You’ve Got Their Attention – Make the Conversation Count

You’ve done it. You’ve got some time on the calendar to talk the senior leadership team about the value of community. You’ve gathered all the research you could muster. You’ve prepared amazing slide decks with numbers and charts. You’ve got everything you need to show your executive management team why community is such an important part of the way you do business. You spend an hour going over your slide deck and all your research with them. As you ask for questions, you’re feeling pretty confident. Until they start to speak. How does this fit into the overall strategy of the association? Where does this fall on the overall operational roadmap? We’re facing issues with live event attendance, how does this help? How does community help the association be seen as a leader in the industry? In all of your preparation, you forgot to prepare for this. You read everything there was on the value of online communities, but you didn’t tie it back to the association. And that is a huge problem.How do you avoid this trap? It’s simple. Your organization gives you everything you need to know about its growth, future vision, financial status, and its struggles. These come in the form of the strategic plan, operational plans, financials, and other leaders across the organization charged with the success of their department. I hear you, these are not riveting reads and you may have never interacted with much of the management team within your association. I get it. But this information is all accessible to you. You must be familiar with it to catch the attention of your executive team. If you’re not sure where to start, take baby steps.Read your association’s strategic planI’ve mentioned this more than once. Why? Because it’s more than important. The strategic plan provides you information about how your association is going to move forward and gives a high-level overview of the challenges it faces and the plan to address them. It encompasses each level of the association and lays out where the focus should lie. This, by the way, should be your first stop when building out your community strategic plan. Once you’re familiar with the way forward, it will make it easier for you to see where community fits in to this strategy. Oh, and if online community is specifically called out in the plan and you’re not speaking to that, that’s cause for concern.Review your association’s financialsNumbers, amiright? Financials aren’t all that exciting. It’s not something you think about sitting down and reading over your Sunday morning coffee (unless it is, then go you!). And if you’re not sure what all those numbers mean, it can be a frustrating situation. However, financial information about your association can tell you where it stands and where there may be areas for opportunities. If you’re not sure what all of it means, as your manager or someone in the Finance department to give you a 30-minute rundown of what all of those numbers mean. Are the revenue numbers you’re seeing from membership transactions great or are we behind? Are we well-funded to be able to carry programs forward? Your online community may not be able to greatly impact the bottom line, but you can certainly measure the ROI your program delivers to the association. Not sure how to calculate it? You can check ROI calculators from The Community Roundtable or Feverbee to help you get started.Talk to peopleThis one seems like a no brainer, right? But seriously, you have to talk to people. And by people I mean those responsible for managing operations for different areas within your association. I’ve only worked for one association in my whole 10 ½ years in the association space and I’ve noticed that it’s very easy to work heads down in our own little bubble just to get work done. You don’t need me to tell you that that’s not helping anyone. Failure to have conversations about what else is happening within your association removes the consideration that your work may be affecting someone else’s, and their work may be affecting yours. Pay attention to the things people across your association are saying. Are they worried about hitting membership numbers this quarter? Is there a shift in focus for the Events department that requires that they increase engagement around a certain event? Talk to the folks who do the work and to those who build the plans to get the work done. Find out the challenges, successes, and any points where they’re just not sure how to move forward. And then look at your own program and see where you can help, as it makes sense for your own strategy or vice versa.None of this is new, right? We’ve heard it talked about before in research and quite a few times on this very blog. But it’s repetitious because it’s incredibly important. My opinion is that we have to stop being so precious about our online community programs. In some respects, it’s very different from other methods of engagement through our associations, but we’re not that special of a snowflake. If you’re not having conversations with senior leadership (when you can get their time) about community value in language that makes sense to them, you’re wasting their time and your doing your community a disservice. If you speak to research, tie it into the strategic plan. If you speak to numbers on slides, include the financials and ROI of the online community. Leaving that out kills what could be a fruitful conversation before it even starts.How have you approached conversations with your senior leadership team in your association? What did and didn’t work? Tell us in the comments below.