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.