Social Media Use by US Associationsoneorangefeather.com/documents/Social Media Use by Associations...
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Associations are embracing Social Media
channels as a way to enhance member
engagement, to expand thought leadership
beyond their member base and to develop new
marketing channels. Nearly three-quarters of
associations used some form of Social Media
communication in 2011. This study documents
association use of Social Media and records
behaviors and best practices.
Social Media
Use by US
Associations Benchmarks and
Practices
Andrew Roscoe, Managing Partner Andrea Knotts Bona, Managing Partner One Orange Feather, Inc.
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About the Authors
Andrea Knotts Bona brings 20 years of multi-channel
marketing, branding and publishing experience,
particularly in the trade association and business-to-
consumer sectors. Prior to launching One Orange
Feather, Ms. Bona was Vice President of Strategic
Marketing for the Mortgage Bankers Association, where
she spearheaded corporate branding and marketing
strategy. Previously she was a consultant with McKinley
Marketing Partners, where she led new product launches
for pharmaceutical clients, including US Pharmacopeia,
and developed tactical online marketing campaigns for
Network Solutions. Ms. Bona has a BA in Communications
and Sociology from James Madison University.
Andrew Roscoe is a 25-year-plus executive with a track
record of building successful businesses using a range of
business models. He has experience in executive
operations, corporate process, marketing, strategic
planning, market research, economic analysis and IT
management. Mr. Roscoe's previous positions include
Executive Director Corporate Operations at Technologists,
(a mid-sized international government contractor), CEO
Roscoe Consulting (a marketing consultancy serving trade
associations), Chairman and CEO of O2 Wireless Solutions
(a public telecommunications construction company), and
Chairman and CEO of The Strategis Group (a global
marketing and management consultancy). He has a BA in
International Affairs and MA Economics from GWU.
Research support by Kaushika Prakash.
One Orange Feather Inc. specializes in providing
marketing and management solutions to the trade
association, technology and government sectors. From
message development to targeted channel distribution, we
create integrated solutions with the broadest reach to
create memorable impact. www.oneorangefeather.com
Social Media Use by US Associations
Benchmarks and Practices
Key Findings
Almost three-quarters of 250 associations surveyed
used some form of social media marketing in 2011
(defined here as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).
Association adoption rates increase with association
annual budget levels, reflecting the capacity of larger
associations to invest in technology and marketing.
Facebook and Twitter adoption by associations
correlated highly with associations’ budgets.
LinkedIn adoption by associations was more associated
with industry group, with particularly high adoption in
the Telecom/E-Data, Real Estate and Finance
industries.
Among our panel of two dozen associations given
detailed interviews, 58 percent will invest in social
media in the next budget cycle. Within this group, the
average investment in social media is projected to be
12 percent of their Web budget.
Key barriers faced by firms implementing social media
programs were:
Commitment to timely engagement
Commitment to fresh content
Staff training, particularly to maintain unity of
message
Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.
Social Media Begins to Mature
Social media is a well-established tool used
by associations to communicate with their
core audiences. Nearly three-quarters of
the associations surveyed used some form
of social media communication in 2011.
However, associations’ use of social media
marketing is far from mature. There are
wide variances in adoption rates by
industry group and size of organization,
reflecting diversity in need and capacity
among associations.
The models used by associations to link
social media marketing to association
strategy and goals are still in the early
stages of development. We are seeing
models that use social media to drive
traffic to a Web site and models that use
social media as the nexus of
communications with an audience.
Some models drive membership, while
others push products and services. The
most successful models are those that
drive engagement, i.e. two-way
communications.
Associations have indicated that they will
increase investments in social media in
2012 and 2013. As an industry, we will
need to track and prove the ROI on the
increased investment in this
communications tool.
Study Methodology
One Orange Feather undertook a detailed
study of more than 250 associations in late
2011 to determine their use of social media
and related Web marketing tools. Our
sample represented a wide range of
associations in terms of size and industry
group. We deliberately over-sampled larger
associations to provide a sufficient sample
size to reach conclusions for this group. As
a result, the sample statistics are accurate
at the sub-group level, but the total
industry statistics are skewed toward
behavior of associations with an annual
budget greater than $1 million.
We also conducted a detailed survey to
explore qualitative issues with a panel of
several dozen association marketing
executives. Findings from these surveys are
not statistically projectable but are used
as directional findings.
Associations Begin to Innovate Amid
Widespread Adoption of Social Media
Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.
Facebook and Twitter Adoption Closely Correlates to Association Size
There are many social media channels
available for association use, including
custom-developed channels and mobile
applications. However, for the purpose of
this study, we narrowed our focus to study
the adoption of Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn.
Overall, 73 percent of associations used
some form of social media marketing in
2011. Among the largest associations
(those with an annual budget of more than
$100 million), adoption of some form of
social media is universal. Adoption rates
decline incrementally as association size
declines. Among the smallest associations
(those with annual budgets less than $1
million), social media adoption was at 42
percent in 2011.
Facebook and Twitter adoption were highly
correlated to association budget. Facebook
adoption ranged from 100 percent of the
largest association group to 42 percent of
the smallest association group. Twitter was
adopted by 86 percent of the largest
associations and 19 percent of the smallest
associations.
These adoption patterns reflect the
capacity of large associations to have
substantial technology and marketing
budgets. However, they also reflect the
reality that properly implementing a social
media program requires resources –
resources that the smaller organizations
don’t feel they can afford.
Unlike for Facebook and Twitter, the
adoption of LinkedIn by associations shows
no relationship to size of association
budget. Among the largest associations
adoption is 29 percent, for those with
budgets of $25 million to $100 million it is
45 percent, and it is 8 percent among the
smallest associations.
LinkedIn Favored by Associations in Specific Industry Groups
LinkedIn usage is particularly strong in
associations within specific industry
groups. LinkedIn adoption is high in the
Telecom/E-Data, Real Estate and Finance
industries. Adoption of LinkedIn lags in the
Education, Legal and Manufacturing
industry groups.
Size Matters – Large Associations Lead Adoption of Social Media
Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.
LinkedIn is more likely to be a critical
communication tool in industries where
communications with other businesses or
executives in a business format is
prevalent, which explains the intensity of
use in Telecom/E-Data and Finance
industry groups. Education associations are
often focused more on individuals, often
outside of the business environment.
Most Associations Plan Social Media Investment in 2012-2013
Among our panel of association executives,
58 percent indicated that they would
invest at some level in social media in the
next budget cycle. This compares to 73
percent of marketing executives across all
U.S. industries that indicated that at least
5 percent of their marketing budget would
be allocated to social media in 2012
(according to an eMarketer report of a
Pivot conference survey).
Forty-two percent of our panel will make
no investment in social media marketing
this year. One-third of our panel indicated
that they would allocate between 1 and 9
percent of their Web budget in the next
budget cycle. About one-quarter of the
associations in our panel are intensive
investors in social media. Twenty-one
percent of the panel indicated that they
would spend 10 to 24 percent of their Web
budget on social media, while 5 percent
indicated they would spend one quarter or
more of their budget on social media.
Overall, associations in our panel will
invest about 7 percent of their 2012-2013
Web budgets in social media. Of those
associations investing in social media, the
average investment will be 12 percent of
the Web budget.
Invest In-house or Outsource?
At this point in the adoption of social
media, most investment is made on
internal staff and activities. Among those
investing in social media on our panel, 83
percent will invest in internal social media
activities and 26 percent will outsource at
least some activities. This indicates that
social media marketing is largely being
taken on by internal
marketing/communications staffers.
It’s About Creating an Online Community, with the Reward of Relationship Building
While our research focused on LinkedIn,
Twitter and Facebook, social media is
about building an online community in
different social spaces and how they relate
to each other. “It is about understanding
Most Associations’ Social Media Managed In-House
Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.
the difference between the hub and the
spokes. Building an online community
today means learning how to navigate
between outpost activity (on public sites
like Facebook) and home-based activity (on
your own website, white-label community
space or blog.),” according to the authors
of Open Community.
While many associations both large and
small suffer from senior management’s
aversion to the organization growing into a
social organization, social media is a part
of today’s business culture and being
leveraged by savvy associations to engage
their audience. Our research indicated that
there would be an increase in digital media
marketing, which includes all digital
channels, not just social media.
Case Study: CompTIA Embraces Multiple SM Channels
CompTIA is the voice of the Information
Technology (IT) industry with 2,000
members, mainly small business, and 1,000
business partners. The trade association
focuses on four main program areas:
education, certification, advocacy and
philanthropy, with a heavy emphasis on
certification.
The association has two audiences –
individuals who need to take certification
courses, such as Department of Defense
employees and students, which are more
of a consumer play, and the association’s
membership. Both groups are technology
savvy and social media oriented.
CompTIA’s Senior Director of
Communications, Lisa Fasold, told us that
CompTIA is a heavy user of social media.
The association hosts 20 separate LinkedIn
Groups and struggles to limit its Facebook
pages to five. They also have four main
Twitter feeds representing certification,
advocacy, membership and the foundation.
There is also one YouTube and one Flickr
feed.
Once the channels were established
CompTIA ran into a problem many
organizations experience: They need to go
to the next step of training staff to be
more responsive.
Engagement is the name of the game. “We
are doing too much pushing and not enough
engagement. On the certification side we
ask questions, and we run content.
Paying attention to what
people are saying is beneficial
because it makes it easier for
your organization to be
relevant. Listening helps you
be less of a spammer and
more of a service provider,”
said Damielle Brigida, a social
media strategist for the
National Wildlife Federation,
in The Networked Nonprofit.
Association Investment in Social Media
Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.
However, we are not taking it to the level
to get enough engagement. Sometimes it
takes up to 48 hours for an employee to
answer a question,” Fasold said.
“We need to convince CompTIA employees
to engage; we have been training the staff
to be more responsive,” she added.
However, CompTIA is growing its use of
social media and migrating away from print
marketing, parts of the organization
continue to emphasize existing channels
from a marketing perspective. “The
certification (marketing) group leans
toward print materials; they have not
embraced social media or email. When a
new product is developed the first thing
they do is create a brochure and a Web
landing page,” Fasold said.
Case Study: Linking Social Media to Strategic Goals in a Large Association – The National Association of Realtors
Virtually all large associations, those with
budgets over $100 million, now use some
form of social media. Facebook
penetration is near 100 percent, Twitter
penetration is 86 percent and LinkedIn
penetration is 29 percent. These very large
organizations have budgets and resources
to pursue complex multi-dimensional
strategies.
The National Association of REALTORS®
(NAR) faced the challenge of multiple
audiences each requiring different
approaches and messaging, such as
REALTORS® on the state and local levels,
consumers and the business community at
large.
NAR embarked on an aggressive social
media strategy in 2008 (for members of
ASAE, the NAR Social Media Strategy
document is available in the Resources
section of the ASAE website).
Hilary Marsh was the Managing Director of
Realtor.org at the time and directed much
of NAR’s social media strategy during this
period. She told us that social media
became a way for NAR to accomplish three
of its strategic goals:
Linking Social Media Strategies and Association Goals
Virtually all large associations
(those with budgets over $100
million) now use some form of
social media. Facebook
penetration is near 100 percent,
Twitter penetration is 86 percent
and LinkedIn penetration is 29
percent.
Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.
1. Create and support a meaningful,
long-term relationship between
REALTORS® and consumers (by
modeling smart use of social media
and by creating guidelines for
REALTORS® to follow)
2. Be the most comprehensive,
reliable and accessible source of
real estate information (by sharing
real estate information in more
channels) and
3. Strengthen relationships with
REALTORS® and within the
REALATOR® Community (by
blogging, as well as responding to
other real estate blogs, and by
creating and fostering online
communities of realtors to enable
them to learn from one another.)
NAR identified four primary goals for social
media:
Turn monologue into dialogue with
members.
Reach more members with
information – when and where it’s
relevant to them.
Join and influence existing
conversations about NAR and about
issues realtors care about
Build deeper relationships with
members and others.
In 2009, NAR decided to use three primary
channels to achieve these goals –
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as these
were the primary social media channels
used by realtors. In addition, NAR pursued
blogs and multimedia channels.
Today, NAR’s use of social media is
extensive across all of these channels. NAR
lists seven LinkedIn groups, 35 Facebook
pages for related and affiliate groups
(including specialty REALTOR® groups,
such as women REALTORS®, trade show
Facebook pages and research-oriented
Facebook pages). One of NAR’s LinkedIn
groups has almost 50,000 members, making
it one of the 200 largest groups on
LinkedIn.
Effective Resource Management Key in Successful Social Media
Maintaining focus, unity of message and
current content for such a variety of
channels is a massive undertaking, said
Marsh, who identified critical success
factors for a large social media program
“[Associations] have to consider what
resources a social media program needs to
be successful, which usually includes time,
commitment, ongoing support and
prioritization.”
Social media marketing is no longer a new
tool for associations, and the majority of
associations are now engaged. For the
industry to prove the ROI on the budgets
allocated to this channel, they will have to
find processes, resources and budgets to
support engagement and timely content
while maintaining unity of messaging.
Contact:
Linking Social Media Strategies and Association Goals