Mastering Leadership Communication to Connect with Members

Whether you manage a social or professional fraternity or sorority, communicating with members should be one of your top priorities. With all your organization has to do on a daily basis, member engagement activities can unintentionally fall by the wayside. 

Not to worry — these tactics will help you adopt great communication habits and enhance the member experience:

• Tailor Your Strategy to Member Communication Preferences

• Make Communication a Core Value

• Use Membership-Specific Communication Software

Before we dive into those tactics, let’s first review why effective member communication can propel your organization forward. 

Why is communicating with members important?

Internal organizational communication is vital for multiple reasons, especially in organizations like yours that thrive off of member engagement. Fostering an open dialogue with your members can help your organization:

• Build trust with members. Being transparent about member-facing instances in your organization fosters mutual understanding and confidence. 

• Promote involvement. Keeping members updated about what is going on at your organization can encourage participation in upcoming initiatives.

• Cultivate a sense of community. By prioritizing open communication between leadership and the rest of your organization, you create a shared feeling of belonging and a common identity. 

• Mitigate conflict. Without clear statements from leadership, misconception, confusion, and conflict can grow within your organization. You can steer clear of fractured communication cadences with a unified approach.

• Drive growth and retention. Making members feel heard and valued is important for keeping them invested in your organization. Plus, acknowledging and responding to their feedback can improve the overall member experience. 

• Reinforce organizational values. Organizations like yours rely on your members for financial support and social capital. Including them in important conversations demonstrates your commitment to the member experience and that you appreciate member input.

Ultimately, all of these benefits contribute to member retention and recruitment. However, establishing effective communication cadences is sometimes easier said than done. Let’s explore our top tips for mastering member communication.  

Tailor Your Strategy to Member Communication Preferences

Depending on the type of organization you represent, your members could have similar or vastly different communication preferences. Striking the perfect balance and reaching the greatest number of members possible is crucial for continued growth. 

Here are some ways to take member preferences into account in your communication cadence:

• Define each message’s purpose. Outline the goal of each message before you send it to your members. The nature and contents of your message can influence your members’ preferred communication channels. For example, members might prefer a quick text message about an everyday occurrence, but an email promoting the organization’s new event page.

• Survey members. Eliminate the guesswork by asking members about their preferences directly. Create an online survey via Google Forms or SurveyMonkey to ask members about their preferred communication channel and why they like using it. You can add nuance by presenting hypothetical scenarios (like the ones mentioned above) and see if any answers change. Then, distribute it via email with a hard deadline so members don’t forget to complete it.

• Segment your audience. As previously mentioned, your member community isn’t a monolith. Use diversified segmentation to account for as many of your members’ preferences as possible, and transfer the results from your survey into your member database. Then, adapt your communications to reach groups with similar preferences.

It’s important to note that your member communication approach should be dynamic. Your organization is constantly changing, so you should request that members update their preferences regularly. Also, NPOInfo suggests conducting frequent database maintenance to remove outdated or duplicate information and fill in any gaps in your member communication data.

Make Communication a Core Value

Communicating with your members about communication and implementing internal shifts helps institute it as a core value of your organization. Here are some actions you can take to support open dialogues between leadership and members:

• Make decisions transparently. Members should feel like their opinions are taken into account while important decisions are being made. Open up the decision-making process by inviting members to town hall-style meetings where they can ask questions and voice concerns. You can also put some decisions to a vote so the most popular solution passes. 

• Respond to all feedback. Even if you don’t end up implementing a member’s suggestion, acknowledging that you considered their feedback and explaining why you aren’t moving forward with it assures members that you listened to their thoughts.

• Welcome constructive criticism. Members should feel welcome to critique aspects of your organization that they think can be improved. Demonstrate that you value constructive criticism by remaining professional when responding to feedback and writing a message at the top of your feedback form reminding members that constructive suggestions are acceptable. 

Whatever you decide to do, ensure it’s convenient for members to speak up. Add a feedback tab to your website where you highlight how members can voice opinions, whether it’s at a town hall meeting or via an anonymous online form. 

Use Membership-Specific Communication Software

Using digital tools to facilitate communication is crucial to getting messages out quickly and conveniently. However, leveraging a solution that addresses the unique needs of membership organizations helps streamline your workflow even further. 

Let’s say you’re a collegiate fraternity leader. Here are some communication features that OmegaFi recommends looking for in a fraternity membership software solution:

• Mass communication coordination via email and text

• Member-to-member messaging

• Mobile app for access on-the-go 

• File sharing

• Event coordination

• Integration with other solutions, like recruitment management

From organizing recruitment activities to planning meetings, software that’s tailored to meet the needs of member organizations helps foster a sense of community and clarity for your entire organization. Look for solutions that match your niche and support your upcoming initiatives.

Wrapping Up

Effective communication is the foundation of any efficient and transparent membership organization. As long as you keep communication channels open between leadership and members, you can cultivate a trusting and thriving community. 

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