The Natives Are Restless – How Do You Respond?

The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) recently launched a new web site, The Power of A. According to the ASAE press release, the Power of A is a “communications campaign intended to broadcast how associations across all industry sectors and in every state harness the power of millions to help jumpstart America’s economic engine and help propel the nation toward recovery.”

Many of us thought that the purpose of this campaign would be to educate the public about what associations do and how they contribute to society and the economy. I remember the blank faces when I told people I worked for a trade association. Huh? Is that a government job? So you’re involved with an export or import business?

Unfortunately the public isn’t the target audience here. The press release goes on: “The Washington, D.C. office of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide was engaged by ASAE & The Center to develop and implement the campaign, whose top priority is to inform decision makers on Capitol Hill, particularly those individuals who comprise the group of newest political gatekeepers to the American public.”

Wow, that’s a missed opportunity. We’re preaching to the same crowd that we’ve been lobbying to since our formation – Capitol Hill staff. To make it even worse, the web site has a self-congratulatory feel to it. And many of the associations who posted to the site obviously copied text straight from the bottom of their press release template or their mission statement. Yawn.

What happened next may not have been part of ASAE’s or Ogilvy’s plan. Several association professionals, including me, bitched about the campaign and web site on Twitter. Chris Bailey and Maggie McGary wrote blog posts that captured many of our frustrations.

And there on The Power of A home page is the #pwra Twitter stream of our rants with words like “misguided” and “muddled gaffe” displayed for all to see. I don’t feel great about complaining in public about my association, especially when I know many ASAE staff must have labored over this effort.

This is our new reality. An expensive PR campaign hit a nerve. As dues-paying members we see an opportunity, money and energy wasted. We expected more. We’re disappointed and frustrated. We were excited about this campaign. We really want it to succeed. And we talk and write about it. Like customers do about businesses that failed them, members do the same about their associations.

Is ASAE listening? Social media is a 24/7 job. Would it have helped if someone responded to us this weekend on Twitter or on the blogs? I’m not sure. Our opinions probably wouldn’t have changed, but we would have felt good about our association — they’re listening, they know what to do in social media. Will they address our concerns? I hope so, they’re valid concerns. Will these concerns be shared by all members? Probably not. We all come from different places with different expectations and ideas.

We now have ringside seats to observe how ASAE will handle this situation. We can all learn from this. This can happen to any of us. It’s why so many associations and companies are scared to get into social media – what do we do when people go negative? Frankly if your members or customers have an issue with something you’re doing, they’re going to talk about you, whether you’re there or not.

What would your organization do about it?

Raising $12K for Mom Entrepreneurs in Kenya

Back in January I saw a tweet about 12for12K from its founder, Danny Brown, a social media/PR/marketing professional from Ontario whom I was following on Twitter. I liked the idea — 1000 people each donating $12 a month for $12,000 total to the featured charity of the month.

It’s easy and secure to donate on the 12for12K site using PayPal — my preferred way to pay online since it comes right out of my checking account and I don’t have to find my wallet and bother entering strings of numbers. And there is no middleman, all funds go straight to the charity.

In January, the charity was War Child, which helps war-affected children, particularly child soldiers, and focuses on education, children’s rights, and self reliance. It was slow start and only $4,000 was raised that month. However, in February, even more was raised for Stop the Silence, which works to prevent child sexual abuse.

$15,000 was raised for the March charity, Share Our Strength, one of my favorite groups fighting hunger. Over $13,000 of that was raised in a 12-hour tweet-a-thon. And people think we only tweet about what we’re eating for lunch, ha!

This month’s charity is Yehu.org, a volunteer-driven non-profit that is making a huge difference to the lives of millions of women in rural Kenya. Its creation was based on the principles and procedures of the Nobel-renowned microfinance Grameen Bank. It’s run by the poor, for the poor. Yehu works with BasaBody and Coast Coconut Farms to empower rural Kenyan women to help lift themselves out of poverty. This is done through accessibility to financial services, business opportunities, and skills training.

12for12K will be counting on its many Twitter followers, like me, to donate and spread the word, but will also be holding special events too, like tonight’s virtual pajama party organized by the Mom It Forward network. Looks like I’ll be staying in tonight!

If you’re on twitter, please follow @12for12K to watch our progress. Or join the 12for12K Group on Facebook. Please click on the 12for12K badge in my sidebar to the right, and join me in donating $12 to this month’s 12for12K charity, Yehu.org.

Putting Ourselves Out There

I signed up for Problogger’s 31 Days to a Better Blog Challenge, and I’m going to take you along for the ride. However, we’ll be taking the scenic route since I’m starting this challenge a bit late. Day 1 assignment — create an elevator pitch for my blog. Here’s my first shot.

My blog explores how we build and nurture our member and customer communities.

Yes, it was a short elevator ride. I’ll continue to work on this as I get a better grasp on what I’m doing here. This topic has always been part of my professional life, and with the social media tools we have now, there’s a lot still to explore. However, I struggled with whether my blog would only deal with professional topics, or whether I’d include personal ones too. After all, what does this post have to do with community building? I decided I don’t want to keep my personal interests out of the mix, another example perhaps of the crumbling wall between our professional and personal lives, or at least mine.

(photo by blmurch/Flickr)

We’re becoming a lot more transparent, a lot less private. We put ourselves out there for all to see. When I decided to get into Twitter, I knew my tweets could be seen by anyone. That awareness is always in the back of my mind. I’m not being inauthentic when I tweet, just a bit careful. I use language my mother would approve of, and I check my spelling and grammar as much as 140 characters allow.

However, sometimes I tweet about things that may not seem so professional, for example, craft beer. I’ve been a craft beer lover since the 80’s. It’s an industry for which I have immense respect and passion. There’s a community of craft beer lovers spread out across the country. We’re a minority, but a passionate and growing minority. I’ll be writing more about this industry and how it builds community or leverages the existing community. My craft beer passion is part of who I am, and so part of the complete Deirdre package.

The first time I accepted a Facebook friend request from a member, I knew that she would see a more complete version of me. But I also knew that it would be the same Deirdre she saw at association meetings, just filled out a bit more. Writing this blog is yet another step into the public eye. I’m taking a risk perhaps. I’ll soon be looking for a job in Raleigh. Will my blog work in my favor or be a detriment? I don’t know, but it does give a more complete picture of who I am. If I’m the right fit for you and vice versa, then that’s a plus. If not, it’s better we both find that out earlier rather than later.

These are the thoughts that I wrestle with each time I step further out into the online world. We encourage associations and companies to follow us into this naked world and we’re often frustrated when “they don’t get it.” Heck, it can be scary out here, but it’s a risk worth taking because it’s about building and strengthening relationships, and about building community. That’s what keeps me attached to Twitter, Facebook and this blog.

Day 2 challenge — write a list post, stay tuned. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on that elevator pitch.

Making the Argument That a LinkedIn Group Is Right for Your Association

Associations are wising up to the fact that our members are already networking on Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter, so we need to fish where the fish are, as Lindy Dreyer once told me. Since I was already connected to a lot of our members on LinkedIn, I figured the easiest place to start establishing our social networking presence would be there. However, like many of you, I encountered a bit of resistance to creating a LinkedIn group for our members, so I knew that I had to prove how a group would benefit our association and our members.

Some of the resistance was due to unfamiliarity with LinkedIn. Luckily one of my CEO’s counterparts was already a connection of mine on LinkedIn so I was able to use that profile as an example of how LinkedIn was being used by one of his peers. It’s hard to sell anything, especially a social networking idea, to folks who are not users themselves, especially when the common image of social networking has been photos of college kids playing beer pong on Facebook.

Another valid concern was that managing a group would take up too much of a resource that we were already lacking — staff time. The solution I came up with (making it an open group) is only a temporary one since any online community does require care and feeding to make it successful, however an open group would not require membership authentication upon joining or require expulsion from the group when a company didn’t renew its membership. Also, since our membership was company-based, maintaining a purely members-only group would be challenging when employees changed jobs, and perhaps went from member companies to non-member companies. Having an open group was our only option.

To sell the concept of a LinkedIn group, I prepared a “sales sheet” describing the benefits of a LinkedIn group to our association, sent it to senior staff to review, and then met with them to go over any concerns and questions. Here are the benefits I highlighted.

Help members stay connected to our association.
By connecting with current members, those who have been laid off by member companies, and former members, we can update them on news, events, and services and keep them in our loop. We can also give them a way to talk with us. Instead of just broadcasting messages to them, we can now have a conversation with them — that’s very important these days.

Provide a valuable networking opportunity.
We provide the platform for group members to connect with others and to help them find jobs, meet prospective clients, and find former colleagues. Providing value like that should be our goal.

Increase the size of our community.
Our community becomes much larger — members, former members, non-member industry professionals — and therefore our news, political action alerts, announcements, and public affairs and marketing messages have a much wider audience.

Deepen our volunteer bench.
Our chapter staff can use LinkedIn as a way of learning more about their members, for example, which ones are volunteering elsewhere and may be good candidates for getting involved at the chapter.

Keep our database current.
When our members change jobs, they will update their profiles. We can use that information to update our database and find new prospective member companies.

Learn what’s on our members’ minds.
Group discussions will give us clues about the concerns and needs of our members. What issues are most important to them? What business challenges do they have? What types of programs and education do they most need?

Find new member prospects.
Non-members in the group will learn about the services and benefits offered by our association and chapters and see the value that we provide. Our logo will appear on group members’ profiles, which can lead prospects to our group and web site. We can find prospects in the connections of our current members and ask for their assistance in recruiting them. Plus, we will have email addresses and company information for non-members who join the group — a great prospecting tool.

Be a social networking coach for our members.
Many of our members are already on LinkedIn, but for those who are new to social networking, we can add value to their membership by showing them the way. We can put a page on our web site explaining how a few different social networking platforms work, the benefits to them personally and professionally, and invite them to join our LinkedIn group.

Danger in not creating a group.
If we don’t create a group, someone else might — that’s allowed, and has happened to many other associations. I have seen many pleas for advice from those who discovered a “renegade” group using their association’s name. Usually the association can appeal to LinkedIn to win control of the group but that takes some time and can cause ill will and confusion with those who founded the group, often with the best of intentions, and those who belong to the group.

These benefits were more than enough to convince our leadership that it was time to create an open LinkedIn group. However the danger of a possible “renegade” group might have played a large part in their decision to let me create a group – that’s okay, whatever works!

We decided on a soft launch. I invited 50 of my connections (a mix of members and chapter staff) to join the group. In just a few weeks, we had more than 300 people in the group. I hope my experience might be of use to you if you are encountering resistance to social networking. Show how it works, sell the value and warn of the consequences of inaction.

If you have a LinkedIn group I would love to hear about how it’s worked for your association or non-profit.