Monday Buzz: Get Your Members to Take Ownership

Hopefully, your association can get many of its members to engage in baseline activities like opening email newsletters, taking a course, or attending annual meetings. But wouldn’t it be great if you could get your members to take their engagement activities to the next level and really take ownership of their membership?

“Before you can reel your members into more involvement, you need to understand their basic motivations,” writer Krissy Conant suggests in a recent post for the MemberClicks blog  (opens in a new tab). “The big question here is: What are their passion points as a member?” She suggests sending a survey to judge members’ true interests.

Once you have the results, think about developing small committees based on these interests and then segmenting your communications to these targeted interest groups. “Ultimately, you’re trying to see who would be the best fit to lead a potential mini-committee,” writes Conant.

Planning for Disruption

How can your association embrace disruptive technology? Check out these examples. https://t.co/8OYvWpZv7C  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab) pic.twitter.com/lnz6MwuM8w  (opens in a new tab)

— DelCor (@delcor) September 29, 2017  (opens in a new tab)

In the not-so-distant future, emerging technologies will disrupt many industries that associations represent. Just take a second to consider the severe impact self-driving cars will have on the trucking industry.

“With new waves of the IoT (internet of things), AI (artificial intelligence), and autonomous vehicles impacting culture and industry, associations should be thinking ahead—to establish a position of leadership and influence before disruptive technology takes hold,” says a recent DelCor blog post  (opens in a new tab).

How can your group prepare? DelCor spoke with Mark Dorsey, CEO of Construction Specifications Institute, about how associations can help their industries adapt to new technology.

Other Links of Note

A new platform launches for journalists. Gather is a supportive resource for engagement-minded journalists, reports NiemanLab  (opens in a new tab).

Are you prioritizing your association’s blog? VPAssociations shares the crucial reasons why you should  (opens in a new tab).

Lately, the news is buzzing about the spread of misinformation during the 2016 presidential campaign. In fact, The Hill reports that during the election Twitter users spread more junk news than actual news  (opens in a new tab).

(Yuri_Arcurs/DigitalVision/Getty Images Plus)