Your online community is a tremendously valuable resource for your association, but do your organization and prospective members know just how valuable?

A new site called Community by Association shares some helpful advice for reframing how you talk about your online community.

Online communities perform a laundry list of tasks, including facilitating connections between people and your organization, helping members to share knowledge, and providing you with insight on your members and their priorities to your organization.

But when talking about your community, emphasize that “it provides a warm handshake to the very cold transactional nature of giving your organization money in exchange for member benefits or a certification,” writes Marjorie Anderson. “This is what you should be expressing when people just aren’t sure what to make of why your community exists. Then back it up with data.”

Hashtags That Work

3 Nonprofit Hashtag Strategies That Actually Get Followers, Raise Money, and Spread Awareness https://t.co/2js5y1sfR3 via @WildApricot #Nonprofit

— Brett Cohrs (@BrettIns) June 1, 2018

Hashtags can help grow your followers, prompt donations, and get your social content in front of a lot of people—but only if they are deployed correctly.

One obvious way to use hashtags to grow your followers is to use popular industry-related hashtags, but you may be missing out on some that are right underneath your nose, suggests a new post from Wild Apricot.

To find relevant terms, go to the social platform you’re using and begin searching for terms like #foundation, #charity, or #nonprofit. Then “look at hashtags included in the most popular posts, or posts from other organizations you follow and join the conversation by including those tags in your own posts,” writes Terry Ibele.

Other Links of Note

Looking for more speaking gigs? Get Fully Funded provides a few tips.

Lifestyle publication Refinery29 created a popular event concept in New York City that is now expanding to other cities. BizBash spoke to its creative director to find out what they’re getting right.

Show appreciation. Here’s how to lend support and put volunteers front and center in your organization, from Engaging Volunteers.

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