“Young people are the future“ is a fact that cannot be ignored. Whether we’re talking about your chamber or society as a whole, young people have a huge say in which way the future goes. It isn’t reasonable to believe that your chamber will survive without the next, younger generation in line to run it.
You don’t want to alienate potential younger members from joining your chamber. With this in mind, here’s 6 tips on how to attract young people to your chamber and keep them there.
Invite Them
Don’t underestimate the power of an invitation. Although it might seem like an antiquated idea that doesn’t align with the newness and innovation that young people crave, nothing is more direct than an invitation.
Inviting young people to join your organization not only helps you target this group in a direct way, but it makes them feel like wanted and valuable members of your association.
Along with this, try to invite younger speakers to your events. Also try to host events that suit younger member’s interests, meaning topics related to upcoming industries like technology, software, media, and more.
These tips can help your chamber connect with a younger audience and potentially boost engagement. This engagement can lead to your young chamber members referring their friends, helping you grow your membership and in particular, your young members.
Overall, simply reaching out to young people can be very effective in achieving your chamber’s goals. Don’t overthink your strategy. Sometimes the most simple solution can be the best. Simple solutions also have the characteristic of extending past generational gaps, so if you want someone to join your chamber, regardless of their age, don’t be afraid to just ask!
Create a personalized experience
Young people prefer products that offer something that is or feels like a personalized experience. Because of this, we can see a trend in what businesses offer people. For example, Netflix creates curated suggestions for users to watch next based on what they watched previously.
Amazon recommends products they believe you’d like based on what you’ve purchased in the past or what you’ve been searching. This tactic doesn’t only create a personalized experience, but it ensures that members keep coming back for more. But creating a personalized experience doesn’t only apply to streaming services or retail. You and your chamber can also take advantage of this phenomenon.
Don’t offer overly generic experiences to your members, especially your young members. Show that you have knowledge of your young member’s careers or interests. You can gather this information through surveys or by just asking.
Once you gather this knowledge, you can organize events that cater to what your young members may be interested in. Do they want help finding jobs? Do they want mentors to help them with their careers?
As topics such as these are often appreciated by younger people, you can set up these types of events that are sure to attract young people to your chamber. Along with this, try to have young people make decisions alongside the already existing leadership within your chamber.
They can help you determine what young people would like to see from your chamber. Young members would also have someone to relate to within chamber leadership.
Offer classes
Today’s job market calls for more and more educational requirements.
Considering that many young people are new to or have yet to enter the workforce, it only makes sense that a lot of people searching for educational opportunities relating to work would be young.
Some these skills also cannot necessarily be taught in classrooms. According to Georgetown University, employers seek cognitive skills such as communication and analytics, skills that are often best learned outside of a classroom setting. Capitalizing on young professionals’ need for education can help you attract young members to your chamber.
In order to draw in more young professionals to your chamber, consider holding certified classes and workshops targeted towards young professionals. These courses should be relevant to what young people need to succeed in the job market. Possibly try to focus classes on new technologies that more and more jobs want employees knowing.
It can also be helpful for young people to hold workshops relating to innovation and creativity since these skills are highly valued in today’s job market. Young professionals may not also have the same economic resources as your older chamber members, so try making these classes and workshops more affordable.
Holding classes that align with the interests of young professionals have the potential to draw them to your chamber and eventually, to holding chamber membership.
Use Social Media
Being up-to-date with current technology can help your chamber grow. If you’re still using pamphlets and newspaper advertisements to reach out to more potential members, you’re almost guaranteed to not gain any young members to your chamber.
Such ways of advertising are quite antiquated in today’s digital society. Social media allows you to connect with so many new people. This is part of the appeal that draws in so many young people to use social media as often as they do. You are also able to keep up with people and celebrities without having to personally know them or having to pay for a magazine.
With such convenient technologies at everyone’s fingertips, why would people revert to checking the newspaper for your ads or take extra time to request a pamphlet. If you aren’t already, consider making the switch to digital media and in particular, social media. The benefits it can have on your chamber could be tremendous.
When making decisions, many young people like to do their research on the internet. Making the decision to join your chamber is no different. Some popular platforms for young people to use are Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
So if your chamber doesn’t already have these accounts, it may be a good idea to create one on at least one of these sites. Make sure your social media presence is also up-to-date. This refers both to the actual information on your social media as well as being able to create posts regularly.
Just having social media accounts is not enough to convince young people to join your chamber. Post regularly, especially when you have events that would appeal to a younger audience. Doing so can help you stay relevant in a digital age.
Team up with local colleges
As a chamber of commerce, you bring businesses together, advocate on their behalf, and support them. In other words, you have a lot of business-related resources at your disposal. If any demographic of people want to know more about business and make more connections, it’s people that are in college.
Young people still want and need to learn more about the business world, especially outside of the context of the classroom. Many times they also want to expand their networks since they may not have one to begin with. Take advantage of what you’re best at and market it to potential younger members.
You should consider taking your chamber to local colleges. You can possibly get in contact with colleges’ career centers and see if they would be willing to talk about your organization or post advertisements or pamphlets in their offices. As many students often use these offices as resources, it’s possible that your chamber can catch their eye!
Also, see if you can potentially join or contribute to colleges’ job fairs. You can offer to help colleges bring businesses to their schools. Your chamber can have its own booth at the fair, where you can tell students of the benefits of joining the chamber.
If you have internships or jobs to offer, try giving your local college students a chance. Their ideas and connections can help you make the changes needed to attract even more young people to your chamber of commerce!
Targeted Marketing
How are you marketing your chamber? Is generic information that would appeal to everyone still gracing your flyers or website’s front page? While generic information is not necessarily a bad thing, it can prevent you from reaching your target audience.
Sometimes what appeals to the masses may not appeal to young professionals in particular. Consider switching up your marketing in order to attract younger people to your chamber.
Appealing to those you want to join your chamber is rooted in the same logic as inviting them. If you want them to join, make it obvious! This can be done by emphasizing how your chamber can help them succeed in the workplace. Once again, advertise your events that are put in place to benefit young people.
Show them the value your chamber has in regard to expanding networks. Make sure that pictures of young professionals interacting with your chamber are front-and-center of your marketing efforts. Make yourself look relatable! These changes towards more targeted marketing can make a huge difference in the demographics of your chamber.
Hopefully, after reading these tips, you now have an idea of how to attract young members to your chamber. Try these ideas out and bring some fresh young faces to your chamber!
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