When you run a membership-based trade association or other type of membership website, you are always interested in retaining members and growing membership numbers. That is when you are introduced to what appears to be the ultimate buzz term – membership engagement. However, this is much more than a bit of trendy lingo. Your focus on improving membership engagement will help you to establish a solid base of membership revenue, and grow your membership as well.

SEE ALSO: The Vital Role Email Plays in Membership Acquisition

What Is Membership Engagement?

According to the Wild Apricot marketing website, membership engagement involves two very important elements. The first is to make certain that you are offering your members reasons to visit your website, utilize your online membership community and get involved in your social media presence.

The other aspect of membership engagement is getting useful feedback from your members and using it to improve your overall presentation. When members care about a group, then they offer valuable tips to improve the way that group functions. You will want to take that member advice and use it to grow your group.

Engage Your Members At Sites Where They Spend Time

One of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is assuming that its membership will always go to the group website to get information and interact with members. The Higher Logic Users Group suggests that your members are spending a lot of time on Facebook and they also like to interact on Twitter as well. Your members may also spend time shopping on various websites and getting research information from online resources as well.

Ask your membership where they like to spend time on the Internet and invest your marketing budget in being on those websites. Interacting with your membership on Facebook and Twitter is free, so you should be doing everything you can to maximize those marketing opportunities.

Offer Fresh And Interactive Content

When it comes to getting your members engaged with your site, Diversified Management Services recommends allowing members to contribute to website content. Presenting fresh content on a regular basis is a great way to keep members coming back to check in on your site. But when you allow members to contribute to that content, then you have enhanced membership engagement considerably.

Invite members to contribute articles or other pieces of content that you will publish on a regular basis. You should also be sure to give the members who write content writing credit in prominent places on the website. The more you encourage your members to contribute to your content, the more value the members will get from the entire website.

Getting your members engaged in your organization is not easy. Part of the battle is to go to where your members spend time online, and the other part is inspiring them to take an active role in creating website content. But once you get your membership engaged in the activities and growth of your website, you will be able to retain that membership base and you will also see a surge of referrals that will help your website to grow.