Early in my career I discovered a trade association for my profession, we’ll call it ABC. I was thrilled to find ABC, and eagerly joined with visions of networking and professional development opportunities dancing in my head. However, after paying my dues and getting my membership certificate, I realized that I was wrong. I let my membership lapse after that first year and didn’t look back for several years.
The Problem: Relevance
ABC was, on the surface, a great association. It was a network of individuals in my industry with years of experience and knowledge to share. Only, ABC didn’t have any kind of outlet for that knowledge sharing, except for a small annual meeting. There were limited educational offerings and those that existed were targeted at one specialty in the industry. The bimonthly member newsletter was fraught with typos and bad content. ABC wasn’t relevant to my goals and my professional development, so it was easy to walk away without a second thought.
A Reimagining
Nearly 10 years later while poking around on Twitter, I discovered a Twitter handle for ABC. I was kind of shocked to see ABC, let alone to see it active on a social network. I read their posts and was impressed at their level of engagement. ABC hosted monthly Twitter chats that were both entertaining and informative. They had piqued my interest. Was this the same ABC I had encountered so many years before?
The answer was, definitely not. ABC had broadened its membership to include other specialties in my industry, and a pillar of the new ABC was member engagement, networking, and sharing knowledge. An active blog covered industry news, but also allowed members to submit relevant content and experiences. The monthly Twitter chats gave members an opportunity to connect, learn about a hot topic in the industry, and to get to know each other and ABC’s volunteer leaders. And, the educational offerings had expanded to offer relevant online classes, intensive in-person sessions, and even a certification program. The new ABC was something I wanted to be part of.
Bringing Members Back
ABC realized that to exist, it had to be relevant. It was able to morph and change to meet the needs of its audience, a very wise move that brought at least one former member back. Associations that have a problem with retention should take a page from the ABC playbook and reimagine what they can be to their members.
