Category: Membership World Podcast

Richard John has spent over 30 years in the industry.

In this episode we discuss why taking on a university “event” apprentice can be a great thing to do. His turnover has gone up 400% since the Pandemic and all of which has this has come from online events. People will dip in and out of sessions from an online event, whereas at an exhibition you tend to go for the day. Consumers and members are very keen to look at more snackable content. Education has been one of the benefits for associations particularly in terms on online delivery. Ted Talks tend to be delivered quickly and less than 15 minutes.

Find out more from Richard: Looking for the best in event training, development online or in person services? Contact Realise

This episode is sponsored by global membership events app RD mobile RD Mobile | Virtual Event Platform and Member Engagement App (resultsdirect.com)

In this episode we talk about the Friends model of the membership society and in this case it’s the Membership Officer of the Royal College of Music Siti Osman.

The RCM is a top conservatoire in the UK and Europe attracting local and international talent – with students coming from 56 nations; they have approximately 900 students studying at one time.

The Friends and Family loyalty membership is aimed at attracting friends and family members of the students.

There are lots of talks from leading academics and special events.

Siti talks about how they offer priority events and how they promote it to their Friends scheme. For less than £4 a month you can become a member of the Royal College of Music and its such a great way to support their students. The RCM have a number of Ambassadors which are loyal “friends” and so the power of this word of mouth is very strong.

If you want to find out more about the RCM go visit Home | Royal College of Music (rcm.ac.uk)

Maria Franzoni is an experienced speaker booker. She has held senior positions with 2 of Europe’s leading bureaus; CSA Celebrity Speakers and the London Speaker Bureau – named by the New York Times as “the only international speaker bureau”.

In 2007 she founded her own multi-million-pound international bureau, Maria Franzoni Ltd. (MFL), and in this podcast Maria talks about how associations can find the right speaker for conferences, awards evenings and training events. Maria also talks about how you can work with speakers to build your event.

Always thinking of how you want your audience to feel afterwards, she talks about how she once booked a hostage negotiator who was a massive hit with the audience. Speakers get booked up, so the longer the lead-time that organisers can give a bureau the better choice they have. And what happens when your big keynote speaker falls ill on the day of the event? what do you do? Maria has all the answers and a whole lot more.

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com

Engaging Your Members as Influencers – NHBF CEO Richard Lambert
February 3, 2022

CEO of the National Hairdressers Federation, Richard Lambert talks about how a campaign to find the top 100 influencers in the industry drove phenomenal engagement on social media.

An industry hit massively by the pandemic, this initiative run by the NHBF achieved so many amazing results across all social media, and helped drive membership.

Richard talks about the whole campaign from inception through to the livestream event to launch some of the winners. It has been such a success that the 6500 member strong association wants to run it again, but on an even bigger scale.

https://www.nhbf.co.uk

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com

In this episode, host Gordon Glenister talks with Adam Donnan, the CEO of the Institution of Environmental Science.

The IES represents individual consultants, academia, those working for Natural England, The Environment Agency and local government. This gives them the opportunities and the tools to create real system change, by having a strong purpose at the core of what they do. Adam says membership bodies need to have a sense of purpose at the heart of the organisation.

CEOs want to grow their membership, they want an engaged and active membership, alongside staff that know they are doing and why they are doing it. Purpose can fulfil all those aims.

Growing your membership is broken into two areas, Adam says. The first is a transactional one based on a range of services offered that meets the needs of the member; but the other is a more altruistic one. The altruist is more about the well being of the sector and a sense of wanting to give back; and in many instances this can be a deeper relationship than the transactional one.

Find out more at what Adam has to say on this.

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com

In this episode James Thorne CEO of the Institute of Quarrying is joined by head of membership and marketing Sarah Fry, to talk about how the introduction of an app has made a huge difference in member engagement.

Whilst it was always part of a longterm strategy to encourage members to use the app, Sarah commented on their goals have been reached in their first phase. As more content is shared on the app, so adoption is growing.

Find out how they did it.

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com

In this episode Gordon Glenister talks with the author of “The Social CEO”, Damian Corbet and the vice president of global marketing at Onalytica, Alicia Russell.

A recent survey conducted by Membership World and influencer marketing platform Onalytica looked at the social profiles of over 50 CEOs of membership bodies and trade associations.

Original content performed so much better than shared or branded content on Linkedin. ‘Don’t create content for content’s sake and know what your audience care about’, says Alicia. And leaders of trade associations that are sharing from their personal content is when the real value comes. Chris Skeith from the Association of Event Organisers is an example of a CEO using social media well during a challenging time for the sector. Having a leader like this lobby for the sector they can see this person is working hard for us says Damian.

Most people are seeing what you’re posting but not necessarily commenting.

Craig Bennet CEO of the Wildlife Trust leads one of the categories in the report and he shares pictures of nature on his linkedin and Twitter. ‘It feels personal and you feel like you are going on a journey with him’, says Alicia . She also praises Sophie Devonshire for doing a great job at the Marketing Society.

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com

Inspiring CEO of England Athletics, Chris Jones, talks about his challenges but optimism of running a governing body with 190,000 members.

In this episode Gordon Glenister talks to the head of England Athletics, Chris Jones about what its like to manage a sport governing body in a Pandemic.

While there are approximately 7 million people that run every month, not all are members of the 1800 licensed running clubs, many are social runners. England Athletics Run Together campaign has been very successful at inspiring people to run.

With a lack of opportunities to license road races, normally its 4,000 a year and major championships being thwarted the organisation was facing multiple challenges. Chris talks about the changes made to online training and coaching and while it didn’t suit everyone, it’s now here to stay a – blended approach he says.

The organisation made great strides around supporting the community, employees and volunteers on mental wellbeing and enlisting the likes of Ben Smith and Jack Green for webinars.

Find out more by listening in on your next run…

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com

John Newcomb CEO of the Builders Merchants Federation talks about his personal journey steering an industry body through the Pandemic and the tough decisions he had to make. The organisation needed to relocate to the midlands and in doing so had a profound impact on the organisational success. John talks about how lobbying government was an essential part of keeping builders merchants opens and how online education has helped engage members.

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com

Podcast expert Christina Moore talks about the winning formula for a successful podcast.

From the tools you need, the length of a typical episode, how to monetise your show, how to market your podcast and which of the best presenters to follow… Christina has a wealth of experience; having previously worked at Apple and the BBC World Service.

She is also a judge at the Podcast Awards.

This show is kindly sponsored by RD mobile – www.rdmobile.com