Recruiting - a picture is worth a thousand new members

Many communities are having St. Patrick's Day parades today....Which reminded me of some advice from another Patrick -- Patrick Knight, former U.S. Metro Conference Director.

The key to leveraging community holidays (and parades) is as simple as BEADS!

That's right, beads. And here's how --

What you will need: bead necklaces, zip ties, chapter business cards, hole punch, digital camera(s), 2+ people

1. Get some beads. Prior to a community event, such as a St. Pat's parade, buy a bunch of bead necklaces. They can coordinate with the event (like green and gold for St. Pat's) or be left over from another event. People don't really care. They love bead necklaces. You can borrow, get them sponsored, or you may have enough between your collective membership already.
2. Put your chapter card on the beads. This should be a simple URL or contact information for your chapter. Simpler is better, and ideally, you want to drive traffic to your website; however. if you don't have a great site, you might opt for an email contact and a blurb about your chapter or directing them to a social media site (like MySpace, Facebook, etc). Fastening can be as simple as twist or zip ties. Twist ties are easy to get, but are less likely to hold up, so zip ties are generally recommended. Affix the card to the beads (usually requires a hole punch).
3. Go to the event and give out the beads while taking photos of the wearers. Send some outgoing people into the crowd with a digital camera (for safety, groups of 2 are best). When giving out the beads, ask if you can take a photo and tell the recipient that they can view or download the photo for free from the website on the card you put on the bead necklace. Make sure when you take the photo that the Junior Chamber logo or name is facing forward. NOTE: Avoid taking photos of children and stick with JC-age people -- preferably ones that seem to be outgoing or attractive. It's a great first line to meet new people, too!
   
4. Post the pictures on your site with information on joining (sign up NOW! is best approach). You should put the pictures online as soon as possible (hence digital over film developing) and in a place that is publicly accessible (no sites where people have to join to view). Google picasa photo albums are free and easy to view without a membership if you don't know where to look.
   
5. Follow Up with people who sign up. You've now driven traffic to your website/picture area and when people are there, they will see lots of young, festive adults having fun and wearing your logo. Whether or not they decide to join, your site will still be filled with young adults wearing your logo, which will look good to other young professionals.
   

So now you've not only created community awareness in your target demographic, but you've improved the content of your web site.

And whether or not you use this in time for St. Patrick's on Monday, you can use it for any community gathering or holiday social event.