Search engine optimization (SEO) has always been a vital tool for association marketers. It helps you engage existing members, attract new ones, drive attendance at events, and more. But the traditional SEO approach of long-form written content stuffed with keywords isn’t working anymore. 

Here's the deal: Creator-led content marketing is taking over. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels have transformed how people search for and consume information. Given that, it’s no surprise that HubSpot’s 2023 State of Marketing Trends Report found that video is the most popular and effective media format for the fourth year in a row.

These days, people place a higher value on the real experiences of their peers than on polished, scripted content. Combine this shift to short-form video with changes to how search engines operate using generative AI and we’re in for a total SEO meltdown.

Now, you’re probably wondering: how can I make sure my association’s content outpaces the digital competition amid these SEO disruptions? The answer lies in member-driven video content.

By tapping into the creativity and expertise of your members, you’ll create captivating videos that truly resonate with your target audience. Creating content like that doesn’t just improve your search rankings. It strengthens the bond between members and your association.

In this post, we'll delve into the implications of SEO disruptions, explore the rise of short-form video content, and show you how to harness the power of member-driven videos so your association can navigate these changes successfully. 

Understanding SEO Disruptions and Challenges

What exactly is causing the SEO disruptions and challenges? Let’s break it down. 

First off, we have generative AI, a game-changer that’s set to reshape how people find information online. Google is testing its new Search Generative Experience (SGE) that uses generative AI to personalize search results. Even Bing is getting in on the innovation.

But that's not all! TikTok, the beloved platform of dancing challenges and lip-syncing videos, has become more than just a social media app. It's quickly emerging as the next-generation search engine. 

Why is this important for association marketers?

Well, when it comes to promoting conferences, events, and courses, Gen Z looks to social platforms like TikTok to understand what to expect. They decide whether or not your association’s experiences are for them by seeing what their peers have to say.

To thrive for the future, associations must attract younger members, there’s no way around that. 

Now, let's talk about creator-led content marketing. In this era, authenticity reigns supreme, and short-form visual content takes the lead. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels have created a new landscape where user-generated videos (UGVs) dominate. 

These videos, created by real people sharing their stories, connect with audiences on a deeper level. You can leverage this trend by encouraging members to be the creators, sharing their expertise and experiences through engaging user-generated videos.

But wait, there's more! 

Google recently launched a new Perspectives filter that makes it easy for people to filter search results for videos, images and blog content that highlights the perspectives of real people. It curates authentic content from places like:

• Social media platforms
• Discussion forums
• Q&A platforms

By focusing on co-creating short-form video content with your members for social and optimizing it for search, you can reach a wider audience of members, including the next generation.

The traditional approaches they relied on – often long, keywork-rich written content – will no longer yield the same results. 

Associations must adapt by embracing video content, fostering member-driven narratives, and creating engaging experiences that capture attention in this content-saturated world.

Member-Driven Video Content's Role in the Forward-Thinking Association's Digital Marketing Strategy

When it comes to digital marketing strategies for associations, member-driven video content takes center stage. Why? Because it offers a unique opportunity to connect with audiences on a deeper level and build authentic relationships. 

Let's dive into the benefits and explore some inspiring case studies.

Member-driven video content is all about empowering your community to be the creators. By encouraging your members to share their expertise, experiences, and stories through videos, you can tap into the power of authenticity. 

Associations are in a unique position to benefit from user-generated video content. It’s the members of the association that have the expertise. That’s totally different from most companies. 

The community of industries and practitioners makes every member a potential influencer in the community through the sharing of their own real-world experiences. 

To illustrate the impact of member-driven video content, let's explore a couple of real-world case studies.

American Concrete Institute: Harnessing the Power of Video Engagement

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) recognized the potential of authentic, short-form video in enhancing their digital marketing efforts. They used the Gather Voices platform to easily co-create and distribute member-driven video content across a wide variety of campaigns.

Through video testimonials, interviews, and behind-the-scenes content, ACI brought their initiatives to life and dramatically improved their digital marketing performance. Members were more likely to open emails, click through to the content, and take action. 

By incorporating videos into their communication strategy, ACI fostered stronger connections with their audience and saw a significant boost in membership engagement and event participation.

Association of Fundraising Professionals: Elevating Conference Promotion Through Video

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) understood the power of video in capturing attention and generating excitement. To promote their annual conference, they harnessed the potential of member-driven video content.

AFP encouraged their board members to share their perspectives, insights, and personal experiences leading up to the event. These videos acted as authentic testimonials, building anticipation and showcasing the value of attending the conference. 

By humanizing their board members and providing a glimpse into their expertise, AFP successfully attracted more registrations, increased attendee engagement, and ultimately achieved a more successful conference.

SEO Best Practices for Member-Driven Video Content

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), member-driven video content holds tremendous potential for enhancing your association's online visibility and rankings. 

Let's explore how user-generated videos can positively impact your SEO strategy and discuss some SEO best practices for optimizing this type of content.

Search engine algorithms are increasingly favoring user-generated video content due to its authenticity and engagement. When users create and share videos related to your association's niche, it signals relevance and authority to search engines. 

This, in turn, can lead to higher rankings in search results, increased visibility, and ultimately, more organic traffic to your website.

To optimize member-driven video content for SEO, consider the following best practices:

1. Keyword optimization: Conduct keyword research to identify relevant and high-impact keywords in your association's industry. Incorporate these keywords naturally in video titles, descriptions, tags, and captions to improve search engine visibility.
2. Metadata optimization: Pay attention to the metadata associated with your videos. Write compelling titles, engaging descriptions, and relevant tags that accurately represent the content and include target keywords. This helps search engines understand the context and relevance of your videos.
3. Transcriptions and captions: Provide transcriptions or captions for your videos. This not only enhances accessibility for a wider audience but also allows search engines to index the text and better understand the content of your videos. Including keywords in transcriptions can further boost SEO.
4. Engagement signals: Encourage viewers to engage with your videos by liking, sharing, and commenting. User engagement signals are valuable indicators of video quality and relevance, which can positively impact your SEO rankings.
5. Video optimization on platforms: If you're hosting your videos on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, optimize your video profiles by filling out all relevant fields, including titles, descriptions, and tags. Additionally, leverage platform-specific features like playlists, video annotations, and end screens to drive more engagement and increase the visibility of your videos.

By implementing these SEO best practices for member-driven video content, you can enhance your association's online presence, improve search rankings, and attract a wider audience to your valuable content.

Strategies for Engaging Members to Create the User-Generated Video Your Association Needs

To tap into the power of user-generated video content,  you need practical strategies to encourage your members to co-create videos with you. 

Here are video co-creation best practices we’ve learned through our work with 100s of association membership and marketing teams:

Incorporate requests for video content directly into existing member communication touchpoints. 

Here are a few examples:

• Ask members to create a membership testimonial video immediately after they renew their membership.
•  Ask conference attendees to share why they’re excited to attend during the registration process. 
• Ask people to spend 5 minutes after completing your continuing education course to share a key learning. 

By integrating these requests into their routine interactions with your association, you can encourage a steady stream of video submissions. With a member-driven video platform like Gather Voices, you can embed video requests into your member touchpoints with ease. 

Leverage social media platforms and online communities to facilitate content creation. 

Take advantage of the creativity of your members by leveraging social media platforms and online communities. Create dedicated hashtags, challenges, or campaigns that encourage members to share videos related to your association's activities, events, or industry. 

Recognize and highlight the best submissions, and actively engage with members who contribute videos to foster a sense of community and participation.

Capture member enthusiasm by creating content at live events. 

Live events, conferences, and workshops present an excellent opportunity to capture member-generated video content. Set up designated areas or kiosks where members can record short videos sharing their experiences, insights, or testimonials. 

Provide simple prompts or questions to guide their video creation process and make it as seamless as possible. By capturing these authentic moments during live events, you’ll create valuable and engaging video content.

Use direct, personalized outreach to gather content from your most engaged members.

Identify your most engaged and active members, and reach out to them directly. Personalize your communication, highlighting the value their unique perspectives and insights can bring to the association. 

Request their participation in creating video content, explaining how their contributions will benefit both the association and the larger community. By making them feel appreciated and showing that their voices matter, you’ll encourage their active involvement in video creation.

By implementing these strategies, you can effectively engage your members and facilitate the creation of user-generated video content.

How to Produce Member-Driven Video Content at Scale

Effectively managing and moderating user-generated video content is crucial to ensure high-quality, targeted videos that will stand out in search results. 

Let's explore some strategies to streamline the process and maximize the impact of user-generated videos.

Video Creation Tips

Set your members up to successfully create high-quality, targeted video content that will get noticed in search by:

• Clearly communicating your expectations and guidelines to members when requesting video content
• Providing specific prompts or talking points that align with your association’s strategic objectives
• Setting time limits to ensure that you receive succinct, focused video content
• Taking advantage of AI-powered remote video capture solutions that offer coaching to your members on factors like lighting, sound and framing – saving you valuable time

Video Editing Tips

Editing user-generated video content can be time-consuming, especially when dealing with a large volume of submissions. Fortunately, there are innovative video platforms like Gather Voices that simplify the editing process. 

With Gather Voices, you can leverage AI-powered tools to automate tasks such as trimming, captioning, and enhancing video quality. These features expedite the editing process, allowing you to efficiently review and publish user-generated videos without compromising on quality.

Video Publishing Tips

Before you publish any member-driven video content, it's essential to secure the necessary digital rights to avoid any legal or copyright issues. 

Clearly communicate the terms of use to your members, including how you plan to utilize their videos and where they may be shared. Provide them with a consent form or agreement that grants your association the rights to use their content for marketing purposes. 

By using platforms like Gather Voices, you can simplify the rights management process. Gather Voices offers features that allow you to easily collect digital rights agreements from content creators, ensuring that you have the necessary permissions and safeguards in place to showcase the user-generated videos without any legal complications.

By implementing these strategies and leveraging platforms like Gather Voices, you can effectively manage and moderate high volumes user-generated video content.

Measuring Success and Analyzing Performance

When it comes to implementing a user-generated video content strategy, measuring success and analyzing performance are crucial steps to ensure its effectiveness. 

By focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs), utilizing tools for tracking SEO performance and user engagement, and embracing continuous optimization based on data-driven insights, you can gain valuable feedback and refine your strategies. 

Here's a closer look at these important aspects:

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluating the impact of user-generated video content

To assess the success of your user-generated video content initiatives, it's essential to establish relevant KPIs. 

These metrics will help you gauge the performance and impact of your videos. Consider the following KPIs when evaluating the effectiveness of your user-generated video content:

• Video views and watch time: Keep an eye on the number of views your videos receive and the total watch time. This data reflects the reach and engagement of your content.
• Engagement metrics: Pay attention to likes, comments, shares, and subscriptions. These engagement metrics demonstrate how well your videos are resonating with your audience and the level of community interaction they generate.
• Conversion rates: Track how user-generated videos contribute to conversions, such as event registrations, membership sign-ups, or product purchases. Measure the impact of your videos on driving desired actions.
• SEO performance: Analyze changes in search rankings and organic traffic attributed to your user-generated video content. Evaluate how well your videos are optimized for search engines and their impact on your overall SEO strategy.

Tools and analytics to track SEO performance and user engagement

Leveraging the right tools and analytics is crucial for monitoring SEO performance and user engagement. Consider utilizing the following resources:

• Video platforms and social media analytics: Platforms like YouTube and TikTok provide analytics dashboards that offer valuable insights into video views, engagement, and audience demographics. Use these tools to track the performance of your user-generated videos.
• Google Analytics: Implement Google Analytics to track organic search traffic and conversion metrics attributed to your video content. This will help you understand the impact of your user-generated videos on your website's overall performance.

Continuous optimization and refinement based on data-driven insights

Embrace a data-driven approach to continuously optimize and refine your member-driven video content strategy. Regularly analyze the data and metrics gathered from your campaigns to identify areas for improvement. 

Look for patterns and trends in audience engagement, video performance, and SEO rankings. By using this information, you can make informed decisions and take the following actions:

• Refine your content strategy: Identify the types of user-generated content, topics, or formats that resonate most with your audience. Experiment with different approaches and learn from the data to refine your content strategy.
• Optimize SEO efforts: Analyze the impact of your user-generated videos on search rankings and organic traffic. Identify keywords and optimization techniques that work well for your content and make adjustments to improve your SEO performance.
• Continuously improve video quality and relevance: Pay attention to viewer feedback and engagement metrics to identify areas where you can enhance the quality, relevance, and overall impact of your user-generated videos.

By consistently monitoring and analyzing the performance of your user-generated video content, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy and improve engagement with your audience.

The Wrap Up

In this fast-paced digital world, association marketers are facing disruptions in SEO that require swift adaptation. 

But fear not, because there's a powerful solution at hand: user-generated video content. It's time to recap the benefits of this approach and reiterate the urgent need for association marketers to embrace it and revamp their SEO strategies.

We've delved into the amazing advantages of user-generated video content for association marketers. It's all about capturing the authenticity and relatability of your members' stories through compelling videos. 

This builds trust, strengthens your community, and establishes a genuine connection with your audience. Platforms like TikTok have become the go-to search engine for the next generation, making it an ideal avenue to share the authentic side of your association.

Now, while we acknowledge the disruptive forces of Generative Search, TikTok Search, and Google Perspectives, we must not underestimate the power of SEO. 

It still plays a pivotal role in your association's online visibility and discoverability. By optimizing your user-generated videos with relevant keywords, metadata, and SEO best practices, you can ensure that your content rises above the rest and attracts organic traffic.

So, here's your call to action: association marketers, it's time to dive headfirst into the realm of member-driven video content and revamp your SEO strategies. The digital landscape is shifting, and you need to adapt quickly to stay ahead of the game. 

So how can you get started? Here are a few practical steps to help you hit the ground running:

1. Incorporate video requests into your existing member communication channels: Leverage newsletters, social media platforms, and other touchpoints to encourage your members to create and share video content related to your association's mission and events.
2. Tap into social media and online communities: Engage with your members and create dedicated spaces where they can contribute their videos. Encourage discussions, provide prompts, and showcase their content to foster a sense of community and encourage more video contributions.
3. Unleash the power of live events: When hosting conferences, workshops, or webinars, actively encourage attendees to capture and share their experiences through videos. This will not only create engaging content but also amplify the reach of your events.
4. Personalized outreach to your most engaged members: Identify your most active and passionate members and reach out to them directly, inviting them to create videos that highlight their unique perspectives and experiences. Their enthusiasm will inspire others to follow suit.

Now is the time to seize the opportunities presented by user-generated video content and fuse it with SEO strategies. It's an exciting journey that will unlock new avenues for engagement, expand your association's reach, and foster a stronger connection with your community. 

And don't forget the incredible video platform, Gather Voices, which simplifies the process of creating, collecting, and managing user-generated video content.

In conclusion, association marketers, the clock is ticking. The disruptions in SEO demand action, and user-generated video content is your secret weapon. Embrace it, revamp your SEO strategies, and navigate the digital landscape with confidence and creativity. 

By doing so, you'll create a vibrant community, captivate new audiences, and position your association at the forefront of the digital revolution.