social media strategy for retention and sales

Social Media Strategy to Increase Member Sales & Retention © WebLink International #WebLink

Webinar agenda

• Creating a strategy

• Specific steps

• Ideas for posting

• Examples

• Monitoring

• ROI

• Summary

About Me

• Curt Moss, Senior Product Marketing Manager @ WebLink

• 12 years at member-based orgs – Las Vegas Chamber of

Commerce – Chapter of National Safety

Council • 7 years @ WebLink

– Faculty for W.A.C.E. – Present at association and

chamber conferences

linkedin.com/in/curtmoss

linkedin.com/company/weblink-international

#WebLink

About WebLink

• SaaS Company (Software as a Service), Leading Software Provider to Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations

• Established in 1996, 60 Employees, based in Indianapolis, IN

• 94% Customer Retention Rate

• Based in Indianapolis, Indiana

• 94% Customer Retention Rate

About WebLink

• Membership Management Software

• Website Design & Development

• Non-Dues Revenue Programs

• Partner in Your Success

WebLink Websites

• Responsive website design

• Automatically adjusts for any screen

• Fully integrated database & website

About WebLink

• iPad app for mobile commerce

• Integrated credit card reader

• New member sales

• Event registrations

• Pay open invoices

WebLink Blog

Our next webinar: October 31, 2:00 pm EDT

5 Mistakes That Haunt Associations When Using Their

Membership Database

weblinkinternational.com/haunt

Do you have a social media strategy and content calendar?

We don’t use social media

9% We have a

strategy but don’t always

follow through 17%

We utilize social media but don’t have a strategy

We have a strategy and a

content calendar

Do you store your members’ social media pages and profiles in your membership management software?

Unsure 26%

We don’t have that feature in

our system 49%

We have social media profile

data stored for a FEW members.

We have social media profile

data stored for MOST

members. 9%

Which social media network have you found to be most effective in connecting with members?

Facebook 49%

LinkedIn 12%

Twitter 9%

I'm not sure/other

Have you acquired a new member via your use of social media?

I’m not sure how we could

tell 50%

No 25%

Yes 25%

Strategy

What makes up a strategy?

Action

Measurement

Evaluation & Analysis

Social Media = Communications Tool

What is your strategy for...

• Newsletter

• Events

• Email

• Website

• Blog

• Mailers

Relevant & Useful Information...

• Business issues

• Government advocacy efforts

• Organizational programs

• Benefits

• Events

• Educational or community topics

Use Social Media for the same things!

(and more)

Social Media is about...

What are your

social media

goals?

Can you answer in 15 words or fewer?

Social Media Goals

• Gain new members • Improve retention • Increase event

attendance • Exposure for members • Connect businesses • Extend reach • Expand influence • What else?

Let’s give them something to TALK about

How often does your email marketing message get

forwarded to a subscriber’s entire address book?

Add share buttons from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Who do they believe?

• Consumers trust recommendations from friends and colleagues over advertising

• The “social graph” is becoming more important to companies’ marketing efforts

Action

Listen, then talk

Respond

Tell, Don’t Sell

Just Be You

Give Stuff Away

Admit Your Mistakes

Be Grateful

Provide Support

Get them to tell THEIR story (through YOU)

What can you post?

• “How I got the business” • Write blog posts for you • How issues affect them, both positive and

negative (with organizational spin) • Tag them • Mention them • Promote them • Encourage others to reply, respond, retweet

ASK them to post after/about...

• Joining • Events • Awards • Certifications • Ribbon cuttings • Major business issues • Community topics • Tie to your organization

whenever possible

Ask for referrals

• “Do you know any businesses that should join our organization?”

• Track in your membership management software

• Reward them if the business joins

• Thank them via social media

Catch them promoting you…

• Other businesses, especially members!

• Ask them to mention your organization, events and programs

• Reward them?

Yes, your members WANT to know what you’re doing for them and the

business community you serve!

What you’re doing...

• Business issues • Government advocacy

efforts • Member programs • Discounts & affinity

programs • Events • Community & business

topics • Leading • (fun)

Engaging your tweeps

• Reply to them

• Retweet them

• Ask questions

• Post useful information

• Include links!

• Include photos!

Things to avoid

• Posting same things everyday

• Not following back (for local tweeps)

• Not replying (one way communications)

• Inappropriate posts

Make your content “sharable”

• Social sharing widgets • Like button • Tweet this button • Add This • Share This • Wibiya or other social

tool bars

Social Media Profiles

Add links in your signature

Staff page on website

Footer of email newsletters

Examples

Twitter tools for local organizations © WebLink International

Mix online & offline

• Send notes for items you see online

• Bring up online interactions when face to face

• Post about IRL interactions

• Share tweets and posts in print, on your website

“Use” your members

• Who has a big following on Facebook or Twitter?

• Find ways to engage them to talk about you

• Their fans work for businesses, too!

• Reach the next level

Bonus Facebook Tips

Friend-vertise

• You can target ads against just the friends of people who have "liked" your brand on Facebook

• When those people see your ad, they will see listed the names of their friends who like your brand, too.

Bonus Tip – For your members

Add members’ social media links on their listing on your website. Connect them with potential customers.

Use your AMS to store members’ profile data

90% of consumers would most likely recommend a

brand name to other people after interacting with the

brand on social media. Internet Advertising Bureau Study, July 2013

Measurement

Marketing without

metrics isn’t

marketing.

It’s guessing.

Word of Mouth

• Powerful • Free

• Can’t control • Potentially scary

• What are they saying?

Can you measure it?

How likely is it that you would recommend our organization to a friend

or colleague?

Scale of 0-10

The Ultimate Question

Why 0-10?

• 1-5 yields “3s”

• With 1-10 some people will reverse good/bad

How likely is it that you would recommend our organization to a friend or colleague?

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Extremely likely

Not likely at all

Promoter Passive Detractor

Net Promoter Score

Promoters Net

Promoter Score

Detractors - =

The results may be

humbling.

New member sales

Member retention

Evaluation & Analysis

Tracking

• Custom fields in membership management system

• Lead source code • Excel or Google docs

spreadsheet • Twitter lists – members,

prospects • MUST link online action to

offline action somehow

Social Media Monitoring EZ

• Twitter Search

• Google Alerts

• Facebook Page stats

• LinkedIn Page stats

• Social monitoring tools

search.twitter.com

Google Alerts

Management, listening & influencer tools

• Hootsuite • TweetDeck • Buffer • Radian 6/Salesforce • trackur • Klout

• Google “social media

monitoring software”

Mention

ManageFlitter

Demographics Pro

Twazzup

Facebook Insights

LinkedIn Insight & Analytics

LinkedIn - View Your Followers

Website Traffic

ROI Simplified

• What did you want? (GOAL)

• What did you get? (RETURN)

• How much did it cost? (INVESTMENT)

• What are your social media goals?

• Do they involve $$?

Keeping Track – Old School

• Log time spent

• Budget time

• Track leads, sales, etc., in CRM software

• Divide sales (goals) by time and $$

“Tools can make this simpler, but ultimately, it’s down to you and your friend Mr. Grey Matter to distill data into insights, and insights into actionable recommendations.”

- Kat French, on Social Media Explorer

WebLink Recap: An Integrated Solution

• ONE web-based centralized database

• Prospects, members, non-members and all reps in same system

• Financials, events, email, committees, website, reporting

Central DB

Financial System

Website

Email Marketing

Members

Events

Prospects

Association & Chamber Websites

• 500+ client websites • WebLink Local business

directory drives 67% increase in traffic from organic searches

• Adds value for members • Non-dues revenue • Responsive website

design

iPad App for Mobile Commerce

• Sell memberships • Event registrations • Integrated credit card

reader

Our next webinar: October 31, 2:00 pm EDT

5 Mistakes That Haunt Associations When Using Their

Membership Database

weblinkinternational.com/haunt

3 Questions

Webinar Recap

• We will email copy of presentation to attendees

• Link to video recording of webinar

• Please let us know if you have any questions

The Purple Cow

“Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into customers. Turn customers into salespeople.” - Seth Godin

WebLink International 3905 W. Vincennes Road, Suite 210 Indianapolis, IN 46268 P 317-872-3909 | 1-877-231-4970 | F 317-872-3929 weblinkinternational.com | weblinkblog.com

Curt Moss

Senior Product Marketing Manager curt.moss@weblinkinternational.com

social media strategy for retention and sales

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