Author: Alexa Kade
Membership in a professional association provides a wide range of valuable benefits, from access to professional development and industry insights to career and networking opportunities. But in a digital-first world where professional lives are increasingly fast-paced, delivering this value to members in ways that feel meaningful and personal requires intentional effort.
One way you can reinforce why membership in your association matters beyond the most common benefits is by fostering connections among members. Especially as younger members join your organization—often with expectations for more immediate and tailored experiences—it’s becoming increasingly important to modernize and diversify your community-building efforts.
In this guide, we’ll walk through a few ideas for building stronger, lasting relationships among association members, as well as how technology can support that goal. Let’s dive in!
Diversify Your Communication Channels
If you were to list all of the ways you communicate with your association members, email would probably be at the top—and with good reason, since it’s a tried-and-true way to reach members directly. However, in a 2024 survey of association members, 50% reported feeling like they were receiving too many emails from the organizations they were part of, up from 34% in 2023.
Given this increase, it may be time for your association to rely less on email and incorporate other channels into its communication strategy. And since more than 9 in 10 U.S. adults own a smartphone, converting some emails into mobile messages is likely a good way to reach many of your members.
Text messaging can offer a faster, more personal touch—ideal for quick updates and reminders. However, if your goal is to build community, you may consider investing in a mobile app for associations that not only offers top-down messaging but also allows members to share their thoughts on industry topics in forums and directly contact each other.
Additionally, ensure your website and social media content align with your direct messaging channels and promote interactivity. Encourage members to share blog posts or other online resources that interest them (which your app can also support!) and comment on your social media posts to continue their conversations with peers.
Segment & Personalize Member Experiences
All of your members have different backgrounds and preferences, so your engagement strategy shouldn’t be one size fits all. Segmenting your member base according to interests, career stage, location, engagement history, and other factors not only allows you to tailor content and outreach more effectively to individual members but also help members who share similar characteristics connect.
Here are a few tips for personalizing member experiences with connection in mind:
- Create robust profiles in your member engagement solution and compile them into internal and external member directories.
- Promote content to the segments that would be most interested in it, whether that’s association news, job postings, volunteer opportunities, or local events.
- Encourage year-round networking and help micro-communities form around shared professional goals or challenges.
As you try these tactics, periodically survey your members to see what they think you’re doing well and where you could improve with personalization. These insights can refine your strategy and show members that their voices matter in your association’s community.
Host Appealing Events
Events are likely a cornerstone of your member engagement strategy, whether you focus all of your planning energy on an annual conference or also host smaller events like workshops or meet-and-greets in between. These shared experiences of learning and problem-solving are great opportunities for community-building among members—as long as you set the tone.
Clowder’s member engagement guide recommends elevating your events by:
- Considering member interests when choosing topics and speakers. Your full slate of conference sessions and in-between events should appeal to members with a wide variety of professional interests and levels of knowledge about their field. Try not to schedule multiple sessions that the same members would want to attend at the same time to keep everyone satisfied.
- Incorporate networking at all stages of the event. In addition to building dedicated socialization time into your event, make it easy for attendees and speakers to network between sessions by letting everyone make digital business cards in your app and access each other’s cards via QR codes. Encourage networking before and after the event, too—create virtual spaces for members to discuss which sessions they want to attend in advance and share what they learned afterwards.
- Ensure event logistics enhance the experience, not diminish it. The easier you make registration, check-in, session selection, and access to supplementary materials, the more time event attendees will have to get to know each other. Plus, a smooth experience will make them more likely to return for future events and become more ingrained in your association’s community.
Additionally, as eCardWidget explains, events are among the best ways to welcome new members into your association, and focusing on the areas above will help them feel more connected earlier on in their membership. If you open any events to non-members, they’ll also get a taste of what it’s like to be part of your association and may be more likely to join once they understand that they’ll become part of a vibrant community if they do.
Provide Accessible, Collaborative Professional Development
Many of your members likely joined your association to access professional development opportunities, whether they’re required to fulfill continuing education requirements to maintain a license or certification, or they just want to learn about topics in their field that interest them. These offerings also hold the potential to connect members with similar ambitions, but similarly to events, you need to set the stage by prompting discussion.
As you create social media content and open forums in your member app, encourage members to share their experiences learning from:
- The on-demand content in your online or mobile resource library (downloadable eBooks, worksheets, videos, infographics, etc.)
- Guided courses you’ve developed in your association’s learning management system (LMS)
- Webinars, panels, and other live information sessions
Additionally, create systems for members to endorse or recommend opportunities to each other and celebrate certification milestones together. When professional growth feels collaborative, members don’t just gain useful skills in the moment—they also build valuable relationships in their field that they can continue learning from.
Strong association member connections are the product of thoughtful strategy, ongoing experimentation, and data-driven refinement. The goal is not just to facilitate one-time interactions, but to create an environment where lasting relationships flourish. With the right tools and intentional efforts from your whole team, your association can truly become a professional community.
