By Ronald Ladouceur, Executive Vice President/Executive Creative Director, and Randy Burge, Senior Vice President/Group Director, Media Logic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the marketing goal of membership-based organizations, if not to attract new members and to retain existing members? It’s axiomatic that engaged members will be more likely to renew their memberships – and encourage friends and family members to join.

But what’s the key to keeping fans engaged?

In our experience, social media proved to be an effective marketing tool for increasing participation, fostering loyalty and improving recruitment for the Healthways SilverSneakers® Fitness Program, a membership-based organization that helps mature adults maintain active, independent lifestyles. SilverSneakers is offered to Medicare Advantage plan members through their health plan clients at more than 9,400 participating fitness and wellness centers across the country and provides an innovative blend of exercise classes, health education and social opportunities.

Tapping the power of social media to enhance SilverSneakers’ engagement opportunities seemed a logical evolution for the inherently social membership-based organization. After experimenting with social media last year, SilverSneakers soon realized that its program needed a strategic social marketing approach, guidance and support in order to generate stronger interest and active participation from its members. In January, SilverSneakers employed conversation-centric marketing agency Media Logic and its Zeitgeist & Coffee social media management program to ramp up its social media marketing efforts.

In partnership with Media Logic, SilverSneakers has increased active engagement on its Facebook page from fewer than 500 fans in December 2009 to more than 10,000 fans today, by developing a social site that encourages interaction, information sharing and support in an online community. SilverSneakers has not only seen a significant spike in Facebook fans, but the fans’ level of engagement has also increased dramatically.

The SilverSneakers Facebook site has also proven to be a valuable testing ground for social media engagement strategies – for messaging, for promotions, even for content marketing strategy – and has revealed new and effective ways for membership-based organizations to employ strategic social marketing to connect with potential members, encourage loyalty to its programs and generate ongoing member participation and involvement:

Create engagement through interaction and open conversation

Through Zeitgeist & Coffee, Media Logic effectively tracks engagement with SilverSneakers fans through a number of data points and judges which posts are being read and stimulating conversations. And one thing has become abundantly clear: if posts “open” a conversation – pose a question, ask for an opinion, etc. – they create interactions and engagement. Conversely, if posts are simply a news item or (even worse) a self-endorsement from SilverSneakers, they generate very little response.

A promotions calendar will help energize and sustain engagement in the social media stream

SilverSneakers’ experience on Facebook has shown that it’s critical to implement a promotions calendar to keep the energy and engagement level of fans high. Whether promoting high-value prizes, organizational goals (e.g., “Help us get to 10,000 members”) or friendly competitions (between members, regions, etc), promotions help generate interest and activity, and attract new fans through referrals.

A relevant, participatory content marketing strategy yields most engagement

As the SilverSneakers Facebook fan page provides increasingly targeted and relevant content, fans are more frequently returning to the page as a quick source for trusted information – enhancing credibility and affinity for the brand among its membership. Members have also proven to be a great source of engaging content; asking members to post photos, share experiences or provide insights elicits widespread participation and conversation. And the really great thing is that social media platforms provide organizations and marketers with the opportunity to test and learn and continually improve content strategies in real time.

Ongoing engagement in the social stream is key to member retention and recruitment

Success in social marketing is not just about the numbers – more fans or more posts – it’s also about the quality and quantity of interactions, the two-way conversation between organizations and their members. In a conversation-centric era, using social media as a marketing tool for member activity and engagement will be the key to retention and future growth for membership-based organizations.

 

Author bio:

Media Logic is ushering in a new era of conversation-centric marketing, putting social at the center of business to achieve better customer engagement, advocacy and revenue growth. As the firm’s executive creative director, Ronald Ladouceur has been the driving force behind Media Logic’s conversation-centric model and the Zeitgeist & Coffee program. Group Director Randy Burge manages and provides strategic direction on the SilverSneakers social media program, in addition to many other Media Logic accounts.

How to Excite, Engage and Grow Your Membership with Social Media