The new reciprocity ratio
How SUs survive, and thrive-in, the future
The biggest lesson i learned in the Movement
Student unions engagement levels are going down, they just don’t seem like what we had a few years ago. Of course, at that time, we had the biggest proposed change in students’ lives — the £3k to £9k fees. Or even a few more years ago when Unions were the “cheapest pint in town”. But things are different now.
Times have changed. Unions are questioning the viability of their commercial services, and better ways to grow and sustain their services. Most students don’t pay for tv, Microsoft office, yellow pages, cd’s, newspaper, dictionaries, and you get the jist.
Cialdini calls it reciprocity [1], or some of us may know it as “give and take”. Students get so much free stuff these days. I’ve seen Uber ambassadors giving away free taxi credits, redbull ambassadors giving away free redbulls, bacardi ambassadors giving away free bacardi at house parties, clubs giving away free shot glasses, new restaurants giving away free food for a Facebook share. That’s reciprocity.
The problem is that there are so many things that are freely available that we can’t really do a 50/50 give and take anymore cause there are bigger companies that have the power to give more for the sale. Vaynerchuck explains it as “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” [2] aka Give, Give, Give, then Ask. Ask, NOT Take.
Me, I like The Pareto Principle (80/20) [3]. So, benefit others four times before asking for anything. A spin on Carnegie’s ‘Think win-win’ [4] into think they-win-win-win-win, Then we’re wining”.
It’s the first thing I teach my volunteers and sabbs whom I mentor in the movement. For this blog, let’s call it “The new reciprocity ratio”.
Bonus: we’ll get organisational karma points
The good thing about student unions and charities is that they are founded on the principles of making the world a better place.
But that’s not enough in this world of coca-cola ambassadors, iPhone apps, Amazon prime free deliveries, and free Uber credits.
SU social today
Unfortunately, most students’unions today operate like this:
To better understand this, in April we asked groups of students about what they thought about their student union. And this was what we got:
The one that was a real awakening for us was, by active student union ambassadors, was that they felt that their student union was a chore. Yes, A CHORE! My heart sank. It was painful.
Looking into the future
It belongs to Generation Z. It’s the generation that didn’t know a world without mobile phones, they are not just “plugged in”, they are wire-less, and KNOW when they are being sold to. They come with an authentic desire to change the world and give back in their own way. It’s not just something they’d like to do someday, they are already doing it through social media, from their mobile phones.
So, how do we survive the future? How do we stand a chance to, not just survive but, thrive?
By communicating like we give a shit. — excuse my language.
But, imagine for one second that all our members were “distance learning” or “overseas” and NEVER saw our physical space. -What would their impression be? What happens when their ONLY impression of us was online on our Facebook page, Instagram profile, or Snaps?
If you check out more materials about this, please let it be this Book [5], or (if like me — you don’t have time to read) Audiobook, or watch this 3 minute Video summary.
An interesting thing happens when we fully implement this principle as THE OPERATING PRINCIPLE for MEMBERSHIP ENGAGEMENT. Other Charities and Students’ Unions who have used this as their membership operating principal have seen increased in fundraising revenue and membership engagement. — Think 80% them & 20% us.
Online Communications Strategy: Care (and show it online)
Membership Engagement Strategy: Care (and show it in our processes)
After all, the power of a Union comes from collective bargaining.
In the upcoming articles, we’ll cover the How and What content to create.
In social solidarity,
Raj Jeyaraj | M. D., SMOOVEmedia
We hope and expect you found this SU Social Series valuable for you and your team. If you have any questions or would like a review, or simply would like help with anything related to this article or mobile marketing, we’re happy to have an initial conversation. SMOOVEmedia.co.uk
-
REFERENCE
- Influence:The Psychology of Persuasion (1984) by Dr Robert Cialdini
- Jab Jab Jab Right Hook (2013) by Gary Vaynerchuck
- The Pareto Principle by Joseph M. Juran; from Cours d’économie politique by Vilfredo Pareto
- How to win friends and influence people (1936) by Dale Carnegie -old but gold
- The Thank You Economy (2011) by Gary Vaynerchuck
*ps: i don’t get anything from any of these links. They’re here for your convenience
