Membership organisations and the 'digital first' approach to communications
We recently presented, with the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR), at MemCom 2013 on the rewards of taking a 'digital first' approach to communications strategy for a membership organisation, using the example of the amazing work the SCoR has done over the last decade or so.
What benefits does taking a 'digital first' approach to membership communications bring?Here's an (approximate) transcript of the presentation – plenty to think about!
The delights and perils of driving your members online
What is the Society and College of Radiographers?
One of the world's longest established professional bodies of its type, the Society and College (SCoR) is both the professional body and the trades union for 22,000 radiographers, the majority of which are employed by the National Health Service, and 3000 students.
There are two sorts of radiographer – diagnostic and therapeutic.
- Diagnostic radiographers employ a range of imaging techniques such as x-rays, ultrasound, CT, MRI, and nuclear medicine to aid in the diagnosis of injury or disease .
- Therapeutic radiographers use radiation to treat a range of cancers.
The many iterations of sor.org
Slides 5–8 show the four websites SCoR have had since 1999 – as with everybody who's had a web presence for a long period of time, there have been some fairly significant changes in terms of visual design and functionality.
Since the Society's first website was built in the mid-1990s, the organisation has had two goals: to inform the public about the science of radiography and the roles of radiographers, as well as provide a repository of unique content accessible only to members.
Taking the plunge into "digital first"
In the early 2000s, the SCoR's UK Council adopted a 'digital only' policy to eliminate, as much as possible, the publication of paper-based titles. This strategy has been largely successful with a few notable exceptions that the membership insists should be maintained primarily as 'traditional' media.
The SCoR document library - a clear beneficiary of a 'digital first' approach
The Society and College publishes between 20 and 40 policy and guidance documents a year covering aspects of radiography practice. These range in length from 2000 to 50,000 words. Typical print runs were 200-300 copies. In pre-digital print days, this meant that each copy of each publication had a cost of £20-£30 which included disbursements for writing, production, print and distribution.
Since 2008, policy documents have only been available through the sor.org document library.
Each document is available in a number of formats (with one click – see slides 11–13 for how this looks):
- Web-native
- ePUb for viewing on smartphones and tablets
- Kindle
Helpful directions for users - an example of the benefits of going 'digital first'
Some documents, such as the example on slide 14, 'Education and Career Framework for the Radiography Workforce', have interactive features to direct the reader to the content that is relevant to them and where they are on their career pathway.
By choosing from a series of carefully designed options, the user is directed to reach the most appropriate conclusion.
CPD Now
The Society and College's continuing professional development manager, CPD Now, integrates with the member's CRM profile, compiles CPD evidence and produces accreditation records as and when required by the profession's regulator. Radiographers are not obliged to use the Society's manager but they and the regulator will only accept CPD evidence in digital format.
The site also hosts or provides direct access to six on-line learning resources, with more being added. All training, other than study days and university-led courses are now delivered on-line.
For example, e-Learning for Healthcare Image Interpretation is a joint project between the College and the UK Department of Health that provides a learning environment open to all health professionals and medical practitioners who require these skills.
Membership magazines
SCoR publishes two monthly titles for members - Imaging & Therapy Practice, which covers clinical application and theory, and Synergy News, which looks at workplace issues.
Both are available to SCoR members as web-native applications.
This format provides the opportunity to provide a number of digital only features including:
- A virtual briefcase to collate articles of ongoing interest (particularly useful for students and research radiographers);
- Links to related content, both in the magazine archive and to other resources on the website;
- Detailed references, which are not available in the printed magazine.
- Additional content, again not available in the hard-copy format.
Images can be expanded to several times their original size for closer examination. They are of sufficiently good quality to be used by a reporting radiographer to make an initial diagnosis.
Whilst all other content for SCoR members has been digitised with no hard copy alternative, the two exceptions are Imaging & Therapy Practice and Synergy News. Successive member surveys show that a high majority (85%-plus) want to retain the printed editions of the magazines, despite the cost compared to digital-only alternatives.
Successive member surveys show that a high majority (85%-plus) want to retain the printed editions of the magazines
Communities
The SCoR membership naturally divides into a number of communities, each of which has a desire and a need for unique content.
A series of e-zines have been developed. The links are emailed monthly to relevant members, with occasional interim editions for impromptu announcements.
The example on slide 23 is sent to 2000-plus radiology managers and leaders in the higher education institutions that provide undergraduate and postgrad learning.
The first e-zine was developed for students who, because of their itinerant lifestyles, were receiving their copies of the two magazines infrequently, if at all.
Other versions have been developed for:
- oncology specialists, CancerTalk;
- trades union representatives, RepsTalk;
- and for the general radiography community, SCoRTalk.
Forums
The Society had had a negative experience with online forums, particularly during one bitter and prolonged national dispute over terms and conditions of employment. The opportunity for members to provide feedback and to debate in real-time was withdrawn and was unavailable for several years.
The latest version of the website provides a moderated comment function. Members can post comments or reaction to content on the site, including news items and stories about Society policy and UK Council decisions.
Comments are moderated before posting and usually - presuming they are suitable and do not require an individual response - are posted within a few hours of receipt. This lag can be frustrating for the poster: people like to see their words of wisdom appear immediately, but this control does mean that trolling and potentially libellous comments are kept to a minimum.
Web forms
It's easy to underestimate the importance of the humble webform.
The SCoR carries out surveys of the membership regularly and there are a number of competitions through the year (Radiographer of the Year, Rep of the Year and others). Previously, external tools such as Survey Monkey and Formsite were used but when the new site was built a web form function was built to allow customisable forms to be created. Data protection issues arise from using external web-based software, particularly if they are based in the USA, which has looser rules regarding personal information. Another advantage of having a site-native form is that members can partially complete the form, save and return to it as many times as they want.
Search
The current iteration of sor.org is the fourth and was launched in 2012. It currently contains 15,000-plus pages. The previous version had more than 25,000, which were reduced in number by a 'ruthless' culling and rationalisation. Perhaps the biggest weakness of the previous site was a Search facility that struggled to cope with content that grows by 20,000 words a week. This shortcoming has been addressed.
Advertising self-booking
At any one time there are scores of ads on the site from course providers. These are also published in one of the monthly magazines. To minimise cost, the process is automated: advertisers book, upload artwork/wording and pay online.
More on the SCoR's forward-looking approach to 'digital first'
We previously wrote about the SCoR and sharing the knowledge:
The Society is really a knowledge organisation. We don’t have a product as such, it’s all about providing a service and benefits to our members and a lot of that is about providing information and making the best use of our knowledge and resources. Our document library really works well to help us achieve this aim and I have yet to see a better one.
It's interesting to see how an organisation with such a long tradition of working with its members can move to new, digital platforms – and reduce overall costs – while still delivering additional value and innovative services.