Do you know what your most valuable asset is as an organization?

For most organizations, the simple answer is your members.

Do you know why?

Most would say that is easy. It is our members that register and pay for our programs. Their registration fees cover the cost of facility rentals, equipment purchases, executive expenses, and any other operational costs.

That’s only half of it!

Knowing and understanding your membership demographic ensures that you connect to the right community businesses. Those right businesses have the interest to advertise locally. These leaders within these businesses will jump at the opportunity for various reasons including; nostalgia, the sense of community, and business opportunity to name a few. But as business leaders, they will need to know the numbers on reach, open rates, frequency of delivery. Your members can help you cover expenses through paying for themself, or by giving your partners access to the members, your partners pay instead!

How do you Grow?

If nothing else, communicating consistently and clearly will build faith in your members that you are open about the details of what is happening behind the scenes. Additional content will increase your rankings with search engines to ensure you beat out other local sports organizations when members are looking for activities.

A study from 2014 completed by Sport England, identified that today's youth's time is dominated by technology. Of all hours available during the week to participate in, only 6 hours are identified to be set aside for sport. In contrast, 79 hours were for technology use.

That same study identified that not only do youth want to have meaningful experiences, but they also want to be engaged in those experiences instead of being delivered to. That means that you need to create and share important information about your organization. And, at the same time, make sure that the information is available to be discussed and questioned. Linking, sharing, favouriting, are critical to keeping your members engaged.

Where to Go from Here?

Create a plan, watch your schedule, and look for any opportunity to create engaging content. So much content created today is fluff easily consumed with the flick of a thumb. However, influencers are most effective when consumers feel that influencers are: like them, an expert, and trustworthy. Holding contests for giveaways must show proof that the prizes were drawn and given away. Real photos from organization events will give you an edge over those with no visuals or those just using stock photos. Be authentic, and get noticed. Ensure that not too much time lapses between posts, and ensure that there is some flow to the content you create.

In Conclusion

When operating your organization, your web presence and social media are the first opportunities: to be found by new members, to engage with existing members, and to recoup previous members. You need to ensure that you align with your target audience by being like-minded, an expert, and trustworthy. You need to ensure your content delivery is consistent and engageable; and that it can be viewed on all platforms.

By doing this, your organization is going to give itself the best chance at the best search rankings, your members will feel more involved in the organization and will be more likely to return year after year.

The challenge of growing youth participating in sport - Youth Insights Pack - August 2014 -  https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/youth-insight-pack.pdf?VersionId=9viMHu6EyE_eJoO1KslRqkukou_P3dZV