Be a Part of Something Greater
Imagine the following scenario, you are given the opportunity to attend a favored local sporting event or you can attend a meeting of a group that might improve your abilities. You can go to one or the other for free?
Imagine a grand opening of an IKEA or another major destination retailer or the meeting that could improve your life, if you put as much in as you expect to get out.
Are you able to see where I am going with this?
Why are sporting events and destination store openings more attractive than a meeting of an organization that could help you with your speaking, find a job, build community, or save the environment? What is it that drives people away from organizations and into the cold embrace of corporations?
It has to do with the self image that people prescribe to themselves and their desire to be a part of something larger and greater then themselves. A conversation I had with a co-worker lead me to this thought and further study of the research behind the thought lead me to confirm what he was saying.
Psychologically when talking about self image, people have an identity. Whether that identity is related to being a trendy person or a sports fan, people have an identity of self that they feel compelled to maintain either personally or socially. When then trying to find time in their schedule to take part in activities, people will tend to take part in social activity that is in line with that self image.
That self image is then reinforced when you find yourself part of something greater than yourself. There is an element of pride or ego boosting involved when you can say to someone, “I was at that game” or “I was at that IKEA opening where people waited in line for 7 days.”
Even though your potential members had nothing to do with winning the game, with building the store, or any number of activities, those events make people feel greater than themselves where you membership organization may not.
So the question is, how can you make your membership organization activities events? How can you still deliver value to your members while making them feel in line with their self identity and part of something greater than themselves?
Deliver that to your members, and you will have no problem with growth.
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