This document outlines a webinar presented by Rae Stonehouse on using social media effectively for Toastmasters membership building. During the webinar, participants explored how marketing, advertising, and public relations relate to the VP of Public Relations role. They also identified traditional membership marketing methods and discussed club branding strategies. Finally, the webinar covered how to maximize effectiveness of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram for Toastmasters membership growth.

1. Membership Building
for Toastmasters
Effective Use
of Social
Media
by Rae
Stonehouse
DTM, PDG

2. Effective Use of Social Media
During this webinar, participants will:
• Explore how marketing, advertising &
public relations relate to the VP Public
Relations Role.

3. Effective Use of Social Media
During this webinar, participants will:
• Explore how marketing, advertising &
public relations relate to the VP Public
Relations Role.
• Identify so-called Traditional Methods of
marketing Toastmasters Club
membership.

4. Effective Use of Social Media
During this webinar, participants will:
• Explore how marketing, advertising &
public relations relate to the VP Public
Relations Role.
• Identify so-called Traditional Methods of
marketing Toastmasters Club
membership.
• Discuss Club branding & strategies.

5. Effective Use of Social Media
During this webinar, participants will:
• Discuss Toastmasters Club websites and
how they work hand-in-hand with social
media.

6. Effective Use of Social Media
During this webinar, participants will:
• Discuss Toastmasters Club websites and
how they work hand-in-hand with social
media.
• Explore specific social media programs …
what works what doesn’t.

7. Effective Use of Social Media
During this webinar, participants will:
• Discuss Toastmasters Club websites and
how they work hand-in-hand with social
media.
• Explore specific social media programs …
what works what doesn’t.
• Discuss some specific actions to
maximise effectiveness of social media
usage.

8. The #1 Strategy to
get someone to join
Toastmasters …

9. … invite them to a
meeting and then ask
them to join!

10. Think marketing!
Think like a business!

11. Marketing
Advertising Public Relations
Paid Earned
Builds exposure Builds trust
Audience is skeptical Media gives third-party validation
Guaranteed placement No guarantee, must persuade media
Competitive creative control Media controls final version
Ads are mostly visual PR uses language
More expensive Less expensive
“Buy this product!” “This is important!”

12. Slide Title
• Open Houses
• Publicize club events
• Utilize promotional PR posters
• Distribute posters at key locations in your
community
• Order free brochures, pamphlets, handouts
from TI whenever you place an order

13. Slide Title
• Get out in public. Hold a meeting at libraries,
a coffee shop or a public venue.
• Publicize your speech contests and the
winners
• Create & distribute a Newsletter:
internal/external
• Conduct a Speechcraft then plug your club
and benefits of joining

14. Slide Title
• Have a sign “Toastmasters meets here” at
your meeting room

15. Slide Title
Reach out and touch somebody!
You have to touch a customer 7 to
11 times before they make a
purchasing decision.

16. The New Marketing Strategies
On-line social media platforms are
within the realms of the do-it-
yourselvers and allows Toastmasters
clubs to develop an on-line presence
that is often greater than their club
membership and their local reach.

17. The New Marketing Strategies
The whole purpose of this
presentation is based
upon one question …

18. The New Marketing Strategies
“Should you put time and
effort into social media
initiatives to attract new
members to your
Toastmasters club?”

19. The New Marketing Strategies
It depends …

20. Facebook: Advantages
• Relatively easy for a Toastmaster to set up.
• Good venue for developing a local following and
raising awareness of your club in your local
community.
• Many of your Toastmaster club members are
probably already on Facebook.
• A person doesn’t have to be a member to view
your Facebook Page on-line.

21. Facebook: Advantages
• Easy for a fan to “Like” and “Share” your
posts/content.
• Likes are more likely to be local.
• Facebook profile is indexed by most
search engines, actual posts/content by
some.
• Invitations can be sent out for friends to
Like.
• Integrates well with Twitter, YouTube
and your club website.

22. Facebook: Disadvantages
• As Administrator it takes considerable
amount of work to keep the momentum
going.
• Takes effort to build a following i.e. fans.
• Requires some graphic artistry skills to
add club branding to the Facebook Page.
• Few Toastmasters clubs maximize their
Facebook Page for effectiveness and
search engine optimization.

23. Facebook: Disadvantages
• Some clubs have created Facebook
Groups, instead of Facebook Pages.
(Groups are by invitation only and can
be restrictive to growing your
Toastmasters club).
• Takes considerable effort to stand out
from your competition.
• If your content is not fresh & regular,
you will lose visitors.
• Likes don’t necessarily mean active
followers. Active followers don’t
necessarily mean potential new
members.

24. Facebook: Disadvantages
• Can be attractive to a troll aka
cyberbully to hijack your Facebook
Page and post
inappropriate/damaging content.
• Can be challenging to pass on the
Administrator role to another
member when the time comes.
The learning curve can be quite
steep for some members.

25. Twitter: Advantages
• Relatively easy for a Toastmaster to set up a
Twitter account for their club.
• Good venue for raising awareness of your club
in your local community.
• Easy for a Twitter member to follow you and
“Favorite” and “Share” your tweets.
• Twitter profile is indexed by most search
engines, actual posts/content by some.

26. Twitter: Advantages
• Some search engines index individual tweets.
• Integrates well with Facebook, YouTube and
your club webpage.
• Fresh content is relatively easy to create.
• Easy to create a tweet campaign.
• A sizable Followers amount indicates social
proof. Social proof is where people believe that
if that a large amount of others are following
you … you must be worthwhile following.

27. Twitter: Disadvantages
• A person has to be a member of Twitter to follow
you and communicate with you.
• Follows are more likely to be worldwide, rather
than local.
• Number of followers doesn’t mean that all of those
Twitter members actually follow you or care what
you post.
• Takes time to create fresh content.
• You have to post frequently so that you stand out in
the crowd of other Twitter profiles.

28. Twitter: Disadvantages
• Takes considerable time & effort to create a
list of followers.
• Member to member communication can be
stilted. If you don’t check regularly, you
could miss conversations.
• You only have 144 characters for your post,
including your link i.e. url.
• Personal conversations are taking place on
Twitter that should be conducted in person.

29. Linkedin: Advantages
• Has a good reputation as a platform for
professionals to share ideas & promote
themselves.
• Relatively easy to set up a Toastmasters
Club profile, as a business.
• Relatively easy to set up a special interest
Group.

30. Linkedin: Advantages
• Relatively easy to invite professional
colleagues to connect.
• Search engines readily index your
profile.
• The free version of Linkedin will likely
meet all of your needs.

31. Linkedin: Disadvantages
• More conducive to larger groups than it is
for Toastmasters clubs.
• Takes time to collect connections.
• You need e-mail contact info to connect to
people that you are not directly connected
to.
• Group participation tends to be more self-
promotional in many groups than they are
interactive.

32. Linkedin: Disadvantages
• Linkedin has a nasty habit of penalizing you for
a list of infractions e.g., posting too many self-
promotional postings to groups, sending
invitations to people that don’t directly know
you, requiring that any of your postings require
Group Administrator’s approval before your
message is posted. This can cause problems if
your message is time sensitive.
• Takes some skill to upload artwork to be
consistent with other branding of your
Toastmaster’s club.

33. Linkedin: Disadvantages
• Messages to Groups are not indexed by
search engines.
• Linkedin sends you a lot of promotional
material trying to get you to upgrade to the
paid version.
• You need to be a member yourself to set up
a Group. Can be challenging to assign the
ownership of the group to someone else
should you no longer want to be
responsible for the Group.

34. YouTube: Advantages
• Huge global brand recognition.
• Relatively easy to upload videos.
• Easy to share videos created and/or
uploaded by others.
• Viewable on multiple devices.

35. YouTube: Advantages
• Relatively easy to create your own
channel.
• Has the ability to brand your videos.
• Gives your video an implied credibility
“If it’s on YouTube, it must be good!”
• Allows you to develop a following i.e.
fans.

36. YouTube: Advantages
• Helps you to stand out from other
Toastmasters clubs.
• Advancements in electronics e.g., smart
phones, allow almost everyone to
become a videographer.

37. YouTube: Disadvantages
• Longer videos can take a long time to
upload, sometimes up to a day.
• It’s easy to get your content “lost in the
crowd”.
• Takes time to promote your channel.

38. YouTube: Disadvantages
• Effective, semi-professional quality video
requires an understanding of sound &
lighting principals.
• While it may be easy to shoot video,
effective editing requires skills and time.
• Takes time & effort to share your
content on-line.

39. Instagram: Advantages
• Provides an instant snapshot of an idea
or concept for those that are visually-
minded.
• Usually visually appealing, attracts your
attention quickly.
• Easily allows branding to be
incorporated.

40. Instagram: Advantages
• Easily shared.
• If a picture says a thousand words … an
Instagram with words & graphics can say
considerably more.

41. Instagram: Disadvantages
• Requires significant graphic artistry skills
to create a professional looking graphic.
• Requires logistical & strategic thinking
skills to convey the message that you
want.
• Inappropriate choice of colours in your
graphic may elicit the wrong emotional
response in your viewer than you
intended.

42. Instagram: Disadvantages
• Not everybody likes “big picture”
graphics.
• Many Instagrams don’t seem to have an
actual purpose or leave you wondering if
the message might have been better
created/crafted differently.

43. Branding

44. Branding
• Logos, Images and Templates

45. Club Branding
Flying Solo Toastmasters: flying solo
… but not alone!

46. Club Branding

47. Your Social Media Strategy needs to
be …
A
• Informational
• Entertaining
• Educational
B
• Thought Provoking
• Engaging
• Interactive
• Timely
• Addictive

48. E-mail?

49. Facebook

50. Facebook

51. Facebook

52. Facebook

53. Facebook

54. Facebook

55. Facebook

56. Facebook

57. Facebook

58. Facebook

59. Facebook

60. Facebook

61. Facebook

62. Facebook

63. Facebook

64. Facebook
Reaching Out With Your Facebook Page

65. Facebook

66. Facebook

67. • Develop a strategy
• Create a following
• Follow others
• Be consistent with
your brand
• Drive traffic to
your website
Twitter Steps For Social Engagement

68. YouTube

69. Membership Building
for Toastmasters
Effective Use
of Social
Media
Was presented
by Rae
Stonehouse
DTM, PDG