Communications and Marketing

Our District, and others will have a variety of Directors. Secretary and Treasurer may be self explanatory, their jobs needed and understood. Membership Director is at the top and pushed to be very important by National. However their role is fuzzy, membership services or attracting new members or all of above. Others like Service, Coordinator, Risk Manager or Awards are set out for a defined executive role, helping take some of the executive work away from the leadership.

As we approach our Midterm and next years executive is in the throes of planning their year, I thought that I would comment to executive positions and their role within our District. The District (and Club) executives need to progress the interests of that District or Club. Are we taking care of business?  What are some of the issues that seem to be put on the side burner? In my year as Governor, I had a Marketing Director. I have never heard of others appointing this position. We have had a Communications Director in the past, but now this is probably the most important position we could have.

Marketing Director;

A Membership Director may help the Clubs stay alive or bring out new members. However I have never heard of a Membership Director that actually added members to a Club. As an Association, we need to be marketed. National should have a marketing program with national advertizements, promotions and programs. Districts must be responsible in taking care of their own interests. Why do we not have a Marketing Director, a person to just promote Kin Canada across the District? Do we need someone to tell Clubs to have a steak and beans night? Or do we need someone to teach us how to promote our Clubs and projects?

We need to move forward and abandon our 30 year old habits. In business, your number one issue is Marketing.

Communications Director;

We have had this position for many years, but now is the time for a dedicated Communication Director. I have heard, for years that we should use Skype and the like to attract younger members. I am tired of hearing about Skype from people that don't know what their talking about. We have many very important issues that would be the purview of the Communications Director;

Website - and excellent tool for the storage and access of information, documents and templates.
Facebook - tool for the quick release of information and discussion.
Twitter - good for short and quick distribution of information and promotion.
Blogs - great for education
Take 5 (District newsletter) - alternative to electronic forms for sending information.

As you may notice, these issues mesh perfectly with Marketing. We need all these things to function perfectly if we are to survive. It is a huge job and very important. In order to do these jobs will take a lot of effort and time. My belief is that we need a strong Communications Director and that person must be dedicated to the job. Our survival depends on information and promotion, we must use the above items everyday to keep Kin in the forefront of all Kin and those outside Kin.

Conclusion;

I am not commenting to any District or Club executive council, it is rather an overall view of Kin. We seem to be ignoring promotions and communications within Kin, and concentrating on paperwork (which does need to be accomplished) just not at the expense of distributing information. I have talked about communications a couple times before in this blog and about the purpose of a website, check those posts.

Every Member needs and wants information and kept in the loop. We must have a steady stream of emails, Facebook comments, tweets, blog posts and documents posted to the website, in order to advance. It is not just up to the Council, it is up to every member to ask for and send information to the District and to PROMOTE KIN. If we all stay in our own corner and do not participate, we will not progress.

Missing in Action

Sorry all for my lack of participation in this blog. I have had some issues and stepped back from Kin and my commitments. Having said that, I will slowly be coming back. There are times that we must re-access our priorities.

I will be starting to post, I believe that we must all be active in the politics of Kin. This is my way to spread my opinion and views. I do not wish to insult, accuse or upset anyone. These are just ideas to be contemplated. If you have an opposing thought, please comment to my post. If you have a subject that you would like me to speak on, please let me know.

Thank You for your interest, we will talk soon.