In the world of association marketing, a stranger is a member you just haven't met. Even so, many organizations are still reluctant to look up their old email lists and reach out to these unknown (yet potential) recruits.

Raise your hand if you have the bad habit of constantly having too many tabs open. As marketers, it simply comes with the territory. We have 16 different logins for seven different social media channels and then another one open to schedule and publish across those channels. We have one tab open for our email platform, another for our Association Management Software - all while Slack is constantly pinging us for project updates (and the latest funny memes). And when our computer decides to automatically restart because we hit the threshold, it's like a cold splash of water in the face.

*Information received from the Digital Media Strategy Blog

Social Media is a huge platform for marketers when it's leveraged properly. However, developing the perfect strategy for social can be quite daunting. Have no fear I am here to strip away the nonsense and focus on three trends worthy of your time. Whether you want to grow your social media presence or simply maintain followers, you will want to use these tips.

Before I start, I will always say that price structure is going to be your biggest obstacle with millennials. I was asking a friend, who isn't a member of associations, how they felt about joining one, to which I got: "We don't even like paying for the things we have to pay for." And after a pause asked: "is there a reason I’d have to join one?" 

I’m sure by now you have heard of the shorthand for the buzzword user experience or “UX”. What is not clear is how it applies to everything that you do and how to go about optimizing for it. I am going to give you a couple of free tools and some pointers on how to incorporate UX thinking into your marketing practices for better ROI.