Adding New Members to the Entrepreneur Alliance

A uniform process for adding new members to the Entrepreneur Alliance is essential. Since we offer a 7-day trial before receiving payment, it's important we get every new member experiencing the aspects of our program that will convert them into members and keep them members month after month.

This process starts when a member submits payment to start their 7-day trial. This process ends when the new member has been approved into the Facebook group. 

Kicking things off, you need to make sure that you record all new members basic information, including their full name and Facebook URL. inside the Member Engagement tab of Airtable.

This information is not automatically imported into Airtable. The only information you'll have on a new member is their email address. In the next step, you'll see best practices to finding accurate member information.

Member information is not automatically imported into Airtable, so we have to be creative in finding each new member. While this takes time to ensure accuracy, it is a priority to ensure new members are getting the resources they asked for and are experiencing the Entrepreneur Alliance to it's fullest. Each day, you'll open up Airtable and see a table that looks something like this...

You'll have the new members email address, but nothing else. The first place to look is in the Slack channel #alliancetrials. Search using the members email address to get the response from Alliance Bot. Typically you can capture the first name of the new member.

The second place to look is in the #fb_group Slack channel. Members are prompted to enter their name after purchasing the Entrepreneur Alliance so we can add them to the Facebook group. See if you can find a match to the first name you previously found.

The next step will be to find the Facebook URL of the new member. This is important because emails are not often read and this allows us send a more personal message. We use Facebook messenger to connect with members and retrieve failed payments. We also need the Facebook URL to ensure members are being added the Facebook group.  

The first place to look will be on the new member requests page of the Entrepreneur Alliance Facebook page found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/entrepreneuralliance/requests

New members will be found here if they request to join the Facebook group. There are occasions where new members don't request to the join the group, so don't rely on this only. Click on the members profile once you find a match and are certain that it's the correct person. Copy the Facebook profile URL and paste into Airtable. 

The next place to look will be by searching Facebook and/or Google using the members email address or name. The goal is to find the member on Facebook, so get creative in how best to accomplish that. One search strategy is to use the location with the members name. In the Member Engagement tab, you can open up the members profile and see the city and state they bought from. This often leads me to find the person on Facebook and capture their URL.

The easiest way to add new members will be on the member requests page found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/entrepreneuralliance/requests. Simply match the new member to your records in Airtable and click the "Approve" button. 

There are instances where members never request to join the Facebook group, so you'll have to initiate this process. If you have found the Facebook URL of a member, you'll want to add that person as a friend on Facebook. Once you are connected via friend request, you can manually add members to the group. You do this on the Members tab of the Facebook group found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/entrepreneuralliance/members. On that page, you'll click on the "Add" button and type in the name of the member.

Next, you'll type in the name of the member and click "add".

NOTE: If you are not friends with the member, they will now show up in the autofill option. Therefore, it's important to friend the member first. 

The final way to add members to the Facebook group is by using the built-in email invitation. You do this on the Members tab of the Facebook group found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/entrepreneuralliance/members. On that page, you'll click on the "Add" button and type in the name of the member.

Next, you'll type in the email address of the member and click the note icon. This will produce a dropdown where you can insert a personalized invite.

Example: 

"Hey FNAME! Wanted to reach out and say thanks for being a part of the Entrepreneur Alliance. Here's an invite to join our community. Excited to learn more about you and see how we can best help. Talk soon!"

Click "add" and the member will be sent the invite. 

It's important to mark the checkbox inside Airtable once the member has successfully been added to the Facebook group. On the Member Engagement tab, simply mark the checkbox.