The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth

review.

Section One

Chapter One: Introduction

A few years back my Toastmasters club stopped meeting and took the summer months off. Summer in our part of the world is July and August. We ended June with a healthy twenty members, however when September rolled around and we started up again, we only had six members return.

As the club President this caught me by surprize. I had to quickly put measures in place to bring us up to charter strength of twenty members. One of those measures was to look at our club as a business and what we would have to do to make our club a successful business.

I hate not knowing how to do something. Even more … I hate knowing that somebody else can do something that I can’t do.

In over 21 years with Toastmasters, presenting and listening to countless number of speeches, I have become an expert in many subjects that I knew absolutely nothing about. A funny thing happens when you research subjects that you are interested in but don’t know that much about, you very quickly begin to know more about the subject than others do.

William Feathers back in the 1790s is often quoted as saying knowledge is power! I often state publicly that I don’t agree with him. Knowledge is only power when you do something with it.

Social media is here to stay. At least until the next big thing comes along and replaces it. It has added a new dimension to social interaction. Whether it is for the better or worse would be the subject of an interesting debate. While many people use it to stay in touch with the daily activities of their family members whether they be local or afar, it has been embraced by the business world. Promotion and marketing is essential to the success of a business.

I believe that Toastmasters clubs should be run like businesses and social media platforms provide promotional and marketing opportunities that can help spread the word about one of the world’s best kept secrets.

This manual passes the power of knowledge on to you that I have collected over the past few years on the subject of marketing and promotion using social media. I have multiple profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Slideshare, Meetup and Google+ that I use for promotional purposes. Sometimes it has worked … sometimes not.

Besides my own personal profile on Facebook where I am somewhat conservative, I have five or more Facebook (fan) pages that I have created for marketing purposes. Each is based upon a specific theme and the content posted is related to the topic. I have also posted to hundreds of Facebook pages across North America. In addition, I have 10 or so Twitter profiles that I utilize for promotional purposes, once again, each with a specific purpose.

In case you are wondering … yes, it does take up a lot of my time.

Over my two decades in Toastmasters I have seen the evolution of how Toastmasters clubs promote themselves for the purpose of growing their clubs i.e. enticing new members to join.

During those years in my own leadership journey I’ve had the opportunity to organize and provide club officer training for all of the roles both at a local level as well as on-line as part of District 21’s remote club officer training.

When conducting the training for the Club Vice President of Public Relations I divided promotional methods into categories of Traditional and New Strategies.

The club VP Public Relations should be the main person tasked with overseeing the club’s social media initiatives and on-line presence. Promoting the club and increasing its membership falls into their duties as a club officer supporting the mission of the club, however …

You can’t do it alone, recruit some assistance.

• Utilize the talent in your club. Create a Public Relations team.

• If you aren’t experienced with using Facebook, recruit someone who is. (you will learn a new skill)

• Recruit another member as an Administrator for the Facebook page (you can have several)

Consider completing a project in the Competent Leader manual project or perhaps a High Performance Leadership project (HPL) while serving as VP Public Relations.

For a big picture view of how Toastmasters International is embracing the marketing of the Toastmasters brand I would suggest reading Strategic Plan 2015 Future Envisioned, by Toastmasters International at http://www.toastmasters.org/~/media/BC35DE17AA044405860761FDB85E66C5.ashx

Chapter Two: Traditional Toastmasters Club Membership-Building Marketing Strategies

Organizing & hosting open houses to introduce your club

Publicizing club events

Creating & utilizing promotional Public Relations (PR) posters

Distributing posters at key locations in your community

Ordering   free brochures, pamphlets, handouts from Toastmasters International (TI) whenever you place an order, or by free download from their on-line store

Getting out in public - Holding a meeting at a local book store, library, coffee shop or a public venue

Publicizing speech contests and the winners

Creating and distributing a Newsletter: internal & external

Conducting a Speechcraft and plugging your club and benefits of joining

Having a sign Toastmasters meets here at your meeting room

Creating a club listing on your District Website with up-to-date contact and meeting information

Ensuring that your club meeting information, as well as contact info is up to date at TI

Developing   a relationship with a local news reporter/columnist

Sending out Media Releases of value i.e. promotional material that would be of interest to their readers or followers

After delivering several webinars on the VP Public Relations role I discovered that while I considered the above strategies to be traditional i.e. they have been effectively used for a while, to a new club officer, these are brand new. These strategies still work and you should at least consider if any or all of them would support your task of increasing your club membership.

The New Marketing Strategies

Think marketing!

Think like a business!

Marketing, as defined by the American Marketing Association is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Hmmm.   Another definition is: The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:

(1) identification, selection and development of a product,

(2) determination of its price,

(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and

(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

Our Toastmaster’s product is easily definable. Around the world we all follow the same communication & leadership skills building program.

Our pricing varies from club to club depending on operational expenses that may include the cost of renting a meeting room, if it is not available for free and the exchange rate of our currency against the US dollar used by Toastmasters International.   If we have other Toastmaster’s clubs in our geographical region within the same classification say for example a community club, we have to be comparable to their pricing. Potential members may price shop for what they consider to be a better deal, no different than what they would for everyday goods and services.

There’s an old saying:   "Advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for." It can be said that advertising is paid media, public relations is earned media. With advertising, you tell people how great you are.   With publicity, others sing your praises.

Most Toastmasters clubs don’t have the operational budget to spend on paid advertising and are discouraged from doing so. Advertising is expensive. Publicity and public relations, while not necessarily totally free, can have a better return on investment than money spent on advertising. Many people confuse advertising and public relations. This table (below) compares the two.     

Table Source:     Robert Wynne

If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten!

Conventional marketing wisdom says that you have to touch your customer 7 to 11 times before they make a purchasing decision. In our case, our customers are potential future Toastmaster members. When it comes to touching our customers, don’t take that too literally as it will likely get you in trouble if you were to do so!

In a marketing context, a touch is every time that your customer sees or hears a mention of your name or brand. We discuss branding a little later. Touchpoint examples could be your website, a tweet from your Twitter account, a post to your Facebook page or someone else’s, a blog post focusing on your Toastmasters club, a Linkedin post, a poster on the wall of a public place etc. The list goes on and on.

The individual has to see the word Toastmasters over and over again before they make a decision to check it out. When they think of developing their self-confidence and their communication & leadership skills you want them to think about Toastmasters. And even more importantly, you want them to think about your Toastmaster’s club first!

Enter social media! Social media, if used proactively can maximize your marketing effectiveness and increase your club membership. Think of it as advertising that you promote!

Social Media Overview:

There seems to be a plethora of self-proclaimed social media Gurus who will try to convince you that social media is the only way to go. And they are the expert at solving your business social media initiatives.

On-line social media platforms are within the realms of the do-it-yourselfers and allows Toastmaster’s clubs to develop an on-line presence that is often greater than their club membership and their local reach. They can be an easy, if not time-consuming, method of promoting your Toastmaster’s club to the world. It can be challenging though, to demonstrate a positive return on investment for the time and effort you put into social media activities.

Perhaps the real question is "Should you put time and effort into social media initiatives to attract new members to your Toastmasters club? The answer is likely yes & no."

There are some isolated, rural communities that have not yet developed a social media consciousness i.e. few if any are using it. In larger urban areas that have embraced the concept the question becomes Do you want to put the time & effort into social media? It does not replace face-to-face, belly to belly, interpersonal communication, even though some people are doing so to reduce their own shyness or inability to communicate with others. It won’t replace the relationships with people in our sphere of connections i.e. family, friends, colleagues etc. What social media will do for you is gain you access to a large number of possible members, any time of the day or night, all year long that you would not likely have access to. Something to consider is that while you may not see the potential rewards to having an on-line social media presence, your competition certainly does. They may be getting to your potential future member before you do!

Throughout this manual I will share with you my top social media platforms and software both on-line and not, that serve as tools in helping you to get your message out. Each has their advantages and their disadvantages.

As in my other publications, I use what I call an ‘onion’ approach to exploring a subject. I start off with an overview then peel back layer after layer in order to make the subject understandable. I hope you find that to be appealing! Okay, that’s the only pun I’m going to use … probably … maybe. We’ll see!

The comments provided are my own, based on my personal experience with each of the various social media and may not represent the experience of others.

One of the missions of this manual is to provide you with enough background info for you to decide if incorporating social media into your Toastmaster’s club marketing plan is worth your time and effort.

Before we delve into offering tips & techniques for specific social media venues, we will explore the concept of branding as it is integral to the success of any of your marketing initiatives.

Chapter Three: Branding

As we learned earlier in this manual, the customer has to see your product or service seven to eleven times before they make a buying decision. That decision may be to come out to your club to learn more information.

We are fortunate that Toastmasters International has conducted a great deal of research and development of a recognizable brand. While that is a good thing … it can create challenges in differentiating your club from others if you have others in your geographical area. It can be argued that as Toastmaster clubs, we are not in competition with other Toastmaster clubs, there are lots of potential members out there to go around. However, if you are in a club that has difficulties building your membership and your meetings are poorly attended, then you do have to be competitive … at least for a little while until you pack your meeting room.

So how do you brand your club, just a little?

Toastmasters International’s rebranding initiative included developing and promoting the tagline Where Leaders Are Made.

Why not create a tagline or a motto for your club? My club originated in a pub, then as it grew it moved to a larger pub. We used to order beverages that would be delivered to us for our break. Our slogan or tagline was the club in the pub! Later when the club outgrew meeting in pubs and was looking at a more professional image and meeting space, our slogan became You can take the club out of the pub, but you can’t take the pub out of the club! My club is called Kelowna Flying Solo Toastmasters. It started life as a single’s club that provided speaking & leadership skill development. That idea didn’t fly for very long … pun intended …then it developed into a regular community club. Our tagline now is Flying solo … but not alone!

In addition, I created a couple other graphics that we use on our website, social media venues and printed materials.

The Toastmasters Branding Portal is an excellent resource for logos, images & templates you can use to develop your club brand. Here is the address for their brand portal.

http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/VirtualBrandPortal.aspx     One thing to keep in mind is that while you are encouraged to exercise your creative side in developing your club brand, you are not permitted to use Toastmasters International logos etc. as part of a graphic that you create.

Your club brand, which includes The Toastmasters International corporate brand as well as what you develop locally, should be prominent on everything you touch i.e. your website, social media venues and printed literature. This should also include contact info so that a potential guest can easily see how they can contact you for more info. Make it easy for them!

Here is a look at our branding in action as seen on our club Facebook Page:

Chapter Four: Toastmasters Club Websites

Does your club have one? If so, great! If not, why not?

If so … why not have two of them?

Website development has evolved from a skill that only a few possessed and they likely charged a lot of money for their specialized services, to the point that almost anybody with the time and an interest can create a reasonable website. FreeToastHost as well as other Toastmaster-backed club management systems such as SpeakEasy make it easy for a club to have a web presence.

While I think that this is a great idea, I would strongly suggest that if you have website development skills, that you create another site targeted at the public. This becomes your on-line billboard to encourage visitors to your website to actually come out and visit your club.

I’ve recently created a site for my club at http://flyingsolotoastmasters.ca

Here is the header and top navigational bar (above) for my club. Note the top banner which incorporates Toastmasters International’s