Get social and engage your membership

Ahead of the Alliance's workshop; Using Social Networks to Boost Your Membership Performance, Rik Courtney, MemNet Associate for Social Networks, explains why it's no longer acceptable to ignore social media engagement with your members.

The business world is only just waking up to the power of social media, but not nearly enough. With over half the world’s population online and a staggering 2.3 billion people on social media (not to mention the billion more than access social uniquely through a mobile device), the audience for marketing online is almost incomprehensibly huge.

The smartphone is really the key element here too, since it couldn’t be better suited for sports. That said, it’s tricky to get a handle on exactly how and why this new network will work for your organisation. Each platform has its own set of algorithms and ways of utilising its potential, so here’s a breakdown of the top four platforms and how they each will pricelessly benefit your organisation.

Facebook
Facebook is perfect for so many reasons but for sports organisations, there are a select few features of the site that make it beyond ideal. The site is great for call to action given that its ranking algorithm means that posted content remains accessible on your news feed for longer, unlike a site like Twitter where tweets are lost very quickly in the influx of new tweets. This access means that your call to actions are much more conspicuous and for much longer giving obvious benefits. There’s still a lot of maneuvering around Facebook’s various algorithms but if you’re smart, there’s no better asset to your organisation in terms of growing, sharing content and improving your business.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is great for establishing authority and a real voice emanating from your business. It’s especially good for talking to bigger organisations as this sense of authority really binds an association together. More overtly ‘professional’ the most of the other social media platforms, LinkedIn is an essential cornerstone for sport organisations with their breadth of agenda points.

Twitter
Fast paced and a real content well, Twitter is real icon of social media. Its reputation for pithy, far-reaching content is deserved, but the site’s real power comes from its capacity for engagement (called ‘social listening’). Twitter’s geotagging features allow for tweets to be geographically located, meaning that intelligent search term entries can narrow down your audience for an accurate and successful target. You can reach out to people in real time and really interact on a personal level.

Instagram
Much more powerful than Snapchat, photo-sharing app Instagram and it’s 400 millions users has largely underutilised potential. It contains both search and listening features that mean you can tap the network for people most suited to what you’re offering. Its advertising platform works well with Facebook’s API and with its primarily visual focus, you can really establish your brand as well as a connection with your audience.

Really, social media seems almost tailor-made for sports. Mobile has let us take the internet with us wherever we go. That includes on the pitch, track or court. We can now show and share our achievements and motivations that happen to us. The sporting environment is totally perfect for social media, it’s an technological evolution that can only benefit the sporting sector.

This is just the tip of the iceberg though; I’m looking forward to going into much more detail about this boundless step forward in the way we interact at the Sport and Recreation Alliance's workshop on 15 March.

To find out more about the Using Social Networks to Boost Your Membership Performance workshop, click here.

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