Article Meetings / Events 2 min read
Use Your Annual Meeting to Recruit New Members
Grow your membership at your annual meeting. Also: Why you shouldn’t be giving away all of your content on platforms you don't own.
Heads up: this content is over 5 years old, so some information may be out of date.
Your association’s annual meeting is likely your biggest event of the year, but are you leveraging it to recruit new members?
Terry Ibele at Wild Apricot reports on one association that was able to quadruple its membership (opens in a new tab) numbers within five years thanks to several smart recruitment tactics at its annual meetings.
The Collegiate Information and Visitor Services Association (CIVSA) gains hundreds of members at its conferences each year by taking an “all hands on deck” approach. All board members are tasked with promoting the annual meeting through cold-calling, social media posting, and even handing out flyers to reach potential new members.
CIVSA also changes the location of its events each year to reach more people in different regions.
Check out Ibele’s post (opens in a new tab) for recruitment keys to success.
Keep Your Content
Friends don’t let friends give away their content on 3rd-party platforms #sm (opens in a new tab) #eventprofs (opens in a new tab) #assnchat (opens in a new tab) https://t.co/umMT9EEYc0 (opens in a new tab) via @ASegar (opens in a new tab)
— Executive Oasis International – Team Building (@executiveoasis) January 13, 2017 (opens in a new tab)
Adrian Segar presents a strong argument (opens in a new tab) for why publishers should keep total control over their content. Segar points to a few shifts in recent content-distribution platforms that may be causing publishers to reach fewer people in favor of “pay-to-play” models.
“Posting your original content exclusively on someone else’s platform puts you at their mercy. Don’t do it!” he says.
So, what should publishers do instead? Segar provides a few pointers on how to invest in your own website and content to build an audience.
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