I am a paid member of AAA and AARP. I am also a part of both the PURDUE and the RUTGERS alumni. And I run the Distance Learning Association with millions of (now) GLOBAL members. (www.GlobalDLA.org)

It hit me this morning. AAA has 60M+ members. AARP has 38M+ members. PURDUE has 600K+ living alumni who live all around the world. RUTGERS also has 600K+ living alumni with 360K+ alumni living in New Jersey (like me).

I never think of the other AAA or AARP members as my competition. That feeling never enters my mind. But once someone graduates from a school (College, University, Law School, Medical School...) then 'technically' they are competing with all of those other graduates for jobs, for clients, for customers. For example, all of the graduates of Harvard Law are certainly competing against all of the graduates of Yale Law. 

So I think the key to hyper membership growth is to make sure that people feel like friends. Never foes. They should feel like colleagues. Make sure that community members always feel and believe that membership in the community is 100% to the good - with no negatives.

LinkedIn has 1B+ professionals in their free community. And many are competing for the same customers, the same clients. I hope we are connected on LinkedIn.

And I really (really) hope that you joinNYDLA.org   Always friends. Never foes. 

TomCapone.com goes to my LinkedIn
TommyCapone.com goes to my Bluesky
ThomasCapone.com goes to my Sunday Blog
Cell: 201-466-8442 { texting preferred}