4 Simple Steps to Help Your Association Tackle Twitter and Increase Member Engagement

4 Simple Steps to Help Your Association Tackle Twitter & Increase Member Engagement

4 Simple Steps to Help Your Association Tackle Twitter and Increase Member Engagement © WebLink International

Session Agenda

• Maximize your presence

• Strategy & Plan

• Take Action

• Measure & Adjust


About Me

• Curt Moss, Senior Product Marketing Manager @ WebLink

• 12 years at member-based orgs – Las Vegas Chamber of

Commerce – Chapter of National Safety

Council • 7 years @ WebLink

– Faculty for W.A.C.E. – Present at association and

chamber conferences

linkedin.com/in/curtmoss @curtmoss

linkedin.com/company/weblink-international @WebLink

http://www.linkedin.com/in/curtmoss


http://www.twitter.com/curtmoss

http://www.linkedin.com/company/weblink-international




http://www.twitter.com/weblink


About WebLink

• SaaS Company (Software as a Service), Leading Software Provider to Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations

• Established in 1996, 60 Employees, based in Indianapolis, IN

• 94% Customer Retention Rate

• Based in Indianapolis, Indiana

• 94% Customer Retention Rate


About WebLink

• Association Management Software

• Website Design & Development

• Non-Dues Revenue Programs

• Partner in Your Success

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/associations/association-management-software.aspx

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/associations/association-management-software.aspx

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/associations/websites.aspx

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/associations/websites.aspx

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/products/weblink-advertising-program.aspx

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/products/weblink-advertising-program.aspx

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/company

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/


WebLink Websites

• Responsive website design

• Automatically adjusts for any screen

• Fully integrated database & website


About WebLink

• iPad app for mobile commerce

• Integrated credit card reader

• New member sales

• Event registrations

• Pay open invoices


WebLink Blog


Why bother using Twitter?

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” - Will Rogers

Fish where the fish are.


Twitter Stats Total number of active registered Twitter users 650,000,000+

Number of new Twitter users signing up every day 135,000

Average number of tweets per day 500,000,000+

Number of Twitter search engine queries every day 2,100,000,000

Number of active Twitter users every month 241,000,000

Percent of active Twitter users on mobile 76 %

Number of tweets that happen every second 5,800

Sources: Statistics Brain, Twitter, Huffington Post, eMarketer


Twitter = Big Deal


How Can Twitter Benefit Your Organization?


Extend Your Reach


Improve Your Value


Increase Member Engagement


Grow Your Membership

4 Simple Steps to Help Your Association Tackle Twitter and Increase Member Engagement


Maximize Your Presence


• Profile image • Header image • Bio • Location • Website/Facebook • Design • Account settings


Examples


Strategy & Plan


What is your strategy for...

• Newsletter

• Events

• Email

• Website

• Blog

• Mailers


Relevant & Useful Information...

• Business issues

• Government advocacy efforts

• Organizational programs

• Benefits

• Events

• Educational or community topics

Use Twitter for the same things! (and more)


Establish Your Purpose (Goals)

• Retention • New member sales • Generate website traffic • Event attendance • Connect businesses • Highlight government

affairs items • Industry/community

awareness


Define An Audience

• Members • Prospective members • Geographic area • Industry experts • Interested others • Follow them!


Build Your Network

• Find your audience • Follow them • Post valuable content • Share others’ content • Connect and engage • Inspire ideas &

responses • “Listen”


https://twitter.com/search-advanced


Create a campaign strategy

• Create editorial calendar for posts (Plan!) – Date, topic, link, author,

target audience

• Add link/icon/widget on your website to Twitter page

• Email signature • Reward users for

following you or sharing your posts


Sample Twitter Calendar Date Type of

post Topic Text Link/Media? Goal

4/15/2014 Promotion Annual Dinner

Early bird registration ends tomorrow for the annual dinner.

Registration page for event

Event attendance

4/16/2014 Answer Benefits Looking for ways to save money for your biz? Check out our exclusive member discounts.

Benefits page Member sales

4/17/2014 Question Business Needs?

Take our 1 minute poll: What’s the biggest challenge facing your business?

Poll page on website

Retention

4/17/2014 Inside Look New office space

Get a sneak peak at our new office digs!

Photos of new office

Awareness, engagement


Content for Tweets

• Events – 3-5, spaced out before event (maybe more)

• Photos during/after event • Blog posts – 1

immediately, 1 a week or two later

• “Breaking” news about industry or community

• Legislative issues – 1-3 before votes, 1 after (maybe more)

• News articles on your site or about your org

• New members • Articles about members • New staff


It doesn’t have to be all yours!

• Valuable industry or community information – Local news outlet – National or local

association – Industry experts

• Replies to others • Retweets

• 80/20 rule – 1 post sharing your

content – 4 posts sharing others’

content, retweets, replies


Take Action


Create & Share Great Content

• Use content as question prompts

• Answers to common questions

• Blog posts • Events • Photos & videos • Industry/community

news • Research, case studies,

whitepapers


Create & Share Great Content

• Understand your audience

• Connect with them • Give them information

they want & need • Use emotion


Keep It Short(er)

• Tweets under 100 characters get 17% higher engagement (Buddy Media)

• Tweets with 120-130 characters have highest click through rate (Hubspot)

• Include enough info to get the point across


Keywords for Tweets

• How will people find you?

• Use words your audience would use

• Use geo terms – City – Region – State

• Avoid acronyms


Reply!

• When members or followers ask you questions, reply!

• Direct messages (DM) may be better sometimes

• Lets them know you’re paying attention

• Other users can see how much you engage your followers and other Twitter users


#Hashtags

• Way of “tagging” posts to be found later.

• search.twitter.com • Create them for events

and major initiatives

#too #many #hashtags #is #very #overwhelming #for #other #users

• Use others’ hashtags in your posts

• Don’t use more than two

http://search.twitter.com/


Creating & Sharing Great Content

• Informative – Expertise – Tips – Insight

• Different – Personality – Fresh Take – Surprises


“Use” your members

• Who has a big following on Twitter?

• Find ways to engage them to talk about you

• Their followers work for businesses, too!

• Reach the next level


Tell a story


11 Tweet Templates to heighten user engagement and interaction


1. The Question

• Use content as a question prompt

• Post a link, ask a related question

• “How do you feel about…”

• “How will this impact your business?”

• “What’s your experience with…”


2. The Answer

• “What’s the association’s position on [issue]?”

• When does the [industry] report come out?

• How often are certification classes offered?

• Include a link!


3. The Retweet

• The “email forward” of Twitter

• Allows your followers to see someone else’s content on your timeline

• You’re saying “this is valuable to you.”


4. The Promotion

• Contests • Giveaways • Special promotions for

events


5. The Inside Look

• Behind the scenes, sneak peeks

• Interesting internal content

• “Exclusive” in-house content/activities.

• Include photo & videos to increase engagement


5. The Inside Look


6. The How To

• Similar to answers, but more direct

• Instructions to get something done

• Implies “easy”


7. The Survey

• Share the results later • Thank members who

completed the survey (phone, email, letters)

• Ask your members’ & followers’ opinions

• Connect to benefits and value


8. The Statistician

• Use a number to attract attention

• “Top X Ways to …” • “90% of SMBs use X, do

you?” • Relate the stat to what

your audience values


9. The @reply

• Engages your audience • Lets them know that

you’re paying attention

• Resist the urge to “sell” • Have a conversation


10. The Mention

• “Tagging” another Twitter user

• They receive notice that you mentioned them

• Can increase their followers, drives engagement


11. The Listener

• @replies to someone you’re not following

• Search for a keyword • search.twitter.com • 3rd party applications

– Hootsuite – Tweetdeck

http://search.twitter.com


11. The Listener


Twitter Cards

• Additional information when someone shares your content

• Append to blog posts, news articles, event pages.

• Summary card • Summary card with

large image • Photo card • Gallery card • Player card

(video/audio) • Product card


https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards


When and how often to post

• 3-5 times per day • Create a calendar • Schedule some posts

• Tweet on weekends, too

• Experiment


When is the best time to Tweet?

• Engagement for brands is 17% higher on weekends

• Retweets have been shown to be highest around 5:00 pm.

• For click-throughs, the best times seem to be around noon and 6:00 pm

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belle-beth-cooper/a-scientific-guide-to-pos_b_4262571.html

Source: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-best-times-post_b49546

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belle-beth-cooper/a-scientific-guide-to-pos_b_4262571.html














http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-best-times-post_b49546










Source: http://www.bitrebels.com/social/best-time-to-post-on-twitter-facebook-infographic/

http://www.bitrebels.com/social/best-time-to-post-on-twitter-facebook-infographic/


















Which Tweets Get the Most Engagement? (Twitter study)

Retweet boost: • Photos – 35% • Videos – 28% • Quotes – 19% • Number/stat - 17% • Hashtag – 16%

Source: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2335489/twitter-study-which-tweets-get-the-most-engagement

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2335489/twitter-study-which-tweets-get-the-most-engagement


















How To Write The Perfect Tweet

• Amplify • Engage • Convert

• Is it interesting and

readable? • Is it interesting enough to

click? • Is it compelling and built to

be retweeted?

Source: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140319110058-1897408-how-to-write-the-perfect-tweet

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140319110058-1897408-how-to-write-the-perfect-tweet?goback=.nmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=object-title


















Management, listening & influencer tools

• Hootsuite • TweetDeck • Buffer • Radian 6/Salesforce • trackur • Klout

• Google “social media

monitoring software”

http://www.hootsuite.com/

http://www.tweetdeck.com/

http://bufferapp.com/

http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/social-media-listening/

http://www.trackur.com/

http://www.klout.com/

https://www.google.com/search?q=social+media+monitoring+software&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

https://www.google.com/search?q=social+media+monitoring+software&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


Mention

https://en.mention.net/


ManageFlitter

http://manageflitter.com/


Demographics Pro

https://www.demographicspro.com/


Twazzup

http://twazzup.com/


Measure & Adjust


Insight & Analytics

analytics.twitter.com

http://analytics.twitter.com/


Website Traffic


What were your goals?

• Retention • New member sales • Generate website traffic • Event attendance • Connect businesses • Highlight government

affairs items • Industry/community

awareness


Bonus Tip – For your members

Add members’ social media links on their listing on your website. Connect them with potential customers.


Use your AMS to store members’ profile data


Opening Remarks – DJ & Terry

Coming up: 3 Questions



WebLink Recap: An Integrated Solution

• ONE web-based centralized database

• Prospects, members, non-members and all reps in same system

• Financials, events, email, committees, website, reporting

Central DB

Financial System

Website

Email Marketing

Members

Events

Prospects



Association & Chamber Websites

• 500+ client websites • WebLink Local business

directory drives 67% increase in traffic from organic searches

• Adds value for members • Non-dues revenue • Responsive website design

– automatically looks great on all devices



WebLink Website Management System

• Very easy to add pages and edit content

• Drag and drop new content sections

• Quickly modify the navigation menu

• Easily add photos, videos, buttons, documents, blog posts and more

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/products/membership-website-solutions.aspx



3 Questions

Please answer these to receive a copy of the presentation.


Webinar Summary

• Great content • Right audience • Right time • Right channel • Ways to respond • Ways to share • Engage your audience • Stand out from the

crowd

http://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable--/dp/1591843170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286838408&sr=8-1


“Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into customers. Turn customers into salespeople.” - Seth Godin

http://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable--/dp/1591843170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286838408&sr=8-1

WebLink International 3905 Vincennes Road, Suite 210 Indianapolis, IN 46268 P 317-872-3909 | 1-877-231-4970 | F 317-872-3929 weblinkinternational.com | weblinkblog.com

Curt Moss

Senior Product Marketing Manager [email protected]

http://www.weblinkinternational.com/

http://www.weblinkblog.com/


http://www.twitter.com/curtmoss

4 Simple Steps to Help Your Association Tackle Twitter and Increase Member Engagement

Technology

Transcript of 4 Simple Steps to Help Your Association Tackle Twitter and Increase Member Engagement