Wednesday 22 April 2015

3 Communications Best Practices from 3 Online Resources

Sometimes, the best way to communicate is to keep it simple.  Here are three tips/best practices from three online resources:

From Association Advisor: Recommendation #1: Don’t Fall Victim to Shiny Object Syndrome
A new approach may be just what your association needs to help reach your communications goals, but don’t fall victim to “shiny object syndrome.” Before you make a decision to invest in new communications tools, ask your members, vendors and advertisers which of your association content channels they find most valuable and which communications platforms they are most receptive to. Your research may also help you uncover new communication platforms that members are gravitating towards or reveal to you that you already have access to tools that can amplify your communications when integrated into an ongoing plan. Marcus Underwood, Chief Innovation Officer for Naylor, says that the ROI of any new technology is important to consider prior to making a purchase but to keep in mind that the value of the investment may not always be quantifiable in financial terms. Underwood explains that certain technology investments and upgrades are just standard operating expenses for running a business and warns that there are also risks associated with not keeping up with technology.

From the Canadian Association of Labour Media: Don’t make it all about you. The best way to get someone’s attention quickly is to talk about them.

If you want your message to cut through, you need to talk about your issues in a way that will make people listen – make them feel something – make them see that what we are talking about relates to them and their families.

You are stronger when you talk about ordinary people and the values we care about like security, family, fairness and respect. Use too many technical, legal terms, and acronyms, and your audience will get lost or bored. Grab your audience’s attention by speaking directly to them about the things they care about – and make sure they know you care, too.

Connect with your members and the public on shared values, beliefs and experiences. Talk family, dignity, respect, opportunity and fairness. People will be more inclined to listen to your message if it’s about the broader public interest and not just your self-interest.

From Silverbear (and, yes it was around the holiday season!)  Explain why you’ve been good

This is a key part of a letter to Santa. As we’re all aware, Santa already knows if you’ve been naughty or nice, but it can’t hurt to mention again the good deeds you’ve done this year.

In the same way, it’s important to reinforce the value your members have received over the course of their membership. It’s easy for them to forget events they’ve attended, training they’ve undergone, CPD points they’ve logged and other areas of value they have had over the year. So make sure you emphasise these to help jog their memory.

You should be able to quickly pull together a member value statement from your membership software solution to help you with this.


Image courtesy of jscreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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