Energizing Virtual Meetings: No More ZZZZZ’s

I recently attended a great session on conducting productive virtual meetings by Joyce Weiss, training and development specialist and an Institute for Organization Management faculty member.

She started with the following statement – “It’s all about engagement!”

She talked about how it’s important to get people on camera, don’t let them do other things, like “shampooing the cat,” a real-life example she gave.

She talked about a study that stated that 86% of attendees were fully engaged, as good as face-to-face meetings, if the following five rules are followed.

5 Rules for Online Meetings:

• The 60 Second Rule – use a statistic or story to let participants understand the content immediately.

• The Responsibility Rule – set the tone that participants are not observers and the session will be participatory.

• The Nowhere to Hide Rule – use break out rooms and give clear and special tasks to let everyone know their role.

• The Power Point NO Overload Rule – mix facts and stories and use minimal slides unless it’s a webinar.

• The 4 Minute Rule – never go longer than 4 minutes without giving the group an activity (write a comment in the chat function, stand up, reflect on your presentation).

She went on and gave us 4 Tips for Setting Your Virtual Agenda:

Openers – never be boring!  Start with an informal opening by asking a question, let people know what to expect and allow them to get comfortable for the session.  Start with a statistic or story.

Revisit – go back to previous comments and tie them in to help retention of information.  It allows participants to write things down and stay involved!

Energizers – tools you can use to get folks involved, ask a question and make them stand up, go to a breakout room, two opposing views.  Or have a controlled stretch break.

 

Closers – action plan to tie it all together and leave time to allow for celebration.  People need to leave feeling good about themselves.  And don’t forget to give them a challenge!

 

For more information on Joyce Weiss and her work go HERE.

Strategic Planning - Better Strategic Plans

Bob Harris, CAE, an Institute for Organization Management faculty member, always delivers great content and this blog post is based on his recent virtual session at an ACCE program.

He started out by talking about the 5 things a Strategic Plan does:

1. Guides the Board of Directors;
2. Aligns your committees;
3. Empowers your staff;
4. Communicates value to your members; and
5. Drop programs that are no longer needed.

Bob suggested naming your next strategic plan - Vision 2025 or Vision 2030.  He went on to ask the question, "is your mission statement and strategic plan in your board members hands?"  If not, create something they can carry in their wallet.  Less is more!

 

He talked about the 5 top documents of an organization:

1. Mission - purpose for existence;
2. Articles of Incorporation - relationship to state government;
3. Bylaws - relationship with members;
4. Policies - interpretation of the governing documents; and
5. Strategic Plan - roadmap for the organization.  Keep it tight, maybe 3 - 6 goals, 3 strategies/tactics per goal?  Some chambers are turning their strategic plan into their membership brochure.  Think info graphic!

Bob went on to talk about best practices in creating your strategic plan: 

• Set the expectations upfront on what to expect in the process and what the outcome will be and the timetable (hopefully no more than 5 hours);
• Hire a third party to facilitate the process.  Maybe a chamber CEO from a nearby city;
• Use story boarding for the process;
• Include both board and senior staff;
• Conduct every 3 years;
• Due diligence - survey members on your program of work as a starting point for your facilitator; and
• Strategic plan goals should be on your board agenda at every meeting.

For a resource on strategic planning go HERE. And go to Bob’s website for his two new books HERE.

How to Use Content Calendars to Win the Content Game

I recently attended a great webinar by Melissa Harrison, Allee Creative, LLC that I wanted to share on this blog concerning winning the content game.

If you’re responsible for delivering content for your chamber, you’ll definitely want to access the slide deck for templates and examples of her discussion.

The following comments are based on my notes and I want to focus on three of the five areas of her presentation, creating one sheets, content calendar’s and third-party resources.

One Sheets

Create a calendar for each month to track holidays, etc., speaking engagements, blog posts going live or other campaigns and industry topics for the month.  In addition, source future ideas from staff for future content (think of it as a call for content).

Her slide deck has an example of an actual One Sheet of a fictional entity.  Create One Sheets for all 12 months of the year and add as needed throughout the year.

Content Calendar Templates

This is where you actually plan each action on a schedule.  I’ve always said it’s important to be consistent in your schedules for posting content in your different platforms where you’re posting your content for your members.

Again, the slide deck has templates for content calendars for your blog, email marketing and social media actions.  These templates go into great detail on tracking your content and actions depending on the channel you’re in (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc).  Great examples!

Third-party Resources

While she talked about many resources (which are included on the slide deck), I wanted to focus on three she mentioned, since they’re free.  I love free!

She said Pexel and Pixaby are two sites you can go to for free photos for your website.  She also mentioned Canva as a great tool for creating images to showcase you content.

You can access her slide deck HERE.

Good luck in winning the content game!

Governance: Balanced Boards

There are a lot of books and articles on the subject of this blog title and I’d like to highlight the ideas put forth by Glenn Tecker at Tecker International LLC, in a slide deck he recently shared with the association community.

He starts out by talking about the 3 key attributes you should look for when identifying potential new board members.

 

Skill set – marketing, lobbying, legal, finance, fundraising, etc.?

 

Diversity – this would include but not limited to generations, geographic, industry sector, gender, ethnic, etc.?

 

Experience – what experience do they have in the community, working on a board and knowing the work of the chamber?

 

The slide deck included a list of the “Six Key Attributes of Board Members.”  This list below is verbatim from his slide deck (Copyright 2020 Tecker International LLC).

• The ability to think strategically and analytically and to effectively communicate thoughts and the reasons for them.

• Possession of earned respect of other key stakeholder group members.

• The ability to work well with others as a member of a collaborative group with group decision-making authority and an understanding of the fiduciary duties of loyalty, care, and obedience.

• A demonstrated understanding of the differences between “oversight” and “supervision.”

• An earned reputation for emotional maturity, personal integrity, and honesty.

• A demonstrated familiarity with the body of knowledge related to both the process for which the group is responsible as well as the substantive content of the subject area within which decisions are choices will have to be made.

I wrote about the Duty of Care, Duty of Loyalty and Duty of Obedience of board members in a previous blog post that can be found HERE.

 

I’ve also talked about creating job descriptions for potential board members in previous blog posts.  Have you thought about creating a set of interview questions to ask your prospective new board members?  This is where you may want to go back to the skill set and attributes comments above for specific examples.

 

Remember, these new board members will be with the organization for the next six years, if you’re like most chambers who have two year terms renewable for three terms, and picking the right ones is key to your and your organizations success!

For more resources on board governance go HERE.

Connecting with People on Facebook

I attended a fascinating webinar presented by Jannelle Watson with Facebook.

The following are my notes from her session.

She separated her discussion into four different areas; the basics, the tools, content strategy and resources.

The Basics

• You need to be on a Facebook page not a profile
• 218 M active every month
• 166 M return every day
• 156 M use Facebook on mobile every day
• 90% of discovery happens on mobile.  Optimize for mobile.
• Use simple vertical images and graphics, and remember, less is more! 
• Ensure page security.  Set strong passwords, two-factor authentication.

 The Tools

• Comment moderation.  Comment policy, profanity filter and page moderation.
• Facebook Live - most engagement.  10x the comments while Live.
• Live Premieres - schedule and debut on-demand videos as Live moments.
• Facebook Groups - you can tie it to your page.  A great resource to continue conversations with select attendees.
• Events - tool used to promote your events.
• Messenger - send important messages to your subscribers or use to set auto responses.
• Messenger Rooms
• Stories - show your personality.  You’re at the top tray when your people sign into Facebook.  You can use it to interact with your members.  Remember, your story goes away after 24 hours.
• Facebook and IG ads - paid advertisements vs organic reach. 

Content Strategy

What Works?  Make sure it’s authentic, interactive, timely and consistent and varied.

• Authentic - make it feel personal and a connection to the community;
• Interactive - answer questions from your members, go Live, like and reply to comments and tag other pages;
• Timely - discuss hot topics, breaking new (i.e. press releases or program deadlines) and write quality long-form content.  This can be cut and segmented and promoted on Twitter; and
• Consistent and varied - develop a content calendar (for a previous blog post on that subject go HERE), post regularly, aim for daily posts and use a variety of post types, photos, videos, stories, links and Facebook live.

Resources

• Google Facebook Resources
• Fundraising tool for 501 c3’s only
• Facebook speakers are free
• Facebook Live Producer
• Facebook.com/gpa - has everything she talked about
• Facebook Help

Great tips to take advantage of this social media platform.

Monetizing Virtual Events

I recently attended a webinar on the title of this blog post by a senior staff member of the Tulsa Regional Chamber.

It was a timely session on how to pivot and monetize your virtual events.

She led a discussion on how to pivot your program of work and redirect your resources (strategic plan) to show value for your members.
 
Redirect your priorities and define your core competencies. Focus on the short-term and that may mean creating a new strategic plan.
 
Identify the opportunity - convene, create free resources to help your members gain an advantage.
 
She went on to talk about how they created a Business Support Series - twice a week programming, two experts, hosted by the Chamber CEO and Sponsor (think revenue).
 
They sold four-week sponsorships (eight episodes) with logo placement and introduction of speakers.
 
Sponsors were allowed to ask speakers a question at the end.  These webinars are fully scripted programs.  The key to make these programs successful is to lead with quality content.
 
Identify sponsors and align a sponsor with the content you plan to highlight.  All sponsors get the same deal.
 
When identifying sponsors, think companies who are doing well and have something to sell.
 
Create a special landing page on your website for this series and you can archive the meeting and any collaterals you might want to share with members and non-members for future reference and selling opportunities.
 
Things to think about when creating this series:
 

• Consistency

• Cost

• Frequency

• Benefits

• Urgency

 
Get out there and monetize something.  For a resource on monetizing your virtual events go HERE.

Good luck!

Creating Member Experiences and Engagement

Shari Pash is an Institute for Organization Management faculty member and I always like to attend her webinars.

Here are my notes from a presentation sponsored by Institute.

 

Emphasis on the overall experience of your programs.  You need to be creative and innovate moving forward.  Digital is the new normal.

 

She posed the question.  What’s the holistic member experience?

 

Transactional vs Relational?

 

• Transactional - looking for that dollar for dollar value.
• Relational - investment as a way of doing business, having their back and industry while keeping it personal.

 

She went on to talk about sponsor experiences - matching up a company with a specific event or program of work (think thought leadership).  What about a happy hour on a topic of the sponsor?

 

You could send a bottle of wine, have it reviewed by a Sommelier and then have the sponsor present on a specific topic that your members would be interested in.  Your event is digital but the wine tasting makes it an experience too!

 

How are experiences created?  Your experiences for your members need to show emotion, make interactions personal, and interesting.

 

She talked about micro-moments, different experiences along the way that creates loyalty to your chamber.  They can be different things for different businesses.

 

It’s all about how you make your members feel!  You remember the famous quote from Maya Angelo, “people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”

 

I’ve said it here before, it’s about the member not about you.  How are you helping them solve problems in good times and in bad?  If you have specific examples, repurpose and communicate that through your social media channels.

 

She talked about your A, B, and C members and how to create experiences for all three (they will be different).

 

Your A members should be your key focus upfront.  They may be your high dollar members or your altruistic members, those that contribute because they believe in what you do on behalf of business and the community at large.

 

She talked about reviewing your digital experience for members and do you need to update it?  Think about creating a digital plan, especially for your nonmembers.

 

Good advice!

 

How are you engaging with your members or your potential members?

 

Don’t get short-sighted by not looking long-term.  You’ve heard the phrase, “this too shall pass.”  As we know, in a K economic recovery, not all businesses are hurting, but some are hurting more than others.  Create a foundation for the future and how you will engage with your members moving forward.

 

“Support the Business Community” - that could be your “relationship” message.  Remember, we talked about transactional vs relationships earlier in this blog post.  This could be powerful and it’s the message that resonates with that altruistic member.

 

Shari went on to talk about experience marketing, connecting with existing members through your brand and messaging.

 

Your messaging should be authentic, organic, conversational while making connections with your members.

 

Continue on building a strong community!

 

For more resources from Shari go HERE.