Nancy Pekala, Senior Director of Online Content, American Marketing Association
Category
  • Next Generation Customer Experience
The Project 

AMAConnect is a community intended primarily for marketer members of the AMA (and secondarily for non-member prospects) to connect with their peers to share challenges and solutions that will help them grow their businesses and their careers.

With nearly 10,000 community members, 4,000+ group memberships, 7,500 posts and 850 media files, AMAConnect is a key benefit of AMA membership.

The community platform is unique for associations (especially mid-sized ones like the AMA).  No other competitor boasts its own branded community and AMAConnect serves as a key driver, not only for member engagement, but also revenue in terms of member acquisition, retention, event registration, website traffic and webcast attendance.

The Technology

Telligent Community

Metrics Matter

A couple of key metrics tracked include: 

• The number of AMA chapters participating in the community - the association’s chapter network is a key driver of revenue and it was absolutely critical that chapters participated in the community and helped grow it.  (Currently, more than a third of our chapters have their own groups on the platform and our Chapter Council are actively engaged in the community, using it for project planning and private sharing.) 

• The number of answers in the Q&A Forums - the primary value for our users was that it was a place you could go to ask important questions about daily marketing challenges and get thoughtful answers to those questions by fellow marketers in the know.  In the last 6 months alone, engagement has increased 20%.

Disruptive Factor

It was not an easy sale.  One thing that’s true of all associations is that resources are very, very limited.  Additionally, no other association or competitor was investing in a branded community. Instead, they were opting for a traditional social media strategy focusing on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Selling the Board of Directors, the C-Suite leadership and various other constituencies was a two-year-process.  But the results—connecting marketers globally, enhancing local chapters and task force initiatives, event revenue and more—stand on their own. 

Shining Moment

Perhaps one of the most telling signs that the community has legs with real value is that Board of Directors (a high-level CMO of a well-known consumer packaged goods company among them) are using the community to share content and engage with members.  These are extremely busy and high-level executives who don’t tweet, facebook or link in (unless it’s being done for them).

 

ABOUT The American Marketing Association

The American Marketing Association (AMA), the largest marketing association in North America, is a professional organization for individuals involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing worldwide. It works to help marketers deepen their marketing expertise, elevate their careers and,

ultimately, achieve better results. Through partnerships and alliances with marketing organizations around the world, the AMA connects members with marketing professionals throughout its increasingly international and interconnected network. Learn more at MarketingPower.com