By Karli Horn, MarCom Coordinator 
The Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society™ (WOCN®), an AH client partner, has experienced excellent member engagement over the past year through social media, conference focus groups and online forums.
WOCN is a professional nursing society that supports its members by promoting educational, clinical and research opportunities to advance the practice and guide the delivery of expert health care to individuals with wounds, ostomies and incontinence.
SOCIAL MEDIA
By implementing a social media strategy along with the AH MarCom (Marketing and Communications) team, member engagement is at an all-time high for the society. The WOCN Facebook page has over 3,000 likes and, with about 5,000 members, that’s an incredible number. Twitter and LinkedIn are hovering around 1,300 and 2,000, respectively.
The MarCom team interacts with WOC nurses through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with contests, information sharing and more. Conference information is posted to each social network along with contests like “guess the keynote,” which keep attendees abreast of who will be present and may even entice them to register.
In 2014, the society participated in WOC Nurse Week. WOC Nurse Week creates awareness about the care that WOC nurses provide along with the exceptional outcomes they receive with patient care. The society recognizes this special week by creating brochures and posters and mailing them to their members to display in their offices. Through social media channels, the society is able to promote and encourage participation in WOC Nurse Week which shows a lot of engagement.
From April 1, 2014 through April 10, 2014 WOCN members were asked to submit stories highlighting how they show compassionate care in their current role and/or a patient story that showcases exceptional outcomes and results based on the care they provided.
After the stories were gathered, the AH MarCom staff chose five finalists and each of their stories were posted on the society’s Facebook page during WOC Nurse Week, urging individuals to “like” or “share” their favorite story. At the end of the contest the stories with the most likes and shares were chosen as the winners.
This activity drew a lot of attention to the Facebook page with the winner receiving 140 likes and second place receiving 108 likes.
During Nurse Week, the WOCN society received 84 new Facebook page likes and had 8,800 impressions on one post alone. Twitter and LinkedIn also experienced significant audience growth during WOC Nurse Week.
Social Media is an integral part in the marketing strategy as it’s the easiest way to keep in touch with members and prospects and allows people to interact with the society on a personal level.
FOCUS GROUPS
During the WOCN annual conference, focus groups are organized and individual members are invited to participate to idea-share about specific topics relating to the society’s growth and success.
In 2014, focus groups included Future Leaders of the WOCN Society, Annual Conference (for 2015) and WOCN Education and Member Benefits. Feedback gained during the sessions is relayed to the board to help them plan accordingly when it comes time to create their strategic plan.
Focus groups create positive member engagement by involving individuals and giving them a “voice” when it comes to issues or topics that directly relate to their membership. The groups are meant to be small so that the conclusions reached can be successful and implemented by the society.
ONLINE FORUMS
The WOCN utilizes online forums as a way to communicate exclusively with their members. These forums also allow members to share ideas and ask questions, allowing for year-long education and networking outside of in-person meetings. The WOCN online forums are a popular member benefit and are largely marketed in membership campaigns.
All social media posts created by the society are cross-posted in the appropriate forums to ensure communication. Registration for conference, calls for volunteers, advocacy alerts and other major announcements are all communicated through the WOCN online forums.
The most popular forum is the Wound Forum with 32 new topics started within one month and 127 posts (comments and replies). Other popular forums include the Professional Practice Forum, the Ostomy Forum and the Continence Forum. These had an average of 9 new topics posted within one month and an average of 19 posts.
Engagement is high within these forums as peer-to-peer interaction is a popular way of learning and idea sharing. Today, there are two members with over 300 posts, three members with 200-299 posts, 11 members with 100-199 posts, 16 members with 50-99 posts and 30 members with 25-49 posts.
These consistent numbers show that people are interested in the forums, which is why the MarCom team views them as high priority when marketing membership benefits of the WOCN Society.
Member engagement is an extremely important metric to keep top of mind on a regular basis. It shows whether an organization’s marketing efforts are working, and is closely tied to membership renewals. If members are not engaged, they are less likely to renew their membership in the future.
Retention is just as important as acquisition for membership-based organizations, though member engagement metrics are also key to marketing to potential members. We know that high member engagement makes an association more attractive than an organization that has low engagement, thus must always focus on keeping members happy with innovative programs and efforts. The WOCN has proven this theory to be true and continues to be successful through all of their engagement efforts.
