how to make your association's private online community your most valuable member benefit

HOW TO MAKE YOUR ONLINE COMMUNITY

YOUR MOST VALUABLE MEMBER BENEFIT

Housekeeping Tech Check

Ask Questions in the Q&A Panel

We ARE Recording!

Twitter Hashtag: #MemBenefit

Who’s Who

Today’s Presenters

Peggy Hoffman

@PeggyHoffman www.marinermanagement.com/idea-center

Josh Paul

@SociousSuccess blog.socious.com

Today’s Discussion 1. Membership as a Product

2. What Makes a Great Member Benefit?

3. Steps to Make Your Member Community a

Benefit of Membership

Finding Member Value

Treat Membership

Like A

Product

MGMA

As

so

cia

tio

n M

em

be

rsh

ip

The Anatomy of

Membership as a

Product

List of Products

and Services

A Greater Good

Contribution

Attributes of a

Strong Member

Benefit

Exclusive

Exclusive

Accessible

Richard Croft [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Simple to Grasp

Delivers Delivers

Supported

Supported

TRADITIONAL VIRTUAL SWEET

SPOT + =

Steps to Make Your Online

Member Community Your Most

Valuable Member Benefit 5

Four P’s + One

1. Product

2. Price

3. Promotion

4. Place ?

Four P’s + One

1. Product

2. Price

3. Promotion

4. Place

Give a

Compelling

Reason

Why

Identifying Problems

1. Interviews

2. Confirmatory Surveys

3. Prioritization

Consistent Content

Become a

Content

Factory

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalinagoenglish/

Online Community

Content Ideas

• Blog posts

• Webinars

• Guides

• eBooks

• White papers

• Podcasts

• Video

• Surveys/polls

• Email courses

• Curated content

Online Community Content Plan

Image: By Donovan Govan. [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)

Position Centrally

The Member

Engagement Difference

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%

Member Participation

Using the 5 Steps

Average Association Usinga Private Social Network

45.0%

8.7%*

* Source: Marketing General

Keep Members

Engaged

Does your online community keep

members or customers engaged?

Is your online community perceived as a benefit of being a member or customer?

© Socious 2011

Characteristics of a

Valuable Member

Community

Members Get Value From:

• A Single Place

Exclusive

Accessible

Simple to Grasp

Delivers

Supported

Members Get Value From:

• A Single Place

• Other Members Exclusive

Accessible

Simple to Grasp

Delivers

Supported

Members Get Value From:

• A Single Place

• Other Members

• Helpful

Information

Exclusive

Accessible

Simple to Grasp

Delivers

Supported

Members Get Value From:

• A Single Place

• Other Members

• Helpful

Information

• Easy to

Participate In

Exclusive

Accessible

Simple to Grasp

Delivers

Supported

Members Get Value From:

• A Single Place

• Other Members

• Helpful

Information

• Easy to

Participate In

• Important to the

Organization

Exclusive

Accessible

Simple to Grasp

Delivers

Supported

Members Get Value From:

• A Single Place

• Other Members

• Helpful

Information

• Easy to

Participate In

• Important to the

Organization

Exclusive

Accessible

Simple to Grasp

Delivers

Supported

Questions?

More Information

on Planning Online

Communities for

Associations http://info.socious.com/association-management-resources/