Digitising Member Communication

By using social media functionalities within the association, the distribution of association information in real time as well as the interaction and networking of its members become possible. On the one hand, the association can enter into dialogue with its members. On the other hand, members can also exchange ideas in groups or via chat and interact with one another.

Using a “post feed”, members can publish content, comment on it or acknowledge it with a like. This strengthens member loyalty and the general “sense of togetherness” in your association communication. In addition, the use of digital platforms enables the association to present itself to a much larger audience of interested parties.

Your members are informed simultaneously and reliably about current developments, ensuring everyone is on the same level and they can work together on topics and documents.

The content does not come from a traditional top-down communication structure, such as an internal editorial team or management level, but highly up-to-date from all areas of your association. The posts thus represent a colourful and varied content mix, because all members from all committees and specialist areas share their relevant topics. And this “member-to-member communication” not only means that various experts share their knowledge at eye level, but also that valuable knowledge transfer takes place across committees.

A major advantage is that your members already know one another or can easily be assigned to the right place within your association due to their committee memberships, even if they have never met in person.

This creates trust in the contributions. Sometimes it is enough simply to know the person who wrote a post for it to be read. And the fact that this works even in an association which keeps nearly 17,000 users in 375 committees informed every day was shared with us by Rebekka Weiß from Bitkom:

As soon as all important information is published on your member portal, even long-standing members get used to regularly participating in your digital member communication, at least to avoid missing anything important. Once you clearly communicate that your digital portal is the channel where all information is automatically, highly up-to-date and simultaneously available to all members, everyone will regularly check it and keep themselves informed.

To ensure a good overview, you can set up groups or sub-sections for certain topic clusters, making sure that specific topics can be found quickly. Examples include:

• News from the Association & Politics
• Industry News
• Information from the Executive Board
• About the Member Portal

The success of your digital communication work with your members depends above all on involving all target groups: members from all internal hierarchies, from all levels of experience and decision-making, across all career and life stages. This does not happen automatically; it requires support from those responsible for member communication in your association and active leadership from your executive level.

At the same time, networking within your association is strengthened. Members who might otherwise have met and connected at an association event now meet online in a committee meeting and network in a joint working group.

Digital networking among your members creates a new type of interaction which goes beyond traditional networking opportunities and functions independently of events and without needing active committee work.
Association work can be carried out efficiently and interactively in open or closed specialist and working groups. Through communication with posts and comments in a central location, newly joined members can quickly find previous topics again.
An integrated app solution informs your members in real time about the latest news, events, specialist articles, offers etc. from your association, no matter where they are.

Events, like the Covid pandemic, have shown that digitalisation is a relevant topic for associations. For many members, it initially meant relocating the workplace from the office to remote work, as well as an increased offering of online training and digital committee meetings.

There is a need to further develop skills such as general know-how around digitalisation, digital forms of collaboration and leadership, and new communication styles.

Especially your younger members often have expectations and needs which they, as digital natives, consider completely self-evident. To meet these expectations, associations must adapt and sustainably digitalise their communication and collaboration. Emails, online meetings and chats alone are not suitable forms.

• Stronger member loyalty through active and better-engaged members
• More effective public image through greater authenticity and a unified appearance
• Better understanding of topics through closer communication with all members
• Higher member participation, even among otherwise less active members
• More attractive service offering through better understanding and a digital home where digital services can also be provided
• Increased agility through faster responsiveness, accelerated decision-making processes and workflows
• Higher attractiveness for new members thanks to new services and a broad range of participation opportunities
• Higher attractiveness as an employer by truly living modern working methods and enabling digital networking across the entire sector