18
Congress Session Reviews
March 2016
Hone your social skills
Lynsey Sweales, CEO at Social IB, looks at where and how to
promote your association across different digital channels
There are many ways you can
promote your association
online, but with so many tools
at our fingertips how can you
best choose which to focus on
for the best results?
People are often too keen
to focus on picking routes to
market their association before
they get their foundations in
place. I suggest before you set
up a Facebook page, a Twitter
account or start spending lots of
money with Google Adwords
start with your website.
Get your solid foundations in
place first. Imagine your website
is like the hub in a bicycle wheel
and the digital channels like
Facebook etc. are your spokes.
Everything you do to promote
your association, whether its
trying to get delegates to an
event, sign up for training or
perhaps join as a member is on
your website. So we need to
make sure that your website is
as good as it can be for any user
visiting your site.
There are seven key areas you
need to make sure your website
has for your audience. They are:
1) A good design The website
visitor must be top of mind. From
the moment they land on your
website they should quickly and
easily see who your association is.
It should also be up to date and
reflect the brand and credibility of
your organisation.
CN_02.16_AEM.indd 18
2) Clear call to actions You
shouldn’t try to pack every single
service and offering on your home
page. Have areas of focus that the
eye is guided towards.
3) Content for two reasons really
Your users can stay up to date on
the latest articles and events, but
secondly, and just as importantly
are search engines like Google.
Search engines will think more
of your website and potentially
show it higher in the search
results if you update it regularly.
4) Navigation Have a clear and
easy menu for your website. I’ve
seen websites with 3 or 4 different
menus and its just too confusing.
5) Credibility If your association
is part of a larger association, or
perhaps has qualifications, tell
people by having these logos
on your website.
6) Mobile friendly All websites
need to be mobile friendly, with
people searching for things on
the move.
7) Social media buttons Don’t
assume that people will come and
find your association online. Tell
them you are on there and make it
easy to find. I suggest having the
social media channels you decide
to be on every page in the footer
of your website or in the top right
next to your contact details.
One more thing that is critical
before you delve in to the digital
channels themselves: installing
Google Analytics on your website.
It’s free and will tell you everything
you need to know about where
your website visitors come from.
No Google Analytics means you
can’t measure any success of any
work you do online.
Lets talk tactics
Once you have your hub in
place you cn look at the spokes
and the ones best suited to your
association. To help decide what
channels to use, think about your
target audience and what channels
they use most. Ask existing
members and/or prospects: ‘If you
were looking to solve a specific
problem, what would you do to
try and find the answer?’ Example:
If I am a residential landlord and
I have tenant problems I’m not
going to automatically go looking
online for a landlord association as
I might not know they exist I’m
likely to search Google for ‘How
to deal with tenants who don’t pay
rent’ or perhaps look on Twitter.
Less is more
I would suggest picking one
channel first and making it
work really well before trying
a second or third. Trying to do
too much at once will eat your
time away very easily.
SocialB is a UK-based organisation
which helps international clients
use social media and online
marketing effectively.
18/02/2016 09:59