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How to Attract the Next Generation of Members for Your Association

How important are young professionals to your association? They might be more important than you think.

The Community Brands Member Engagement and Loyalty Study shows that most members join a professional organization early in their career journeys. Of the members of professional organizations who responded to the survey in the study:

  • Twenty-two percent of joined as a student.
  • Another 13 percent joined after graduating and before taking their first job.
  • Forty-one percent joined within the first five years of employment.

These young professionals represent the future of your association. Becoming a part of their journey as their careers get underway is a great way to increase membership and keep them around for years to come.

So, how can you attract and engage more of this new generation of members? One of the most effective approaches is to provide a robust online career center.

Community Brands research shows that job opportunities and career advancement are top reasons people join a membership organization. Having a career center in place offers a huge benefit for young professionals. It helps them find their first great jobs and grow their careers. Your organization can use this appealing member benefit to attract new members and improve member retention.

Here are a few things a robust online career center should include:

  • Modern job board capabilities
    Be sure to select job board software that provides a modern online experience. For example, your career center should include:

    • Easy job search – The ability to easily search and apply for relevant internships and job opportunities
    • Job emails – The ability for members to sign up up to have jobs matched to their preferences and qualifications and sent directly to their inbox whenever those jobs are posted.
    • Personalized job recommendations – The ability to recommend job opportunities to your members based on their prior job searches on your job board.

YM Careers by Community Brands offers modern job board software that helps you connect your members with their next great job opportunity.

  • Advanced career center resources
    Your online career center should also provide resources to help professionals land the jobs they’re seeking. For example:

    • Free resume review – Offer free, basic resume critique through your career center.
    • Job seeker articles, tips, and recommendations – Provide articles and other content including résumé writing tips, interview tips, job search ideas, and tips on social networking.
    • Career coaches – Give members access to certified career coaches who can help with job search strategies, CVs and résumés, cover letters, and more.
  • Professional networking
    Include social media integration on your career center site so that job seekers who view a job in your job board can see who they know at the organization advertising that job. This is a useful technology integration that can help your members open doors to new opportunities.
  • The ability to optimize your job board for visibility and access to new members
    A great way to reach new members is by integrating your job board with your association management software (AMS). For example, YM Careers online job board software integrates with AMS solutions by Community Brands. With this type of integration, non-members who visit your job board and sign up as job seekers via job alerts or account registration can be automatically delivered to your AMS as a list of new member prospects for your use in new member marketing and acquisition efforts.

Learn more.
Find out more about what the next generation of members wants and what you can do to attract and engage more of them.

On-Demand Webinar: Attracting the New Generation of Members

If you missed the live webinar, start watching the recording now!

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