By Scarlett Brown | @deca.scarlett | Madison West High School, WI
Social media is a platform where thousands of DECA members can connect and share important information. In recent years, it has played an essential role in DECA membership, association identity, and chapter recognition. Your chapter’s social media presence is typically the first impression for a prospective member and can be a deciding factor in whether a student becomes a DECA member.
Here’s how to leverage your chapter’s social media to reach new heights in membership:
Stay Up to Date on Trends
The primary target audience for membership recruitment can be anywhere between 13-17. If your chapter has a marketing, public relations, communications, or social media manager, have them keep track of trends in a note-tracking app. They can also use the “Saved” feature on Instagram or TikTok to create a playlist of trends to leverage on their accounts.
Once you see a trend, it is imperative that you act on it as soon as possible. This way, your content stays relevant and gets the most engagement possible!
Solidify Your Chapter’s Brand Identity
A chapter can be known for a number of reasons: community service initiatives, competitive excellence, membership recruitment, and more. It’s important to identify and solidify your chapter's brand. Identify the following:
- Brand colors and fonts: Are you using school colors/fonts? Association colors? Specific choices of your own design? These deciding factors help build chapter recognition. If you need help with branding, visit deca.org/brand to find guidelines and resources.
- Your chapter’s niche: What is your chapter knowledgeable about, and how can this be spotlighted? You could create your own social media hashtag, or provide tips and tricks through engaging reels and carousel posts.
Highlight All Aspects of Your Chapter
There are so many experiences a DECA chapter offers. From social events to community service to competitions and conferences, a prospective member is looking for a reason to join your chapter. These reasons should be easy to find on your social media, whether through new content or by pinning certain experiences to the top of your page.
Build Event Excitement
Social media is a great tool to hype members up about upcoming events and conferences. By building event excitement (even if the events are a couple of months away), prospective members could experience pervasive apprehension (worry about missing out on rewarding experiences) and feel inclined to b part of your chapter. Here are some ideas for building event excitement:
- “Almost _____.” (Ex. Almost State). These are carousel posts that usually feature funny moments from chapter experiences. Find an example here.
- “Post ______.” (Ex. Post ELS). These are carousel posts that usually feature funny recaps of the event. Find an example here.
- Utilizing a trend example - "We are sooooooo excited for ICDC 2027" - after #DECAICDC 2026, DECA Inc. continued to build up the excitement for the conference by leveraging this trend. This is a great way to build excitement for the event.
Include All Types of Members and Leadership on Your Social Media
A prospective member should never feel worried about being included in your chapter culture. It’s important to practice inclusivity, by inviting and featuring all types of members on your social media, whether this be chapter officers, leadership council members, or DECA-cated members. A brand/social media manager should ensure that their social media displays a diversity of members.
Post Consistently
This one might be obvious, but how often your chapter posts go up could be a make-or-break for your membership. Try to post at least 2-3 times a week on your chapter’s social media so that prospective members can stay up to date on new information and engage with your accounts.
From these tips and tricks, you will find that social media plays such a crucial role in membership recruitment. Use social media to achieve your chapter’s #NextBigThing through membership recruitment.
