Abstract

A nursing organization's Facebook administrator and webmaster collaborated to formulate a social media plan. Several strategies were used in the hopes of increasing engagement and membership in the organization. Strategies for Facebook included liking relevant group pages, highlighting member achievements and presentations, posting photos, sharing other relevant information, and frequent postings. Other strategies included coordinating social media and the website, for example, posting information on Facebook with links to the website for more information. The "contact us" and "membership" buttons on the Facebook page link back to the website.

Activity on the Facebook page resulted in increased reach and was associated with more website visitors and webpage views, especially around the time of events sponsored by the organization. Since the implementation of the new strategies, there has been a sustained increase in reach. No specific post was associated with more engagement on the Facebook page; however, it was obvious that posting something frequently was the best way to maintain engagement. Membership increased 131% following the social media strategies, from 26 members to 60 members. Thirty nine members joined after conferences were advertised on Facebook and the website. E-commerce capability made joining the organization and registering for the conferences convenient.

Social media is an effective and relatively inexpensive way to increase involvement, engagement, and membership in professional nursing organizations.

Author Details

Amy Lucas, MSN, RN, CCNS, CCRN-K, ailucas@carilionclinic.org; Cynthia Ward, DNP, RN-BC, CMSRN, ACNS-BC, cwward@carilionclinic.org

Sigma Membership

Epsilon Psi, Xi Upsilon

Lead Author Affiliation

Carilion Clinic, Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Roanoke, Virginia, USA

Type

Poster

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Social Media, Member Engagement, Nursing Organization, Marketing

Conference Name

AMSN Annual Convention

Conference Host

Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses

Conference Location

Washington, D.C., USA

Conference Year

2016

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host

Acquisition

Self-submission

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Using social media to increase engagement in nursing organizations

Washington, D.C., USA

A nursing organization's Facebook administrator and webmaster collaborated to formulate a social media plan. Several strategies were used in the hopes of increasing engagement and membership in the organization. Strategies for Facebook included liking relevant group pages, highlighting member achievements and presentations, posting photos, sharing other relevant information, and frequent postings. Other strategies included coordinating social media and the website, for example, posting information on Facebook with links to the website for more information. The "contact us" and "membership" buttons on the Facebook page link back to the website.

Activity on the Facebook page resulted in increased reach and was associated with more website visitors and webpage views, especially around the time of events sponsored by the organization. Since the implementation of the new strategies, there has been a sustained increase in reach. No specific post was associated with more engagement on the Facebook page; however, it was obvious that posting something frequently was the best way to maintain engagement. Membership increased 131% following the social media strategies, from 26 members to 60 members. Thirty nine members joined after conferences were advertised on Facebook and the website. E-commerce capability made joining the organization and registering for the conferences convenient.

Social media is an effective and relatively inexpensive way to increase involvement, engagement, and membership in professional nursing organizations.