I’m attending an event at the ASAE Executive Education Center in DC today. The subject: “What Associations Must Know About Social Networking.” Themes for the seminar:
When to have resources open or closed
When to have hands on or off
When to integrate with other tech
Speakers:
Rob Miller, EVP of Avectra
Andy Steggles, Risk and Insurance Mgt Social Networking & Social Media Association
Theodore (Ted) LaBarra, Web Editor, Association of American Advertising Agencies
Maddie Grant, Blogger, Founder of Social Fish
Maddie Grant gave an overview of social media — there were some glazed eyes in the room, not having to do with her presentation tho (imagine if you just heard about Twitter for the first time). She mentions that socmed is a tool for engagement. Yes folks, it’s not tech for tech’s sake – Get started by defining goals. Grant gave many examples across the socmed spectrum: blogs (American Anthropological Association), NTEN (Twitter) and The Association Social Media Wiki. Integration with the Web site is driven by the platform (MOSS — sharepoint for you Luddites:P)
Ted LaBarra discussed the aaaa.org Web site — built on sharepoint and integrated with AMS (association management system). Future projects (now under development) include community blogs, wikis, video, book corner (ratings of books of interest) and networking/collaboration tools. Some internal resistance to Web 2.0 concepts — long standing groups within the organization. Closing a network was driven by antitrust concerns. Issues: who is blogging, what are they saying.
FS: However, what about the potential impact to membership and current monetization? While socmed proponents want to make it all open, should it be?
Andy Steggles established a line between a group and association. Associations are formal (by laws, dues) while groups are informal and are more nimble. He also defines engagement -
- Traditional Metrics (Chapter participation, annual conferences, educational events, volunteering, members) – synchronous
- Social Everything (Blogs, Wiki’s, eGroups) – asynchronous
What guides both sets of metrics? Member-to-member interactions. Social-related enagements are much more efficient. Give instance resource (by categories) a value on a 10-point scale. Member activity is assigned a value as well (blog author gets more points than a commenter)…. this can tie in to member rewards. Wikis are ranked by the number of characters added. All activity is dropped into a point bank — points are earned for MVM status = Most valuable members. Aside from this level of recognition, one could also offer renewal credits.
Andy indicates the importance of differentiating between members and non-members! Blogs should be public, but social media tools must plug into a site and be available to members. Members may also define access to content, ranging from private to public; adopting member moderation to this vertical is outstanding. Who can be engaged?
- Speakers
- Authors
- Exhibitors
- Chapter Leaders
- Officers
- Blog Authors
- All members
Of particular note is Steggles comments about platform: select one that wil integrate with an AMS and is not tied to one in particular.
FS: Andy hits the association value proposition extremely well — although I disagree with an automated point system for a wiki (e.g. if someone adds content of great value, but not a lot of words, this is an exception to his approach).
How to promote social features to members (especially those who may not be tech-savvy)? Put it in terms that they can understand! Instead of Wiki, call it a glossary. Use collaboration in place of social media or Web 2.0. Make things easy for the user — not only in the labeling and description, but in what is rolled out and offered to members.
The subject of monetization came up — Andy Steggles gave a great example. The focus was on email advertising in listserve/forum traffic – $1K per day. The use was described as non-intrusive. Initial advertising content is focused on organizational products and services and evolved to sponsors. Another example offered by Steggles was putting organizational advertisements before each uploaded video.
Should facebook, linkedIn or another resource be the single social community? No! Steggles indicates that this is important to have in place as a placeholder for the community at your site. By bringing members to your site, you can avoid issues where the aforementioned are blocked by corporations. You can also define the engagement with your members.
Forrester and the social technographics came up — I’m glad that this is the center piece of my own recent product plan.
Powerpoint and survey provided after the seminar — very nice. This type of followup is often missed by presenters. (none that I’ve seen lately:-)
Dang – you are fast! Thanks so much for blogging about the session! Social media at work… : )
Nice summary – I didn’t attend this session, so this write-up is great. I’d like to second (or third or hundreth) Andy’s note about thinking about integrating any social technology with your association’s database. This should be one of the VERY FIRST questions on the list for a prospective vendor.
The other thing I want to underline for association staff tasked with (or just interested in) integrating new media tools for your membership: learn by doing! There are lots of tools out there that are ideal for building your own professional network (like Twitter and LinkedIn), that should be the starting place for association professionals. How can you think about the ways your members will apply the tools to their professional goals unless you understand the potential for professional benefit?