Online community platforms and advocacy campaigns have one major component in common: engagement.

Building stronger engagement among your members and constituents means improving your communication channels. Discussions and collaboration shouldn't come solely from emails and can't be sustained long-term if it's all cut short after a board meeting, annual conference, or a few meetings on the Hill.

Members already are looking to trustworthy associations to provide the pertinent information and resources necessary to learn more about legislation that will affect their daily lives and businesses. Additionally, members want to collaborate and have their voices heard when it comes to current events they are invested in.

Several studies, including the 2015 Community Benchmarking Report, show positive correlations between engagement with an association's online community and positive transactional outcomes. Those who engage in a community are more likely to renew their membership, attend meetings, purchase products, and recommend the organization to a friend.

But what are the opportunities your private online community offers related to advocacy and promoting legislative agendas?

Review the Issues

When an advocacy issue first comes to an organization's attention, the traditional model often assigns it to a dedicated committee to draft a position statement, subsequently ratified by the board. Sometimes the general membership is asked for input, often through a survey or other one-way communication, but rarely do they have an effective way to discuss a pertinent issue.

Incorporating advocacy campaigns into the fabric of an online community will increase response rates on those campaigns.

Some associations try to better integrate members into the legislative experience by leveraging public networks like LinkedIn or Facebook. These platforms pose risks—consider the possible damage caused by press or competing lobbyists who are able to monitor and distribute open discussions. Since these networks are not integrated with an organization's database, it's nearly impossible to maintain a large, members-only group this way.

Rather than slog through the process of sending drafts through dedicated committees, boards, and the general membership, or take the risk of posting positions and discussions on public social networks, integrate members into the legislative experience by using your private community platform.

Make Policy Decisions

Most associations offer members the opportunity to voice concerns surrounding a legislative issue, but it's usually limiting (e.g., discuss in-person at an annual conference, serve on a committee or the board). But how transparent and inclusive is this approach, and will the resulting policy reflect the views of the broader membership?

Members who engage through a trustworthy but easily accessible channel—like a private online community—are more likely to advocate for the resulting position statement. Members will be more invested in the outcome if they can participate in a more inclusive process from the start. When an advocacy campaign launches, those engaged members are more likely to act.

Engage With Advocacy-Based Automated Marketing

Is your organization giving members the chance to vote? Some organizations have simple voting systems, such as a "thumbs up or down" submission or a Net Promoter-based survey. The key is simplicity.

A primary benefit to voting and surveys is ensuring member feedback is not anonymous. This doesn't mean you should notify the membership of an individual's response. Instead, use the new information to better target certain members to help advocate for or against a policy. In addition, organizations can take this business intelligence to better understand the sensitivities of its membership.

For example, a policy or issue might have a negative impact on a certain part of the country, but it's not adequately represented by your organization's 10-person policy committee. By looking at the voting analytics, it's easy to identify trends otherwise too difficult to find without insight.

An automated voting system helps an organization stay better informed about the views of the membership and discover exactly who the policy supporters are. The next step is to target and market to potential advocates by leveraging marketing automation designed around the voting preferences of individual members.

Gamify Advocacy Efforts

Gamification is another strong tactic to employ for increasing advocacy success and is easy to integrate into an online community. As constituents take action on campaigns, they can be rewarded with digital recognition like points, ribbons, or badges. Set up an automated workflow, and new advocates can receive a personalized thank you. This will not only acknowledge their support but also encourage them to participate in other ways (e.g., invite colleagues to support the initiative).

Gamification should be an integral part of legislative engagement. The more engaged a member is, the greater recognition he or she will receive. This not only encourages the person who has unlocked a badge, but it influences the community at large to be more competitive, start more conversations, and develop engagement habits, which become part of the members' legislative "norm."

Connect Advocacy Events and Online Community

Incorporating community into your advocacy initiatives doesn't stop at surveys and gaming tactics. Consider tying community engagement strategy to annual Hill meetups and legislative rallies, when engaged members can meet with various political powers.

Combine an online community and upcoming event to help educate those attending on the different groups also in attendance. Also consider creating an advocacy expert directory to find the most engaged, vocal members to help with more grassroots efforts.

Incorporating advocacy campaigns into the fabric of an online community will increase response rates on those campaigns, whether the engagement strategy focuses on a wider social media plan or new automation and gamification features. Plus, taking an advocacy campaign beyond the expected marketing emails will build stronger engagement within the community.