Social Media for Associations

As we consider the challenges faced by Associations operating in rapidly changing environments we talk to Tony De Nazareth MBA FCA AMCT about the seemingly ever present topic of ‘Social Media’.

Whilst there has already been much discussion regarding social media and the relevance and potential benefits to Associations we ask Tony to take a fresh, experienced and objective look for us. Tony is a director of NinetyTen Limited - a company specialising in private social networks.

Tony is also a member of several associations and quickly realised the potential of social media for associations. He was instrumental in getting NinetyTen to create Engage, a private social network for membership bodies and considers this hot topic for us in the article that follows.

What does the social media landscape currently look like?

Since the exponential growth of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, one of most common statements we hear is “You’ve got to have a social media strategy”. In this article, we will look at the myths and the facts relating to social media and analyse what approach, if any, an association should take to developing a social media strategy in this new world of online communication.

Most associations recognise the power of social media but are not sure how it applies to them and whilst they have experimented in this field, they have yet to embrace it whole heartedly.

Many of them have been around for some time and it might be difficult to grasp the application of social media to an existing association given how varied they are. It may be simpler to consider the impact of social media on the formation of a new association.

The social network as a model for an association

With web 2.0, the internet is a “many-to-many” network model. Previously established media are either “one-to-many”, where one message goes to many people such as through print or broadcast media, or “one-to-one”, e.g. the telephone or email. For the first time the internet allows you to engage with your users but also allows users to engage with you and with each other. They can post their own content, blog, ask questions or answer other peoples’ and even create their own events. Consumers have become the producers and this completely changes the ways in which organisations can communicate with their target audience.

How a social network mirrors the goals of an association

A brief search on Wikipedia gives us the list of goals of such an organisation as: advertising, education, political lobbying, publishing, collaboration, standardisation, conferencing and networking.

The structure of social networks lends itself incredibly well to assisting the achievement of all of these goals.

Education can be achieved through the publishing of informative articles or through the asking and answering of questions online utilising the network. The main benefit of Q&A style online forums is that other members of the association can participate and provide answers, not just the administrators.

Standardisation can be achieved through discussions with members, the outcomes of which can be published with immediacy and in one place.

All of the above requires collaboration between the organisation and its members. It can reduce the need for large, expensive conferences with relevant parties coming together on a digital forum instead, although the benefits of face to face interactions need to be considered.

The members will also tend to network with each other through these interactions which makes it much easier for them to form links with people who share similar interests, thus strenghtening the overall levels of engagement.

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Obligation, Opportunity or Threat?

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Political lobbying can benefit from the use of social networks in terms of gathering opinion very quickly and, in some cases, even providing direct action. A great example of this is the use of Twitter.

Advertising can be turned on its head on social networks. Controlling a network of professionals allows you to sell advertising opportunities to companies who know that their message is getting to the right people instead of advertising on behalf of an industry. This means that, in most cases, having a private social network will actually generate revenue.

Free social networks are a threat...

…Unless you control them.

Members, or potential members, can set up their own versions of social media platforms just as easily as you can – with the real threat of weakening the power of your organistion or, even worse, damaging your reputation through impersonation.

It is undoubtedly true that using a social network like Facebook to raise awareness of your association is very useful. Public networks also have the advantage that they are free and already contain much of your intended audience.

It must, however, be understood that it is not necessarily the best tool to communicate with your members or foster private discussion. The pitfalls of a public network are both noise and control. Thousands of companies are all competing for the attention of the

users and this is over and above the chatter of regular users. Your message has to compete with literally hundreds of others to be seen or heard.

Associations must also bear in mind that they do not ‘own’ the content or the users. Nor do they control the rules of the network. This means that they should have in place measures that minimise disruption to the Association and face the reality that they are hostage to the rules of the network. The control aspect is more troubling as it is difficult or impossible to moderate the comments of individuals who are intent on creating problems.

Your own social network should be your most powerful asset

Referring back to the goals of your association, as defined in the above paragraphs, not many free social networks can cover all of this in one platform. A bespoke system can neatly wrap up your entire ‘raison d’etre’ in a single point of service.

A private network is very similar to a public network in terms of features, communication methods and their goal of creating an active community through an online presence. With private networks Associations have the ability to use features that are not readily available on public networks. These include the use of intelligent systems to learn from your members and produce unique and relevant content that is personalised to them. Used correctly this gives rise to greater engagement and at the same time minimises the effect of noise and spam on the network.

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A well-managed community can be worth far more than the sum of its parts. By having your members creating content and reporting breaking news on your behalf your other members benefit from greater immediacy, a broader spread of information or opinion and personalised information so that they don’t need to sift through all of the chaff themselves.

In addition, you have the ability to create multiple links from other social networking sites pointing to the natural place for your members to go – your website. You become independent of public sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and others making a sound investment in your own social media hub. This private social network makes it easy to monitor and service because it is one single location with administrative tools to help you manage it effortlessly.

Private networks are not always free but, even with cost implications they can offer revenue streams that may offset the cost of the network.

Making the best of both

In order to get the most out of social networking, associations need to use both public and private networks. Gaining a real understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each type will help to maximise the benefits and reduce the costs.

The public networks are an excellent way of finding potential members. The majority of your target market will be on at least one of the networks, and it’s a relatively simple job of finding them. You can also push ‘teaser content’ to the free networks in order to funnel people onto your private network.

“You have got to have a social media strategy”...... Or do you?

As the structure of a social network mimics most of the goals of the association it must follow that your social network could be your most powerful asset.

Whether you decide to use the free or bespoke private networks implementing these strategies can only help to maximise your opportunities and improve member, and potential member, engagement.

But, if you decide to do nothing, you risk potential members setting up their own network with the potential negative impacts discussed above. As a result of this potential threat you are obliged to do something. And, the good news is that, if you do it right, you will end up with the perfect association management tool.

Tony De Nazareth is happy to be contacted via www.ninetyten.com

One social network. Yours.SM