This post popped up on my twitter feed yesterday – “4 Tips to Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve in 2012.”  It is an intelligent post with some great content – go lean, be bold, the need for a balance of presence and outreach.  While these are great steps for staying ahead of the curve, I fear that for many associations their website is so far behind/off the curve that they are just struggling to be on the curve.  And so, here are 5 reference tips to make sure we are keep on track while we try to move ahead:

1.       Live in this Decade – Pages that refer to events, newsletters, board members or programs from years ago as what is currently going on are perhaps the most blatant display of website apathy.  Clearly, whoever is supposed to be keeping this website up to date has not reviewed the content in, well, years.  Put these listings in some sort of archive – keep it available publically if you like – and either keep content updated, or create evergreen content that is not date dependent.  If not, well, at least I know I can come back in 2016 to see what the program will be/was next month.

2.       New/Coming Soon – While we are talking about time – use these phrases with caution.  How long is something new?  If you have it listed on your website as new, and I have seen it there for, let’s say six months, is it really still new?  A year?  Do not list something as new without first determining how long it will be listed as such.  The same goes for coming soon.  We all know that projects are given deadlines with the best of intentions.  If you tell me an awesome new member directory tool is about to launch, causing interest and excitement (and me coming back to check if it is up yet) – how long do you think that feeling will last?  How long would it last for you?  Using ‘coming soon’ to generate buzz is fine – but only if it has follow through.  Otherwise, when coming soon means coming eventually, it means I am not coming back to engage.

3.       Take Pity on your Scroll Wheel – 30 second attention spans, multi-tasking without focusing  – we know what has been in the news ad nausem.  In truth, we hear it internally as well – “I sent the members/leaders 3 emails and 2 newsletters – I can’t help it if they don’t read!”  While that is probably a whole post in itself it should help guide your webpages.  If you have site pages that are copy heavy, and take an index finger work out to get through – it is not going to be read.  If you are trying to get that much information across, break it up into chunks, pdf it, and provide bulletpoint links to those pdfs so that those who want to read it can access it and everyone else can see a summary of what you are trying to express.  Copy-heavy, scroll-necessary pages ensure that the user will never reach your eventual call to action….speaking of which….

4.       What Next? –  Do your webpages have a call to action?.  Is the call clear?  Is it on the first page without scrolling?  Most of all, is it member centric?  Is the call centered around an interaction or transaction that is good for the association, or is it put forward as beneficial to the member’s knowledge, network, career, future – and how?  While asking this question of EVERY call may be overkill, it is certainly a worthwhile guiding principle for those pages where the desire is greater engagement.  So have a call to action, a clear what’s next, and if possible show the why.

5.       Be fun, funny, interesting, sexy – just don’t be boring – When you look at your association webpages, do you cringe?  Get a headache?  Glaze over?  Guess what – so will your members.  While cartoons on every page are overkill (on some are ok), if your website bores your members, they will not look forward to coming back no matter how amazing the content may be.  Have web pages you are proud of – creative and straightforward.  Go for informative and enjoyable.  Evoke emotion, paint a picture of the future success of your member because of their association relationship today – be personal.  Show the faces of your staff, have more pictures and youtube videos.    In the end, it will be this perspective that will let you better address those tips for staying ahead of the curve.

Lowell Aplebaum is the director of membership & councils for the International Facility Management Association.  You can find him on twitter @lowellmatthew or follow him at association141.blogspot.com

In the association community, when you start a conversation about integrating systems, the first stop in the discussion needs to be the AMS system. Association Management Systems (AMS) are comprehensive applications purpose-built for the association industry. My company builds one of the leading products in this space and there are many others in the market as well. The goal for these systems has been to provide a centralized system for managing the core businesses of the association. The challenge for most associations is that they have diverse lines of business including membership dues, meetings, publications, education and many others. So, while most associations are not large businesses, they have a level of complexity that far exceeds many for-profit organizations of the same revenue level.

Most people will agree that the AMS must capture the core data of the association and be a single “source of truth” for the organization. This data would include member profile, dues history, orders, subscriptions, committees, and much more. These are all “traditional” areas of data for an association to capture. In the mid-1990s this information may have represented the bulk of what an association cared to capture. However, in 2011, this set of data is only the beginning and much of the key information for an association to capture comes from external sources such as social networks and partner organizations.

So what does an association need to capture in the AMS? In my view, it needs to capture nearly everything that can be associated with a member. The risk you run when not capturing these “extra” data points is that you lose track of what the member really cares about. As an example, let’s say that your membership is increasingly active with Twitter and Facebook and you are not capturing the data from those environments and linking it into your AMS. Over a period of time, you could quickly lose sight of the true areas of interest for each member and not be “part of the conversation”.

The biggest challenge facing associations today is the same one that we’ll have tomorrow – not knowing what is next. You can design a database, web site, and integration methods to capture all of the latest and greatest but you have no real way to determine what will happen next. Change is increasingly surrounding the association business model.

So, what this all boils down to in my view is that you have to make sure that you position your AMS to be at the center of all of this AND you have to make sure your AMS is setup right so that you have the flexibility to capture essentially an unlimited amount of data and types of data. If you do this right and you employ solid methods and technology for Business Intelligence, you’ll reap the rewards by keeping up with your members, staying relevant and necessary to their lives, and increasing the impact of your organization daily.

Amith Nagarajan (@amithnagarajan)

My blog: www.aptify.com/blog

Over the Thanksgiving break, I was thinking about how associations need to improve collaboration between the various systems they use. This is an area that is not in good shape in most associations today and things are about to get worse if executives don’t prioritize it. In general, associations are great at collaboration, but, when it comes to collaboration between their systems, many association executives don’t even know where to start.

Not too long ago, it was considered acceptable by many to leave most systems isolated and just deal a few manual processes when data sharing was needed. In the past, even if this was considered inefficient, it wasn’t necessarily a roadblock to success. These days, the situation has changed drastically. The proliferation of new types of AMS functionality as well as 3rd party tools and social networks demands tight integration. Without comprehensive and well thought out integration strategies, an association can easily drown in the data and not benefit from these technologies.

I’ll be posting a series of articles over the next couple of weeks on the following topics:

• AMS Central – Most people tend to agree that the AMS must continue to be a single “source of truth” for the core data of the association. But the question remains: what is “core data” and does everything need to go in the AMS?
• Social Media – I’ll talk about public and private networks and what to consider when integrating these systems into your AMS
• Email and Marketing Systems – almost every association communicates via email extensively. Are you just pumping out messages without tracking the results in your AMS? If so, you’re missing out on a big part of the member engagement picture.
• Government Relations – while public policy folks are typically tucked away in the corner of the office or in another location entirely, the data they collect, analyze and act upon should not be a silo – it is a vital part of the member engagement picture as well.

Amith Nagarajan (@AmithNagarajan)

CEO @Aptify

My blog: www.aptify.com/blog

It may seem like an oxymoron for a marketing person at a technology software company to tell you (on a technology blog no less) that technology is the end point – it’s the icing on the cake. But I’m going to anyway. Technology is a tool to help us reach our objectives more easily. It’s been that way since the invention of the wheel. It does not necesarilly make our jobs (in a career sense) easier but it helps us simplify our daily tasks.

From an association stand point, technology allows us to reach a larger audience with pinpoint accuracy. Database reporting can isolate subgroups for email blasts for anything from dues renewals to state/chapter events. You can even drill down by zip code and past events attended.  No more manual sorting and piles of contact information papers. You can hold virtual meetings and events, accomodating even the most hectic schedule. Members can connect through forums and online networking regardless of their geographic locations.

But all of these incredible changes over the past decade are powered by people. That’s where it starts. People, process and technology -- in that order. Invest in your people (members, staff and stakeholders), tie that investment into your (business) processes/goals and use technology as a way to get there and a method to continue that investment.

Associations have the people; your “community” begins with your members. Whether you have an online community or not, you already have a member community. How are you investing in it? How are you cultivating it? How has that investment and cultivation changed over the last decade? (Note: if it hasn’t then this is where you need to start.)

Next, work on your process. What are you doing well? What challenges do you face? How do your people tie into this? How can your “process” help your community?

Once you have a community and a process/goals for your community, select your technology. Without a focus on people and a process in place, your technology selection may not cover your true needs. People and process give your technology context with which it is easier to assess those needs.

Purchasing great software doesn’t create engaged members any more than me owning Paula Dean cookware makes a delicious butter-laden dinner magically appear in my kitchen. Technology is a tool. What you do with it is what makes the difference. (Necesssary disclaimer as a technology person: yes, some software is better than others just as some cookware is but…) To be successful in today’s social-driven world, your focus must always be your people. People, process, technology.   

Christina G. Smith is the Social Media Marketing Strategist at YourMembership.com (www.yourmembership.com). She is looking forward to attending #Tech11 and is hoping she can find her winter coat by then.

Here's what I'm up to at the Tech Conference. 

- My session - Ten Steps to Building a Community Blog that Rocks! (Wednesday afternoon) about this very blog - hope you can come and talk with me about how we're doing here.

- Chris Carfi's session on social business

- YAP party (Wednesday night)

- Jamie's session on Humanize (Thursday morning)

What are you "must attend" sessions?  Can't wait to see everyone.

xx

Maddie

One of my favorite songs when I was in high school was Steve Winwood’s “Roll With It Baby” –

Now there'll be a day you'll get there, baby
You'll hear the music play, you'll dance, baby
You'll leave bad times way behind
Nothing but good times on your mind
You can do it, roll with it, baby
Then you'll see life will be so nice
It's just a step up to paradise

Roll with it isn’t just good advice for life’s trials and tribulations; it’s also applicable to finding your way and your voice in social media. In particular: blogging. I’ve only dabbled, myself, as an occasional blogger for The DelCor Connection Blog. In fact, this is my first-ever post for associationTECH – woohoo!

Point is, you don’t have to be perfect right out of the gate. Writing, speaking, blogging – it’s all trial and error. You never know until you try. Any other clichés I should throw in for good measure?

The good news is that, even without sure footing or years of experience writing and blogging for your association (or whatever your topic of choice is), you can still go at it with a plan. And you can get that plan at Progress U.

Next Thursday, November 10, Progress U. is presenting a Blogger Summit – a gathering of some of the greatest minds in association blogging today. I’ll be there, hoping to increase my knowledge – and my guts to just roll with it.

Bill Walker is the marketing manager at DelCor Technology Solutions. Follow him @billwalker7.

Associations have always played an integral role in professional development, from networking events to resume-building opportunities. With the economic downturn weighing heavily on members’ minds, offering a job board is a fantastic way to provide some help to them. Whether they are currently looking for work, employed or underemployed knowing that they can count on your assistance, should they need it, is gratifying. But employing (sorry, couldn’t help it) a job board is like a cake without icing – good but not nearly as sweet. A job board is only as beneficial as the postings on it. Its success is based purely on your ability to recruit companies to provide (or pay for) a listing. Sure, it can be an excellent source of non-dues revenue if you charge companies for listings and placement but you’re missing a larger service to be provided for your members.

For a career center, job postings are only the beginning. If you are a trade or career-based association, your career center could include career pathways and suggestions to help those starting off in your industry or those starting over. For instance, as a young person (many moons ago) interested in writing it would have been very helpful to me if the association of writers that I joined had guided me to ways in which I could incorporate my love of the written word with a position that would allow me to eat as frequently as I’d become accustomed to. So often we choose a desired career based on the most common use of our skills. I wanted to be a writer because I wanted to write. I had no idea what corporate writing opportunities existed. Such services are not just for people entering the workforce. People who are reevaluating their chosen profession (like my friends in publishing) would find great value in suggestions on how they can transfer their current skills and training into a new career. Think about how different the opportunities are now thanks largely in part to social media and the Internet than when I graduated in the 1990s.

If you are uncomfortable providing career advice to your members, consider providing the forum and allow members to help members with guidance and features provided by your association (in the form of a career center). In addition to available jobs, a career center should/could also include:

-Resume postings (allow companies to scan members’ resumes, for a fee or fee-free)

-Volunteer and internship postings

-Blogs from successfully employed members on how they “landed” their dream job

-Blogs from those looking for work who want to share their employment journey

-Forums for job hunters who want to exchange ideas, encouragement, commraderie

-Job hunting suggestions

-Mentor opportunities

-Wiki pages on job advice (can be humourous, snarky, encouraging, etc. whatever tone fits your audience)

-Articles on incorporating social sites/strategies in your job hunt

-Articles on volunteerism and the job search  

-Skill-based flow (or other org) charts for suggested career pathways

-An RSS feed (or email notification) that notifies candidates of new postings of interest as well as a feed for companies to be alerted when a jub hunter uploads or changes his/her resume

The list above is by no means deffinitive. Get creative. What helped you when you were starting out? How can you provide a similar experience for your members? I was on a webinar with Brian Solis yesterday and he said something that I find incredibly fitting for all of us trying to build community, “Engagement is not just about communication. It’s about creating meaningful, sharable experiences.” And since you never forget the person who gave you your first career break, hosting a career center (versus a job listing board) for your members is an invaluable service (and investment) in their professional development.

Are you currently offering a career center? If so, are there any features you have that I didn’t include in this list?

Christina G. Smith is the Social Media Marketing Strategist with YourMembership.com. She enjoys the feel of the ocean, getting caught in the rain and “stealing” song lyrics to create her bio. And she will (undoubtedly) be impressed if anyone leaves the name of the song “pilfered here” in the comments on this blog post.

For the vast majority of associations, integrating social networking platforms into community building for members is a game of catch up.  We know this is where more and more of our members are – where they are friending/linking/following each other, and sharing information.  This is where they can have a discussion or ask a question.  We know they are there, and we know that we need to be there – the how is what each of our associations is still trying to figure out.

Traditionally, some of the main roles of association chapters have been to provide networking opportunities where people could have discussion and meet each other, share educational content for professional development and encourage community.  Sound familiar?  With the capabilities of social networking chapters should be able to expand what they can offer their local constituents so that their community is not solely reliant on in-person meetings.  I believe perhaps the biggest obstacle to this natural pairing is volunteer chapter leader knowledge deficiency on social networking (I have not yet come up with a catchy acronym for that – suggestions are welcome). 

For example, they took pictures at the last chapter event – should they go on Facebook and the participants should be tagged?  Should they upload them to Flickr?  Uploaded as a file on the association’s private social network? Do they know what tagging or Flickr is? 

Chapters often serve as the entry point for professionals who were not aware that they had a professional association, or what it could offer them.  Supporting our chapters means making sure they have the tools, resources and knowledge to best serve their local members so that they quickly realize the opportunities and benefits of affiliation.  Associations should not wait until they figure out their social media strategy to start incorporating social networking training for chapter leaders. 

To start with, you can run introductory session on the different platforms, what they are used for and the differences between each.  For associations with a private social network, this also gives an opportunity to focus on how to integrate the assets your own network provides with the ‘outside world.’  Walking leaders through the sites can allow them to ask questions and share ideas on how to tailor their efforts to their chapter.

With a general base knowledge as a foundation we can have a one-on-one consultation call with each chapter to help them establish what goals they would like to accomplish with social media, and what are the right tools to accomplish those goals.  Particularly since a volunteer leader’s term is limited, this goal setting process is necessary so that the initiatives continue beyond the life of any one leader/board.

The path into the social networking universe is not straight.  It is full of experimentation, innovation and dedication.  While we may not know where each chapter will end up, we can give our chapters the tools to start the journey.

- Lowell Aplebaum is director of member relations for the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society.  He has been working with leadership development for over a decade, has been to all 50 states in the U.S while visiting association chapters and is still amused when he remembers creating his aol name back at the start of his social media journey (up2go).  Twitter: @lowellmatthew

Multiple software programs are costly, cumbersome and often-times redundant. Your association may be running in upwards of seven different pieces that, upon combining, could yield cost and manpower savings. Unlike organizational restructuring, you can realize the benefits of convergence quickly and cost-effectively through today’s leading web-based AMS.

If the technology behind your association and/or its social media strategy is pieced-together software such as an Access database to handle member information; an email list for your marketing; a stand-alone event system; a website (with hosting); shopping cart for your ecommerce efforts; survey tools to engage your members; and web calendars – you may be over-complicating your member management. Often, you may discover that a la carte solutions and prices do not always provide the greatest cost-savings.

Many of today’s association management software platforms include social media components as well as web-based membership management software. This comprehensive solution can help you:

Reduce costs. Separate software licenses, training, hardware and maintenance can be costly when you are working with different programs and vendors. Consolidating these efforts to one robust software package may provide significant cost savings. Add up the charges (monthly fees, support charges and service requirements) for each component you currently use. You might be surprised at the dollar cost – and the efficiency lost by using disparate systems. 

Increase efficiency. Besides the efficient workflow that occurs when using a product with components designed to work together, you now have only one logon, one vendor to contact with questions, and one stop for training. There’s one interface, one set of directions and one partner in your success.

Plus older applications may not be designed with today’s important social networking features in mind. They may not be compatible or you may be losing out in areas such as reporting. Multiple software, means multiple reports and manual aggregation of results. With one system, your reporting will take into account all aspects of your software and data. Selecting a solution that combines both social networking and membership management helps you maximize your web presence and modernize your social media offerings, while satisfying your administrative requirements.

Increase offerings & value. You have a lot of industry knowledge and experience to offer your members. Make sure they have access to it. Membership management software allows you to create file libraries and upload multi-media files like MP3s, PowerPoint presentations, video tours and seminars. (Many programs will even help you track continuing education units for your members.) Providing easy access to valuable information they can’t get elsewhere is a great way to encourage your members to log in, and they can do so on their schedule. Plus the security of a private online community means you have peace of mind regarding your documents and videos. And members can comment, vote and add your content to their profiles.

Increase morale. Providing a feature-rich community for your members married with efficient tools for your administrator(s) such as system-wide reporting, data import and export, and ease-of-use all help your internal staff perform their duties more effectively and in less time. Because there is only one system to learn, training is easier too. And an empowered staff is a happier, healthier staff!

Christina Smith is the Marketing & Social Media Specialist at YourMembership.com (www.yourmembership.com). She’s embraced social media and networking in a purely Gen X kind of way and clings to old-fashioned notions like privacy and creativity. When her twin four-year olds allow it, she loves to read.

The American Evaluation Association offers a members-only series of free 20-minute Coffee Break Webinars. Most are presentations for members, by members, and each is first offered live via webinar, then recorded, and we now have over 50 in an archive. This program, started in January 2010, has proven very popular with members. I get asked – a lot – about what tools we use to make this happen and what are the costs. Here goes with a listing of the tech tools we use for webinar production in our small staff, frugal, fantastic, association (in hopes of getting others to share the tools the are using to ‘make it work’):

Registration, Delivery, Recording, and Follow-up Surveying – GoToWebinar from Citrix: GoToWebinar allows people to register for a coffee break webinar (but does not process payments), provides a platform for delivering the webinar itself, records the webinar, and administers a short survey to attendees post-event. It is a relatively no-frills platform that is simple to use and our plan accommodates up to 1000 attendees. Normally $4800/year, AEA receives a steeply discounted rate through a donation program at TechSoup and pays $200/year for the platform. A key feature of GoToWebinar allows attendees to listen through VOIP for free, saving them long-distance costs, a major consideration for supporting international attendees. On the downside, we have regular recording challenges that result in a corrupted recording file (see editing), and occasionally sound quality can be variable, a ‘feature’ of VOIP that applies to all VOIP-enabled systems. I’ll post at another time detailed lessons learned about producing webinars generally and on this platform specifically.

Rad Resource – Camtasia Studio: Camtasia rescues us when there has been an encryption error by re-recording from the corrupted file. We use Camtasia, at $299, for other specialized recording as well – it is a godsend for recording your own screencasts.

Rad Resource – Corel VideoStudio Pro: A second video editor, used in particular for tweaking sound variability on some recordings, CVS is $49.

Rad Resource – Vimeo: Once a recording is edited and the sound normalized if needed, we upload to Vimeo, for video hosting. Vimeo is much less expensive, and more feature-rich as a video host than our regular web hosting service. We pay $59/year for an upgraded plus account so that videos are advertisement-free and play only on the eval.org website.

Rad Resource – HigherLogic: Finally, once the video has been uploaded and formatted for Vimeo, with AEA’s preferred settings and color scheme, we copy the embed code and embed it as an entry in AEA’s members-only eLibrary. Like AEA’s public eLibrary, Thought Leaders Forum, TIG microsites, and other community features, the webinars archive is part of the Higher Logic community platform. In this way, the recorded webinar appears as an integrated part of AEA’s web site assets, yet the video throughput does not slow down the rest of the site and takes advantage of Vimeo’s video services. Higher Logic is built specifically for associations, and its cost varies by association size and features, but embed codes work on most sites.

Here’s an example of what one looks like when in the eLibrary (this one was made public to encourage improved conference presentations by members and nonmembers alike).

We also use the same tools to offer online new member orientations and guides to AEA services, and we’ve just begun a very successful series of full-length fee-based trainings using the same platform and tools.

I know that a lot of you out there are entering, or are deep into, the webinar production in your associations. What are you using? What’s working and what’s not? Any surprises? Lessons Learned?

Susan Kistler is the Executive Director of the American Evaluation Association. She loves tech, a good storm, a great movie, her family, and soup - although usually not in that order. The above represents her opinions and not necessarily those of the American Evaluation Association - AEA does not endorse any products or services.