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5 things I learnt from the CharityComms Social Media Conference

March 22nd, 2012 | Posted by Abby in Charities | Communications | Marketing - (0 Comments)

Today I joined over 100 others gathered for the CharityComms Social Media Conference (#CCsocmed on twitter). CharityComms, the membership body for charity communications professionals offered a great day of practical advice from communications professionals working in a number of high profile charities. The day left me feeling very inspired!

 

 

 

 

 

Image: British Heart Foundation.

Reflecting on today, I learnt:

  1. That your supporters (whoever they might be) should be a rich source of inspiration and creativity. These are the people that really “get you”, are you using them? Rob Blackie from Blue State Digital London gave the great example of a Obama supporter back in 2010 painting the campaign logo on their farm shed. This lead to a ‘Barns for Obama’ campaign which helped raise his profile with rural supporters.
  2. That investment in developing relations with journalists is more important than having a social media crisis plan. Hilary Cross from Macmillian talked about when Ed Miliband used their research in Prime Minister’s Question Time and the charity was accused of political bias. They took a pragmatic approach to assembling a PR Crisis team, but it was clear the Communciations team’s previous efforts of developing relationships with journalists played a key part in enabling them to achieve positive coverage during a time of crisis.
  3. That if you want to use your supporters/ambassadors you need to provide them with the resources. Sophie Jones from Cancer Research UK talked about how they use ambassadors to support their lobbying work. She talked about creating an easy way for them to engage (an online petition posted on their facebook page was an example), clarity of ‘ask’ and campaigning toolkits for those that you want to act on your behalf.
  4. That the new facebook page timeline is going to make a difference to charities. Learn now how to rearrange  your page to ensure that you make the most of the new features. Find out how here.
  5. That adding a social element to your website (a like button, or a tweet this button) can help with your fundraising. There is correlation between sharing fundraising activity (eg posting on facebook after you have donated on a website) and income raised. Howard Lake gave lots of great examples of how you can make simple changes to your website to make it more engaging for your potential donors.

What can your charity learn from these findings?

Proposed Statutory Register of Lobbyists – how will it affect you?

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Abby in Lobbying | Membership - (0 Comments)

The Government is considering creating a Statutory Register of Lobbyists. This will obviously affect lobbying firms and consultants, As Lobbying is something that many membership bodies do on behalf of their members, and indeed their own members may also carry out their own lobbying, it is something that the membership sector should think about.

There has been much media debate about the topic. Those in favour welcome the transparency of a potential Register. Those against feel that the proposed Register won’t be able to provide the complete transparency it was seeking to deliver.

Will it affect your membership body or your members?
The Government consultation is seeking views on how far the Register should go including asking the questions:

  • Should lobbyists or firms acting on a pro bono basis be required to register?
  • Should organisations such as Trade Unions, Think Tanks and Charities be required to register?

So in theory, it could affect membership bodies. This could be an opportunity for your to seek the views of your members, like the Trade Association Forum have done recently.

If you think it is an issue your organisation should be addressing, you can read about the position taken by a number of umbrella organisations on the Register:

Association of Professional Political Consultants

Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Public Relations Consultants Association

NCVO

Have your say
You can contribute to the Government consultation here. The deadline is 13 April.

 

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GALA case study: offering webinars for members

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Abby in Events | Learning | Membership | Networking - (0 Comments)

Thanks to Amy from GALA, a US based membership body who shares information about their successful webinar programme.
By Amy Ephrem, Membership Coordinator, GALA

Webinar imageThe Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) is the largest global non-profit association within the language industry, providing resources, education, ideas and research for companies working with translation services, language technology and content localization.  GALA member companies are vendors and buyers of language services and technologies.  They deploy sophisticated multilingual strategies and proven tools to take content and products to markets around the world.   GALA is comprised of over 300 companies from more than 50 countries.

Using Webinars
Launched in 2008 as a way to provide an efficient and cost effective way of gathering worldwide groups of language technology and services professionals together to have a discussion, watch a presentation, or view a tool demonstration, the GALA Webinar Series has become one of our most popular member programs:

  • GALA hosted more than thirty webinars in 2011.
  • Close to 1000 people participated in these sessions.
  • Over 300 people have already participated in GALA webinars in 2012.

Our webinar series includes four different types of sessions:

  • Expert presentations on industry topics
  • Sponsored tool demonstrations
  • Advanced tool training sessions
  • Premium professional development webinars, sessions with an interactive workshop format that give participants the opportunity for more in-depth learning on focused topics

With members spread out across the globe on every continent but Antarctica, it is important for our association to be able to offer programming that is accessible for a global audience.  The GALA Webinar Series does just this as it provides opportunities for our members to connect with industry tools, technology, ideas and discussions in a sales-free environment right from their desktops.

It also offers our member companies a place to showcase their technologies as well as a chance to share their industry knowledge and expertise with colleagues around the world.

Highly valued by members
When asked what they consider to be the greatest benefit they receive from their GALA membership, members will often mention our webinars. Members who are unable to attend our live webinar sessions due to time zone differences are also able to download past webinars from a library of recordings that we keep on our website.    

Where to start
Providing online training opportunities is relatively inexpensive and easy to coordinate with the technology that is available today. 

The technology
Organizations should begin by researching and testing out the different webinar platforms that are available to see which one best meets their needs.  With our international audience, it was especially important for us to use a webinar system that allowed participants to connect through their computers with VOIP rather than having to make long distance phone calls.  GALA currently uses the GoToWebinar platform from Citrix Online (http://www.citrixonline.com), which we have found to be quite affordable and user-friendly for organizers, presenters, and participants.  

Choose your topics
Organizations will also need to know what topics their members are interested in and will then need to vet interesting and engaging presenters who can speak on these topics. GALA regularly issues calls for webinar presentations, and we also poll our members for topic ideas and suggestions. 

Provide an interactive element
Finding ways to make the webinars sessions engaging and interactive for participants is key and one of the greatest challenges when using an online format. 

We have found that allowing participants to ask and answer questions during the webinar sessions either by chatting through the platform’s IM feature or using its polling question feature to be helpful in getting attendees more engaged.  We also encourage our presenters to extend the life of their presentations by continuing the conversation with webinar attendees through email follow-ups, social media, and GALA’s blog.

Conclusion
Coordinating and conducting webinars may seem like a daunting task at first, but there are many resources available to help organizations through the process of getting started.  Webinars are an excellent and efficient way of providing accessible information and training for members and something that every membership organization should consider.

More information about GALA’s webinar series is available at http://www.gala-global.org/call-presentations.

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5 things that the Contract Flooring Association did with their ‘Join Us’ leaflet

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Abby in Membership | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

I recently went to see the Contract Flooring Association about marketing. They shared their new ‘Join leaflet’ with me. The CFA produced it in conjunction with their design agency The Hive. The leaflet has gone down well with prospective members and the CFA are starting to see an increase in companies joining.

It got me thinking about what makes a good piece of join literature. Here are my top 5 essential elements, all of which were used by the CFA:

  1. Be clear about the purpose of the material. It should be obvious that this leaflet is about joining.
  2. Have an attractive design with compelling and relevant imagery. The CFA use pictures from their member so  it is clear that it is aimed at contract flooring professionals.
  3. List the benefits of membership and the value that it delivers to members. An example from the CFA: ‘A website directory listing. Many companies enjoy significantly increased business as a direct result of their entry on the CFA website’.
  4. Use “you” language – this shouldn’t just be about the services you deliver but the benefits members receive as a result of these. Another example from the CFA: Becoming a CFA member gives you  more access to these sometimes hard to reach contracts”.
  5. Have a direct call to action about joining; provide all the details about how and when etc.

Have a look at your join us literature and website content, does it offer the above?

CFA Join Us flyer

78% of membership bodies are finding it difficult to retain members

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Abby in Marketing | Membership - (0 Comments)

Recently I helped the MemberWise Network with their membership body survey, looking at how the current climate is affecting the membership sector.

Below are the results displayed as an infographic. How does your organisation compare?

Thanks to Ian Harrison for the design.

MemberWise Survey Results

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Did you know you can create a personalised URL for your LinkedIn profile?

March 10th, 2012 | Posted by Abby in Marketing | Networking | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

LinkedIn is known as the Facebook for business. It is has 150 million + users. It’s a good platform to connect with like-minded business people as well as being an effective online shop window for your work and your experience. What makes it even easier did you know you could create your own URL for your LinkedIn profile? Mine is http://uk.linkedin.com/in/abbywrightparkes

There are a few reasons why this is a good idea. You can add it as a link on your email signature so people can browse your experience straight away when you send them a message. If you’re still in the process of setting up your own website it’s a great way of directing someone to a website all about you. It can help with SEO, making it easier to find someone with your skills through search engines. Pop it on your business cards and it makes it simpler for an interested client or professional to connect with you.

So how do you do it?

  • Just log on to LinkedIn.
  • Hover your mouse over the Profile tab and select Edit Profile.
  • Your Public Profile page will pop up.
  • Scroll to where it says Your Public Profile URL and click Edit, just on the right.
  • A box will appear saying Update this Address.
  • You’ll see the base URL www.linkedin.com/in with an empty box to the right of it.
  • This is where you can type in your individual URL. It can be no more than 30 characters and be at least 5. It might be your name and your skills, or just the name of your business.
  • A green tick will appear if it’s free and then you can save it.

Make sure you have all your skills and experience up to date on the site and there you have it, a quick and easy way to direct people to your online presence.

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