Your association’s community is one of its biggest assets, and enabling these individuals to connect with each other is essential for building a dedicated membership base. As such, one of your most important tools is your membership directory.
Every association should have at least a basic membership directory to enable member connections, stay organized, and encourage communication. However, some directories are set up better than others.
To help your association create a useful directory for your members, this guide will address:
- What Is a Membership Directory?
- What Are the Benefits of a Membership Directory?
- What to Include in a Membership Directory
- 3 Membership Directory Best Practices
- Top Membership Directory Software: Tradewing
Before exploring best practices and software tips, let’s answer a few core questions about membership directories and how they help associations.
What Is a Membership Directory?
A membership directory is a list of all your association’s members with basic information about each member, such as their name and contact information. Some associations have more complex directories that allow individuals to access detailed member profiles, which may include professional credentials, areas of interest, and other relevant details.
A membership directory can be public or private. Public-facing directories tend to provide limited information, while a private one gives out details members would only want to share with other members. Additionally, your association’s staff likely has a fully detailed directory for back-end member management practices.
What Are the Benefits of a Membership Directory?
A membership directory is ultimately a very simple but foundational tool for associations, and almost every professional or trade association should have some list of members that acts as a directory.
Your directory’s usefulness depends on how organized, complete, and accessible it is. When used well, this tool should provide the following benefits:
- Improve networking. Having an easily accessible list of names allows your members to find and connect with each other quickly. Members should be able to open your directory, search a person’s name, and find their membership profile. Or, members not looking for anyone in particular should be able to browse member information to find individuals they would like to network with, such as by using search filters for location or profession.
- Allow for better member management. A member directory helps both your members and your staff. With a detailed list of member information, your team should be able to gather and store data that allows you to easily get in touch with members, engage them, and track their involvement with your association.
- Boost authority. Many associations use their membership directories as a marketing tool. A large membership directory signals to prospective members that your association is active and has valuable potential connections. The directory serves as social proof and teases possible community experiences.
Your membership directory doesn’t need to be complex to fulfill your needs. To access these benefits, prioritize creating an organized, user-friendly document your members can leverage and update at their convenience.
What To Include in a Membership Directory
Different types of associations should include different information in their directories based on what members are likely to search for. For trade and professional associations, your directory should include this essential information about each member:
- Name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Location (city and state, not home address)
- Join Date
- Membership Tier
To improve member engagement and jumpstart networking conversations, you might also include several of these entry fields:
- Profile Picture
- Job Title
- Company Name
- Years in Industry
- Alma Mater
- Professional Credentials
- Social Media Handles
When requesting this information from members, consider making all of these fields required or setting a few as optional. For instance, you might make social media handles optional to account for members who aren’t on social media. Or, you might add an optional hobbies section that allows members to provide non-professional-related information about themselves.
Remember that you can ask members to provide information for your association’s staff that will not be displayed in your directory. For example, when a member signs up, you will likely ask them for their email address so you can stay in touch with them about your association’s offerings. Then, you might make adding their email address to their public member profile optional.
3 Membership Directory Best Practices
To get the most out of your membership directory and ensure it benefits your members, explore best practices for maintaining, compiling, and promoting your directory. A few tips we recommend include:
Make Updating Member Information Easy
Managing a member directory is a significant undertaking and can be a major administrative burden if your team handles it alone. That’s why you should allow members to control as much of their membership profiles as possible. This way, you can count on members to keep their information updated.
A few ways you can make updating directory information easy and encourage members to do it include:
- Leverage self-service tools. Ensure members have the ability to update their directory profiles themselves. This way, if they change phone numbers, job titles, or have other life or professional updates, they can edit their profile immediately rather than leaving information outdated.
- Promote profile creation. When new members join your association, prompt them to create their member profile as soon as possible. For example, your community engagement software might notify members if their profiles are incomplete and how that might harm their networking opportunities.
- Encourage updates through gamification. Inspire members to return to their profiles to keep them up-to-date through reminders and gamification features, like badges. For instance, you might award members online medals for participating in activities in your community and ask if they want to feature these awards on their member profile.
Member directories should be user-friendly, so if your members have any feedback about challenges related to updating their information, take their concerns seriously. Look for membership management software that prioritizes the user experience and provides intuitive self-service tools.
Add Privacy Controls
Many new members may hesitate to fill out their profiles for your membership directory if they have privacy concerns. For example, a directory that publicly displays members’ emails may result in members receiving unsolicited messages and spam.
Provide privacy settings to reassure members that your directory is safe and secure. For instance, association platforms like Tradewing allow members to customize their profile’s privacy permissions. Members can select whether any aspect of their profile will be visible to the general public, logged-in members, or only the user editing the profile.
Of course, even if members choose to make information private to your community, it will still be available to your association’s administrators. For example, a member may prefer to hide their phone number and email address to limit unwanted communication from other members, but your association can still use these channels to contact them.
Additionally, you can decide whether to make your directory public at all. Some associations maintain private, members-only directories to protect their members’ security and make networking with their community feel exclusive to members.
Leverage Your Directory as a Marketing Tool
Along with being an organizational and networking tool, a directory is also one of your most valuable marketing assets. Associations with large directories full of important industry figures are far more likely to attract new members than smaller organizations.
You can use your directory to bring in new members without sacrificing your current community’s privacy by:
- Creating a limited public version. On your website, create a directory page that non-members can scroll through to get a sense of your community. This directory should be limited in scope compared to your members-only version that contains whole profiles. For example, you might limit the public variant of your directory to just members’ names and job titles with no available contact information.
- Spotlighting members. With their permission, create posts online highlighting specific members of your association. For instance, you might ask someone who is a business owner, has decades of experience, or was recently part of a major study if you can spotlight their presence as a member of your association.
- Sharing data about your directory. Provide general information about your directory to entice new members to join your association. For example, you might share your total number of entries, the cumulative number of years your members have operated in your given industry, or the number of industry leaders in your community. This approach enables you to highlight members’ major accomplishments without calling out anyone in particular.
For associations using an open-door membership model that includes free memberships, consider making access to your directory a gated benefit. This creates a small barrier to entry before individuals can network with other members seamlessly, ensuring that everyone who reaches out to your community through your association is a paid and trustworthy member.
Top Membership Directory Software: Tradewing
When it comes to membership directories and profile creation tools, we recommend our very own community engagement platform, Tradewing.
Tradewing specializes in community management, including networking. As such, associations that use Tradewing empower members to create complex membership profiles that share the information they want to make public. Specifically, Tradewing’s directory features include:
- Custom profile creation. Add as many member profile entry fields as you want. Tradewing’s profile creation tool comes with a few pre-set options almost any association will use, such as member name and contact information. From there, you can continue adding entry fields to ensure your members communicate relevant information to your association.
- Advanced privacy settings. Tradewing prioritizes member privacy. Along with allowing members to decide exactly what information they want available to the public, members only, or no one, members can also make their profiles completely private. These profiles include only members’ names and profile pictures, though all information is still available to administrators. This feature is useful for members who want to participate in your community but avoid receiving unsolicited messages.
- Searchable database. If members want to reach out to a specific person, they can simply run their name through Tradewing’s search tool. The corresponding member profile and recent community posts that person made should appear, allowing members to find who they’re looking for quickly.
Launch a user-friendly member directory within minutes, and offer valuable networking opportunities your community won’t want to pass up.
Tradewing’s Other Community Management Features
In addition to its membership directory, Tradewing is also a full-scale community engagement tool. This means that it provides a host of other tools associations need, including:
- Community engagement platform. Tradewing’s community engagement platform enables members to connect online via a private social media-like web interface. Members can make posts, comment on each other’s content, and engage with your association’s offerings, all from one central location that keeps their focus solely on your association.
- Event management tools. Improve your membership experience by hosting events right on your community platform. Announce events, promote them, and then enable members to attend them by clicking a link on the platform they’re already on.
- Engagement metrics. Get an overview of how your community engages with your content, or take a deep dive into how much each individual interacts with your community. Tradewing will even spotlight top participants in your online community, so you can reach out to thank them for being active members.
Tradewing also integrates with a wide range of popular association management software. This means you can incorporate Tradewing’s community engagement tools, including its membership directory, effortlessly into your organization’s current tech stack.
For more information about Tradewing and how it can help your association’s community, reach out to our team to request a demo.
More Member Directory Resources
A membership directory is an essential tool for keeping your association’s member base organized and active. Explore tools that allow you to create a directory that aligns with your members’ needs, such as providing proper networking features without sacrificing privacy.
To start your research into member directory platforms, explore these top provider lists of alternatives to the top association software solutions:
- 6 Excellent Higher Logic Alternatives: Comparing Features. Higher Logic is a popular but complex member engagement solution that may not fit the needs of all associations. Check out these alternatives to find your member directory tool.
- 7 Leading Hivebrite Alternatives To Power Your Organization. Hivebrite stands out for its community features but isn’t always the right choice for smaller associations. Explore a range of other platforms better aligned to your organization’s needs.
- 10 Trusted Mighty Networks Alternatives For Your Community. Mighty Networks is a go-to platform for associations with course offerings, but its limitations might prevent it from being the right choice for your community. Explore these alternatives.
