The Power of Promotion! Online Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth 2nd Edition

By Rae A. Stonehouse

For many Toastmasters Clubs, one of the biggest challenges in running a successful and productive club is maintaining a constant flow of visitors to attend and join you and your fellow Toastmasters as a member. Members come and members go. Life happens! Your Club membership can quickly change from a healthy charter-strength club to one in danger of losing its Charter.

Veteran Toastmaster of three decades, Rae Stonehouse DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster), PDG (Past District Governor, District 21) has witnessed the cycle several times with his own club Kelowna Flying Solo Toastmasters.

Toastmasters are social!

Toastmasters are social, after-all we are striving to hone our communication skills. Then along comes social media and on-line tools that can increase not only our reach but our productivity.

Social media is here to stay!

Social media is here to stay, at least until the next "big thing" comes along. Keeping up with what's new, what's hot and what's not could easily turn into a full-time job. And it has for many people as they have created a new career as Social Media Managers.

The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth 2nd Edition, by Rae Stonehouse flattens the learning curve for anyone who wants to maximize their time spent on-line, without turning it into a full-time job.

Rae believes that Toastmasters clubs should be run like businesses and social media platforms provide promotional and marketing opportunities that can help spread the word about one of the world's best kept secrets... Toastmasters.

In this easy-to-read, how-to manual, Rae shares his experience with using social media to draw attention to his Toastmasters club and to convert visitors to social media properties to actually visit his club and to join. Sometimes it has worked ... sometimes not!

This edition has been updated for 2023.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Live For Excellence Productions
• Release date: Jan 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781998813162

Rae A. Stonehouse

Rae A. Stonehouse is a Canadian born author & speaker. His professional career as a Registered Nurse working predominantly in psychiatry/mental health, has spanned four decades. Rae has embraced the principal of CANI (Constant and Never-ending Improvement) as promoted by thought leaders such as Tony Robbins and brings that philosophy to each of his publications and presentations. Rae has dedicated the latter segment of his journey through life to overcoming his personal inhibitions. As a 20+ year member of Toastmasters International he has systematically built his self-confidence and communicating ability. He is passionate about sharing his lessons with his readers and listeners. His publications thus far are of the self-help, self-improvement genre and systematically offer valuable sage advice on a specific topic. His writing style can be described as being conversational. As an author Rae strives to have a one-to-one conversation with each of his readers, very much like having your own personal self-development coach. Rae is known for having a wry sense of humour that features in his publications. To learn more about Rae A. Stonehouse, visit the Wonderful World of Rae Stonehouse at http://raestonehouse.com.

Book preview

The Power of Promotion

THE POWER OF PROMOTION

Online Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth - 2nd Edition

RAE A. STONEHOUSE

Live For Excellence Productions

CONTENTS

Section One: Chapter One: Introduction

Chapter Two: Traditional Toastmasters Club Membership-Building Marketing Strategies

Chapter Three: Branding

Chapter Four: Toastmasters Club Websites

Section Two: Social Media Explored

Chapter Five: Facebook

Chapter Six: Linkedin

Chapter Seven: Twitter

Chapter Eight: YouTube

Chapter Nine: Instagram

Chapter Ten: Meetup

Chapter Eleven: MailChimp

Chapter Twelve: Blogs

Chapter Thirteen: Letters to the Editor

Chapter Fourteen: Online Event Calendars

Chapter Fifteen: SlideShare

Chapter Sixteen: Webinars

Chapter Seventeen: Pinterest

Chapter Eighteen: Hootsuite

Chapter Nineteen: Reddit

Chapter Twenty: Sources of Images

Chapter Twenty-One: Paid Advertising?

Chapter Twenty-Two: 2023

Examples of Blogs Written with Toastmasters Promotion in Mind

And the Winner is … The Art of Presenting Awards: Practical Tips & Techniques

Let Me Introduce… The Art of Introducing a Speaker

How Big is Your Sandbox?

Conclusion:

About the Author

Also by Rae A. Stonehouse

Copyright 2023 Rae Stonehouse,

All rights reserved.

Published by Live for Excellence Productions

ISBN: 978-1-998813-16-2

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

SECTION ONE: CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

A few years back my Toastmasters club stopped meeting and took the summer months off. Summer in our part of the world is July and August. We ended June with a healthy twenty members, however, when September rolled around and we started up again, we had only six members return.

As the club President, this caught me by surprise. I had to quickly put measures in place to bring us up to charter strength of twenty members. One measure was to look at our club as a business and what we would have to do to make our club a successful business.

I hate not knowing how to do something. Even more… I hate knowing somebody else can do something that I can’t do.

In over 28 years with Toastmasters, presenting and listening to countless numbers of speeches, I have become an expert in many subjects that I knew absolutely nothing about. A funny thing happens when you research subjects you are interested in but don’t know that much about, you quickly know more about the subject than others do.

William Feather back in the 1900s is often quoted as saying knowledge is power! I often state publicly that I don’t agree with him. Knowledge is only power when you do something with it.

Social media is here to stay. At least until the next big thing comes along and replaces it. It has added a new dimension to social interaction. Whether it is for the better or worse would be the subject of an interesting debate. While many people use it to stay in touch with the daily activities of their family members whether they be local or afar, it has been embraced by the business world. Promotion and marketing are essential to the success of a business.

I believe that Toastmasters clubs should be run like businesses and social media platforms provide promotional and marketing opportunities that can help spread the word about one of the world’s best kept secrets.

This manual is an update to the book of the same name published in 2015 and passes the power of knowledge I have collected over the past few years about marketing and promotion using social media on to you.

I have multiple profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, SlideShare, Meetup, Pinterest and Instagram that I’ve used for promotional purposes. Sometimes it has worked … sometimes not.

Besides my own personal profile on Facebook where I am somewhat conservative, I have five or more Facebook (fan) pages I have created for marketing purposes. As a self-publishing author and marketer, I have developed Facebook pages to market many of my books.

Each Facebook page is based upon a specific theme and the content posted is related to the topic. I have also posted to hundreds of Facebook pages across North America. In addition, I have ten or so Twitter profiles I utilize for promotional purposes, once again, each with a specific purpose.

If you are wondering … yes, it takes up a lot of my time.

With close to three decades as a member of Toastmasters I have seen the evolution of how Toastmasters clubs promote themselves to grow their clubs i.e., enticing new members to join.

During those years in my own leadership journey, I’ve had the opportunity to organize and provide club officer training for all the roles both at a local level and online as part of District 21’s remote club officer training.

When conducting the training for the Club Vice President of Public Relations I divided promotional methods into categories of Traditional and New Strategies.

The club VP Public Relations should be the main person tasked with overseeing the club’s social media initiatives and online presence. Promoting the club and increasing its membership falls into their duties as a club officer supporting the mission of the club, however… You can’t do it alone, recruit some assistance.

Utilize the talent in your club. Create a Public Relations team.

If you aren’t experienced with using Facebook, recruit someone who is. (You will learn a new skill.)

Recruit another member as an Administrator for the Facebook page (you can have several).

Consider completing a High-Performance Leadership project (HPL) while serving as VP Public Relations.

For a big picture view of how Toastmasters International is embracing the marketing of the Toastmasters brand I would suggest reading Interim Plan 2020, by Toastmasters International at https://toastmasterscdn.azureedge.net/medias/files/department-documents/governing-documents/interim-plan-2020.pdf

CHAPTER TWO: TRADITIONAL TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEMBERSHIP-BUILDING MARKETING STRATEGIES

Organizing & hosting open houses to introduce your club

Publicizing club events

Creating & utilizing promotional Public Relations (PR) posters

Distributing posters at key locations in your community

Ordering free brochures, pamphlets, handouts from Toastmasters International (TI) whenever you place an order, or by free download from their online store

Getting out in public - Holding a meeting at a local bookstore, library, coffee shop or a public venue

Publicizing speech contests and the winners

Creating and distributing a Newsletter: internal & external

Conducting a Speechcraft and plugging your club and benefits of joining

Having a sign Toastmasters meets here at your meeting room

Creating a club listing on your District Website with up-to-date contact and meeting information

Ensuring that your club meeting information and contact info is up to date at TI

Developing a relationship with a local news reporter/columnist

Sending out Media Releases of value i.e., promotional material that would interest their readers or followers

After delivering several webinars on the VP Public Relations role I discovered that while I considered the above strategies to be traditional i.e., they have been used effectively for a while, to a new club officer, these are brand new. These strategies still work, and you should at least consider if any of them would support your task of increasing your club membership.

THE NEW MARKETING STRATEGIES

Marketing, as defined by the American Marketing Association is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Hmmm. Another definition is: The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:

(1) identification, selection and development of a product,

(2) determination of its price,

(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and

(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

Our Toastmaster’s product is easily definable. Around the world we all follow the same communication & leadership skills building program.

Our pricing varies from club to club depending on operational expenses that may include the cost of renting a meeting room, if it is not available for free and the exchange rate of our currency against the US dollar used by Toastmasters International. If we have other Toastmaster’s clubs in our geographical region within the same classification, say for example a community club, we must be comparable to their pricing. Potential members may price shop for what they consider a better deal, no different than what they would for everyday goods and services.

There’s a saying: "Advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for." Advertising is paid media; public relations is earned media. With advertising, you tell people how great you are.  With publicity, others sing your praises. 

Most Toastmasters clubs don’t have the operational budget to spend on paid advertising and are discouraged from doing so. Advertising is expensive. Publicity and public relations, while not necessarily free, can have a better return on investment than money spent on advertising. Many people confuse advertising and public relations. This table (below) compares the two.

Table Source: Robert Wynne

If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten!

Conventional marketing wisdom says that you need to touch your customer 7 to 11 times before they make a purchasing decision. In our case, our customers are potential future Toastmaster members. When it comes to touching our customers, don’t take that too literally as it will likely get you in trouble if you did so!

In a marketing context, a touch is every time that your customer sees or hears a mention of your name or brand. We discuss branding a little later. Touchpoint examples could be your website, a tweet from your Twitter account, a post to your Facebook page or someone else’s, a blog post focusing on your Toastmasters club, a Linkedin post, a poster on the wall of a public place etc. The list goes on and on.

The individual must see the word Toastmasters repeatedly before they check it out. When they think of developing their self-confidence and their communication & leadership skills you want them to think about Toastmasters. And even more important, you want them to think about your Toastmaster’s club first!

Enter social media! Social media, if used proactively can maximize your marketing effectiveness and increase your club membership. Think of it as the advertising you promote!

Social Media Overview:

There seems to be a plethora of self-proclaimed social media Gurus who will try to convince you that social media is the only way to go. And they are the experts at solving your business social media initiatives.

Online social media platforms are within the realms of the do-it-yourselfers and allows Toastmaster’s clubs to develop an online presence often greater than their club membership and their local reach. They can be an easy, if not time-consuming, method of promoting your Toastmaster’s club to the world. It can be challenging though, to demonstrate a positive return on investment for the time and effort you put into social media activities.

Perhaps the real question is "Should you put time and effort into social media initiatives to attract new members to your Toastmasters club? The answer is likely yes & no."

There are isolated, rural communities that have not yet developed a social media consciousness i.e., few if any are using it. In larger urban areas that have embraced the concept the question becomes Do you want to put the time & effort into social media? It does not replace face-to-face, belly to belly, interpersonal communication, even though some people are doing so to reduce their own shyness or inability to communicate with others. It won’t replace the relationships with people in our sphere of connections i.e., family, friends, colleagues etc. What social media will do for you is gain you access to many possible members, any time of the day or night, all year long that you would not likely have access to. Something to consider is that while you may not see the potential rewards to having an online social media presence, your competition does. They may be getting to your potential future member before you do!

Throughout this manual I will share with you my top social media platforms and software both online and not, that serve as tools in helping you to get your message out. Each has their advantages and their disadvantages.

As in my other publications, I use what I call an ‘onion’ approach to exploring a subject. I start off with an overview then peel back layer after layer to make the subject understandable. I hope you find that to be appealing! Okay, that’s the only pun I will use … probably … maybe. We’ll see!

The comments provided are my own, based on my personal experience with each of the social media and may not represent the experience of others.

One mission of this manual is to provide you with enough background info for you to decide if incorporating social media into your Toastmaster’s club marketing plan is worth your time and effort.

Before we delve into offering tips & techniques for specific social media venues, we will explore the concept of branding as it is integral to the success of any of your marketing initiatives.

CHAPTER THREE: BRANDING

As we learned earlier in this manual, the customer must see your product or service seven to eleven times before they make a buying decision. That decision may be to come out to your club to learn more information.

We are fortunate that Toastmasters International has conducted a great deal of research and development of a recognizable brand. While that is a good thing … it can create challenges in differentiating your club from others if you have others in your geographical area. Perhaps as Toastmaster clubs, we are not in competition with other Toastmaster clubs, there are lots of potential members out there to go around. However, if you are in a club with difficulties building your membership and your meetings are poorly attended, then