Your association’s online career center holds great potential for your organization. Aside from being a source of revenue for your association, it also offers a big benefit for your members: help with career development. And because it offers a desirable benefit for your members, it can help you to grow association membership through increased acquisition and retention.
But to get all of the benefits your online career center can offer, you need to increase member engagement.
Why is member engagement important?
Driving member engagement with your online career center is critical to getting the most value from the career center for your association. Consider these key points:
- More member engagement with your career center means more members are accessing a benefit that helps them draw value from their membership and therefore encourages them to continue renewing.
- By driving more member traffic to your online career center, the career center becomes more attractive to employers because they see a large and growing pool of qualified candidates for their job openings.
- As more employers and members engage with your career center, the career center becomes known as THE online career development destination for your industry, which in turn helps you to attract more members and employers.
Member engagement ideas for your online career center
You typically use more than one method to get the word out about things like upcoming association events, industry news, and member perks. So, doesn’t it make sense to take a multi-channel approach to driving member engagement with your career center as well?
Here are some effective ways to engage members with your career center:
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Put your association’s blog to work.
Refer to career related articles in your career center from your association’s blog posts. Promoting articles that cover everything members need to make their résumés stand out, ace interviews, advance their careers, and navigate the digital world will drive more interest in your career center.
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Use a jobs widget.
Placing a jobs widget on your association’s home page is an eye-catching way to advertise your career center while providing dynamic content for members and increasing job views and exposure for employers. If you’re interested in creating a jobs widget that fits your website design, YM Careers can help. YM Careers designers can ensure your job widget matches the format and spacing available on your homepage for a seamless look.
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Incorporate career center ads in your email newsletters.
Include active jobs, or career center ads, in your member newsletters. Dynamic content, such as an updated list of active jobs, provides an easy source of relevant information for readers.
Another way to promote your career center through your newsletters is to feature the career center in newsletter articles. For example, you might feature a job seeker who found a great career opportunity through the career center.
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Use your online member community.
Use your online member community to post announcements about new or commonly overlooked resources available in your career center. You might also ask some of your most involved members to post about their positive experiences with your career center to get more members interested and involved.
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Be social.
Millions of people use social media channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram, making social media a great avenue for engaging members with your career center. Use social media scheduling software to set up career center ads to appear on your social media channels and increase awareness.
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Use traditional media.
There are multiple non-digital ways to drive members to engage with your career center, too. For example, include printed career center flyers in member welcome packets and at in-person events. Display signs promoting your career center at in-person meetings, and include career center ads in your print publications.
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Put member data to work.
At the heart of increasing member engagement is your ability to track, analyze, and act on member data. Connect your career center with your association management software (AMS) and begin to capture and store career center activity within each member’s record in the AMS. You can then use the additional data and insights about their interests to drive more informed member engagement efforts.
For example, you might pull a list of members who have been actively searching for a job. Then, send them an email highlighting the resources in your career center that can help them land a job – such as résumé reviews, job seeker articles, and access to career coaches.
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Ask for feedback.
One of the best ways to better understand how to boost engagement with your members is to get input from them. Ask about their experience with your career center. Ask them what aspects they find most useful and what would make their member experience even better. Then, use their feedback to inform your member engagement activities.
As you can see, there are multiple ways to raise awareness and increase member engagement with your career center. A clear career center presence on your association’s website, in newsletters, on social channels, in blog articles, and in printed flyers will reach members in every method they turn to for association information.
Learn more about how to improve member engagement with your career center
Discover more tips and strategies for engaging members with your association’s career center: Read the guide, Top Ways to Grow Your Career Center.
