The DelCor Connection Blog

Are You Missing Opportunities to Connect Your Members?

What if your members were able to opt-in and include their online profiles for easy contact with other members as they registered for a meeting or renewed their membership? What if your members could share their bookmarking sites, areas of interest, desired volunteer roles, along with their blogs and public profiles?  Might associations consider tracking twitter IDs in the AMS? If it were easier to find fellow members who were also on Twitter, wouldn’t that aid in forging the kind of relationships associations strive to help members create?

Recently Twitter added the ability for its users to list people they follow into categories. This was a great benefit for many users who wanted the ability to look at one particular type of discussion, instead of using a third-party Twitter client, like TweetDeck.  The benefit for this kind of segmentation is that one is able to categorize the people one listens to on Twitter.

Example: I can read the tweets of all people in the association world I follow by clicking on my “association peeps” list and see a conversation mostly about association-related topics. I can then easily switch over to my private Twitter list “Gadget Aficionados” to read up on the latest news there.

What does all of this have to do with missing opportunities to connect your members?

 With so many online locations for members to communicate and engage, there is most likely not an easy way for them to connect to each other on popular sites like Twitter from your website or member portal. But there should be.

Associations are in the business of connecting people and organizations with one another and today there are too many places to look for that contact. Associations are in a position to provide valuable hubs of contact information and networking opportunities for their members.  Just like Twitter fulfilled users’ needs for organizing followers into lists, associations might fulfill a need by providing better contact information for those members who opt-in to share that information.

There are arguments that say social networking might replace associations, but I can’t help but see that as an alarmist response. Social media provides fantastic tools to associations that have been in the business of connecting people for many years. But will associations adapt? Will associations learn new ways to provide service to members?

What are your thoughts?

Welcome KiKi

As you can see, we have another blogger here at DelCor.  I am very happy to announce that KiKi L'Italien has joined our team and will also be contributing to the DelCor Connection Blog.  KiKi has a great deal of experience with and knowledge about how associations can use various social media platforms to encourage additional engagement from current members and reach new target audiences.  I knew she had quite a following already, but I didn’t know it was so big that her first post would have more views than any of my posts have had in the past few years.   Wow.

KiKi will also work on our Web related projects such as helping clients select and implement content management systems, Web site usability testing, and of course Web strategies – in which social media plays a key role of course. 

And who knows, maybe this will encourage some of the others here at DelCor to join the fun.  A few words of wisdom and wit from Tobin perhaps?  

Your Intern is Not a Social Media Strategist

Question: Would you let an intern write all your marketing copy? If so, then you can skip the rest of this post because nothing I write further down will matter much to you.

I recently attended BlogPotomac, a social media event bringing together some creative minds in the social media arena – and some newbies– who wanted to hear from the likes of Shel Israeland Beth Kanterabout trends in social media.

Following the day’s events, there was a wake (read: happy hour) held down the street in honor of it being BlogPotomac’s last meeting. 

As I was walking down the street towards the wake, the person next to me started some small talk, asking what I’d thought of the day and what I did for a living.

When the conversation turned back to her, I discovered that she was a college student from Ohio interning for a local association and she had been put in charge of all things social media because she was young and automatically “in touch” with the Facebook crowd.

“I had no idea what I was doing,” she told me.

“I’ve figured a lot out, but they probably need someone who knows more about their organization.”

Indeed.

As much as I’d heard about interns being put in charge of social media  (and there is a lot of talk about it out there in the Twitterverse), I’d never actually met one in the flesh, so I was fascinated with my new friend’s story.  I like fresh voices and I think we can always learn a lot from new perspectives, but there are definitely times when more experience is advisable.  I began asking her all kinds of questions.

“Do they have anyone who will take care of it once you’re gone?”

No.

“How large is the organization and what are the members like?”

There are about 80 employees. I’m not sure what the members do.

“Do you think you’ll stay in this line of work when you leave?”

No, but I am interested in social media as it relates to marketing.

“Did they give you any goals or did they just point you to Facebook and let you go?”

They just told me to set something up on Facebook and then asked me to do something on Twitter. I’m just now getting the hang of Twitter, but I’ll be leaving them next month.

[She went on to tell me how her university wasn’t preparing their marketing majors with the appropriate courses to handle new media, but that’s for another blog post.]

I was impressed with her enthusiasm and willingness to educate herself on social media, but I found it absolutely astounding that organizations were really putting interns to work as a social media strategy. I mean, for real?  Can you imagine doing this with other forms of communication coming from an organization?

Here are three reasons why hiring an intern to take care of your social media presence is a bad idea:

1. Internships are usually too short.
   Social Media takes a lot of time and patience.
2. Interns don't have a full understanding of your brand.
   You need to be in relevant conversations and building valuable content.
3. Interns aren't as accountable for mistakes (big or small).
   If they've offended your membership, they can leave tomorrow. You can't.

Your intern is not a social media strategist. Understanding your organization’s mission, members, and hot topics is imperative. Work with your employees who are your internal cheerleaders…and then add your interns with guidance – the interns (and your members) will thank you for it!

Social media platform confusion revisited

A couple of years ago I blogged about the confusion created when you are connected to someone on multiple social media platforms.  Connecting to the same individual on Facebook, LinkedIn, a 'private label' professional network and following them on Twitter becomes a bit much to manage.  Particularly when the individual uses all these platforms in the same way.  Here is how I've shaken out the uses for each of these tools and from speaking with others, it seems they are of the same mindset. 

• Facebook - it is my social network. Connections with family, friends, and professional contacts with whom I've connected at a more social level (had a beer, ran a race, worked on a community improvement project, etc...) all fit on Facebook. Folks that I don't mind if they see my family photos and might have something to say about a witty observation or a vacation we're planning. The connections who are hawking their books, seminars, webinars, services, or talking about their projects quickly get dropped or at least hidden on Facebook. Facebook is not a marketing tool - at least not to me.
• LinkedIn - I am using that to track my professional and personal contacts' careers as well as their connections and professional updates. It's fine to seek and provide professional recommendations and update your status to include the cool project you're working on with a client or an engagement to speak at a conference. I also use LinkedIn (and I think this is the power of LinkedIn) to see how I am connected with particular individuals. Perhaps someone I want to meet.
• Private label platforms - The most recent and best example is ASAE's Member to Member platform. Though I am already connected to many of my ASAE colleagues on LinkedIn and Facebook - the Member to Member network provides me with association community specific workspace. My councils and committees collaborate on the site, my activities are summarized for me, and I can see the value of being part of this community through some of the tools offered here that are not part of my LinkedIn or Facebook experience.
• Twitter - 90% professional tweeting. I am not tweeting about the weather, dinner, kids' soccer games, my health, my social activities, or silly pet tricks. Why? Because the folks who follow me are not likely interested in any of those topics. I am using Twitter to discuss association and technology-related topics. Occasionally it is nice to pipe up on a personal topic, but those are generally still customer service or 'life maintenance' thoughts. I will spare you the updates that I just won $2 on a scratch off lottery ticket or attended an awesome cooking class at CulinAerie...that's what Facebook and Chowhound/UrbanSpoon are for - in my world at least.

That said, there are still a number of other social sites that I work on regularly - but they are very topic specific. Chowhound, UrbanSpoon, Fandango, TripAdvisor, and a few others get my attention at least a few times a week and I am willing to spend time on them posting, discussing, rating, and reading.  Why?  That's a topic for another post.  Why are so many folks willing to spend time on these sites and not spend time on your organization's social media platform? 

Sometimes you have to fold

Worried about your content 'below the fold?  Well stop it!  Here's another great article that again supports my rants that it's not an issue by debunking the myth of the page fold with actual user testing.  I've been saying for years that users will scroll IF they think the content or function they are looking for might be down the page AND there is some visual cue that there is something further down the page.  With respect to the latter, make sure you don't have white space that lines up with the 'fold' at the common screen resolutions. 

Honey, I'm home

My blog sent me an email that said "we've grown apart... what can I do to get your attention?"  I felt bad, it's correct.  I haven't been paying much attention to it lately.  Unfortunately I think it has seen my hanging out with Twitter and its friends (HootSuite and TweetDeck).  However, that's only part of the story.  I've also been really busy.  The association community has a lot going on right now and we're working hard with our clients to ensure their technology is delivering the most it can.  I've also been working on a Web site facelift, our social media consulting projects, our business plan, and our 25 year anniversary celebration activities.  So, hopefully my blog will forgive me and see it wasn't all about Twitter's alluring 140 character attention span and forgiving nature with respect to grammar and punctuation - it was about a lot of other distractions too.  Well, I'm back with a renewed perspective since not everything I've wanted to say since my last post fit into 140 characters. More to come.  I promise.

It's not spaghetti

I heard a lot of social media advice at ASAE Annual 09 conference that sounded like this, "get involved, get active, do something - anything, try all sorts of things and see what sticks."  I disagree.  While it is important to get involved and start participating in the social media community, you need to look, listen, learn, and plan (I was out of L words) before you launch social media efforts.  Take these simple steps:

1. Search the social networking sites for your key words and review the resulting individuals and groups.  Take an unscientific baseline by randomly selecting 100 names and checking to see how many are members - this may come in handy later when you want to assess if your participation in a social media platform is driving any membership activity.  Review the groups for activity - you will learn a good deal about what the participants value enough to engage about.

2. Sign up for a Twitter account and use a platform like TweetDeck to monitor conversations that are happening in your industry.  You will be shocked (clients always are) at the number of Tweets your subject matter generates.  This, again, gives you great information about what will engage your target audience.

3. Establish a purpose, an owner, and a content plan for each initiative.  The plan doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should tie to your strategic or business goals, establish accountability and authority, and mention some success factors. 

That said, I can also see why folks are quick to offer the "try something" advice.  I think it's a result of seeing too many individuals (and organizations) hesitant to participate because they don't know where to start or are afraid they won't have enough 'clever' things to say online.  Don't worry about being clever, just be yourself and understand what engages your audience.  If you need any help - from setting up an account to developing your plan, we're here for you of course.

Purple, Snoopy, and your middle name are NOT good passwords

Please educate your organization's staff members about strong passwords.  As highlighted by this New York Times article, strong passwords have become even more crucial with the growing use of online applications such as Facebook and Google Apps.  This article from Microsoft is a great place to start when considering your password and your organization's password policy.

Practical Twitter?

This New York Times article about Twitter is worth a quick read.  I particularly enjoyed the nod to Twitter being 'an ego-stroker for those that want to broadcast the minutiae of their lives in 140 characters or less' and labeled it as a 'virtual popularity contest.'  The truth is that's what it is for the majority of its users.  However, the article goes on to give some examples of consumers using Twitter to get better customer service and satisfaction from some well known brand names in the travel industry.  Even if they are slightly exaggerated examples, and I am not saying they are, they still hold some promise for an actual, practical, valuable use of Twitter.  Getting a company's attention is easier when they know you're airing your issue in front of a large audience.  It's analogous to standing at the car dealership and discussing your problem with the service department - in a rather loud voice.  The dealership will be happy to take you aside and solve your problem just to get you off the salesroom floor.  Twitter seems to be being used in a similar way. 

What does this mean to you?  This means that as association executives, you need to have your ear to the Twittersphere (I know it's actually an eye, but that didn’t rhyme.)  Even if your association isn't Tweeeting, you still need to be part of the community listening.  You should setup the appropriate Tweetbeeps and the process by which you will address it when your industry or association are named specifically in a Tweet.  Another good step is to reserve your association's name on Twitter (note:follow a couple of people so your account isn't cancelled because of inactivity. If you're totally new to Twitter, About.com has a decent Twitter 101 posting worth reading.  Naturally, if you're confused and want to talk, don't hesitate to reach out to me or your DelCor contact.  We've been doing social media consulting for years as part of an organizations overall web strategy so this isn't anything new to us.

Sour Apple

I went to the Apple store yesterday to purchase a new MacBook Pro.  I wasn't shopping, I was purchasing.  When I arrived at the store, they told me it would be 30 to 40 minutes before someone could help me.  I asked where the checkout was because I didn't need  help, I knew what I wanted.  There is no longer a "checkout" at Apple retail stores.  You wait for a consultant to help you purchase what you would like.  I understand the perceived efficiency of arming the entire staff with the capability to process orders.  When you are purchasing a pair of headphones ($95 for a pair of Bose headphones - what?!?) it makes sense that any staff person can process your credit card on the spot and send you on your way.  However, our expectations are that when you walk into a retail store, you can stand in a line and purchase the product you've selected up.  It is not our expectation that you need to wait for a free consultant.  Imagine if all retail stores adopted this model.  "Excuse me Mr. Coriale, I understand you would like to purchase some laundry detergent.  Tell me about your washing machine and personal preferences so we can show you the appropriate brands." said the Giant sales associate.  I hope this isn't a future we see anytime soon.  I will order my Mac online - which is ironic.  Apple has shifted the consumer away from dealing with their people to dealing with their Web site.  While they thought they were improving a business process, they were actually making it harder for some of us.  They were focused on the customers that have questions and need help and they forgot about the customers that simply want to walk in and buy something.  Has your organization made changes to address an issue that has helped some members but created problems for others?  Have you gone back and evaluated the changes you've made?  Make sure to revisit any changes you make to your business processes (e.g., online user experiences, registration process, etc...) after they have been in use for a short period.