themselves.  

But, first, what is “conscious inclusion?” 

While “conscious inclusion” can be a difficult thing to define, we think this explanation of “inclusion” by Bonusly is a good place to start, and even though it refers to how inclusion is defined by employees, we think it applies to anyone, including your members: 

“Point blank, inclusion is the degree to which employees feel “valued, respected, accepted and encouraged to fully participate in the organization.” 

With that definition in mind, “conscious inclusion” would be the intentional culture, strategies and practices an organization puts in place to ensure all its employees, members and partners feel safe, welcome and accepted.  

So why does conscious inclusion matter? Here are a few stats that begin to show the importance of inclusion to our society, our teams and our associations.  

Reasons why conscious inclusion matters to the general (and future!) populations 

1. By 2020, the Caucasian population is expected to drop to 63% of the total U.S. population. 

2. Projected growth from Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial groups will turn traditionally underrepresented populations into majority groups by 2044. 

3. By 2065, the U.S. will not have any single ethnic or racial majorities. 

4. 48% of Generation Z are racial or ethnic minorities. 

Sources: Fundera, builtin 

Reasons why conscious inclusion matters to your association staff 

5. Cognitive diversity can enhance team innovation by up to 20%. 

6. 61% of employees believe diversity and inclusion strategies are beneficial and essential. 

7. 67% of job seekers consider workplace diversity an important factor when considering employment opportunities. 

Source: Quantum Workplace 

Reasons why conscious inclusion matters to your association growth 

8. Companies that have seen growth over the past year are 72% more likely to have high levels of diversity than companies who didn’t see growth. 

9. Diverse organizations were 22% more likely to offer D&I training to their employees. 

10. Companies with ethnic diversity on the executive level were 33% more likely to experience above-average profitability. 

Source: Society for Diversity 

Keep the conversation going  

Understanding these statistics is just the beginning of an important conversation around why conscious inclusion is so pivotal to a successful organization and how leaders can take positive steps on their journey to building truly safe and welcoming communities where everyone is encouraged to make a difference.  

Watch the webinar and be a part of this important conversation!

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