The DelCor Connection Blog

Social Media Strategy for Associations: How to Use the DASMI

Association executives who hire me usually want to know how they are comparing in their social media use to other organizations in their industry and in the association realm in general. We can make generalizations, but the only way you can know for sure how you compare is to take the time to look into the social media activities, web traffic, and estimated influence for all organizations in question.

Over time, collecting this data, some trends appeared indicating a usefulness in tracking associations in a variety of industries. We created the DelCor Association Social Media Index (DASMI) as a year-long initiative to watch how the outcomes of associations successfully¹ active in social media compared to other associations in various stages of social media efforts.

Since launching the DASMI in November 2011, we have used it to estimate potential social media growth for clients and as a gauge for overall association social media activity. Identifying trends in online activity using the "DASMI Dozen" is somewhat similar to following the S&P 500. How much the DASMI indicators work to explain anything outside of social media activity for associations remains to be seen.

[The following is taken from our DASMI explanation on the DelCor website.]

The DASMI is calculated weekly and is based on three factors: 

1. Engagement 

Engagement is critically important for associations, particularly those whose primary efforts involve lobbying, regulation, or otherwise advancing their industries in the eyes of the American public. According to ASAE, associations employed more than 1.6 million people in 2009, with a payroll of more than $47 billion. 

How well are associations engaging constituents and legislators through social media? Are social mentions entirely self-generated, or are people actually talking about your association? We measure this engagement by tabulating social mentions using Vocus Social Media Software. 

2. Influence 

How well associations are communicating through social media can impact the perceptions of their many constituents and observers. No longer is the conversation limited to private meetings, coordinated lobbying efforts, and carefully planned press conferences. People are talking about your association online; gauging your participation in those conversations is a key measure of your online influence. We measure influence using published Klout scores. 

3. Action 

Advancing your association requires action. Online, that commonly means more followers or more visits to your website, where you can initiate further involvement with your association – encouraging visitors to respond to action alerts, volunteer, or learn how your association advances America. We measure action based on Alexa analytics. 

If you would like to see how your association can use the DASMI to rate your own activity, feel free to email me at klitalien@delcor.com and I can find your DASMI score for your organization to track each week as the DASMI is updated. 

 

¹The DASMI is comprised of 12 national associations of all sizes, covering a wide variety of industries:

1. American Health Lawyers Association
2. American Medical Association
3. ASAE
4. Association for Manufacturing Technology
5. Association of Zoos & Aquariums
6. Independent Community Bankers of America
7. Motion Picture Association of America
8. National Association of Home Builders
9. National Association of REALTORS®
10. National Federation of Independent Business
11. National School Boards Association
12. Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society

 

How I Changed The World In 2012

I had to start out with a strong title since this post is taking on such a challenging meme; one asking about my future impact on the world.

No pressure.

Maddie Grant asked, “How are you going to change the world in 2012?“ and association bloggers have been answering.

Peggy Hoffman and Elizabeth Weaver Engel tagged me in their inspirational posts and so now I am trying to answer this serious question and I just don't know what to say... It is hard to stick one's neck out and say anything one does will have an impact on the world.

My plan is to attack it from another angle - the angle of imagined retrospection - so I can get my head around the challenge to change the world.

How KiKi I changed the world in 2012:

How to Attract and Engage Blog Readers

You’ve come a long way. You convinced leadership that a blog is an effective strategic tool to achieve organizational goals; you overcame a slew of organization barriers and challenges; and you recruited bloggers and have a full pipeline of content. There’s just one more thing to cover in the last in our series of posts from DelCor’s Progress U. – Blogger Summit: let’s get some loyal readers!

Blog bot bait

We humans like well-written interesting content. Search engine bots are less discriminate; they’re obsessed with keywords. A blog has to keep both humans and bots satisfied: readers who subscribe to your blog and share its posts, and bots that push your Google ranking higher and drive more readers your way.

Ray van Hilst, who writes frequently about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for associations, shared a few tips from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).

• Bots search tags for keywords, so use multiple tags in all your posts.
• Identify the phrases people use to search for your content. NWF uses both “climate change” and “global warming” in their posts to capture traffic from both searches.
• Blogs that publish more frequently rank higher than those that don’t.
• Write frequently about your organization’s work on specific issues to rank higher on those searches.

Encourage sharing

Before Twitter became popular, ASAE’s Acronym blog had more comments. Twitter might have drawn people away from commenting, but it’s been a great platform for promoting and sharing posts. Acronym’s Joe Rominiecki now keeps an eye on two conversations – Twitter and Acronym comments – to get feedback and engage with readers.

Add built-in sharing tools to your blog so readers can email or share posts on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus+, and other platforms. Ray says, “44% of online sharing is done on Facebook. The more Likes and Tweets you get, the more your readership will go up.”

To cultivate regular readers, add subscription options – both RSS and email delivery. NWF also puts RSS feeds on every tag so readers can select subscriptions by topic.

Maddie Grant adheres to the 90/10 rule of blog promotion on social media platforms: post 90% of the time about other blogs and 10% about your own. Shelly Alcorn recommends cultivating relationships with other bloggers in your community and sharing their posts.

It’s even possible for blog posts to lead to traditional media exposure. One of NWF’s posts had only 20 hits, but a staffer leveraged it to get a guest spot on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show. NWF also uses Twitter to pique journalists’ interest in upcoming posts.

“Publish, promote, and repeat,” says Ray. NWF bloggers announce their posts to other staff around the country on Yammer, their private Twitter-like platform. The social media staff takes it from there, sharing posts with the world.

What if someone says something bad?

Blogs are social media because they’re conversational. If you plan to engage your readers by allowing them to comment, install a spam filter.

Nervous organizations prefer to review and approve comments before publishing them, but that hinders conversation. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association requires approval only for first-time commenters, says Maggie McGary.

Other organizations allow comments to appear automatically and then delete the ones that don’t adhere to blog guidelines. Use your social media policy as a guide to address controversial comments. Lisa Junker says, “It’s not worth worrying about. In five years, Acronym had only one borderline comment.”

Engage your readers

“Always reply to comments,” says Lisa. In the early days she even sent thank you emails to new commenters.

Twitter is a good place to promote comments and prompt readers to revisit a post. People who comment and share your posts are volunteer advocates, Lisa says. “If people are talking about a post on Twitter and not on the blog, that’s fine, engage them there.” An RSS feed for comments will keep readers aware of new conversations.

NWF engages readers by embedding political action alerts into some posts. 31% of their web-based political action now comes from the blog.

Measuring engagement

Blogs are a low-budget item with one exception – time. How do you know if your blog is worth the time? Dave Sabol says “time spent on site” and “returning visitors” are meaningful metrics from Google Analytics. Bloggers also track the number of comments, reader emails, use of sharing tools, and mentions on other blogs and in Tweets.

Here’s the real measure of success: How well is your blog helping your organization meet its goals? Is it making a difference in the lives of your members and constituents?

Flickr photo by alicejamieson

How to Electrify Bloggers & Keep Your Content Pipeline Full

Too many organizations say they can’t have a blog because they’d never have enough bloggers or content. At DelCor’s Progress U. – Blogger Summit we heard plenty of solutions to those problems.

The hunt for writers

You already have writers on staff – they just don’t know it! They’re the ones who create handouts, informational emails, newsletter items, talking points, and reports. If they like to write, they’re good candidates for blogging.

Look for colleagues who communicate well in meetings and conferences. If writing isn’t their forte, perhaps they’re potential blog video stars. Or maybe they’ll make a great interview subject.

Who has stories to share about members, programs, and issues? Who knows what’s going on in your members’ worlds? The resources are right at your fingertips.

A year ago, the National Wildlife Federation had only 4 bloggers. Now, after searching for staff from headquarters and regional offices who had stories to share, they have 179 bloggers.

Young staffers are good prospects because they’ve grown up accustomed to online expression. Ray van Hilst encourages them to blog as a way to find their professional voices and stand out at work. Lisa Junker told her Acronym recruits that blogging will help build their careers, as well as their Google presence.

What if the CEO wants a blog presence but doesn’t want to write? Is ghostwriting a bad idea? Speeches are written for CEOs – why not posts?

Many CEOs don’t yet understand the value of developing relationships and building trust with readers, so blogging isn’t a priority. A PUBS attendee found a compromise: she ghostwrites for her CEO and the CEO replies to comments.

The blogger voice and mind

Bloggers express themselves on behalf of an organization; they don’t just post information. They write with a conversational, personal voice, not an institutional, press release voice. Acronym asks their bloggers to be human and opinionated, share stories from their professional lives, and respond to comments. Be a real person – be interesting!

Bloggers develop habits to generate ideas: they keep ears and eyes open for new ideas, capture ideas as they occur, repurpose content, and keep on the look-out for new sources and voices.

There’s no single way to collect ideas and inspirations. Maybe your best ideas come to you while you’re singing in the shower! Do what works for you.

Boosting blogger morale

When asked to contribute blog posts, the usual response is “I don’t have time.” People are afraid to commit. Who can blame them?

Ask for a small commitment, one post a month. Or two paragraphs – people can be intimidated if they don’t have a way to gauge your expectations. Suggest some ideas or show them how to find ideas. Talk up the benefits of blogging – both the personal and professional variety.

When you don’t already have a public online presence, it’s scary to put your work out into the blogosphere where others can judge and criticize you. Pair up bloggers to review each other’s work, provide support, help moderate comments, and rally the troops if things get ugly.

Be our guest! Be our guest! Put your writing to the test!

To create more engagement between members, supplement staff bloggers with member bloggers. Joe Rominiecki from ASAE’s Acronym blog says a pool of regular guest bloggers saves time because you don’t have to solicit each individual post.

Recruiting guest bloggers is more difficult now than when Acronym launched in 2006. Many members now have their own blogs or are “scratching that itch” with Twitter. Plus, commitment is difficult when associations are short-staffed due to the recession.

PUBS participants suggested 4 ways to recruit guest bloggers.

1. Ask members who already have blogs. Consider cross-posting where appropriate.
2. As a “gateway” to regular blogging, ask members to live-blog a conference session or to contribute a post during a theme week or month.
3. Find new voices on listservs, in online communities, at conferences, or in niche groups.
4. “Speaker stalking is a good way to find guest bloggers,” adds Ray.

Filling the content pipeline

Even if you have enough writers, “blogs go through content cycles, sometimes you’ll struggle with content,” says Lisa, “don’t despair.”

Maddie Grant publishes daily at Socialfish but doesn’t write a post every day. She also publishes guest posts, curated posts, videos, and links to good finds. At the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association blog, Maggie McGary publishes mostly posts from member blogs: promotion for them and a constant stream of content for ASHA.

Here are some more great tips for finding content.

• Set aside time to read and think.
• Find inspiration in industry reports or from the blogs of other industries.
• Turn a PowerPoint into a post.
• Imagine what new professionals would ask.
• Repurpose content.
• Recap conference sessions and share conference photos.
• Share a selection of posts by other community bloggers, as in Acronym’s Quick Clicks. Curated posts help readers find good content amidst all the noise. Acronym also uses Quick Clicks to highlight and encourage new bloggers. 

In our next (and last) post to come out of Progress U. – Blogger Summit, we’ll discuss ideas for attracting and engaging readers. In the meantime, how do you keep your blogs and bloggers active? Where do you find your “electricity”?

10 Apps Every Association Professional Should Try

6 Barriers to Blogging – And How to Bust Them

Imagine your association leadership’s reaction if you suggested a blog: Would you be greeted by silence, a shuffling of papers, and darting eyes? At DelCor's Progress U. - Blogger Summit we discussed busting the many barriers to blogging. Here are some insights and examples from association bloggers.

Barrier #1: Limited Resources

There’s never enough time and money. Although blog platforms are inexpensive, it takes time to manage and write content for a blog. ASAE’s Acronym blog has neither a budget nor dedicated staff. It’s managed and written by the magazine’s editors with the help of volunteer guest bloggers.

Unlike ASAE, the National Wildlife Federation has a budget that was used to redesign the blog and hire a part-time editor to manage it. Their posts are written by 179 staffers from headquarters and regional offices – communications and policy staff, program directors, middle and senior management, and even the CEO. (In our next blog post, we'll dig deeper into how ASAE and NWF recruited their bloggers.)

Barrier #2: Tradition vs. Innovation

Innovation has been a topic of heated discussion for several years because, frankly, most associations don't do it very well. They either don't budget for innovation or aren't nimble enough to implement new ideas. The prevailing culture also obstructs change: “we've always done it that way.” Egos, jobs, and budgets are tied to the old and resist the new.

Blogs aren't the only initiatives to suffer. "The first line item that gets cut from budgets is mobile," said Ray van Hilst. Mobile-friendly sites are easy to create, yet many associations don't, even when metrics show increasing mobile views.

Barrier #3: Full Plates

Lisa Junker, former editor in chief at ASAE, pointed out a huge obstacle: Staff plates are full because associations are bad at sunsetting programs. When researching an article about sunsetting, she only found one association that did it well, but they didn’t want to be quoted because they did it without their board’s knowledge! Subterfuge: a new strategic tool?

Barrier #4: Fear

Spam, negative comments, liability: blogs can be scary if you’re not proactive on these fronts. Filter spam. Moderate comments according to your published guidelines. Minimize liability with an enforced social media policy. (Your association has one, right?)

Education helps to reduce fear. Acronym’s staff found out the hard way what happens when senior staff doesn’t understand blog and community protocol. When an “incendiary word” appeared in a post title, it spread like wildfire and some influential members complained. Regular readers weren’t fazed, but staff was told to remove the post, causing an even bigger uproar from the online community who cried “censorship.”

Barrier #5: Confidence

At first, the public aspect of blogging can be unnerving. Even experienced bloggers aren’t always confident about their posts. Shelly Alcorn said, “Every time I hit publish, I think this is the post that will ruin my career.” She suggests being strategic about your content and pushing through any low-confidence moments.

Don’t shy away from difficult topics. Readers flock to posts about controversial issues. One of Maddie Grant’s most popular posts – Has ASAE Lost Its Mojo, a critical look at the 2010 annual meeting – sparked lots of discussion, not all favorable, but she has no regrets.

Barrier #6: Unfamiliarity with Blogs

Many association decision-makers don’t read blogs, and aren’t even aware of the blogging going on in their industry. They don’t understand how a blog can serve the association and engage their members. They’re not comfortable with that mode of expression. You’ll have to educate them to help them get past their discomfort and misperceptions.

Don’t use technology lingo when discussing blogs. Show examples of other industry and association blogs. Focus on the impact of this new communication and engagement channel, not the tool itself.  

Once you get the green light, take time to research by subscribing to industry and association blogs. Most importantly, develop a mission and content strategy.

Blog Mission

A mission will help you make decisions about appropriate content. The Acronym blog’s first post announced theirs: “Spotlight innovation and excellence inside and outside the association world, explore new possibilities for the future of associations, and question the conventional wisdom of association management.”

Content Strategy

How can your blog be used as a strategic tool to help the association achieve its goals? Define the blog’s goals and audience, including any niches you wish to engage. What are their content needs? What would they find valuable or interesting? Determine your posting frequency. Create an editorial calendar to keep you on track. The more you post, the more Google traffic you’ll get, but keep the frequency realistic and manageable.

In the next post, we’ll discuss two of the day’s hot topics: recruiting bloggers and keeping the content pipeline full.

Flickr photo by sarflondondunc

Verdict: Blogs Are Not Dead

At Progress U. - Blogger Summit one week ago today, we asked our lunchtime panel two questions: Are blogs dead? Why do people keep asking that question?

The consensus, as might be expected from a room full of bloggers, was "No, blogs are not dead." Why did our panel see hope for blogs and why is this question still being asked?

Blog status report

Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project reports that only 32% of online adults read blogs, whereas twice as many use social networking or video sites. When the press sees numbers like that, it leads to sensational headlines: Blogs are dead!

Leaving aside the hyperbole, why are there so few blog readers? Maybe it's a perception issue. Many older adults have a limited familiarity with blogs. They see blogs as a place only to rant about politics or dish about celebrity fashion, not as serious resources for professional development. Plus, with the melding of blogs into websites, some readers may not even realize they're reading a blog.

As panelist Jeff De Cagna pointed out, older generations are digital emigrants, not digital natives like Millennials who know only a world of enhanced technology where learning, communicating, and building relationships is done online. According to Pew, 49% of teens and 43% of Millennials read blogs, compared to 25-34% of older generations. However, teens are using other social media platforms, instead of blogging, to express themselves. The number of teen bloggers dropped 50% since 2006, while the number of older bloggers increased. Will teens return to blogging as they grow older?

From clay tablets to WordPress

Blogs are the latest in a long line of content containers. Long ago, papyrus rolls and parchment manuscripts delivered knowledge. For many, people blogs have replaced magazines and newsletters.

Maddie Grant sees blogs as living things. A dynamic form of communication, blogs evolve as new widgets, formats, and delivery methods are invented. But, Jamie Notter added, blogs aren't entitled to stay alive. If we find another mode of expression, another container, it's okay if blogs die, as long as we continue to learn and advance.

Are other social media platforms killing the need for blogging? Not yet! Blogs are alive and well because they provide value that other platforms don't.

Benefits of blogging for associations

Your blog, said Ben Martin, along with your website, is your homebase. Blogs, with pages full of keywords, are search-engine friendly, bringing people to your homebase and giving you the opportunity to educate and engage them with your content.

Blogs act as a trusted filter, said Ray van Hilst, helping members wade through information overload, a role ASAE plays with its Quick Clicks posts. ASAE's blog also hosts and sparks conversations about critical issues, like innovation.

Ray showed how the National Wildlife Federation uses their blog to get their stories out and extend their fundraising and political reach, turning readers into donors and activists.

Blogs are a platform for associations and individuals to share knowledge, build a community and market subtly. Maddie's blog posts about social media led to her reputation as a thought leader and speaker, and, eventually, her consulting business.

Bloggers as change agents

Shelly Alcorn measures her blogging success by the feedback and inspiration she's received from readers and  the relationships she's built. What about influence? Are bloggers change agents for the association community?

Bloggers are the voices who question traditional narratives in the association industry. Stefanie Reeves uses her blog to amplify voices that aren't normally heard, bring her unique perspective to the association community, and teach the community about ASAE's Diversity Executive Leadership Program.

Blogs are alive and kicking

Blogs aren't dead because organizations use them to fulfill their mission and achieve their goals. However, many associations don't take advantage of blogs and other technology. They don't experiment and innovate because they don't see it as an imperative; after all, they're not failing, yet. Maddie believes that if everyone on staff is invested in and has a role to play in innovation and the strategic use of technology, be it a blog or social media, associations would be more successful.

Jeff asked, "Are we oriented toward the past or the future? Not using more technology in our business plans is killing us." Technology empowers and transforms associations. It allows staff to spend time on meaningful work that creates value for members, and provides platforms for knowledge delivery and relationship-building. Now that's progress!

What do you think is in store for the future of association blogging? Is death imminent?

Stay tuned for more reports from Progress U. - Blogger Summit.

 

Association Bloggers Unite!

 

Association Chat Highlights: The Dreaded Performance Review

Pressing Cancel

“Select form of payment.”
[press Credit]
“Swipe your credit card and follow the instructions on the keypad.”
[swipe credit card]
[press Credit on the menu]
[press Cancel]
[press OK when asked if the amount is correct]
And so on…

At grocery stores, pharmacies, and other retail locations this scene plays out all day every day.  This is a process most of us know so well we do it without any hesitation or confusion.  However, it IS confusing.  It ISN’T usable.  Once you indicate your type of payment, why are you being brought through a process that requires you to indicate it again and then press Cancel?  Cancel isn’t a word that leads a user to feel they are getting closer to completing their task, it is just the opposite.  It leads a user to believe they are going to have to start again.  Still, we press the Cancel button.  Why?  Because we’ve learned the system through using it enough times that we excuse its absurd violation of the standard (and pretty much only) definition of the word "cancel."

As we look at websites during usability testing projects we see website users make the same type of jumps.  They understand the nuances in the search results, registration, or profile setup so they excuse the poor user experience because the value of completing the task is greater than giving up or making a fuss about the speed bump in their process.  That’s not good enough. You should strive to delight your users with a good user experience.  Test your member registration/renewal, event registration, community profile completion, and search functions to see what your users see.  There’s much more to test than that, but these heavily used functions are worth testing if you do nothing else. Don’t expect your users to excuse your Cancel button whatever that may be.