What is the best approach to recruiting members for a web-based professional organization?

[just making it happen]

We are in the pre-launch phase for a professional business organization targeting the technology driven small business. Members will use a subscription based website to collaborate and educate themselves in a variety of tech based subjects. Real world training conferences will enhance the reasonably priced membership. We need to tie down a solid approach to recruiting a membership base as quickly as possible. Is an online campaign more effective? Real world? A combination? How would you leverage either to get the most bang for your buck?

[Phantomidea083]

Being that you are planning on targeting technology driven small businesses, you should place a higher percentage of your efforts online, though some real world interaction should not be completely ruled out. I would recommend that you use the technological expertise that your founders may have to develop online media that catches the eye and impresses others.

Use social media to your advantage.
1. Join Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and other existing tech sites.
2. Many of these sites can be linked, so you can post things once and it posts to all of them.
3. Create profile pages that demonstrate your expertise.
4. Create profiles on Yahoo and LinkedIn.
5. Create forum groups and post information about what you are trying to do.
6. Visit other forums to see what they are doing, join them & respond to some tech questions asked- but don't blatantly advertise as this can be considered spam.
7. Myspace has free classifieds that you can post info on and Craigslist can be amazing with results- though it is locally targeted so you would have to submit to multiple locations.
8. Make a blog like wordpress. You'd be surprised about how many people are out there on the blogosphere.

SEO & Advertising
1. Do you have the site already? If so, start submitting to search engines asap as it can take some time for them to recognize you.
2. Seobook.com offers a free keyword tester, that tells you how many people searched for keywords that you fill in every day. When you're starting off, you should target mid-range words so that you don't get drowned out by larger, more experienced companies and yet you're still using words that are relevant.
3. Offer something free to entice people to give you their information so that when you launch, you can send them your membership/subscription packets.
4. Join directories. Some can be free and some with cost. It is actually better to invest alittle money into this. For instance, I believe Yahoo charges $299 annually for this.
5. The more links to your site that you can generate, the better. However, be careful about link-sharing or charging per links. It is better if people independently link to your site, it raises your search engine ranking. In order for people to post links to you, you have to be providing something they will want to share with others.
6. If you are offering expertise that others might want, they might invite you to write an article for their site which would provide a link to your site and free advertisement for your business.
7. For paying for marketing and advertising, you can get some small free credits for Google Adwords and Yahoo. Facebook offers catered advertising where you can choose to pay per click or pay by exposure. Based on cost analysis, it is more beneficial as a start-up to pay by exposure. You are trying to build a buzz.
8. Post journals, notes on facebook, bulletins, etc. to advertise.