Social media and how it’s changing associations
Integrating a social media strategy into an association’s corporate culture is a common theme at the ASAE 2012 Technology Conference, this week at the Washington Convention Center in DC.
The conference attracted 1,080 preregistrations, including 200 exhibitors representing 116 companies in 153 booths. Last year, about 900 attended the conference, which was moved because of a snowstorm that crippled Washington (see “2011 technology trends identified,” Dec. 16, 2010).
This is the first year ASAE is using a one-day only tradeshow for the tech conference, on Dec. 8. Associations can sign up for the expo only for $50 a registrant. Previously, there was an exhibit hall that was opened on both days of the conference.
The tech conference this year opened on Dec. 6 with the CIO Summit, where Chris Carfi, social business strategy VP for Ant’s Eye View, discussed the five levels of engagement that organizations go through when they develop their social media. In stage one, the “traditional” phase, organizations use one-way communication to drive business - Tweets or Facebook posts. In the second “experimental” phase, the organization may “dabble” in social media, but the efforts are siloed and disparate, not connected to business operations.
Carfi referred to the third stage as “operational.” Social media is more embedded in business operations: there is internal training, channel alignment and campaign integration. A position is dedicated to monitor social media activity, but the organization has not determined how to translate the social statistics into real business indicators.
Stage four is the “measurable” stage, when social engagement drives real business results, as organizations are able to use social media metrics to achieve business goals. Stage five, full engagement, is when social engagement has become part of the association’s DNA. Relationships are built and fostered on social media, the association staff is educated and at ease with the various platforms engrained in the culture.
At the luncheon program on Dec. 7, David Nour discussed many points on how social media can enhance or even become the business model for associations. Nour, who wrote ASAE’s new book Return on Impact, explained that enhanced digital experiences in the consumer world has created “soaring” expectations for members; in other words, what is the digital experience that members receive from your association, he posed. Also, associations should learn to understand the ambient relationships that are created by social media, and use that knowledge to create new markets for the association.
Another theme Nour touched on was the power of social media as a story-telling device. He used as an example a video found on the website of Charity Water that describes the nonprofit’s accomplishments as well as its future plans. He then showed how the website uses Google maps and GPS technology to show how far-reaching the nonprofit’s efforts are around the world. “Social market leadership is about purpose” and demonstrating the difference of your association to similar groups, he said. Details: www.asaecenter.org.
