Building and keeping your membership takes hard work. If you find your chapter’s membership is steadily declining, the time to act is now.
Members will not simply join your chapter without there being value for them. So the question you need to answer is, “What do your members expect or want from their chapter membership?”
When managing a chapter, it’s easy to get lost in the process and fall trap to offering benefits and services that the board thinks would be good, rather than basing their plan on what their membership wants.
It is extremely important for chapters to keep a watchful eye and open ears on their membership. Your channels of communication and feedback are many, so leverage the opportunity to monitor member’s engagement through your website, chapter blog, social media, and traditional surveys to discover what members are saying. These platforms are in place to learn what your members want and need, creating an opportunity to develop a deeper relationship to drive membership into a growth position.
1. Listen to Your Members
Social listening is an extremely important skill because it provides the ability to act on insightful discussions from members and respond to the needs and wants of members in real-time.
Learn where your members are hanging out online, join, and listen in on the discussions. Members will discuss challenges, ask questions, and share professional development goals in addition to providing a source for their resolutions. The information is invaluable and provides direction to meet the needs of your members.
2. Ask Your Members
Conducting surveys and questionnaires with your audience is the most direct way of getting feedback on specific questions that will help you to refine your membership, content strategy, and a lot more.
If you are interested in taking a deep look into the thoughts of your members, do not rush the process of developing your questions. Scrub your list of questions multiple times and test out your questions to ensure you are getting an answer to the question you thought you asked.
3. Analyze Your Data
There are various channels of collecting data in place for you to take action. If you collect data, then you should be using that data to grow your membership.
Your website is a great place to start. Did you know that Google offers free analytical tools? This data will tell you where your audience is spending their time and traffic volume for your site’s various pages. Learning how to use the data can reveal topics and information of interest that members are most interested in learning.
The most popular social media channels, like Twitter, also provide data analytic tools. Click the three lines on Twitter beside the heart icon to view the number of impressions and total engagement for the tweet. It is a great opportunity to identify information your audience is interested in seeing.
4. Learn from Others
APA members can request assistance from the CHAMPS Referral Service. The mentors are APA members who volunteer to assist local area chapter leaders. The process identifies a mentor who has personal experience in the area you have questions.
Did your chapter re-affiliate this year? While preparing your membership list to submit to Chapter Relations, it is an excellent opportunity to compare your chapter’s membership to last year to determine if there has been growth or a decline within the membership then put a plan in action setting goals for growth in 2018.
It’s important to make the most use of the available APA Chapter Resources. It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening with the chapters.
