March 2016
Congress Session Reviews
17
Building a community
Steve Woolley, head
of external affairs at the
Chartered Institute of
Marketing, says association
managers must go online to
create a buzz
By their nature, marketers tend to be active
online and many use social media confidently
too. In their professional lives, social media
will link them to content of interest, relevant
business leads and networking with key
influencers. It’s also a way for them to keep
an eye on trends. In their personal lives, it
may help with career development, extracurricular interests and, of course, social
interaction. With over 300m users on
Twitter and 1.5bn on Facebook, social media
channels are bigger than ever.
Our membership is varied and some
significantly outdate our social media lifespan.
However, other newer members, for example
students or recent graduates, may have first
heard about CIM via our growing social media
channels. Where we can, we try to identify
which door all our members enter through, and
those stating social media is on the rise.
We regularly ask members what topics they
are interested in, what content they would
like to see and how we can improve what we
offer them. Taking on feedback and learning
is incredibly important to us. As part of our
monitoring and community management, we
are able to segment our audience, especially
on Twitter, in terms of regular advocates and
influencers. This enables us to scan topical
conversations which we can get involved with,
and add value where possible.
The beauty of social media is that it is a twoway channel. This means that performance can
be monitored in numerous ways - has someone
clicked on a link? How many likes or re-tweets
has a post received? Is the community engaging
CN_02.16_AEM.indd 17
Steve Woolley
in conversation? Is a hashtag being used? The
audience can be also be segmented which can
help inform planning and the content.
It is important not to just use social me XH\H