5 Reasons Why Your Association Needs to be Active on Social Media

By JOHN FOLEY – July 22, 2016

The importance of social media continues to grow. Just like many other businesses or personalities, your association needs to be active on social media. Check out these 5 reasons why:

1. Low Expenses, High Reward

If your advertising budget is low, then the best way to reach new and prospective members is through social media. The cost of social media (outside of paid advertisements) is relatively inexpensive; the only costs being the time and money you must pay someone to manage it. A study by Hootsuite concluded that organizations are drastically altering their marketing efforts towards social media. They also found marketing departments are now hiring based on social media ability. Effective use of social media allows you to lower your marketing costs, while increasing traffic to your website and ultimately growing membership rates.

2. Climb to the Top of Keyword Searches with Each Post You Make

As you become more active on social media, your website will rank higher in searches. By posting valuable content on social media and linking it to your website, you can help improve your search engine optimization. Search engines now factor in more than just how many times a keyword is in your content. Often websites are selected by not only their keywords, but their presence and activity on social media as well. In a list of SEO tips for 2015, Hitsearch said, “It’s not just about making a lot of keyword relevant “stuff”; it’s about producing something that is useful to the [member].” A strong social media base will help your association show up in front of competitors during a keyword search, which will bring more leads and potentially more members your way.

3. Legitimize Your Association with Content You Stand Behind

Every post your association makes on social media is a chance to reinforce your brand identity. Making your content available on multiple social media platforms makes you a more familiar and recognizable association for members. Also, having these different channels where your content is posted makes it easier for new members to become familiar with your goals and outlook. Posting relative content that reinforces what your association stands for will make your organization appear strong and knowledgeable.

4. People are Talking About Your Association, Join in the Conversation

One of the main benefits of social media is that it allows you to join in as well as start conversations. If someone posts something positive about your association, you can easily thank them, and show them benefits and events they may be interested in. On the other hand if a member posts something negative about your organization, social media allows you to apologize quickly and then take the next step to make things right. The speed of this interaction means any bad word of mouth can be dealt with before it can severely damage your association’s reputation.

5. Find out what Interests Your Members to Better Engage Them

As easy as it is for you to interact with a member, it is just as easy for existing and potential members to get involved and interact with your association. Through likes, favorites, retweets, and shares, members can engage with your organization and promote your content for you. This is an ideal situation for your association because if others share your posts it will help to humanize your organization. Studies conducted by Social Media Today show 80% of members on social networks prefer to connect themselves to organizations through Facebook. Social media allows you to easily measure what content is getting positive feedback. This can be done by looking at the number of likes or shares a social media post has generated. This makes it easier for you to post content which stimulates conversation between members and your association.