CLUB MATTERS Sending a message Digital communication strategies offered to support your skating club by JANE FIORE
Editor’s Note: Jane Fiore is a member of the Skokie Valley Skating Club and Starlights syn- chronized skating program. In the first of a two-part series, Fiore outlines her approach to supporting a figure skating club or pro- gram through digital communication, includ- ing social media, with a few simple tips and tricks that are easy to implement and sure to make an impact on membership.
PART I: Building a foundation Like any business or organization, your
skating club must market itself. Thoughtful marketing and communications strategies drive results on several levels. Some of the
most important are: x Retaining membership x Attracting new members x Developing your brand
Clubs today are incredibly lucky to have
an array of tools available to accomplish all these things and more for free. It’s amazing to think that our nonprofit, volunteer-run clubs have the opportunity to market ourselves on a par with professionally run, for-profit busi- nesses. To make the most of these opportuni- ties, it’s important to have an integrated strat- egy. This of course is not a “one-size-fits-all” plan, but must work for each club’s individual situation. Get started by thinking about the basics: 1) Demographics of your club a. Size b. Age breakdowns c. Geographic consideration
2) What are the things you most want to communicate? Think about both inter- nal and external audiences. Examples include: a. News and information important to membership — news, upcoming events, due dates, housekeeping items meant for internal audience only
b. News and information to share with membership’s friends, families, sup- porters and alumni such as events, fundraising and sponsorship oppor- tunities, competition, recruitment ef- forts
c. Branding — introducing your club to the public; to prospective new mem- bers, sponsors and supporters
Once you have determined and prior-
itized your needs, it’s time to pick the plat- forms that best support your efforts. It’s im- portant to be realistic about the time and
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experience needed to manage multiple plat- forms. With so many options out there, which ones do you choose? Which one should you start first? It makes a lot of sense to start with a base such as an email program and regular weekly newsletter, combined with a Face- book page. These two pieces can be a great foundation to connect with the immediate “internal” audience of your club membership as well as beginning to cultivate an “external” audience. Building one or two strong pieces will make it exponentially easier to launch ad- ditional social media accounts in the future.
Email Most clubs use email as their prima-
ry method of communication, as it is much better and more effective than flyers on rink bulletin boards. If your club is small enough, it may be fine to manage your email list via your current Outlook or Gmail account. As your distribution list gets bigger, it may be difficult to send to all members via personal mail accounts. Additionally, you may be limit- ed with the size of attachments such as large photo or video files. An email service provid- er will change your life — The Starlights’ fa- vorite is Mail Chimp. You may have a list of up to 2,500 subscribers and use this software for free. This user-friendly app includes an array of templates and will make your club look as though you’ve got a team of graphic design- ers at your disposal. Making your club’s communications
professional and informative is an important aspect of membership satisfaction and ulti- mately retention. Chances are, a lot of your email messages are action-oriented, requir- ing people to add a task to their to-do lists. While these messages are certainly necessary for all organizations, it’s important to share good news as well. Committing to a regular “all club” newsletter during the season can have a positive impact. A newsletter is a fan- tastic opportunity to connect your member- ship. You can highlight accomplishments, use it to extend parent educational initiatives and present club to-dos in an organized manner that’s easy for your readers to respond to. Strive to make your newsletter informa- tion dense but visually appealing, using for example, the sidebar for upcoming dates. Include appropriate web links or use linked documents for each piece of content. This allows readers to access more detailed infor- mation without having crammed it into the
body of the newsletter. It also allows them to choose information most relevant to them and to download and print if they’d like. Some examples: PDF versions of event flyers, schedules, forms and competition recaps. Make sure to use the email footer with links to your social media accounts. In addition to design help, Mail Chimp
allows users to access data about each cam- paign sent. You can see big-picture numbers like the number of messages delivered and the number opened vs. unopened. Want to get super geeky? You can drill down to finer details like which items subscribers did open and the click activity generated by each link. This immediate feedback allows you to con- tinue to tailor your newsletters to generate the best response from your audience.
Adding a social media account: Facebook Facebook is by far the largest social me-
dia network worldwide and the one most used by adults. It’s also the number one mobile application. Think of Facebook as a mini-website that’s super easy to update. Like any social media platform, your Face- book page should engage with followers on a regular basis. Engagement goes beyond gaining “likes” for your page. It means pro- viding content that your audience finds in- teresting enough to comment on and share with others. This should be a mix of your own user-generated content, such as pictures, videos and events, and others’ content that you choose to share. Not surprisingly, people like to see pictures of themselves, their kids and people they know. A great picture can extend your page’s overall reach by accessing that important friends and family network. The next trick is to get those individuals to like your page for further engagement. The Facebook Events tab is another great
tool, particularly for fundraising. Make a Face- book event for each of your fundraisers. Take the time to use a relevant picture for each. When you post and event on your club page, encourage members to share it on their own timelines and use the Invite feature as well. Use your Facebook page to interact with
organizations and brands that are relevant to figure skating and your specific club. Liking other pages and engaging with their content contributes to a vibrant online community. Other pages are also important sources of relevant content that you may want to share with your audience.
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