The document discusses the challenges membership organizations face in engaging their members amidst changing demographics and technological advancements. It emphasizes the need for deeper, two-way communication strategies that leverage social media and owned community platforms to improve member relationships and retention. It concludes that successful engagement requires organizational changes and a shift in understanding the value of social media in enhancing member experiences.

1. JANUARY 2014
The biggest
challenges are
demographics and
talking to different
generations
How membership
organisations can
make themselves
fit for purpose
online
white paper
The majority of
our members are
in senior positions
and heading into
retirement, we need
to engage younger
members

2. Contents
1. Executive summary
2. Membership organisations –
the social audit
3. Member communications
and the engagement rating
4. Achieving rich engagement
with the members
5. Conclusion
6. About Deeson Member
Communications
We have to take
a step back with
social media. Look at
what we are trying to
achieve strategically
and decide what we
engage with

3. 1. Executive summary
Croissants, coffee and a breathtaking view were the
backdrop to our third knowledge share breakfast at the
Gherkin this month.
On 22 January, we gathered together high-profile
membership organisations and trade associations to take
part in a non-attributable conversation around membership
and online challenges.
Membership organisations strive to get close to their
members to demonstrate their value, so they can retain
existing members and attract new ones.
Do the plethora of free social media platforms offer an easy
and cost-effective way of doing this?
Getting close to a membership means building new and
meaningful relationships with them. But how effective is
social media in building these relationships?
Social media has raised everyone’s expectations about
online relationships – we all expect to be treated as
individuals and for our needs to be respected.
High street brands can do this in the context of one-off
purchases, so why not a membership organisation in
helping develop members’ professional careers over many
years?
In reality, membership associations are struggling to convert
conversations in social media spaces into truly deeper
relationships with their members.
Even if an organisation manages a closed group for its
members on a professional platform, such as LinkedIn, it’s
hard to consistently use these to add value, either from the
member’s point of view or the organisation’s.
The white paper contributors
Association of Colleges (AOC), British Medical Association
(BMA), College of Emergency Medicine (CEM), Engineering
Equipment & Materials Users’ Association (EEMUA),
Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), Society of
Radiographers (SOR).
Member
engagement is
not digital at the
moment

4. 2. Membership organisations –
the social audit
Platform popularity:
• All use Twitter, with some creating different
accounts to reach specific audiences
• Most use YouTube to host their videos, a third see
it as a communication channel in its own right
• Only one third makes significant use of LinkedIn
• Only one organisation uses Facebook
• Half have own communities online
We use
Twitter only as a
broadcasting tool
Twitter is used
for messaging, not
customer service

5. Owning the agenda
Most of these organisations use social media
primarily for messaging and brand management.
Less than half use these tools to support their
retention and acquisition needs or to foster
networking and debate. The deeper engagement is
occurring on the owned communities.
Why should it be so hard to make social media
activity pay for itself in a member organisation?
In most organisations it’s the marketing department
that owns the social media agenda, possibly
supported by an external digital agency. But should
this activity just sit within the marketing team?
Marketing is essentially there to communicate the
value of a product or service to customers and
social media provides a great route for innovative
campaigns and getting the message out to the
audience.
What the membership needs on social media is
a responsive service which involves the whole
membership organisation, with a focus on customer
service.
They need support from the policy, training, events,
communications and member services teams.
Case studies
The Institute of Leadership & Management has
a proactive LinkedIn group which is memberonly, a closed tutor group, and an open group for
prospecting.
For the Society of Radiographers, Twitter and
YouTube are the strongest platforms. YouTube links
to their major events, such as conferences and
protest marches.
The British Medical Association is reviewing its
internal processes and structure, having recently
launched its owned community. Within the
Communications Directorate a simple name change
now sees the news team sitting in the ‘member
engagement’ department alongside the social media
team, which also runs the BMA’s owned community.
We use
LinkedIn for
broadcasting
Our whole ethos
was towards
broadcast but now
that is changing
Twitter has
become the
main way of
campaigning

6. 3. Member communications and
the engagement rating
Trade associations and professional bodies have varied
audiences. These include members of the public attracted
by campaigns, curious students needing support and
qualified professionals in niche specialisms.
Effective engagement with these audiences needs a
clear understanding of their motivations. Questions need
considering to fully understand these audiences and profile
their needs.
Why would they want to be involved with a membership
organisation? How do these reasons match the
organisation’s current and future objectives?
Many organisations consider their engagement much
higher than it is in reality. We asked each organisation to
examine their overall audience engagement online and rate
their current external communication. They were also asked
to peg where they want communications to be in the next
three years.
We intend
to use polls,
surveys and
commenting to
solicit feedback
from our
members
The engagement scale
The four stages of engagement that were explored:
• Stage 1 – No engagement The organisation is purely
broadcasting – they don’t know who’s reading the
message and even if they are reading
• Stage 2 – One-way communication The organisation is
communicating to a first tier. These will be ‘gatekeepers’
for trade associations and member email lists for
professional bodies
• Stage 3 – Light two-way communication The
organisation uses social media to broadcast and respond
to members, prospects and other parties, such as the
media, key opinion leaders and the public. There is lowlevel interaction (comments, likes, subscribes, shares,
retweets, @mentions and posts) and only occasional
value is identified
• Stage 4 – Deep two-way communication The
organisation is proactively engaging with members,
prospects and other audiences. This is through its
own on-domain community, as well as social spaces.
A community manager is managing comments and
demonstrating value back to the organisation
The problem for us is
we reach a learned view
on a situation or policy
and a discussion in real
time might not represent
that informed view

7. Our membership is
so broad, we need to
use communities for
very specific groups,
such as groups of
learners
The engagement results for 2014
Our poll revealed that current external communications by
organisations is achieving a low level of engagement among
members:
• 50% are achieving one-way communication
• 50% are achieving shallow two-way communication
• None think they have achieved deep two-way
communication
Considering most professional member organisations
have yet to fully integrate online and social networking and
community into their businesses, this is not an unexpected
response.
The engagement projection for 2017
Move forward three years and these organisations want to
be at a different stage:
• 20% are looking to move from stage 2’s one-way
communication to stage 3’s light two-way communication
• 80% are looking to move to stage 4’s deep two-way
communication.
This ambition to jump ahead in engagement within three
years demonstrates the challenges ahead. Here were some
key points raised:
• Some websites are not fit for purpose from a user
experience, let alone becoming useful transactional hubs
for members to interact with membership organisations
and with other members
• Membership organisations need to think more strategically
and use technology to work towards their organisation’s
business goals
• Content needs to be more interesting, relevant and
shareable. In particular, all organisations recognised the
importance of developing their presence on video sharing
platforms
• Organisations are experimenting with new ways to ask for
membership feedback, such as polls and questions on
social media
• Member contributions to debate or website/magazine
content needs to have prominence and not be regarded
as second-rate
• Not all debate can be public and that’s where an owned
community is far more valuable than social media
platforms
There’s a case
for pushing out
and not expecting
a response

8. 4. Achieving rich engagement with the
members
Achieving deep two-way communications with members requires
initiatives for interaction, relationship-building and collaboration
with the multiple teams of officers and committees that make up a
membership organisation’s head office.
Such initiatives are far better handled on an ‘owned community’
platform than an external social media one. Such platforms allow
officers across the business to help make the organisation a vital
part of their members’ day-to-day working lives.
To stimulate discussion, the table below was used to illustrate the
main activities of any membership association, who is responsible
for them, and the ideal platform on which they can be developed.
Ideal platform
Owned
Your objectives
community
Activity
Department
Social
media
Reputation management with
public
Marketing
Y
Reputation
management
Public relations
PR, Marketing
Y
Brand awareness
Brand extension
Marketing
Y
Brand awareness
Real-time news for public
Press, comms
Y
Brand awareness
Thought leadership with public Comms
Y
[Y]
Brand awareness
Promotion of products
Marketing
Y
[Y]
Prospecting
Engagement with prospects
Business
development,
Sales
Y
[Y]
Prospecting
Peer-to-peer self-help and
discussion
Comms
[Y]
Y
Efficiency gains
Member self-help
Members
Y
Efficiency gains
Identity confirmation through
link with CRM
IT
Y
Efficiency gains
Product innovation
Business
development
Y
New business
opportunities
Reviews of products and
services
Events,
publications,
training etc
Y
New business
opportunities
Premium (paid) services
including tailored content
associated with suppliers
Business
development
Y
New business
opportunities
Real-time news for members
Press, comms
Y
Improved internal
communications
Thought-leadership with
members
Comms, policy,
governance
Y
Improved internal
communications
Knowledge exchange and
professional development
Policy, training
Y
Improved internal
communications
Y
Collaboration
between members &
officers
Y
Collaboration
between members &
officers
Member-to-member
networking
Committees, SIGs, local
groups etc
[Y]
[Y]
[Y]
Member services,
regional services

9. Case studies
The Institute of Leadership & Management has a one-sizefits-all membership offering, leaving it up to members to
find what they want. To address this a new communication
strategy will see the use of social to position the organisation
as the hub for member activity and networking, using the
organisation’s site as a conduit to social media platforms to
help segment the audience.
The College of Emergency Medicine is considering not having
a comms team as everyone thinks engagement is just a
comms’ team job – in other words encouraging silo working
and doing things that are not relevant. The College is thinking
of embedding communications within the whole organisation.
We need the right
tools and then interact
on the basic stuff before
moving into a much richer
engagement picture, which
will take a few years

10. Our experience is
there is not always the
time to communicate
very deep two-way
In some parts of the
organisation members
are seen as an
inconvenience
5. Conclusion
To move forward, we found that:
• Social media is just one tool in the membership engagement toolbox and it needs to work in conjunction with the
organisation’s overall strategy
• There needs to be a better appreciation from the top down about just how social media and an owned
community in particular, can further the objectives of the organisation
• Making the business case for investing in social media and owned communities includes delivering a coherent
communications strategy
• Relying on inertia to keep the membership fees flowing is not sustainable in a social media age that takes
networking and sharing as a given
• Internal siloed-working is not compatible with external deep two-way communication.
Points to consider:
• Social communication means moving beyond broadcast and allowing genuine two-way exchanges between
people at every level in the organisation
• A fragmented approach within the organisation to external communication will not ultimately satisfy the individual
member. Fragmentation is frustrating both for the officer and the member
• Social tools can address fragmentation. They not only allow management to communicate what they are
planning to do and why they are planning to do it; crucially they also invite the rest of the staff to explore,
together, how they understand these plans will be worked out across the organisation
• Social knowledge, the business-critical knowledge that resides in our brains and memories, requires social forms
of communication to surface it
Over the next few weeks, we will be writing a series of blogs to cover some of the points in the conclusion and
to suggest ways forward. Follow us on Twitter @DeesonMC for updates or keep an eye on our blog deeson-mc.
co.uk/blog

11. 6. About Deeson Member
Communications
Deeson Member Communications is an integrated
digital, communications and publishing agency for
member organisations.
We devise and deliver social media, websites,
publishing, content, marketing and strategy for our
clients. Our solutions engage, inform, retain and
attract members.
Clients include: College of Emergency Medicine,
Political Studies Association, Royal Meteorological
Society, Institute of Economic Affairs and Society
and the Society and College of Radiographers.
Join us at our Gherkin events
The Gherkin breakfast briefing is a quarterly event
to discuss the key issues facing membership
organisations.
The next event is in April 2014. To join the waiting
list, contact emilyt@deeson.co.uk.
These events are attended by senior
representatives, up to CEO level, from high profile
membership organisations and trade associations.
Places are available on a first-come, first-served
basis.
Contact
If anything in this white paper has resonated with
you and your organisation, our team would be
happy to help. Please contact:
Geoff White, Business Development Manager
geoffw@deeson.co.uk
Follow us
The web: deeson-mc.co.uk/blog
Twitter: @DeesonMC #DMCwhitepaper
LinkedIn (search for Deeson Group Ltd)
© COPYRIGHT DEESON GROUP LTD 2014