Engage by Trolling

Are you a troll? If not, you probably should be. Here's why...Automated emails have their place, but I don’t believe they have a place in engaging members. Cookie cutter communication will be ignored with the other automated emails your members receive from big corporations daily. SEED questions are awesome, but they are often questions based on the organization’s goals. If we want to truly improve engagement, we need to talk about what members find interesting. I had the privilege of attending a leadership conference for young professionals in our organization and I was shocked to discover our members aren’t interested in what we want to promote. If you want to engage members on the fringe you need to realize they have a different reason for being part of the organization than the members you interact with on a regular basis. Most community managers are not blessed with a budget to allow them to travel to organizational events so they can take a “community pulse.” But your members are talking. How do you discover what your members want to talk about? Skim Award Nominations: Most organizations give awards to celebrate their members. Look at the nominations. Read bios and accomplishments. What do members boast about? Chances are that is what they value. These are the topics your community should be talking about. Contact the nominees and ask them to share their expertise on these topics or post discussion questions. Follow Members on LinkedIn: So many association professionals credit LinkedIn with declining membership retention. This social network should be your organizations and communities gateway. Look through profiles. See who is involved on your community page and/or group. Connect with these people and look at what they post. Ask them to post those topics as a conversation starter in your community. Did they ask a question? Explain that your community has more involved members who are better equipped to answer their question. Ask them to cross-post. But make sure you follow through so the question is answered. If one of your members have written an article on LinkedIn, chances are they would love the notoriety of sharing it with your community. Some of our best conversations have been around a popular LinkedIn blog that applied to our membership. Ask your champions to share these articles and start a conversation. Browse your AMS: Have questions that aren’t being answered? Chances are you have a committee or focus group in the organization that is equipped to handle that issue. My organization has 600+ committees. If there is a technical question, we have a committee that writes a standard for it. Don’t be afraid to find the members involved in the committee or division and share the question with them. They have likely been itching to have this topic promoted within the organization and would be happy to share their research with more members. Read Old Discussion Posts: My organization has nine different institutes. Our engaged members are not always capable of answering certain niche questions. I often look through previous conversations and share them with members who have commented ONCE on an obscure topic. They are probably an expert in that field and are willing to share their expertise in a thread about a related topic. Send a personal message. Tell them they had great input on the other thread and let them know you think they might be interested in the related topic. They may not have seen the thread and would love to join the conversation. They will appreciate your diligence and keep coming back to the community to share their expertise. Skim Mentoring Profiles: We just added Higher Logic’s Mentor Match. I’m just now realizing how powerful searching mentoring profiles can be. You can easily search for experts in a related field (depending on how your demographics are set). These members have already signed up to give back to the industry. They are likely to want to give back in a discussion where they are qualified to share their research and knowledge. As you contact members make sure you state WHY they would want to comment on a thread. Think abut their perspective and how they would benefit from posting. Tell them why they should add value to the conversation. The best way to engage members is by listening to them and asking them to share what they have to say. They will. You just have to give them an incentive. Tirza Austin is one of Community by Association's new contributors and is the Senior Coordinator of Online Communities at the American Society of Civil Engineers. She earned her degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Maryland College Park and her all time favorite book is Little Women.