It’s EASY with an understanding of the why, also don’t get OVERWHELMED, just make a list and do it one step at a time, even just changing up one point will make a difference. PROMISE!!
THERE IS NO RIGHT TIME NOR RIGHT AGE TO JOIN ROTARY!
This blog is fairly long but its meant as an education source, the tips in here not only help Rotary Clubs and their membership and marketing but can help any sporting group, club or not for profit.
Not everyone bleeds Rotary, nor can afford it. However if we make people feel welcome we can turn them into people who refer us and may even join us, so if someone baulks at joining offering them the option of becoming a FRIEND of Rotary may be a solution. This way they can get involved without feeling obligated in the initial stages.
DO NOT get overloaded with everything marketing, just making changes to one aspect is a start and can make a world of difference. Social Media also is only ONE aspect to marketing your club.
Research shows that Rotary do not have a problem attracting new members, its retaining them after 3 years is the area we can improve upon, and sometimes it’s not about leaving Rotary it’s about finding a club and TRANSFERRING to a club or group of people more suitable to you.
We’d love it if you’d stop saying you’re a Rotarian and instead say you’re a Member of Rotary.
• Often people don’t hear one word and it goes into the conversation as just noise.
• A member implies you’re part of a group.
• Words are powerful, by saying I am a member, it often gets people asking for more information such as fees, meeting times, costs etc, the word member is powerful and instantly creates a visual that you are inclusive.
We’re BIGGER THAN McDonalds
Do you have any idea how much Rotary gives away each year, just in Western Australia with our clubs its millions and millions per annum, YET hardly anyone knows this, when asking clubs why they don’t showcase their donations, we’re often told its they don’t want to bring attention to themselves. The attention is not to you but to Rotary as a whole and helps build up membership and what we do and our brand, please shout it out when you do something good.
McDonalds spend less on their marketing and everyone knows them.
We’re keen as mustard for people to now know US.
DONATING MONEY
If your club gives money then ask the people/group that you’ve donated it to for it to be acknowledged in the newspaper if they do an advertisement or mentioned in an article.
Acknowledge it in their newsletters, their website, their social media.
They also need to showcase our brand on their flyers so we need to make sure you have the most up to date logo and include your club name on it.
Why do PEOPLE JOIN A CLUB
When you know why, you can break down each invite, each flyer and each marketing question into a specific outcome, such as:-
Are you looking for more friends, our club can help there?
Are you in business, did you know Rotary has a strong division called Rotary Means Business, the goal is to find and connect up to other members of Rotary to support and give work to.
• Friendship – Are you lonely and looking for more mates?
• Community – Would you like to give back to our local community with a fun group of people?
• Business – Are you in business, if so join Rotary Means Business Meetings.
• Professional Networking
• Service Opportunities
• International Awareness
• Friendship
• Good Citizenship
• Youth and Family
• Entertainment
• Ethical Environment
• Leadership Development
• Mental Health
PHOTOS and EMOTIONAL MARKETING
When you share a photo of the typical stand in front of a cheque or here we are at a BBQ photos, it keeps spreading the message that we are one dimensional, we’re so much more than that and Rotary International have been asking for these photos to cease for a while now.
The role of emotion in marketing cannot be understated, individuals join groups with people they know, like and trust. Consider how a photo is a marketing tool, people having a laugh doing something can create a wish, “they look like they’re having fun, how do I get involved in that group”.
These FUN photos are far better to use, a photo capturing the laughs, the friendship and the doing of an event is marketing gold, don’t get people to pose, it fact its best they don’t know you’re taking the photo, you get the real story with these photos.
Everything we do is emotion based, we join, we stay, we leave solely on emotion.
Emotive marketing it’s the most powerful marketing tool, emotive photos and words, used to tell our Rotary stories will gain REAL results.
EMAIL SIGNATURES
Go to your email settings and design a email signature template.
Kind regards
Joe Bloggs
0408 000000
Proud Member of the Rotary Club of Belmont.
Then each time someone gets your email, Rotary and your association with it is mentioned.
WEAR YOUR ROTARY SHIRT annual event NOW changed to MONTHLY
I LOVE this concept and would like to make it a MONTHLY request and also ask your partner to wear it as well. That way people see it MORE often, also make a point to wear it to your meetings and to any event your managing.
Here are more IDEAS.
• Ask members to bring a guest once a month..
• Send personal invites to local businesses
• Have your club join your local Chamber of Commerce or business group.
• Have your meetings in visible places
• Ask that place to leave a flyer or A Frame letting people know your times. Leave a number to in case someone has a question.
• Leave Rotary magazines and invites with your details at doctors waiting rooms, at mechanics rooms, cafes etc….
• Host every three months a membership night.
• Have prepared on line and written handouts about your club.
• Make prospective members feel important and welcomed.
• Hold outstanding community members nights, employer of the year awards as well as employee awards.
• Don’t take age, colour, race or sex into consideration when looking for members
• Make some meetings social events and invite friends to party with you.
• Build a club web site that is NOT on club runner.
• Put posters in public areas and in shops.
• Offer a money back guarantee, if after 3 months you don’t like us we’ll refund your fees.
• Follow up with guests.
• Provide guests with free meals.
• Look for members in ethnic groups not represented in your club
• Ask the district for help – our membership chair is excellent at this.
• Send newsletter to guests and your friends, after a while they’ll either unsubscribe or come and join in.
A FRAME SIGNS
At your club door, leave it there all week if you can, at your markets, at your event.
Buy a few of them and have your name and logo and details at the top and bottom of the A frame, then keep the middle free to write either on a chalk board or white board part of the A frame, on what is relevant this week:
• Baldivis Rotary just donated $20000 to ABC Charity.
• Palm Beach Rotary are looking for you to come to dinner with us.
• Have you meet John Smith, he is 43, single and just joined our Kwinana club.
What you write needs to be inviting and if possible FUN.
JOIN MEETUP AND LIST YOUR CLUBS MEETINGS.
Meetup is FREE – and it’s a website that people go to look for groups to join and things to do. The meetings are tailored to your region so you can target those in your area.
https://www.meetup.com
Find Meetups so you can do more of what matters to you. Or create your own group and meet people near you who share your interests. It’s a great place to also share your events.
DO YOU HAVE A PERSONAL FACEBOOK PAGE?
Under my name on my personal page it says Social Media Expert, I’ve shown fellow members of Rotary how to get Proud Rotarian written under their names:
To add this phrase under your name:
Go to your profile and click About.
Click Details About You.
Click Add a nickname.
Select the type of name you want to add next to Name Type.
Enter your other name
Check Show at top of profile to have your other name shown next to your full name at the top of your profile.
Click Save.
It does NOT replace your name, simply adds the phrase Proud Rotarian under your name.
SOCIAL MEDIA WITH A FOCUS ON FACEBOOK
A lot of these ideas can be adapted to Instagram and LinkedIn.
FACEBOOK AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADMINS
Your social media pages should have 3 admins, that way you get three perceptions telling your story, just make sure you only post once a day, or every few days is better. Make one admin responsible for answering messages that way one person controls the back end of the site. May I suggest also that any user names and pass words supplied by your club be listed in your minutes. That way if someone needs to get in after you’ve left or God forbid had an accident then the club can.
Open a Facebook BUSINESS page for your club, DO NOT use a personal page.
A business page is where you should be operating your clubs marketing from, that has more ability for people to like, join and connect up with, a personal friendship page that someone has called a club name is not easy to operate, is not open to the public, people have to friend the page and doesn’t have as many tools to use as a business page offers, plus operating a personal page for a non-person is against the rules and terms of Facebook.
Download the APP Facebook Pages.
If you operate Facebook for you personally then use the app on your smart phone and iPad that is Facebook, however if you’re an admin of the clubs pages, download the FREE app Facebook Business Page, that controls any “business page” you have and is exceptionally user friendly. Facebook Pages Manager helps you manage your business in a single place, so you can get more done, more easily.
SCHEDULE all your posts on BOTH Facebook and Instagram though….
Save time when creating individual posts. Provide consistent content for your likers and followers. Connect and engage with more people and is easy when you know how. It also creates a routine so that you’re more on top of your marketing and membership for your club.
Once you’re an admin then click this and your off and running, Google offers many videos and quick tutorials on how to use it, trust me if you can use Facebook you can use this, it’s the same, you just make sure you put in a date you want, not just schedule now.
https://business.facebook.com/creatorstudio
Post regularly about 2-3 time a week is enough, more if you’re running a major event.
Create FACEBOOK EVENTS for your CLUB MEETINGS.
They’re easy to create and when it comes to writing the dates, simply put the dates of EACH meeting in and Facebook then rolls out the event relevant to each date. Make sure you use an inviting photo and design the content with as much description as can be, for example and feel free to copy and use this. Just change the words that suit your club. Try and imagine all the questions they’ll have and answer them.
Would you like to join us for dinner!
We’re looking for young professionals, stay at home mums, middle aged couples, business operators, those new to retirement, actually anyone breathing who wants to connect up with friendly, welcoming individuals who like a chat, a drink and to share ideas on how we can make our community better by organising events and fun things, and NO its not always a sausage sizzle.
We meet at Joes Fish Shack, from 7pm to 8.30pm, we’ll buy your dinner and you buy your own drinks.
Dress is smart casual.
We’d love for you to see what we’re about, you may simply be looking to meet new mates, to get out of the house more, to be more involved in the community or you may have world domination on your mind, no matter what we’d love to meet you.
Call us on 040800000 to let us know you’d like to have a meal, there is NO obligation and no one will pounce on you to join the club, lets see if we’re a good fit each other.
Oh if you don’t like fish or have a food allergy let us know as well.
MAKE Rotary in Western Australia a CO HOST on your events.
If you club is running an event and you’ve created a Facebook event, make sure to make the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/RotaryInWesternAustralia a CO HOST, that way we will be notified and your event once we accept the co-host request will be promoted to all those who like our page as well and we can also cross promote it on our other sites.
Facebook is SOCIAL it is NOT selling, it is your own private TV station and when anyone goes back to watch your “shows” they want to see emotion, fun, action, engagement and above all they want to feel part of what you do – again DO NOT get to tied up with using Facebook it is NOT the be all and end all it is simply a part of your sharing of your club.
Sit down with your members and write a list of EVERYTHING your club has done, is doing and wants to do, include who are you’re members, what they do, where you meet etc… literally in two or three words, brain dump. These points later become the basis of your posts.
EVERYTHING we do in life is based on EMOTION and JUDGEMENT we make a judgment instantly so you want to make sure everything on your page is in the positive and what you have achieved.
When people look for a club to join they look at not what you can do but WHAT IS IN IT FOR THEM.
So share on your social media aspects to your club that speaks to potential members, do you like working with the youth, well we have a committee for that, are you lonely and looking for good friends, well many of our members socialise outside of Rotary. Are you wanting more business, Rotary first started in part as a business club… look at why people want to join, then YOU be that SOLUTION to their requests.
When posting only use ONE photo that also answers that message.
IMPORTANT … who are you wanting as members of your club, is your club a supper club, a man’s club, a on line club… everyone always says we want everyone but not you don’t, as everyone doesn’t suit everything, what is your mission, who is the person you’re after, is your club quiet and content then having an extrovert is not always a good thing, is your club mostly a business club, well non business people can feel left out, target who you want and what sort of person they are then speak on social media to them….
Your cover photo is prime real estate. Use a photo that really speaks to your club’s fun. ALWAYS add a description on the cover photo – normally on a post if your comments have gone to the see more section you’ve said to much, on a cover photo, this is where you write about you as a sales pitch…. including contact details and of people who ANSWER the phone.
Post ONE photo ONLY, make it a good one and take it a little different, a little tilt on an angle, or make it black and white. When you post more than one we lose the visual connection, plus Facebook splits the post and only shares the written content on ONE of the photos, only write a few lines, if your post has gone to the see more … your post is too long.
Encourage club members to LIKE and SHARE posts from your Facebook Page. This is where the magic of social media kicks in. When members share posts onto their personal Facebook page, their connections can see it, like it and increase the club’s exposure. This is key to keeping your club’s posts in the newsfeed. Tag your members in your posts.
Shout out WHAT YOU DO if you do something fun share it, if you do something good shout it.. make your Facebook page your clubs story so that when I view it I want to be part of it … consider the FIMO aspect. Fear of Missing Out… its real …
CHECKINS are AWESOME because they say I am here I am supporting this business/club and goes on the individuals personal wall, make it part of your club that you get your members to check in each week or at the least each fortnight. Checkin are done from a person’s personal page and your club MUST have a physical address on their page in order to obtain this ability.
Reviews get your members to write a review about your club.
REUSE your posts if it is a call to action post such as come to the club, then reuse it every month. Why reinvent the wheel.
Who am I & what can I bring to your Rotary marketing?
I’m Sharyn McCaskey and I own a multi award winning boutique agency specialising in Social Media, I’m an expert in all aspects of Marketing, I’ve been with Rotary for 4 years and the PR and Marketing Chair for District 9465 (Western Australian) now in my 3rd year.
Feel free to check me out here:
Website:- https://mdvs.com.au
Facebook:- https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaSpecialistSharynMcCaskey
Phone:- 0408 863331
What have I done so far?
Upon joining the board, I noticed heaps of social media accounts that had been created and abandoned, now dormant on Facebooks platform. I also noticed a lot of Ryla, 9465, 9455 and Rypan pages etc…
(A marketing no no, and something asked by a number of Rotary International Presidents and something we’re passionate about is that we stop promoting our projects and clubs using acronyms. To those not in Rotary they’re irrelevant. If we want to promote to potential members and also make those who have just joined welcome, using the full names is something to consider).
I contacted my counterpart Jess and said how about we merge everything into one Social Media branding Rotary In Western Australia. She agreed with me instantly. Each club was to still manage their own social media pages and event marketing, however we would be an umbrella where clubs could cross promote via us and potential members could see how AWESOME, inclusive, fun and proactive Rotary as a whole is.
We now have successfully been operating these pages:-
Together with Jess, we created a team of passionate people who help manage these sites.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RotaryInWesternAustralia
Podcast: https://rotaryinwesternaustralia.podbean.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/51689247
YouTube: Search: Rotary in Western Australia
Personally I have visited clubs to give talks, I’ve been available for event promotion support and have helped with the Social Media marketing of the Rockingham Beach Cup for a few years, an event run by Palm Beach Rotary, which attracted close to 50,000 attendees and
