• Useful Data From Surveys

    "I don't think it's any mystery why people join," Matt said. Then he began ticking off reasons with his finger, "They join to improve their business network, make friends, see the speakers for Tuesday lunches, and engage in service." I had just proposed that our Rotary Club membership committee gather data on our members to support future engagement and recruitment.  Matt wasn't wrong. Those are the reasons that people join our club. However, those answers aren't very useful. The problem is that...

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  • We're In Progress

    "It's odd that what the board recommended was different from what the focus group wanted," one of our clients told me in a meeting. We're in the final stages of development for their website and discovered that the content of several pages needed to be tweaked after a focus group review.

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  • Pay Attention to Me

    Everyone wants more attention. I've yet to come across a client who didn't say that their website needed, "greater visibility." When I ask clients what greater visibility would do for them, they say that it would help them grow. While this isn't entirely false, pursuing visibility is not a goal that leads to growth. Instead, seeking to understand the reason that people join is what charts the path to expanding membership.

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  • Chat GPT Will Supply Your Competition With a Million Monkeys

    I had beers with a couple of friends last Thursday. One of them just launched a redesign of their business website. His last major obstacle was that he needed to write his "about us" page. Rather than actually write it though, he recorded a short audio file where he talked about his company's history. Then he uploaded it to Otter.ai, a transcription software to convert it to text. He fed the text into Chat GPT and told it to organize it and re-write it with a more professional tone. He tweaked that...

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  • The Magic Moment to Identify What Members Value

    Imagine a member’s entire experience with your organization as a timeline. At the start of the line, they hear about your association for the first time from a coworker. In the middle, they’re active members, perhaps attending your annual conference. At the end of the line, they mention to a peer that they were a member several years ago. What is the specific second on that timeline where you can find out the most about what they value?

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John Hooley
President, Steward

John is a graduate of 10,000 Small Businesses, a certified Customer Acquisition Specialist, and a Zend Certified Engineer. He speaks and writes on connecting digital strategy to association goals. Outside of work he's an avid traveler, climber, diver, and a burgeoning sailor. He also volunteers with Rotary and Big Brothers Big Sisters.