Maximum Engagement – Minimum Resources

Today’s Presenters Margaret Rehayem, Director of Member Initiatives Midwest Business Group on Health Aurora Meyer, Online Community Coordinator Missouri State Teachers Association Shannon Johnson, Membership Marketing Manager American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination

ABOUT US MIDWEST BUSINESS GROUP ON HEALTH As a Company: One of 60 employer-focused business coalitions in the country. Membership of approximately 120 large self-insured public and private organizations. Members include large self-insured employers such as Kraft Foods, Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Reynolds, Ace Hardware, and OfficeMax. Our Employer-only community includes over 320 individuals and our All-member community has just topped 680 individuals. Have 5 Full-Time and 1 Part-Time President, Vice President, 2 Directors, 1 FT Manager/1 PT Manager __________________________________________

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK

MBGH MEMBER SURVEY HOW DO YOU COMMUNICATE? 92% of members communicate regularly via the Internet 64% use LinkedIN 35% use Facebook (for professional purposes) 23% use Twitter 70% want to engage with other members 65% wants access to a member directory (** top interest for our Board Members) Most of our members like receiving communications about our programs and events via Results help us build the different modules of the website

2012 MBGH MEMBER SURVEY VALUE OF MEMBERSHIP

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME

MBGH WEBSITE Upgraded to an AMS system database Allows for better management of member profile data Allows for special indexing of individual groups (i.e. type of employer, interests, etc) Website new format Content management system Integrated Interface: Social Community w/AMS database New Features Member Directory Connect – MBGH Member Community Discussion Groups Online Video and Document Library Updated Online Registration

MARKETING STRATEGY Prospects Non-Members Direct mail Annual conference Members Newsletter Connect Communities Networking Member social events Free educational programs Free resources Benchmark surveys Follow Company: LinkedIn Facebook

MBGH ALL-MEMBER PORTAL Sign on via Member Login Brief tutorial

MBGH ALL-MEMBER PORTAL CONNECT: COMMUNITY DASHBOARD

THE BEST LAID PLAN LESSONS LEARNED…. Know your audience – ask questions to learn what they want; get periodic feedback on their experience – don’t assume Have one point person be the champion, but develop a team approach to roll-out your initiative and keep it on track Put together a written plan – create a calendar that will cover at least 6-months ahead – bring this to each staff meeting for follow-up and show progress Have a staff training – be sure to educate everyone about posting on the communities Don’t underestimate the value of a consultant!!!

LESSONS LEARNED (cont’d) Make sure individual profiles and records are up-to-date Take the time to clean up your database (supports integration efforts) Send s to everyone before the initial roll-out to update their profiles and add pictures; be sure to delete old info Create a contest around who has the most complete profile (picture, bio, etc) Get community members involved in regular posting Define ahead of time specific types of posts that will be uploaded (i.e. share a resource, ask a question, or a single-question poll) Just get started!! Community

MSTA The Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) is a non-profit association that serves more than 44,000 educators in Missouri. Our educators are diverse. We serve rural and urban educators, beginning teachers and retirees. To bring them together, we created the Lounge, our HL community.

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED WHILE BUILDING THE COMMUNITY Know your members and staff members Their technology comfort level Their time restraints Their willingness to try something new

WHAT WE’RE WORKING WITH: Challenges: Time (one more thing to do) Lack of technological knowledge Invalid addresses Other social site competition

PUSHING THE COMFORT ZONES Time: A few minutes a day can connect you with educators across the state. The more you use it, the more you’ll get out of it! Technology: We hand-hold members through the log in process and manually reset passwords daily. We are actively trying to make the password reset an easier process. Invalid addresses: We verify the address and mailing address of every member who calls our member care line.

REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS It is unrealistic for MSTA to expect significant Lounge usage when our database is inaccurate. So we celebrate the little wins.

AND KEEP MOVING FORWARD

HAVE A PLAN Define what success means to you. Is it a few people logging in every day? Blog posts? Discussion replies? Provide incentives and rewards for those members who are using the community.

INCENTIVES TO LOG IN We offer a salary book every year that includes salary information for every school district in the state. In 2012, the only way to view the.pdf was to log into the Lounge and download it from there.

INCENTIVES Every person who logs in receives an individualized welcome from me. At some point the hand-holding and walking our members through the steps will have to stop, but we aren’t there yet. In the meantime, we try to continue to provide incentives for members to log in.

REWARD THOSE WHO PARTICIPATE

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSE ASSESSMENT COORDINATION (AANAC) About us: 14,000+ members from across the nation Nurses in long-term care Age range: years old, mostly female Factors at play: busy, not tech-savvy, share computers

Getting them there… How do I drive members to the community? Auto-subscribe! Webinar for new groups of clients PS messages in staff s RSS feed on the home page of your website Tell them about it: – New member packet – New member – New member welcome call P.S. – Did you hear that AANAC launched an online member community called AANAConnect? Login and check it out today to network with peers, download documents, and engage in discussions with experts in the LTC field. The possibilities are endless on AANAConnect!Login

Make it easy to get started! “Getting Started” guide “Getting Started” Create task-driven “How-To” videos“How-To” Offer a “Help Desk” at your meetings or conferences Use the Ads/Tip of the Week feature in the digest s

Make it fun and exciting Make it fun for your members to get – and stay – involved! Award them for participating Encourage participation through a drawing or chance-to-win Celebrate and thank them for their involvement

A community is more than just fun and games… Paid moderators *make sure you really trust them and consult a lawyer Highlight popular posts in your eNewsletter **vetted by staff Use an RSS feed on your website pages to cross-pollinate Create conference or meeting communities to: – Connect with other attendees and speakers – Download handouts – Prepare for their trip

Make your life easier as a community manager Quarterly plan to keep yourself on track Track metrics to show your success Check in with your staff Gain business intelligence from your members through community posts

QUESTIONS? COME FIND US, WE’D LOVE TO HELP! Margaret Rehayem Aurora Meyer Shannon Johnson