Tech Challenges Never Limited

Today’s association professional is constantly challenged by technology. A recent Charlotte Area Association Roundtable confirmed that.

For the associations present, challenges included:
-         Trying to keep up with all the different technologies and getting practical, measureable results from that effort
-         Devoting resources to developing virtual education
-         Balancing whether members get too much information vs. not enough
-         How to understand the ROI for new technologies
-         Keeping up with all the social media platforms
-         The amount of time and resources that are involved in providing technology tools
-         How to best communicate to members
-         Creating online certification and training
-         Trying to stay on top of the changes in technology in-order to remain relevant

Do any of these sound familiar?

The recent Roundtable focused on mobile meeting applications and also social media.

For associations, according to the recent book, Race for Relevance, it took the first association nearly three years to develop a mobile application. This is one reason many associations are challenged with being relevant. We move to slow.

One convenient way to dip your toes in the water with mobile applications is to create a mobile app for your conference. Hale Mast, executive director with the Fiduciary & Investment Risk Management Association (FIRMA), discussed a new mobile app he is going to be unveiling at his upcoming conference. The application will allow attendees to view the schedule of events, get speaker photos and bios, connect with speakers through phone and email (if the speaker allows) and it also contains links to the floor plan.

The company that developed is Global Media. And the have built the mobile application to be customizable to your event. It would also allow for interaction between attendees and provide exposure to sponsors or exhibitors.

There are now hundreds of resources for mobile applications for meetings and trade shows that one industry expert, Corbin Ball, actually wrote a blog which is an outstanding collection of resources – CLICK HERE.

The other challenge we discussed (and it was also a challenge expressed at the Roundtable) was social media.

With social media, you really have to focus on the why? There are so many reasons to delve into social media. Do you want to increase web traffic? Are you looking to target a new generation of members? Do you want to create a new avenue to communicate to members about upcoming events? Are you looking to create another format for members to network with each other? Or is it a little bit of all these things.

When AENC first got into social media, we didn’t have a strategy, we tried to do it all. That become too time intensive, so we decided to focus on FaceBook and LinkedIn and with the idea to build the network. If you want to have a network, you have to have followers. So, we just posted about events, included links to photos and just allowed it to exist. As more people became engaged in the site we began to post important news items important to the association community and also begin focusing on promoting things the association community is doing to impact lives (the focus of AENC’s new vision).

As we began to grow, we started using Twitter more and began using HootSuite to send out messages and multiple channels, and did scheduled tweets around events. In the last six months we re-designed our website to reflect our focus on social media and have bold icons on our website and email for all of our social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress (Blog), and PhotoBucket (event photos).

Now that AENC has developed a solid social media footing, we have been able to actually see some real world results. All of this activity has resulted in a higher ranking in Google. In other words, if you Google “associations and North Carolina”, AENC ranks in the top-5. In addition, we have also seen a great amount of traffic referred from our social media sites. We have seen a 400% increase in our traffic from FaceBook, a 129% increase in traffic from LinkedIn and a 292% increase in traffic through Twitter compared to just two years ago.

Now that our social media is running at full-speed, in January 2011, we started blogging regularly. We have gone from having 19 total views in January of 2011, to we have had 196 views so far this January. Not too shabby, huh.

Also, as Scott Williams from TH Management pointed out there is more to a blog than getting views. It results in what BLOG stands for – Better Listing On Google. You can also use your blog as a website, too. Take for example the Urban Land Institute of San Francisco – http://www.ulisf.org/
Other great information came out of the Roundtable, too.

-         Such as the reminder about the CAN-SPAM rules as it relates to marketing through the use of emails.
-         Using Skype for connecting with members
-         Creating Social Media Policies – for Resource, CLICK HERE.
-         And using Mashable.

Thanks to those that came out!!

Technology Drives Business – Are you Driving or Riding?

Our recent CEO Roundtable focused on technology and it was a great conversation around how technology was used in associations and also the challenges that come along with that usage.
According to our facilitator, Brooks Raiford, AENC member and CEO of the NC Technology Association, technology is generally used for two primary purposes, one internal and one external.
The first drives our business processes, in other words, our internal/operations. How are we using technology to manage the association from the inside?
Some areas of interest for associations are:

• Virtualization (data and software hosting, document sharing, etc; mobile applications; integration of database with all activities, etc.)
• Managed services (equipment and technical support)

The second purpose, and this is so important in a membership based organization, is using technology to enhance the customer experience.
Associations today and having to really consider the following as it relates to our external technologies:

• Virtual networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, other “groups”)
• Website – is it user-friendly?  Dynamic?
• Business Development / Member Value (electronic directory; online marketplace for services/RFP postings, etc.)

As our facilitator said it best, for most associations, we need to be like the Wizard in the city of Oz. We have to be behind the curtain, appearing as we are much bigger than we really are because we have to not only compete for your attention, but try to appear like Google, Amazon or Facebook in the process.
Some tips shared –
- Look at your website – can you find contact information – phone, address, email, etc., in one-click or less? If not, you may want to consider some tweaking.
- How is your association allowing members to network with different subsets of members. Are you using social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn? Or are you looking at developing your own private social network through Higher Logic, Socious, or MemberFuse?
- How are you helping your affiliate members with direct business development – outside of the typical booth at the annual meeting?
- Simple things like dropping the “Annual Meeting” from the beginning of an event, instead, favored putting Technology Outlook first, then Annual Meeting. In addition, NCTA has branded url’s for events which re-direct to their site.
- Also have been co-locating meetings using technology. This way more folks can participate.
- Consider the hazards and risks associated with data breaches with virtualization.  Cyber security is increasingly important, increasingly complicated and challenging, yet expected by your customers.
- Organizations should get a better understanding of all the areas technology impacts so you can budget for it. Technology isn’t something you can just silo – its in everything we do.
- Consider using a 3-year cycle for computer replacement.
- Make sure your members have added your email address to make sure its “white listed”. This limits the amount of emails that get kicked back.
- By using technology, you really have to be in-front of your members more often. You never know when its going to hit that the member needs what you have to offer. Look at the way car dealers advertise. You have to always be visible.
- Consider exploring SMS – texting options in your communications. Many folks, especially younger folks, are getting their info that way.
- When getting members virtually, look to options like: GoToMeeting, conference calls w/ PowerPoint, or WebEx.
- Look to using virtual software – like Microsoft’s new virtual software, other hosted services (exchange, storage, back-up, voicemail, databases, etc.) or exchange services like A.nnotate.com.
Other thoughts of interest from the Roundtable, and this goes back to the customer experience, what barriers can we take away from the customer experience. At NCTA they created new express membership – created easy ways for members to join – just provide your name and contact info and even take payment over the phone to make it easy.
Many thanks again to those in attendance and to Brooks Raiford and the folks at the NC Academy of Family Physicians for hosting.

Association Tech Challenges

Thank you so much to Alec Parker and his wonderful staff (Prissy, especially) for hosting the CEO Roundtable today at the NC Dental Society – it was a real treat.

Today our focus was on technology challenges in our associations, however, we first talked about the success stories. And if you want skip and come back to the challenge post, that’s fine. It’s below this post – Association Tech Success. Here is an image of the success and challenges.

There were many challenges that came out of today’s session and we could have spent hours on the subject, but here were a few key points and some helpful hints.

The first issue with technology, and especially that of social media, is trying to calculate the return on investment. Many organizations have a Facebook presence, but the challenge is feeding it and nurturing the site(s). There are many ideas to help – volunteers, trading out for service, HootSuite or TweetDeck. However, when you get right down to it, and it was mentioned today, it’s not much different than the conversation we had about whether it was worth advertising on TV. Participating in social media is hard to quantify. At least with social media we have a way to track results – number of unique visits based on having a unique landing page for your social media pages. There is also a way to track the number of sites that referred you. In addition, there is the old-fashioned way of asking new members how they heard about you. The new challenge there is that many folks have heard about you in various places – web, social media, TV, radio, word of mouth, etc. The key with social media ( I mentioned this in the Tech Success post) is you have to decide if we don’t actively participate in social media because I can’t “track” it, then what would the cost be if you didn’t do it all? One association mentioned they now have more fans than members and now the challenge is to try and convert those over to members. Not all will join, but the fact that your presence is known is a good thing. It can’t hurt you? The challenge to with your association is helping your members make sense of it to. Facebook is currently the 3^rd largest country in the world, make sure your members are taking advantage of it for their trade or profession, too. One other issue as it relates to the ROI is the number of choices out there. Look at this history of marketing channels. Amazing the choices, huh?

Another technology that could achieve greater ROI is email. Email is something that takes up so much of our time and there are ways to manage it. One is a book by David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Check out his blog and all his FREE tools, including this great paper on email management!! Also, click here for a great white paper on Taming the Email Tiger. For these and other presentations – visit - http://www.slideshare.net/AENC. Also, search Slide Share for other great Email Tips.

Another challenge that was addressed was the issue of integrating your different systems. Between your website, social media, membership database, etc., associations have a daunting task of keeping those systems communicating with each other. There are many great technology tools that can help with that. A great resource for those with issues around their association management system is Wes Trochil’s EDM blog  - EDM = Effective Database Management.  There are also issues with online registration, access to member information online and also the idea of creating private social networks with the ability to create community, in addition to the in-person meetings. Still very important.

The last issue that gained a lot of traction was deciding what social media platforms to use. And as we said earlier, Facebook and LinkedIn are the two prominent social media avenues and its important to feed those and make sure you focus where your people are. Chances are a lot of them are already on some sort of social media platform.

Other nuggets from today – cool tools – check out this information gathered from the recent ASAE Tech Conference. Click here for the Town Hall data. Also, check out the sites – Ever Note - this is a way to organize your life through your notes.  Check out StumbleUpon, too.  Great way to find websites out there that are similar to your interests. Imagine one of those Amazon tricks, “If you like this XX you might also like this YY,” for web sites.

Great information and I wish we could share everything, but that will get you started to understanding the challenges and see the successes!!  

Association Tech Success

At today’s AENC CEO Roundtable, attendees had a chance to share things working in their association prior to talking about challenges. So, what’s going well?

• One associations  took it’s 50 year-old journal online. And they have answered the new question of paper vs. digital by offering them a print option through MagCloud. Its an on-demand printing service.
• One medical group is finding good fortune in developing online medical applications for its members.
• There are many social media tools out there and one association just found their next star through the use of LinkedIn. A great tool that has over 101 million members worldwide – wouldn’t you love 10% of that membership? Here is a link to other great LinkedIn stats. They get 600K hits per day from NC alone and 24 million nationwide. It is a great tool for people and talents and business networking.
• AENC has been using social media intensively for several years now and is beginning to see great returns the amount of increase web traffic from social media sites that refer to the AENC website.
• One organization is really focusing on developing webinars and the virtual conferences.
• A great way to get folks engaged in the electronic newsletter is to use Google Alerts to tag key items important to your members and then take those news items and fill your newsletter with them. Or blog about them, tweet them, etc. Once you have them reading, then at the bottom of the newsletter include key dates and events your members should be interested in.
• Getting young people involved in the association has the same effect as ramping up your technology skills, because they bring it with them. One organization began a Horizon, Visions or Future Leaders committee made-up of young people. They take these folks and then feed all their other committees so each has the influence of a member of a younger generation.
• Another great way to get members to buy into the social media craze is to get a member and trade with them to be the one feeding your social media areas. Develop some so-called “Uber-Posters”.
• A lot of folks mentioned having success with their Facebook pages, which is good considering its now the 3^rd largest country in the world. And the good thing many associations are learning is that it’s hard to monetize the benefits of being involved in social media. However, the great question we heard today was – What would be the cost of not doing it? Not many associations want to make that choice.
• One member (and there are others) had an issue with storage of important professional exam related documents. A great suggestion, which would be great for any group that does certifications, etc., is Hybrid Capture. What is this? It’s a digital option for secure data storage. For more about Hybrid Capture and how you can apply to your association, click here.
• Email is an issue for many associations, and one organization has helped tame the tiger by developing email response policies, which are designed to create a certain level of expectations to help staff answer email at certain times of the day and continue to get the other work of the association done.
• One area where it would efficancy is crucial is in our email and phone. The use of Voice Over IP or VoIP has made major changes in the telephony landscape. For more information about how VoIP works, click here.

So, those were some of the technology success stories, and that was nice to see that considering all of our many challenges!!