2014 IABC Chapter Management Awards / Atlanta / Communications Work Plan General IABC/Atlanta s 2013 communications strategy was to promote the value of an IABC membership and IABC s programming, as well as the expertise of the communications professionals in the Atlanta area. We also wanted our members and business partners to have the opportunity to network with each other at events, at meetings, and/or online. To do that, we needed to provide them with an email marketing plan integrated with web and social media communications. We also wanted to provide our audiences with the communications tools that allowed them to get engaged with the chapter and its membership, as well as with local communications experts and business leaders in Atlanta. This year, we reignited our email branding with a new look and feel and coupled it with a reface of the IABC/Atlanta website, complete with embedded social media tools, as well as other enhancements. We set measurable communications objectives that involved partnering on a monthly basis with our programming and marketing teams. Our overall, IABC/Atlanta strategic plan involved membership recruitment, engagement, development and partnership, and communications planning and implementation played an integral role in helping to make all the pieces work well together. We conducted a membership survey at the end of 2012 to determine our communications goals for 2013, and then we conducted a mid year survey to assess our results prior to year s end. We experienced significant challenges with our web based communication vehicles throughout the year, but we still managed to meet or exceed many of our objectives, especially with communicating our programming, mixer and recognition events. Below are our activities from January through November 2013, which include survey results, email marketing, and online activity (both website and social media). Internal Program Communications with members: Goal: Promote IABC/Atlanta Professional Development and Member Recognition Opportunities Measurable Objectives: 1. Reface IABC/Atlanta website and create collateral material to match, including email marketing, social media marketing and meeting/event marketing materials. 2. Provide weekly emails to membership, prospective members and business partners to promote programming, development and networking opportunities for the chapter. 3. Publish semi/monthly programming and activities on the website, providing weekly updates (or when necessary) either through articles or social media. 4. Provide weekly discussion opportunities via social media channels about monthly programming, events and member recognition. 1
Implementation IABC/Atlanta Website o Rebranded website with new look and feel with Twitter/Facebook fed from home page, along with an audio/video player and feedback sections on each article page. (see website work sample #1) o Created roll up feed from Facebook/Twitter, so IABC/Atlanta Twitter and Facebook friends can comment and have them display on the IABC/Atlanta website. o Created automated system that allows website users to post/advertise/apply for job openings through the site o Created automated system that uploads speaker proposals. The programming VP, as well as the communications VP are both notified when a speaker proposal is submitted. o Website updates were performed in conjunction with E Mail marketing, including weekly updates/promotions of monthly luncheons (promoted on home page), semi monthly updates on workshops (offered locally, as well as through IABC headquarters), and quarterly updates on mixers and SIGs. Email Marketing Email template rebrand, Promoting monthly luncheons, mixers and SIGs, and IABC/Atlanta E News o Email template was rebranded to reflect IABC/Atlanta s new look. (See work sample #2) o Emails were sent to membership, prospective member and business partner lists 2 3 times per week with IABC based luncheon announcements, mixer or SIG programming or other workshop or development opportunities Total distribution 1,276 on each email send o IABC/Atlanta E News released once a month, one week prior to monthly luncheon to promote monthly luncheon, any additional mixers or SIGs that month, as well as upcoming IABC/Atlanta, SoReg, or IABC events or activities. o Averaged 25% open rate consistently throughout the year. o Click Through rate averaged around 18% per email. Feedback systems: Member survey Suggestion field with registration Social media Meeting and program surveys Board member networking after meeting and at mixers External Program 2
Communications with external audiences: Goal: Increase awareness of IABC, as well as the monthly and quarterly luncheons and events. Measurable Objective: Partner with IABC/Atlanta Programming and Marketing VPs each month on creating branded collateral for luncheons, workshops and SIGs. Publish post event materials, if applicable, to the IABC/Atlanta within a few days of event occurring. Implementation Branding IABC/Atlanta Website o Promoted 11 monthly luncheons in site s main section and created customized, rotating banners for 8 of those luncheons o Created/displayed monthly and annual sponsor graphics prominently on home page Social Media (see separate section below) Golden Flame awards program o Promoted through email, website and social media the Golden Flame Awards Rules and Call for Entries, Cheat Sheets, Workshop and Gala. o Successful email and membership marketing helped us sell out our Golden Flames Gala two weeks ahead of schedule Luncheon promotions and newsletters o Because of our successful email marketing program, IABC/Atlanta experienced its largest luncheon participant # in March (119 registrants) Luncheon s averaged more than 65 registrants a month in 2013, an improvement of 20% in 2013, and overall attendance was 36% higher than in 2012 Transferable Season Pass o Used email and website marketing to promote the transferrable season pass Began sending weekly, transferable season pass emails to distribution list Partnered with programming to create/print season pass marketing materials for monthly luncheons Promoted season pass in E News o Followed up all promotions via email with website postings luncheons, workshops, SIGs and recognition events. In 2008 IABC launched new branding. The logo design, still in use today, was based on IABC International branding guidelines, and the campaign won a CMA award in the branding category. 3
Our chapter positioning as a multi disciplinary, global association is based on the key messages outlined by the IABC International branding guidelines. SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM Goals and Objectives Purpose: Engage both current and prospective members in order to retain current members and gain new members Inform both current and prospective members (events, benefits, resources) Provide platform for open discussion / information exchange GOALS for 2013: 1. Increase efficacy and use of IABC/Atlanta social media channels (for and by members) 2. Improve leverage of IABC/Atlanta social media channels as a membership growth tool 3. Increase awareness of IABC/Atlanta social media channels OBJECTIVES (MEASURES of SUCCESS) Quantitative: Increases / upward trend in applicable engagement and participation metrics, e.g., likes, shares, etc. for Facebook, retweets for Twitter, members for LinkedIn; increase in clickthroughs on links embedded in social media posts Qualitative: Participation feedback (density, frequency, sentiment); attributable increase in IABC/Atlanta event early registration + total registration Budget $0 100% volunteer service, management and contribution. Implementation: Strategies supporting Purpose & Goals: 1. Shift core IABC/Atlanta social channel management from external approved sponsor to direct board management and contribution to allow more fluid, frequent, and consistent engagement with key audiences (members and prospective members), as well as stronger analytical oversight. 4
2. Maximize core strengths of each channel (customization) in support of best results. Tactics supporting Purpose & Goals: 1. Update social channel branding / design elements as applicable. 2. Increase frequency and relevancy of content as well as response to member developed content. 3. Increase direct board member participation. 4. Cross leverage content across all social channels + mirror on IABC/Atlanta website (feeds). 5. Customize content and create specialized campaigns to channel strength (e.g., snappy engagement and photos on Facebook; curated professional discussions specific to professional development events on LinkedIn). Measurement Analytical tools used to measure effectiveness of IABC/Atlanta social media efforts included all available in suite tools, e.g., Facebook Insights, Twitter @Connect, LinkedIn dashboard, as well as additional nocost analytical tools such as HootSuite, Bit.ly (for clickthrough tracking of embedded links), Google Analytics, etc. (see report social media screenshots and sample of monthly dashboard in work sample) KEY RESULTS (highlights) (tracked 3/2013 11/2013) Facebook: 354 to 406 likes (15% aggregate increase over 8 months) LinkedIn: 446 to 509 members (+14% aggregate increase over 8 months) (Note: with 11/2012 members @ 410, annual increase is at +24%) Twitter: 529 to 597 followers (+13% aggregate increase over 8 months) Increased Event Registrations (qualitative association): Monthly meeting attendance increased 36% over previous year. SEE WORK SAMPLES of screenshots and reports, demonstrating additional qualitative aspects (engagement, participation, sentiment) Obstacles Restrictions on volunteer time (addressed by recruiting efforts + diligent personal effort on the part of all IABC/Atlanta board members). Varying quality of content, putting pressure on voice consistency (addressed by diligent personal effort on the part of all IABC/Atlanta board members, plus oversight by single designated board member). National IABC web site issues crippled social media campaigns / efforts for significant stints, at times, due to being unable to include IABC/Atlanta site links within posts, e.g., registration, more information, etc. 5
WEBSITE LAUNCH Goals and Objectives Purpose create a rebranded IABC/Atlanta website with interactivity to include: Facebook/Twitter roll up feed Automated job posting/job advertising with payment option Automated speaker proposal submission Feedback area, where the vp of communication is notified whenever a feedback is submitted. Desired result of each activity, project or program Increase # of Facebook/Twitter posts Increate # of job postings/advertising to one per week Produce 1 speaker proposal per quarter Budget $0 for labor; all volunteer! $0 for website hosting (but we now pay $250/year to BizzyWeb, beginning this week) $300 for email marketing $0 for artwork and graphics (all donated from one of our sponsors) Obstacles With the website hosting transition underway at IABC headquarters, it was difficult to keep our IABC/Atlanta website active and searchable in the search engines. Our initial launch was delayed twice before we successfully launched at the beginning of May. Since then, we ve had some issues with the site going down, as well as no site metrics, but we re looking forward to working with our new hosting company to begin to measure our site activity again. To overcome this challenge, IABC/Atlanta created a mirror site, hosted by another company and redirected audiences to the new site whenever the site went down. 6