Does your organization have a whammy bar?

"Can it have a whammy bar?", The Harmonix (Guitar Hero) guys asked.
"Why, What would a whammy bar do?" the Huangs (investors) responded.
"We don't know yet, but it has to have a whammy bar", the Harmonix guys responded. "Because whammy bars are cool."

Does your organization have a whammy bar?

Guitar players get this allusion right away. For the non-musician, a "whammy bar" or tremolo arm, is the lever on a guitar bridge that allows the player to raise or lower the instrument pitch by pulling or pushing the bar while the notes are still fretted on the neck of the guitar. Jimi Hendrix is famous for his dive bomb and sky-high whammy bar use. And yes, whammy bars are cool.

What's cool about your organization?

I'll confess that I don't know what an organizational whammy bar looks like. It might be something Web 2.0 -- a Facebook page, a velvet rope social network, #yourconference @Twitter. It could also be a tool, a jobs board, photo sharing, geo-mapping, or a wiki. Whammy bars don't have to be digital. It could be something really cool that you do at your annual meeting that attendees talk about afterwards.

Whammy bars are about leverage and the fun you get from applying, expressing yourself, and being surprised and delighted with the result. What's your organizational whammy bar? I'd like to hear about your success stories.

Should you hire an SEO consultant?

Read the Google SEO Starter Guide. If you get tired or confused, then you need to hire someone. If it makes sense, but you are thinking it will be a lot of work that you don't have time for, then hire someone. If you think you can do it yourself, then go for it! Either way this is a must read.

Leveraging Twitter and Other Social Media

Twitter is still the hot topic among association social media followers. The discussion is moving beyond "Is it good for anything?" to discussion of how to use it. I've been a Twitter user for a couple of weeks now. My Twitter feed updates to this blog and to several other sites. I have a couple of followers. Add Tweeting to my obligations.

I came across a really nice presentation by Shaun Dakin entitled Issue Advocacy Using Social and Traditional Media - from Twitter to MSNBC in 24 Hours that I recommend. He talks about how he used Twitter in concert with other social media to establish his own authority on a topic, create buzz, and build a network around his issue.

Upshot is, you can use Twitter in combination with other social media to flood the search hive-mind for your 15 minutes. But it is hard work.. Remember the good old days when all you had to do was load a page with invisible keywords to score a page 1 search return. :<)

Kidding aside, Shaun has some good, practical advice here along with other case studies of Twitter use by companies and organizations. He also provides info on some useful tools like Twitter search and Tweetdeck and others. I won't list them all. If you are interested in how your assocaiation can use Twitter in combination with social and other media, Shaun's presentation is worth your time.

Association Twitter

Twitter is a hot topic on the ASAE Listservs. Everyone is trying to figure out how to use it. So far, it seems pretty lame if it isn't tied to a real time event.

That may change.

I regularly ask my 20-year-old son about social media. His group has yet to embrace Twitter. They are still Facebook, all the time. The Facebook chat function is powerful and familiar. In a few years, they will all have 3G phones and Twitter may be the portal for updating their blogs, Facebook, etc.

Always the explorer, I've put a Twitter feed on this blog. It simultaneously updates my Facebook status.

Guess what? Now I need 2 Twitter accounts (as if I need 1). Apparently, lots of other people need more than one Twitter account. Here's a great article on the Twitterrati blog about tools to deal with this problem. By tomorrow, I'll be a SplitTweet user.

1 thing associations can learn from Facebook

Today Facebook asked me “What’s on your mind?” That question seems a bit confrontational. Why should I tell you?

OK, what’s on my mind is the topic of associations and online ad-hoc communities. I’m referring to online social media spaces that allow anyone to create their own community. Take Facebook Will Be Forced to Shutdown in 7 Days! Join and Save it! For example. An ad-hoc community on Facebook with 1,280,653 members See All to protest the new Facebook interface. By my count this is an ad-hoc group that has formed in less than a week to now comprise almost 1% of Facebook users. It will be interesting to see what happens next, especially in light of their recent change in TOS debacle. The TOS change spawned a similar user backlash and forced a clarification and return to the prior terms which said you owned your content. Facebook’s change to the TOS said Facebook had rights to your content forever, for whatever purpose, and even after you left Facebook. This was either a clumsily executed naked rights grab or the result of incompetent legal staff. We’ll never know which.

The interesting point here for associations is the ad-hoc community bit. Associations are fundamentally about community. Most associations offer some type of online community (community of practice, listserv, or more advanced social media space). However, in my experience, very few allow members the opportunity to create their own ad-hoc communities or interest groups within the association online environment. They typically offer a few communities based on membership interest areas. Creation of new communities is locked down and at the association’s discretion. This flows from the old association mother-ship model of top-down, controlled information flow.

What if an association allowed members to create their own ad-hoc communities? I posit:
* The number of communities would increase dramatically.
* Member to member connections would strengthen.
* The association would get advance info on odd topics of interest and trends. The edges are where all the interesting stuff happens.
* Communities of dissent would form.

That would't be all bad.

Email is Dead: Update

Doing some ego-surfing with the idea that my earlier post on "Note to Association Marketers-- Email is Dead" was perhaps the first reference to the end of email as a marketing channel. No such luck. A quick google search shows references to the death of email going back before 2002. OK. I'm not in the vanguard. A post in Social Media Today 9/17/08 The End of Email tells it better than I can--with reference to statistics. Social networks and trusted media are where it's at. If you are reading this for the first time from me, you are behind the curve.

3/16/09--Nielson reports that social media is now more popular than e-mail.

Note to Association Marketers—E-mail is Dead

Did you know people in their 20’s think e-mail is “old?"

This line from Stephanie Vance’s article Network Your Way to Advocacy Success—Online! Published in the November/December issue of The Association Forum of Chicagoland’s magazine Forum got me thinking.


Outside of work, 99.9% of the email that I get is spam. Granted, I have a couple of websites and domains so my spam bucket is fills daily with hundreds of unsolicited messages. The personal e-mails that were so much a part of my life have dwindled. New, richer communications channels have taken their place.

The messages that reach me, the conversations that I’m interested in, come largely through channels other than e-mail. These channels include social networks, message boards, blog comments, and listservs that I’ve chosen to subscribe to. This is my trusted communication network. I can grow it or reduce it.

Association marketers should pay attention. Marketing plans based on blast e-mails probably aren’t reaching as many customers as you think. There is still a place for traditional marketing activities, but if your association is still primarily cranking out postcards, flyers, and bulk e-mail – well, you are missing the party. And you are leaving money on the table. Associations are uniquely positioned to develop trusted channels and to leverage those channels for revenue through marketing in context and through community. More later.

Easy Podcasting for Associations

I followed a link from ACTE today to a great resouce for associations interested in podcasting--Podbean.com. Take a look at how ACTE uses it for their Career Tech Talk podcasts.

I'll be trying it out. It looks like it makes it easy to put your podcasts online, set up feeds and even link to ITunes. There is a shopping cart if you want to charge a fee. The free version seems very functional and for a modest monthly fee you get good value. It's worth a look-see.

Is Facebook All It's Cracked Up To Be?

A good article in my email today via ASAE's TechnoScope.
Author Robert A. Murphy talks about his experience setting up a Facebook page for the Optical Society of America. His article address generational issues in establishing a Facebook presence for your association. He offers detail on:

Three Ways to Make Facebook Work
1. Push the group page continually.
2. Create content or a reason that can only be accessed through Facebook.
3. Take advantage of the component in Facebook that allows you to add applications.

Article Lead:
By Robert A. Murphy
Though it may be tempting to create a Facebook page for your organization, it's critical to do your research before signing on. Your association may benefit from creating a page on Facebook and similar social networks, but first you must determine what you hope to achieve in creating the page. Be sure your presence on a network adds value for your members before you make the leap.
ASAE Members can Read Full Story.

If it isn't on the web it doesn't exist

Anybody out there still using the the print version of the Yellow Pages?
If your association isn't on the web, you don't exist.
If I can't find your white paper via keyword search in 3 clicks it doesn't exist.
Don't spend big money on an SEO consultant. Ask the 20-somethings in your organization. It ain't that hard to get top rankings if you have good content that is searchable and tagged. Search engines are dumb... in a good way. They'll find your stuff if you let them. The people you want to reach will find you.

List of Associations using Social Media

Interested in how other associations are using social media and Web 2.0 tools to connect with members? The site Association Social Media Wiki by Principled Innovation provides a list of associations and the tools they are using. In true social media form, they are using a wiki to build the site.
Note: congrats to PI on the domain name associationsocialmedia.com. Wish I'd bought it.

The site presently lists and links to about 108 associations. A nice feature is the sort by category page where you can see a breakdown of how many associations are using the different tools. Blogs are by far the most popular tool in use with about 72 of 108 reporting blogs. Podcasts are next most common with 30. After that things drop off dramatically. The site is worth a look and please add your associations activities to the list.

I'm not sure what to make of the prepondance of blogs and podcasts in the list.
I like them and think they have a place in assocation communications. However, my take on association blogs and podcasts is that although they are considered social media, they are still largely one-way communications. If you look at most association blogs, they still mirror the style of the news/update. Comments are infrequent. Topics come from the association blogger. Theres not a lot of 2 way communication going on in most association blogs. Maybe I'm old school, but I still like forums with threaded discussions. The great thing about forums is that topics are created ad hoc by members and commented on by other interested members. People get to know each other through forums. I know that many associations have forums. Forums may not be a category that they are tracking. Hey, it's a wiki. I could add that. Hm...just did.

Web 2.0 Tools for Associations

Social media and Web 2.0 tools are all the buzz in the association world. Rightly so. The rise of social networking sites threaten associations with disintermediation. The tools simultaneously offer associations that adopt them new ways to grow and strengthen their community of members.

The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) is taking a leadership role in advancing the use of Web 2.0 tools and social media by associations. I'm a member and find value in my ASAE membership. Members get special access, but there is plenty of free stuff on their site. Their association wiki is open to view. Here's a link to their wiki page that provides a great introduction to Web 2.0 tools.

5 things associations can learn from Flickr

Associations that are exploring the use of Web 2.0 tools and social media would do well to take a look at the photo sharing site Flickr.

Flickr is, in their own words,” almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.” I started using Flickr in mid-2006, before Yahoo bought them. That makes me old skool. In the early days they were exactly what they said they were. They are still pretty good. When I joined Flickr here’s what I found:

1. Easy-They provide a very simple interface for uploading your photos.


2. Entry was cheap. They let me use it for free. The terms haven’t changed. Free users have a monthly upload limit and an overall data limit on how much you can store on their servers. I quickly upgraded to unlimited uploads and unlimited storage for a measly $25/yr. I now have over 300 gigabytes of photo files stored on Flickr and it still only costs me $25/yr!


3. Search tools- good search tools allow you to search member profiles, meta-tags,
   photo titles, descriptions, discussions, and more. This allowed me to find and connect with people who share my photographic interests. I happen to like the work of Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander. A quick search and I find people who share my interests and I can see the work that they are doing.


4. Peer-to-peer communication- Once you find people that share your interests you can communicate with them, either publicly or privately.


5. Groups-I think this is one of the great things about Flickr. Anyone can create a group for photo sharing and discussion-- about anything-- in public or in private. I created a group around my interest in Robert Frank’s seminal work, The Americans. The group has 230 members from all around the world. I also created a group for photographs of Stuffed Animals Lashed to Truck Radiators. Believe it or not there are 24 members posting photos and geo-tagging sightings of this oddity. No niche is too small. I didn't have to ask permission.

What can your association learn from this? A lot I think. Flickr is just a platform. A pretty good one. It serves my purposes at present. Of course there are similar social media platforms: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. They all function pretty much the same. They connect people. Their value is in their ability to connect people. It’s not about stuff they push at you.

Do I have any allegiance to Flickr? None at all. I’m not a Flickr evangelist (I hate that word in business context). Flickr has no mission. What keeps me paying my $25/yr to Flickr is the transaction cost of maintaining my connection to my friends.

So... what if your association showed Flickr’s commitment to fostering connections between its members, gave them the tools to share, and organized them under an idea that inspired them?

Social bookmarking for association blogs

I've been reading about social bookmarking and its value for promoting and sharing blog posts and other info across social networks. I'm exploring. I found a nice article on the Tips for New Bloggers site. Based on those recommendations, I'm using a free service called AddThis that gives you a nice little widget for your blog enabling your readers to bookmark and share. It comes with some nice analytics too.

I'm trying this out, so please, if you see a post you like, bookmark and share.