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

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

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

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
• 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”

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
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

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

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

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

Source: 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

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

Management, listening &
influencer tools
• Hootsuite
• TweetDeck
• Buffer
• Radian 6/Salesforce
• trackur
• Klout
• Google “social media
monitoring software”

Mention

ManageFlitter

Demographics Pro

Twazzup

Measure & Adjust

Insight & Analytics
analytics.twitter.com

Website Traffic

What were your goals?
• Retention
• Generate website traffic
• Event attendance
• Connect businesses
• Highlight government
affairs items
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

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

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

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
curt.moss@weblinkinternational.com

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

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (16)

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

Similar to 4 Simple Steps to Help Your Association Tackle Twitter and Increase Member Engagement (20)

More from WebLink International

More from WebLink International (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

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