2014 IABC Chapter Management Awards IABC/San Diego Work ...€¦ · 2014 IABC Chapter Management...

2014 IABC Chapter Management Awards

IABC/San Diego Work Plan – Membership Marketing

Chapter History:

After a 10+ year hiatus, a small group of Members At Large in the San Diego area began talking about forming a San Diego chapter. An exploratory meeting was held in late 2002, with about 30 people attending. In early 2003, this group formed the basis of the new developmental IABC San Diego chapter. Over the next two years, the chapter worked to establish regular professional development meetings, create the necessary organizational infrastructure and build a team of leaders. The chapter was affiliated in June 2005, and is now a medium-‐sized chapter with approximately 110-‐120 members. The chapter reached a milestone when we hit the 120-‐member mark and we’ve retained more than 110 members for an entire calendar year (for the first time in chapter history). However, due to economic pressures and the cancellation of several corporate memberships, we have not seen much growth. For every member we gain, we lost one, and the chapter had no net growth. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Our primary goal for the 2012-‐13 term was to recruit new members and retain existing members that would lead to in a 20% membership growth and a 90% retention rate. Goal Objective Key Actions Measures Budget Increase membership by 20 percent annually

• 2.a. Increase chapter membership by 5% each quarter

• 2.b. Achieve 90% members retained

2.a.1. Affect corporate outreach program targeting organizations with five or more potential members 2.a.2. Establish presence at the local universities/Student chapter 2.a.3. Build database of membership candidates for use in marketing campaigns 2.a.4. Execute quarterly membership drive -‐ Incentivize current members to recruit and provide referrals -‐ Develop marketing products to reach candidates -‐ Remarket IABC to lapsed members -‐ Promote membership months 2.b.1. Foster belonging through early and regular contact -‐ Host new member coffee

2.a.1. Increase in corporate memberships 2.a. Growth of membership by 5% or more each quarter 2.b. Maintenance of at least 90% of our members measured quarterly Increased participation at IABC events

$1,000 for new member coffees, anniversary recognition, marketing etc.



-‐ Recognize anniversaries with card from board -‐ Promote membership benefits -‐ Promote membership months -‐ Contact upcoming lapsing members 2.b.2. Increase networking opportunities in coordination with VP of Professional Development 2.b.3. Develop job assistance/mentorship program 2.b.4. Promote individual members in coordination with VPs of Communication and Marketing/PR

RECRUITMENT, ONBOARDING AND RETENTION At the beginning of the 2012 term, we outlined a variety of activities related to membership recruitment and retention including:

• Personal outreach through welcome emails • New member coffees • Member survey • Hosting a speed networking event • Focusing on student membership • Recognizing member anniversaries

In 2013 we continued this effort with several additional programs:

• Recasting the value proposition • Redesigning the website • Showcasing members through webinars and PD events • Building a student chapter • Launching a Communicator of the Year award • Launching a Mentorship program • Launching Special Interest Groups

Here are details about each initiative: RECRUITMENT Speed Networking Event



We know that professional development and networking are the key reasons communicators join IABC. To increase the level of networking we were offering and attract new members, in March 2013, we hosted our inaugural speed networking event. We worked with the San Diego Rotary Club, the SDSU

alumni group and the Press Club of San Diego to bring more than 100 professionals together with the promise of leaving with 10 new contacts. The event was promoted through social media, specifically twitter using the #sdspeednetworking hashtag and tagging people as they registered, to help jumpstart

the networking. During the event, conversation was facilitated by providing an icebreaker as attendees networked for 5 minutes before switching to a new person. In between rotations, prizes were raffled off. Because of high attendance and low costs (venue and food were donated), the Speed Networking

event was our highest grossing and best attended event to date.

Focusing on student membership/building a student chapter Our goal for many years was to increase our number of student members. Having a larger board for the 2012-‐13 term afforded us the resources to focus on this important aspect of our membership. We leveraged a board member who is an alumni of the University of San Diego to help us to develop

relationships with faculty members and begin our process for building a student chapter. In March 2013 we held our first event at USD and gained two student members as a result, one of whom was interested in partnering with us to build the chapter. While our first year focused on building

relationships and the foundation for growth, our second year focused on a push for members. So far, in just a couple of months into our second year, we have a thriving Student Chapter with eight active members.

Recasting the Value Proposition IABC competes with other professional associations for membership and we wanted to recast our value proposition to help position IABC/San Diego as the communication resource of choice for local communicators. Our first step was to identify what set IABC/San Diego apart. We determined this was the diversity of our membership and professional development topics, i.e. we were not just focused on one industry area, but gave communicators broad exposure to ideas and best practice from across disciplines. We also conducted an assessment with the board to identify all the member benefits we offer. We produced flyers to give out at events and in redesigning our website made sure these differentiators were called out prominently on the homepage: iabc.sandiego.com. ONBOARDING A personal welcome A thank you for renewing/welcome to IABC email for all members – a personal welcome from the chapter president welcoming members to the chapter or welcoming members back to the chapter. Message included information directing members to our website and encouraging them to get involved. Also promoted upcoming activities and program, encouraging members to take part. Members were also encouraged to contact VP of Membership if they had any questions. New Member Coffees New members were invited to attend an orientation coffee where they could learn about the perks of their membership, meet other members and ask questions. This was about making



personal connections. Coffee was paid for by the chapter, and the meeting space was free at a local coffee shop. Coffee on the chapter with meeting space sponsored by a local coffee shop. RETENTION Member Survey The bi-‐annual Member Survey is a great way for us to get feedback about the chapter, the value we are providing for members, our programs and areas for improvement. The survey also enables us to get a snapshot of our current membership demographics, which is something we have struggled to obtain from MMA. As we only do the survey once every two years, we included 25 questions without feeling we were overwhelming our members. Recognizing Member Anniversaries To help our members feel valued, we recognize all new members and renewing members each month in our newsletter and via social media channels. In addition, we recognize those members celebrating anniversaries of more than 5 years. One of our members was celebrating 40 years as an IABC member and we paid him special respect by taking him out to dinner with the VP, Membership and the President Elect. In 2013, we decided to continue this tradition, by treating members celebrating 15 or more years with a free ticket to a PD event. This tactic not only recognizes the member, but also helps them to engage or perhaps reengage with the chapter. Website Redesign We wanted to ensure that IABC/San Diego was at the cutting edge of website design – as the communication agency of choice, our communication channels should reflect our expertise and be an example to our members. We chose a responsive design that would work across devices and browsers. In addition, we built the homepage and content to appeal to our members and provide the information they needed the most access to (event information, resources and news) at the forefront. We also reinforced our value proposition prominently through both a scrolling banner and an expandable table on the homepage. Showcasing Members A key goal for 2013-‐14 is to showcase our members and give them opportunities to Be Heard. We already post monthly membership profiles on our website and newsletter. So, to achieve a greater level of recognition, we launched a new professional development webinar series called Member Talks. Our goal was to give members and non-‐members the opportunity to learn from our best. Through the series, members were invited to showcase their Gold or Silver Quill award-‐winning work, share best practices and provide insights into how communicators can raise the bar and add more value to their organizations. We focused on award winners and/or ABCs to start the series as we felt they would also be able to highlight the value of IABC programs in general.

Although still in its infancy, the program has already attracted four members to share their work, and we have three more lined up. Additionally, we wanted to take advantage of our member’s extensive experience. To this end, we tapped some of our long-‐time, seasoned members to participate in a senior communicator panel discussion. The panelists brought 100 years of collective experience and shared insights and experiences with our audience. Finally, we invite our members to be guest bloggers for our Be Heard Blog. So far more than six members have participated, giving them a venue to share their experiences with our membership base.



Communicator of the Year While a mid-‐sized chapter, IABC/San Diego has never had its own award program. We felt our membership had plenty of opportunities for recognition of their work through the Gold and Silver Quill programs, however, we wanted to celebrate leaders in the communication profession across San Diego county. A Communicator of the Year program was the solution we were looking for. From July to November 2013 we contacted other chapters to hear best practices and prepare our program, and on Nov. 1, we opened our call for nominations. Mentorship Program Many of our board members know from experience the positive impact a mentor or being a mentor can have, and launching a mentorship program was something we felt would be a huge value add for our members, and particularly appealing to our junior or student members. From July to November 2013 we contacted other chapters to hear best practices and prepare our program, and on Nov. 1, we opened the program up and are actively seeking members to participate. Special Interest Groups We wanted to provide an opportunity for our members with similar interests or skill sets to network, obtain knowledge and share ideas and resources. The SIG would provide another chance to get engaged with other IABC members that have valuable experience and insight. Our first Special Interest Group is for independent communicators. The idea of the independent communicators group is to create a forum for self-‐employed communicators to share ideas about managing and marketing their businesses. The group invites participation from local communications consultants, writers, editors, graphic artists, website developers and other business communicators. Members can share resources, viewpoints and work assignments through meetings and a group on LinkedIn. Our first event in November 2013 attracted five members and received positive feedback. We are now looking to start other SIGs as a value to our members. CORPORATE MEMBERS As the San Diego area is not as heavily populated with large corporations as other larger cities, we found that the majority of our big employers were already corporate members. However, we did actively target corporations with 2-‐4 members and 7-‐9 members to explain the benefits of becoming a corporate member or raising the level of their membership. This was successful in raising one corporate member (Qualcomm) from Bronze to Silver. In addition, we identified all companies headquartered in San Diego are beginning to target communications professionals within those companies with personal invitations to events and information about the chapter. The results of this effort are yet to be seen. OVERALL RESULTS RECRUITMENT

• The 2012-‐13 goal of 20% membership growth was surpassed with 30 new members and a 26 percent growth in new members from the previous year.

• Our 2013-‐14 goal of increasing student membership by 50% has already been surpassed with

eight student members, a 300 percent increase over last year.



RETENTION While we did not meet our aggressive retention goal of 90% for 2012-‐13, we did achieve an 85% rate, which can be considered a success for our chapter. In addition, our members continued to be engaged with IABC/San Diego:

• Coordinated 10 events, hosting 350 attendees o The Speed Networking event was our highest grossing and best attended event to date

attracting 103 attendees and generating a net revenue of $2,106.

• Website and social media traffic continued to increase: o 3,944 website hits, up 31.4% from prior year o 2,624 new website visitor hits, up 61.2% from prior year o From Nov. 2012 to Nov. 2013 Facebook page likes increased 39% from 135 to 187. o From Nov. 2012 to Nov. 2013 Twitter followers increased by 40% from 457 to 640 o From Nov. 2012 to Nov. 2013 LinkedIn group membership increased 45% from 158 to

229.

• 82% of members who took our 2012/13 member survey agreed IABC/San Diego is meeting their expectations as a professional development organization.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

Welcome Email Example:

Thank you very much for joining IABC/San Diego. We are excited you have as part of our chapter. We are excited to have you as our professional development speaker this month.

All of IABC's resources are available to you any time. Be sure to check out our library of resources and tap into our network of members at sandiego.iabc.com. In the meantime, a few items that might be of interest are: 6/19 – Measuring and Demonstrating Value in Communications and Marketing

Ongoing – Stay Up-‐to-‐Date with the Be Heard San Diego Blog (We are always seeking contributors if you have an interest). Be sure to update your member profile here.

Join us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Please respond with your LinkedIn profile URL and/or Twitter handle so we can recognize you for your membership publicly, if you are OK with this. If you have any questions about IABC, please feel free to reach out to me at this e-‐mail address or at 619-‐203-‐7390. I look forward seeing you soon. Thanks,



Angie Robert President, IABC/San Diego

Event Promotion:

Value Proposition Flyer:



Showcasing our members:

2014 IABC Chapter Management Awards IABC/San Diego Work ...€¦ · 2014 IABC Chapter Management...

Documents

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