Social Media Document - A Perspective

8/22/2019 Social Media Document - A Perspective

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Social Media A Perspective


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Social Media

Many associations are exploring social media. Whether in response to member

requests, or as a new communications channel, or to appeal to a younger demographic,research shows that many organizations are actively pursuing or exploring social mediaactivities, but not necessarily applying social media in the most effective manner. Anadvance look at the 2012-2013 Social Media Benchmarking Report shows associationscan improve how they use social media.

To order the full report, CSAE members please go tohttp://www.budurl.com/csae2013 .

Social media is more than a technology though; it is a phenomenon that is changing theexpectations of members and potential members. Many associations are struggling tocome to grips with how to best deploy social media. Research cosponsored by CSAEshows that while some are aggressively adapting social media as a communications tool,many others are taking a "wait-and-see" approach.

This publication brings together previously published articles on various aspects ofsocial media as it impacts associations. As a CSAE member, you are being provided withthis document at no charge.

For more on how your association can best deploy social media:

Social Media Master Class: Putting Together Your Plan Without WastingYour TimeToronto, ONJanuary 29, 2013
http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.csae.com/CoursesEvents/Details/tabid/176/ArticleId/1605/Social-Media-Master-Class-Putting-Together-Your-Plan-Without-Wasting-Your-Time.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/CoursesEvents/Details/tabid/176/ArticleId/1605/Social-Media-Master-Class-Putting-Together-Your-Plan-Without-Wasting-Your-Time.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/CoursesEvents/Details/tabid/176/ArticleId/1605/Social-Media-Master-Class-Putting-Together-Your-Plan-Without-Wasting-Your-Time.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/CoursesEvents/Details/tabid/176/ArticleId/1605/Social-Media-Master-Class-Putting-Together-Your-Plan-Without-Wasting-Your-Time.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/CoursesEvents/Details/tabid/176/ArticleId/1605/Social-Media-Master-Class-Putting-Together-Your-Plan-Without-Wasting-Your-Time.aspxhttp://www.budurl.com/csae2013


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Table of Contents

Putting the Social Media Cart before the Horse

47 Tough Social Media Questions Part I

47 Tough Social Media Questions Part II

47 Tough Social Media Questions Part III

Socializing the HR Cycle with Social Media

Using Social Media to Mobilize Support

Tying Social Media to your Strategic Plan

The Role of Social Media at Your Next Conference

Using Social Media for Events Without Wasting Your Time

Social Media Benchmarking Survey 2012/2013 -Executive Summary


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Putting the Social Media Cart before the Horse

Implications and Findings from the 2011/2012 CSAE Social Media Benchmarking Survey

(The 2012/2013 report is now available click here)

Are your social media plans strategic, focused, efficient, effective, and add value both toyour organization as well as its members? (How do you know?)

Do you have evidence of the impact of your social media activities, especially given yourSocial media investment in time and dollars? (Or is it anecdotal at best?)

And have your efforts over the last year or two been guided by the "best practices" in thefield, or are they guided by the momentum of the past? (Or worse, have you beendistracted by the latest shiny social media object?)

Implications and Findings from the CSAE Social Media Benchmarking Survey

Are your social media plans strategic, focused, efficient, effective, and add value both toyour organization as well as its members? (How do you know?)

Do you have evidence of the impact of your social media activities, especially given yourSocial media investment in time and dollars? (Or is it anecdotal at best?)

And have your efforts over the last year or two been guided by the "best practices" in thefield, or are they guided by the momentum of the past? (Or worse, have you beendistracted by the latest shiny social media object?)

We have seen many examples of social media initiatives developed after-hours by youngand keen communications and IT staffers who believe in the promise of social media.They are explorers, establishing Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, and LinkedIn groups

well before any clear strategy is developed or approved.

By experimenting this way, theseScouts and Rangers develop or improve your socialmedia organizational IQ, and often carve out roles for themselves as social media go-topeople. (The problem, however, is that these folks already had a day job before socialmedia burst onto the scene and still do.)

But beyond the experimentation, how should social media be used to achieveorganizational goals? To better serve and engage members? For advocacy? To driveevent attendance? And to improve the membership value equation?

What are other associations doing in that area and what are they planning to do in the

next year? What lessons can be learned from them?Let's listen in as Randall Craig of Pinetree Advisors and Gerald Bramm of BrammResearch discuss some of the findings and their implications.

Association Magazine (AM): First of all, how extensive was the market researchitself?

Gerald Bramm: More than 440 associations answered one or more parts of thesurvey 340 answered the survey in its entirety. The survey instrument was pre-tested
http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013


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amongst members, and reviewed in detail with CSAE staff (for which we are veryappreciative.)

Randall Craig: We asked 32 detailed questions on every aspect of social mediastrategy, policy, current and future usage, budgets, best practices, success stories, anddisasters.

Gerald: The CSAE membership was very open with their experience, and the surveyresults all 105 pages of them is a great reality check. It is invaluable for anorganization that wants to compare what they are doing with what other similarorganizations are doing.

AM: Are there any results that stick out?

Gerald: There is a significant amount of data, graphics, and analysis within the report,and it will mean different things to different readers. But there is one item that didstrike us as interesting: 65% of the respondents rely on informal comments andfeedback when it comes to understanding member expectations regarding social media,

and 23% admit to "not knowing" at all. Yet, the survey also shows that this year therewill be the big rush to put social media strategies into place.

Randall: The gap between current knowledge and future intentions raises concerns.How do you know what strategy to put into place without asking your members first?Consider your own organization: how do you know your social media strategy will meetthe needs of your members and other stakeholders? I should also mention that thisquestion really needs to be asked twice: At the beginning, to determine the rudiments ofthe strategy, and then as part of an ongoing monitoring and measurement program.This will ensure that the members' needs are actually being met and that anappropriate "return" is being generated for the social media investment.

AM: What social media sites are the most important for members?

Gerald: Facebook and Twitter are the dominant sites where it is believed thatmembers expect a presence. YouTube is a distant third, followed by an association pageor group on LinkedIn. We would have expected a higher result for LinkedIn; the lowerranking might be a function of what members know about each platform, instead ofeach platform's suitability.

Randall: The issue is also connected to a tough social media choice many associationsmust make: should they have their own "private" forum on their own websites, fullyunder their own control, or should they take advantage of the ubiquity of public (butlockable) forums/groups within sites like LinkedIn? The lower results for LinkedIn mayonly be a consequence of an already-existing discussion forum on their own site.

AM: What concerns do members have about social media?

Gerald: Lots! Here's a sampling from the report:

Lack of participation/engagement from members Difficulty protecting brand image from damaging 3rd party social media online

conversations


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Comments on social media not representative of general opinion Difficulty in demonstrating ROI

Randall: And here are some verbatim comments:

Staff time allotment to manage social media.

Diminishment of the brand-- why belong to an association when you cancommunicate online for free.

Not having a clear social media plan with guidelines and policies for employees tofollow.

The rapidly evolving pace of social media making it difficult to "keep up".

Dialogue among members, visible to external entities like government, conflictingwith organization's official position (demonstrating fractured views or dissent thatcould weaken our advocacy).

Gerald: These concerns are not simple concerns: productivity, ROI, risk management yet 27% of respondents had no formal mechanism for keeping up with trends. Mostrely on their inner circle and seminars/conferences to keep up to date.

AM: What did respondents say about their own social media best practices?

Randall: There were two general themes: that communications not be overly formal,and that they should be engaging and conversational in tone.

Gerald: Here are a few quotes from respondents:

Its about the conversation - treat it as peer to peer messaging.

Not to be too advertorial in messaging tone...to continually provide interesting,helpful messages that capture interest and attention, peripherally showing ourorganization in a positive light, rather than crowing about ourselves.

On social media channels be conversational, reflect the spirit of the organization.Randall: One of the models we use in our consulting practice is calledthe Three Tiersof Social Media Activity - Passive, Broadcast, and Engagement. The Passive tier is allabout listening and doing nothing. Broadcast is more about repurposing existingcontent through social channels. Engagement is all about the conversation and thedevelopment of community. The above comments speak to the importance of movingbeyond the broadcast.

Gerald: The importance of a disciplined approach is also important. From anotherrespondent:

We treat social media like any other communications function - it has a strategicplan behind it and each tool is being used in a particular way to support theorganization's overall goals and activities.

Randall: Let me broaden this insightful comment in another way. Too often, socialmedia is thought of as a marketing and communications tool, driven by the Director ofCommunications. Social media really needs to be considered a tool no different than the


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telephone; it can be used for just about any organizational goal, by anyone within theorganization, to reach out to any stakeholder group, for any particular purpose. Usedproperly, it has the power to mobilize volunteers, to fundraise, to advocate, to recruitstaff, to provide professional development (or support) to members, and so on. It is forthese reasons that there needs to be a wider social media strategy; that it not be a

communications-only initiative.Gerald: Sadly, the data suggests that the reality is exactly the opposite: 61% ofrespondents reported that Communications/PR had responsibility for social media,followed by Executive Management (30%), and Marketing (28%). We can surmise thatit is communications-led because social media usually starts in a Passive and Broadcastmode. Or the ad agencies that "advise" on social media are experienced only inmarketing and communications.

AM: Any final stats that our readers might find interesting?

Gerald: One thing to stress is that we have provided detailed analysis by operatingbudget, staff size, type and size of membership, and by type of organization. So readers

should take care to compare their own experience against appropriate comparators not just the generic survey results. That being said, here are some data points:

Almost one-quarter (23%) are not promoting their social media activities.

Slightly more than one-third (37%) of those surveyed do not formally track theirinitiatives.

Only one-third of organizations say they measure their social media success.

Four-in-ten (41%) are not using any tools to monitor their social media activities.The most common tools are Google Analytics and Google Alerts.

Randall: And a few more: Very few organizations have documented social media strategies and riskmanagement policies. (15% and 1% respectively). For the most part they would bedescribed as a work in progress or non-existent.

Social media staff training is either non-existent (in 45% of organizations) orrudimentary in most others.

This article originally appeared inAssociation


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47 Tough Social Media Questions Part I

How does your organization decide to invest in Social Media? A Social Media plan mightbe proposed by one of your more junior (but Facebook savvy) staff, or perhaps yourtraditional ad agency. It may not be strategic, or even appropriate, but how are you to

know? With all of the fluff being written on Social Media, it's hard to figure outespecially because associations are different. Here is a list of tough questions to help youreason through the recommendations that you are given.

1. What are others doing including 'competitive' associations?

2. What evidence do you have that they are actually successful?

3. Do they already have a first mover advantage?

4. How have they organized the implementation internal/external mix?

5. Who has organized the implementation consulting firm, ad agency, third worldworkers, etc. and why this way?

6. What profile has their Board and Executive Director/CEO chosen to have? Andwhy should our leadership follow the same approach (or not)?

7. How has their strategy leveraged their unique advantages?

8. How will the proposed Social Media plan take advantage of our uniqueadvantage?

Opportunistic discussions during networking sessions always yield an idea or two - but

the answer to the fundamental question of "what are others doing" has already beenanswered. The CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices and Benchmarks survey,due to be released in December has responses from 300 organizations across thecountry. Before starting any strategy, it makes a lot of sense to first learn from others.

9. How might other organizations respond to our Social Media initiative?

10. What are the technical risks, and how can they be mitigated?

11. How do we know were not too late to try what is being suggested?

12. Over 500+ Social Media sites; justify why youve chosen the ones you have.

13. What proof do we have that our members/volunteers/other stakeholders actuallyare on the sites you propose for us to be on?

14. The plan assumes different groups will work together in a new way for the firsttime how will this actually work?

15. Who is accountable for the success of the initiative?


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16. How will that success be measured?

Probably the most important part of a Social Media strategy is the connection to youroverall organizational strategy. How does it leverage and extend what you are currentlydoing? What new opportunities does it open? Indeed, might the opportunity of socialmedia cause you to consider a mid-course correction to the overall strategy itself? Many

associations are grappling with the question of membership cannibalization fromexternally-controlled LinkedIn groups, and are recognizing that a strategic shift ishappening now, smack in the middle of their five-year plan. (Just Tweeting more won'tsolve this last issue.)

In the next installment of this series, we'll look at another group of questions. Whetheryou are the Executive Director responding to the Board, or a manager pitching an ideaup the line, remember that the best answers come when you ask the best questions.Before asking for anything, put your feet in the shoes of the person you are asking. Whatwould their top five questions be? Answer clearly, and its more likely youll geta yes.

Randall Craig is the author of seven books, including Online PR and Social Media for

Associations and the upcoming Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He isthe co-author of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, andmoderates the Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall isthe President of 108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Mediastrategy and execution. More at www.RandallCraig.com and www.108ideaspace.comand @RandallCraig.


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47 Tough Social Media Questions Part II

What are the best questions to ask when someone comes to you with their "great" Social

Media idea? In the first part of this series, we looked at the first group of 16 questions.

[Link to the first article]. In this segment, we continue by adding an additional 15.

17. Has anyone another association, consultant, or academia done a study tocompare or establish benchmarks or best practices? How does the proposed plan

18. How long have you personally used Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,YouTube)?

19. What investment is required? Payback? ROI?20. If the investment were increased/decreased by 50% what would change in your

proposal?

21. Who specifically came up with the plan a 20 year old?Just because someone is young doesn't mean they are incapable of putting together a

great plan. Millenials are well educated, self-assured, and smart. Unfortunately, they

just don't have the business acumen that their more experienced managers have. That

these managers might not understand Social Media means that there is an opportunity

for two-way mentoring to close the gap. If the gap remains, then the plan will not likely

succeed.

22. Most organizations do PR centrally yet the blog/twitter is decentralized howwill we control the message?

23. What are the top five risks; how will they be addressed?24. What are our members doing?25. Explain the rationale for building the program on third party sites versus our own

(or the other way around).

26. How will spam be addressed?

While many people associate spam with email, spam is a growing problem on the social

web as well. Hucksters put their promotional comments on your Facebook page, theycomment (inappropriately) on your blog, and use your #hashtags for their own

purposes. Managing the community is important, and takes time: how will this task be

resourced?

27. How will this plan address privacy issues?


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28. What additional law or government regulation must be followed (privacy, Do Not

Call, under 18 laws, etc)?

29. How many person-hours/week will be spent on this? (And by who?)

30. Is the plan integrated with our Membership/Advocacy/Conferences/HR/etc, or isit just tacked-on? How is the integration done?

31. With finite resources, what will be stopped if this one starts?

32. Does the plan have clear objectives?

This last question is one of the most important, but it is often left for the end - or left

out. Having clear objectives suggests a number of other important activities:

monitoring, measurement, and accountability.

Many associations have marketing and communications committees where web andSocial Media issues are decided. Here's an idea for the courageous: why not table these

questions (and the previous ones), and see how well they can be answered. If the

questions can't be answered satisfactorily, then maybe it's time to review the strategy

and those responsible for it.


Associations and the upcoming Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is

the co-author of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and

moderates the Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is

the President of 108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Mediastrategy and execution. More atwww.RandallCraig.com andwww.108ideaspace.com

and @RandallCraig.
http://www.randallcraig.com/http://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.randallcraig.com/


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47 Tough Social Media Questions Part III

What are the best questions to ask when someone comes to you with their "great" Social

Media idea? In the first two parts of this series, we looked at 16 questions, then an

additional 16. In this final article, we add a final 15.

33. How much of the initiative is defensive?A defensive plan is one that does the absolute minimum, just so that the organization

doesn't embarrass itself in the marketplace. There is nothing wrong with this as a

stopgap measure. On the other hand, most organizations don't have limitless resources,

so spending time and money on a defensive plan takes away from the impact of a

strategic Social Media plan.

34. Can the proposal be phased in?35. When do the milestones occur to review progress? And what should we look for onthe first milestone?36. How does the strategy take advantage of Mobile?Mobile now means several things: building web pages for different screen sizes;

building "apps"; taking advantage of the user's location; taking advantage of thejust-in-

time nature of mobile alerts. If the Social Media plan only speaks to establishing

presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter, then it is probably one of the

best plans of three years ago.

37. Who else has reviewed this proposal, and what reservations did they have?38. How does this initiative change ourMarketing strategy? Advocacy strategy?

HR/recruiting/volunteer strategy?

39.What internal policies will need to change if we implement?40. Where does this plan lead? What does Phase Three look like?It's tempting to say that since Social Media is changing so quickly, planning for a future

phase is futile. Not so. Choosing now what a future might look like is a critical double-

check to ensure that, all else being equal, the current phase is directionally sound. Of

course, change will happen, but mid-course corrections are only possible if you know theultimate destination.

41. Who within the organization will you need to work hard to get buy-in from?42. Will any external stakeholders be affected negatively or will relationships be

altered by the plan?


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Very often, suppliers (and other sponsor/funding partners) are left out of the mix. Does

the content and community that is being proposed include anything of value for these

stakeholders? And separately, are there any new advertising or sponsorship

opportunities that will become available as a result of the strategy? (Note: If the

strategy is being developed with a view to increasing sponsorship revenue, who will be

responsible for doing the actual selling?)

43. Who are the bloggers, tweeple, etc. who are most influential in our market?44. How will the initiative be launched?45. What books have you read/What blogs/Tweeple do you follow? What do they say

about this type of plan?

46. How has this plan worked in other industries?47. Do any of our suppliers or customers have Social Media strategies that we can

camp on to?

Where do you start? First consider how critical Social Media is to your overall strategy,

and then choose how many questions need to be answered to justify your investment.

You may not have to answer all 47 questions, but answering the toughest ones will yield

the greatest benefit.

Postscript: How good is your current Social strategy? Try this (no cost) self-audit it

generates a report on how you can improve: http://budurl.com/108smaudit


Associations and the Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the co-

author of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the

Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of

108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and

execution. More atwww.RandallCraig.com, www.108ideaspace.com and

@RandallCraig.
http://budurl.com/108smaudithttp://www.randallcraig.com/http://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.randallcraig.com/http://budurl.com/108smaudit


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Socializing the HR Cycle with Social Media

Too often, social media is considered only in the context of marketing and sales. The keydrivers of the organization people are forgotten. How can an association use socialmedia throughout the HR cycle of recruitment, dismissal, orientation/on-boarding andengagement, and keeping connected to former staff as alumni? (While the action itemsmay differ slightly, volunteers go through essentially the same process.)

Recruitment

The typical recruiting sequence is: sourcing, selection, reference checks and making theoffer. The first three are ripe for social media.

Candidate sourcing is the process of collecting prospect names. Here are some ideas:

Post the job on social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook in order to takeadvantage of referrals from connections. Candidates often search LinkedIn directly forpostings, and hidden candidates often come forward.

Ask your employees (and volunteers) to like the job posting, or to set their status tolink to your posting.

Tweet about the posting and ask your staff to retweet.

The general idea is that by using social media, candidate sourcing and some of theselection process itself can be shortened and the quality of candidates, increased.Often, the best candidates are those who come through referral, both in the real worldand online.

Candidate selection involves reviewing the resums, creating a short list, and doing theinterviews to select the winning candidate.

Depending on the size and sophistication of your organization, you may be using anapplicant tracking system to manage the process. (These systems may allow you tocollaborate with others in a simple way.) One idea is to use a social media tool such asa secure internal blog or wiki to provide a venue for all involved in the selectionprocess to share thoughts on the candidates.

Consider using social media to do a quick scan of the short list candidates. Assumingthe candidate is not disqualified because of a serious issue, any red flags or interestingexperiences can be probed during the interview.

Reference checks are typically handled by phone, but the social media world is fertile

ground to check out final stage candidates in detail. Some ideas:Compare the resum and claims made during the interviews with assertions made onLinkedIn and other social media sites. If there are discrepancies, ask the candidateabout them. Remember, however, that differences may be due solely to resumcustomization.


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Review their Facebook profile. To the extent that it is public, their Facebook (and othersite) profiles can provide clues to their personal brand and personal values. You willwant to check that these are in sync with your organizations culture and values.

Look for them in Google and ZoomInfo. While you need to make sure youre reviewingthe correct person, there is a wealth of information online, especially for candidates for

more senior roles.

A caveat: Social media reference checks should only be used to supplement yourdecision-making process. There is NO substitute for a real person-to-personconversation.

Onboarding/Orientation

Once the candidate has been hired, social media can play a critical role in the employees(or volunteers) motivation and success. Most orientation programs seek to provide thecandidate with the knowledge and tools to succeed. Here are some ideas for how socialmedia can help:

Instead of the typical new employee (or volunteer) orientation guide, why notsupplement it with a site where existing employees can share their suggestions and ideason their first 30 days? Or, after three months, ask the new employees themselves to offertheir input.

Consider opening access to these tools before the first day. Most candidates want tomake a great impression, so why not let them begin early?

Use videos (on a private YouTube-like service) to let senior managers welcome newemployees and also respond to employee comments and questions left on the videospage.

While beyond the scope of this paper, setting up appropriate social media policies andguidelines are critical, or else the organization could be put at great risk. Every existingpolicy (i.e., confidentiality and privacy, bullying, acceptable Internet use, branding, etc.)will typically need some changes. During the orientation and onboarding process, thenew employee will need to be made aware of and agree to them.

Engagement

Connection to the organization happens through managers and peers, so why not createa venue where this happens online? There are a number of private and secureFacebook-like systems that allow collaboration and connection to take place. For thefunctionality they provide, the cost of implementing this is surprisingly low.

Be careful, however, about dipping your toe in the water with the thought of making achange at a later date. For example, if you start a private group on LinkedIn and thenlater want to change the venue to one that has more functionality, you may find thatmany of your group members will not re-register on the new site. And the members whodo move will require training . . . and time to get up to speed. Finally, all of the oldconversations and uploads are typically lost. Best get on the right road from the start.


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There are a number of new social media services that can be used for evaluation. Rypple,for example, allows quick feedback for employees, volunteers . . . and their managers.

Dismissal

There is nothing inherently social about letting someone go. Yet there are a number of

key HR oriented activities that must be addressed when it happens. One such activityhappens during the exit process: the employee must be reminded to change theirprofiles to indicate that their employment has ceased. (They should also be reminded oftheir confidentiality agreement.)

Alumni

Some of the most powerful voices in the community include those who once worked (orvolunteered) at your organization. Until recently, the cost of running an effective alumniprogram kept it out of reach for all but the largest organizations. At the same time, theease of setting up an unofficial group on LinkedIn,

Facebook and others has meant that someone else not you may already have

created a community and is setting the ground rules. In 90 per cent of the cases itsbetter to set it up yourself.

An Underutilized Resource

Many organizations have locked down social media, seeing it as a problem. Others lookat it exclusively from the perspective of marketing campaigns. A more mature approachis to harness the desire to be social and provide guidance (and the tools) to let socialmedia become a competitive advantage. Organizations who use social media throughoutthe HR cycle are demonstrating this by example.


Associations and the Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the co-author of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the

Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of

108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and


@RandallCraig.

This article was originally published in the March 2011 CSAE Trillium ChapterFORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx
http://www.randallcraig.com/http://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspxhttp://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.randallcraig.com/


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Using Social Media to Mobilize Support

Weve all seen the recent stream of articles and presentations telling associations to geton the social media bandwagon. But many association executives are wondering, issocial media all that its cracked up to be? A fair question. The answer is that although

most organizations are still exploring the possibilities of social media, some havealready demonstrated the practical benefits of using it to inform, engage andenable members and the public around advocacy issues. The trailblazers include threeassociations from the CSAE Trillium community the Ontario Long Term CareAssociation, Community Living Ontario and the Ontario Real Estate Association.

Importance of Advocacy

One of the primary services that associations provide is advocating on behalf ofmembers. To do this effectively, they have to mobilize an audience around an issue orcause. The challenge is that no one likes being bombarded by emails, calls or letters.This is where social media pull rather than push technology shines. Social

media allows you to pinpoint the people that share a passion for or at least an interestin your cause and then, with minimal effort, inform, engage and enable them tosupport it.

Informing Your Audience

Getting information out quickly is the first step toward motivating an audience to takeaction in an advocacy campaign. Theres no way that they will respond to a call to actionwithout first knowing

Social Media what the issue is about. Social media tools such as Facebook posts, tweetswith links and YouTube videos allow you to do this with ease. The Ontario Long TermCare Association (OLTCA) is an example of an association that is using social media toinform members and stakeholders. OLTCA takes the content that virtually everyassociation creates stories written for its online newsletter and vastly extends itsreach through the associations Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. Stories arepicked up by key stakeholders who in turn post them on their own websites and socialmedia forums. Current Twitter followers include the Minister of Health and Long TermCare! As OLTCA members watch their information spread across the Web, they becomemore involved in the content creation process and provide authentic voices for thesector. OLTCA now receives more stories on the innovative programs and qualityinitiatives offered by long-term care homes than the association can publish. The result

is a more engaged membership, enhanced credibility for the association and a positive

image for the long-term care sector.Engaging Your Audience

Once an association has established a social media presence and following, it can beginengaging its audience. There are a couple important points to keep in mind.

First, know your audience and where they are. Not everyone you want to reach will be inthe same place. Community Living Ontario (CLO) began engaging like-mindedorganizations and the media with Twitter, but soon realized that it could also be used to


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inform MPs and MPPs as well. CLO then created a Facebook page to engage theirmembers and the general public. They have found that different social media tools allowthem to reach different audiences.

Second, make sure that your content is valuable. Quality will determine whether or notyour audience becomes engaged. The offerings on CLOs Facebook page include links to

information about members and related organizations; an opportunity for members topost and share content; and news about events and activities of interest. The popularityof the page with its nearly 1,500 fans is due to the organization providing valuableand engaging content and allowing visitors to actively participate in the conversation.

Enabling Audience Action

Youve now informed your audience about your issue or cause and engaged them indiscussion. The final step is enabling them to take action.

The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) used social media for the engagementphase in two recent campaigns the potential impact of the HST on home sales and

proposed mandatory home energy audits. Past OREA calls to action had been limited totraditional communication channels. For these two campaigns, however, OREA alsoused Twitter to drive members to their website, where a form allowed them to send anemail to their MPP in less than a minute. Both campaigns were seen as successes by theOREA membership even though only the energy audit effort actually got legislationchanged.

A Balanced Assessment

While for many the jury may still be out on everything that associations can do withsocial media, at least three Ontario associations are using this new tool to inform,engage and enable members and the public to become advocates. By providing relevantcontent, engaging audiences online and reducing friction in the participation process,they have shown that social media can be an effective means of rallying support andaction for issues and causes.

Tim Shaw (289-846-3105, [email protected]), Leader of Online Engagement at Amplifi,a company offering end-to-end advocacy, marketing and public relations services forassociations, non-profits and small businesses, is a member of TrilliumsCommunications Committee.

This article was originally published in the December 2010 CSAE Trillium ChapterFORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx
http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx


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Tying Social Media to your Strategic Plan

When looking at social media and strategic planning it may not seem like they belongtogether. Social media is immediate and fast moving a way to instantly communicateand converse with an audience. A strategic plan is executed over a period of months oryears with objectives that are realized over the long term. A stark contrast.

But in order to have a social media strategy that adds value to your organization it mustbe tied to the strategic plan.

Measure, measure, measure

Your strategic plan sets the direction and identifies what success looks like to yourorganization. Success in social media is tied directly to your organizational goals. Insocial media, its tempting to fall into using metrics like number of fans or followers tomeasure success, but more meaningful metrics can be identified by looking at how socialmedia is used to engage and influence your fans and followers in a way that support

your broader organizational goals.Function, function, function

Different groups within your organization perform various functions that contribute toachieving the goals outlined in your strategic plan. Identify the functions that will findthe most value in social media. Theres a very good chance that member-facingfunctions will be able to make more impact in social media than administrative orfinancial functions. Because the activities of these groups are driven by the strategicplan, aligning social media with them ensures that it too is contributing to the overallsuccess of the organization.

Strategy, strategy, strategy

Once its clear where social media will add value, a strategy must be developed outlininghow that will happen. At this stage, social media is probably written in as a tactic in thebroader group strategy, but it is important that a specific social media strategy bedeveloped that will outline more specifically how social media is going to be managed,who you are trying to reach and why, and what type of content will be developed so thatit really contributes to the success of the group.

And finally, tactics

To many people, it seems backwards that the last thing to be considered when it comesto social media is the actual technology. But its true, once you have reached this point

social media will be firmly entrenched to your strategic plan: it has good metrics thatlink back to the strategic plan; is part of a larger functional group strategy; and thesocial media strategy has outlined how exactly social media is going to managed. Andnow finally you get to choose which channels will be used to execute your strategy.

In the non-profit world where budgets are tight, its important that everything theorganization does adds value. The way to make sure that social media is a truly valuablepiece of your organization is to make sure that the metrics, function, strategy and tacticsall tie back into the overall goals set out in your strategic plan.


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Tim Shaw is a Partner at amplifi, a digital advocacy & public relations firm that buildschampions for your brand, issue and cause. Tim teaches the Social Media for PRcourse at Durham College and can be reached at 905-415-4588 or at www.amplifi.ca.

This article was originally published in the December 2011 CSAE Trillium ChapterFORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx
http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx


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The Role of Social Media at Your Next Conference

Social media tools have entered the world of conferences and meetings in a way thatallows the issues and trends to build momentum in the hearts and minds of audiencesbefore the conference, to ignite more engagement during the conference, and tocontinue long after the folding chairs have been put away.

How many times have you attended an event and felt like you were simply lectured?Oh sure, a few people in the audience interacted with the speakers, but time was limited,and the Q&A session only allowed for three questions. Moreover, once the conferenceended, thats it over done.

Many of us have attended such events that, in the moment, the content seemed useful,but soon much of what we absorbed is gone from our minds when we got back to ourday-to-day busy lives. The content, the issues discussed, and the opinions of othersdidnt necessarily live on. Basically when the conference was over, so was the

discussion. Even when you went online to talk about it with someone, there was noforum, no social platform, no medium to continue the discussion.

But that is changing and, for some, it has fully changed. Everyone is online, whetherwere searching on Google, or Facebooking our friends and family, mostly everyoneturns to the Internet to learn and to engage. The proliferation of social media has madeit possible for us to capture meaningful information and respond to it in real time.Because of the tools of social media, we no longer have to wait for the newspaper toarrive in the morning, or rush home for the 6 oclock news because with social media,information isnt scarce, it is abundant. Even better, we, the people, now get to add to it,create more of it, and deliver it to others in our own way, on our own time.

Know your audience

Social media platforms have proved to be a powerful mechanism to ensure that keyissues are born, nurtured and mature through online participation. From the socialmedia beginner to the sophisticated user, events and conferences have the potential tobe more valuable to the audience when participants have the opportunity to interactwith the issues and trends before, during and after the event. How is that possible?Through careful planning, a strategic approach, relevant content and an inviting attitudetoward audience participation, social media can deliver many results, such as: improvedstakeholder communications, enhanced membership development, and strongerthought-leadership in your organizations area of focus.

Where to start? Begin with the audience in mind. Who are they? The culture of yourorganization is also important. More conservative organizations may use a combinationof LinkedIn and Twitter. Other organizations may have a more casual audience andculture and opt for Facebook. But before choosing the tools, also think long and hardabout your own social media biases. You may be a whiz at using Facebook to talk toyour family and friends and download games, but that doesnt mean that yourconference audience is a Facebook group too. Dont choose your tools, just becauseyou might know how to use them well. Give it careful thought.


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Aim for quality, not quantity

Also be mindful of the natural temptation to try to create quantity. Do you want tofacilitate channels of communication, or are you looking to build followers? In life, wetend to go for the numbers and forget the reason we started using the tools. Quality isthe best policy, especially for issue-based conferences and meetings. Building followersmeans nothing if you havent incorporated the tools in which to educate, improvecommunications, strengthen membership signups, increase donation levels or createmedia or membership buzz around the topics.

As an aside, be weary of snake-oil salesmen who try to sell you on the numbers game.There are lots of people and businesses who will try to tell you they will help you bring inhigh numbers of followers and likes and thats when you need to ask if numbers ofrandom people will meet the conference objectives, both short term and long term?Chances are, the numbers really dont matter unless all the numbers comprise ofincreasing your membership, donors or other supporters.

Presumably, you want to build something sustainable through your conference, and youare trying to make the issues accessible to specific people. And thats precisely what thetools need to do make the issues accessible, make it easy to weigh in, add value, andfoster new conversations and ways to learn.

Planning is key

But simply acquiring the social media tools is not enough. This comes back to astrategy. Planning is very important and determining how and when you want thosechannels to be open is key. Some organizations only flip the channels on for the eventitself, others leave the channels on all the time. So thats an important decision, and itshould be made based on the type of resources you have. If you are a lean, mean

organization with few staff, it is an important consideration when it comes to socialmedia, because the one thing that can be said about social media is that it requires careand feeding.

What makes social media successful for one organization and not another is having adedicated resource managing the channels at all times or most of the time. Justbecause you turn the channels on, it doesnt mean people will tune in and engage. Half(and sometime more), of the job belongs to you when those channels are on. Socialmedia isnt a Ronco commercial - remember, set it and forget it? It is quite theopposite in fact. So remember if you cant care for your social media channel, it wontwork for you.

Content is king

This leads to the next most important part of social media, content. Content is king, andit will drive people to engage, and it can drive them away. When it comes to your event,its not just the content of the conference speaker. There is much more to yourorganizations conference than the content experts who provide the presentations.


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Topics are vast and dynamic, and they live beyond your event. Although youve chosenspeakers and their topics based on what is most appealing to your audience (and giventhe timelines and the parameters of the event), what about the other speakingsubmissions that didnt make it into the event, simply because you didnt have room?Perhaps those submissions are still worthy of discussion on a social media platform.

Quite possibly some of those who submitted great ideas would like to participate onbehalf of your event through social media if you dont have room for them at the actualconference. Theres always a way to add more value through social media.

In any case, with your audience, your culture, your content and your resources, its nowtime to choose the social media channels that you want to implement. And once you getthose accounts all fired up, remember one thing: nothing happens overnight. It takestime to build the audience, to get people engaging, and to amass raving fans thatsupport your organization on social channels.

Specifically for your event or meeting, social media planning is key for pre-event,during-event and post-event activities. Your conference takes place at one point in time,

but social media tools can be used to build momentum ahead of the event, maintain orbuild it further during the event, and sustain interest after the event. To achieve this,think of the following to help you plan.

Pre-event: Depending on your audience and content, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIncan be used effectively to ask audience questions and create conversations with peopleas a lead up to the event. If youre bringing in guest speakers or keynote speakers,encourage them to use the channels to give teasers about their topic or engage with theaudience ahead of time. Use these channels to help build momentum and excitement,or as tool to help your audience engage.

During-event: Twitter is the best real-time social channel. If you plan really well, you

can have a screen for the audience to watch the tweet-stream of conversations aboutthe conference. Also, plan a hashtag for the event and claim it! A hashtagged eventallows people to create searches of tweets specifically about or coming from that event(for example #CSAE12). Also, think about video recording and creating a YouTubeaccount. YouTube is the second largest search engine and if your event is annual, peoplemay want to search YouTube for videos of past conferences presentations.

Post-event: Twitter is by far the best social channel for activities before, during andafter an event. Posting videos on YouTube is an excellent post-event channel, allowingyour audience to view and comment on the event whether they attended or not. Alsothink of posting meeting presentations on SlideShare for those who want to review the

presentations. And if youve chosen to use Facebook or LinkedIn, keep the conversationgoing with your community, especially if you have an annual event.

Always keep objectives in mind and how social media can help you meet yourconference goals: membership acquisition, education, fundraising, etc. Also think abouthow much time and effort you can put towards it. Doing something poorly is not worthdoing at all. So plan your resources accordingly: members, staff, freelancers, etc.


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Social media is about enriching what already exists for your audience a great

conference, a great organization, great speakers, great members and great topics for

further exploration, all through the online world. Choose the tools that are going to

enhance the experience both for your audience and for your organization


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Using Social Media for Events Without Wasting Your Time

Todays conventional wisdom is that if youre not Twittering, YouTubing, Facebooking,

and LinkingIn your annual conference, youve missed the boat. While this is for the

most part true, the excitement of using the new tools can get in the way of applyingthem productively. In this article, we review practical ways to use social media for your

event planning it, promoting it, delivering it as well as after its over.

Planning the Event

How are event themes, speakers and educational tracks determined at your association?Usually this is delegated to a committee composed of volunteers, staff and perhapstrusted advisors. If the committee chooses the right combination for the program, theperceived value of, and attendance at, the event rises.

If the committee makes the wrong choice, your event is in trouble. While it may seem

risky to ask embers directly, using social media tools to reach out to members and otherpotential attendees can generate buzz, collect data and enhance affinity. People are morelikely to attend if they have a say in setting the agenda. How to do this? Conduct anonline survey on key issues in the industry, asking about preferred topics and solicitingspeaker recommendations. Or start up discussions in a forum or blog. Blogs have theadvantage in that they are automatically syndicated across the Internet, spreadingawareness even farther.

Your planning committee can consider the feedback when making its decisions. Theinformation will validate great decisions and help avoid bad ones.

Promoting the Event

One of the basic tenets of web marketing is that instead of being broadcast from onepoint, a message should be designed so readers can pass it on. Consider these ideas:

Create an event blog to keep everyone up to date. In addition to posting text, askspeakers to supply value-added content such as video clips. The blog can be easilysyndicated across the Internet to promote awareness of the event, and improve thesearch engine rankings of the event website itself. Be careful not to allow the blog to beperceived as an advertising channel rather than a preview of the great value offered bythe event.

Announce your event on relevant discussion forums, including LinkedIn groups.

Create a family of social media sites (YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) tiedtogether so that when one is updated, all are. Since you dont know where on the Webyour attendees spend their time, creating a broad, integrated presence ensures thatattendees will find you when they come looking for you.

As a speaker, I spend time researching each audience to whom I present. What aretheir key issues? What are they hoping to learn from me? What are their challenges?While the answers can be gathered through one-on-one over-the-phone interviews, ifyour meeting planner establishes a forum, prospective attendees can share directly what


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they are looking for and I can immediately respond. The result is in a morecustomized presentation coupled with audience pre-engagement that translates intomore registrations for the event.

While associations use their magazines and newsletters to promote conferences, theyshould engage other media as well to get out the message. Mainstream media (including

trade publications) can generate articles that can be linked to or cross-posted. Bloggersmay want to do pre-interviews leading up to the conference. And, of course, the board,staff and key volunteers can comment on each others blogs and tweets, driving interestfurther.

A word about the registration process: The user interface is generally designed byprogrammers, not marketers. While making it easy to transact is the primary goal, theopportunity to build in social media functionality tell-a-friend, up-selling, cross-selling, access to private content and discussion groups should not be overlooked.The most powerful salesperson for your event is someone who has just made a purchase.Why not generate a testimonial just after a transaction by asking why the registrantdecided to attend the event?

Delivering the Event

Social media can play five important roles during a conference:

capturing content to be used to market future events

enhancing the learning process of attendees

expanding the event to include remote attendees

capturing information for a post-event virtual event

generating publicity for the event and the association

Future marketing: Much of the content and other information generated during anevent can be repurposed for future event marketing. Testimonials are particularlyimportant. Quick tip: For video testimonials, instead of presenting a waiver to be signed,ask for permission right on camera before posing your first question.

Learning process: In addition to creating discussion forums for educational tracks,consider having a Twitter wall for each presentation. This is a projection screen offtothe side, with a computer running a Twitter management program (HootSuite,TweetDeck, and Seesmic are examples). This will display tweets about the presentationfrom both local and remote attendees. This, of course, only works if the speaker iscomfortable receiving feedback on the fly. Hint: Place a separate monitor in front of the

speaker so he or she can follow the feedback without having to turn away from theaudience.

Remote attendees: Technology now allows live event streaming, and some eventsnowprovide a remote registration option for attendees who cant attend the event inperson.

Virtual event: Using inexpensive Flip-style video cameras, a team of rovingreporters can interview speakers, dignitaries and audience members throughout the


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event. The snippets can then be uploaded to YouTube, Facebook and elsewhere.Microbloggers can give a running commentary on particular workshops, and bloggerscan do summaries and session reviews.

Publicity: Invite influential bloggers as well as mainstream media to your event. Doingthis early allows them to publicize the event, further driving attendance. Finally, instead

of a traditional news release, use a social media news release.

After the Event

The goal of the annual event is to bind attendees closer to the organization throughnetworking, professional development and community building. Social media can play apowerful role by capturing the excitement and learning for those who couldnt attend inperson. At the same time, it can provide an interactive extension of the conference forthis same group. One way to do this is to ensure that the events pictures, videos,speaker hand-outs, transcripts and interviews are recorded and archived. Another is toestablish a discussion forum where communities of interest can develop.

Summing UpThrough the proper use of social media, an associations annual event can provide a newjolt of energy for its emerging online learning community. In turn, the communitybecomes the planning and marketing arena for next yearsevent. The cycle thencontinues year after year. Social media thus forms an essential ingredient for todayssuccessful event planners, but only if applied strategically and if associations dont letthe excitement of using these new tools divert attention from using them strategically.


Associations and the Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the co-

author of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the

Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and


@RandallCraig.

This article was originally published in the September 2010 CSAE Trillium ChapterFORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx
http://www.randallcraig.com/http://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspxhttp://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspxhttp://www.108ideaspace.com/http://www.randallcraig.com/


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Social Media Benchmarking Survey 2012/2013 Wave 2

Canadian Society of Association Executives

Background and Overview

Bramm Research and 108 ideaspace conducted the 2nd wave of theCSAE SocialMedia Benchmarking Surveyin the last quarter of 2012. Approximately 300associations answeredone or more parts of the survey. In total, 240 associationsanswered all portions of the survey.This brief summary describes some of our findings.The full report contains greater details, andbreaks down the data by association typeand size. To order the report, CSAE members pleasego tohttp://www.budurl.com/csae2013 .

Summary

1. Social Media: Ahead of the Curve or Behind?

In the second year of our comprehensive survey we see that social media continues tooffer challenges to the organizations responding to our questionnaire. This year weasked respondents if they felt that, with regards to social media, they are ahead of thecurve, somewhere in the middle or behind in this area. A mere 10% placed themselves inthe ahead of the curve category. Throughout the report, we have used thesebellwether organizations in our analysis. Where appropriatewe have noted how theirattitudes and activities differ from other organizations.

2. Your Members: What are Their Expectations?

We asked respondents if their members look to them for guidance in the area of socialmedia. While opinion is divided on this issue, one fact stands out our bellwetherorganizations are twice as likely to say that their members are looking for guidance. Wespeculate that it is this demand that has driven their social media activity.

It continues to be the case this year that a surprisingly large number of organizations donot know what their members are thinking when it comes social media or they arerelying on a gut feeling. Again, bellwether organizations are using a variety oftechniques to monitor their members.

3. Social Media: Benefits and Concerns?

The top three perceived benefits of social media remain unchanged this year. They are:increases brand awareness, provided networking opportunities and developscommunity, intermember collaboration and sharing. There continues to be a multitudeof additional benefits that accrue from the use of social media. Consider the followingcomments:

Enhances our culture by demonstrating our willingness to effectively
http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013


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embrace new concepts.

Builds relationships with members of media.

Could be used to seek member opinion on a policy direction.

With regards to concerns, we see that the top three remain: lack ofparticipation/engagement from your members, difficulty in demonstrating ROI andcomments on social media not representative of general public opinion. We find itinteresting that organizations are concerned about a lack of participation or engagementin light of the fact that relatively few have taken the steps to understand what theirmembers expectations are.

4. Keeping Up With Trends

With a continuously evolving social media landscape how are our organizations keepingpace? For the most part they are relying on input from employees and volunteers alongwith attending seminars/conferences. However, fully one-third admit that they have noformal mechanism for keeping pace. Not surprisingly, relatively few of our bellwetherorganizations are lacking a formal mechanism.

5. Current Initiatives

In overall terms, the percent of organizations supporting some form of social mediaactivity has grown from 77% to 88%. This year we see increases in all forms of socialmedia activity. The most popular platforms remain an association Facebook page orgroup or a twitter account. As well as increased activity on these two platforms we areseeing increases on all other platforms. As well we see increases in areas that were

evident at very low levels last year e.g. mobile apps and Google+. We also see Pinterestmaking an appearance this year.

6. Dollars and Time Devoted to Social Media

Our report contains a detailed breakdown of the amount spent on social media (apartfrom staff time) and hours devoted to this activity. In both cases, respondents expectsignificant increases in 2013. However, respondents predicted the same increase inactivity last year and the results indicate that these predictions did not materialize.

We see the same pattern for social media training. Once again, expectations exceed

reality i.e. last year 74% expected that they would provide training in 2012. In reality,only half (49%) provided this training.

7. Social Media Who Has Responsibility?

For the majority of organizations taking part in this survey, the communications/publicrelations department is taking responsibility for social media. This is particularly thecase amongst larger organizations. Not surprisingly, within smaller associations,


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executive management is more likely to have responsibility for social media.

8. The Current State of Social Media Strategies and Policies

We are seeing a substantial increase in organizations that report having a formal and

documented social media strategy. Having said this, almost half (49%) of organizationshave no social media strategy or have one that is in development.

We are not seeing as significant an increase in the percentage of associations withformal and documented risk management policies. Currently over 60% of organizationshave risk management policies that are in development or non-existent. This percentageis essentially unchanged since last year.

In comparison to the total sample, our bellwether organizations are significantly morelikely to have formal and documented social media strategies and risk managementpolicies. However, even amongst this elite group, many organizations are lacking in thisarea.

9. Promoting and Tracking Social Media Activities

Organizations are becoming more adept at using a variety of methods to promote theirsocial media activities. The top three promotional tactics are: promotion on yourwebsite, email marketing, and promotion at events. In all three cases we are seeingincreased activity this year. Organizations are also devoting more effort to tracking theirinitiatives. But, while the percentage is dropping, a substantial percentage (56%) are nottracking activities or are only doing so informally.

10. Measuring The Success of Your Activities

Last year 32% of respondents said they measured the success of their social mediaactivities. This years number stands at 45%. By way of comparison, 82% of ourbellwether organizations are currently measuring the success of their activities.

The most popular tools being employed are: Google Analytics, Google Alerts and/orHootSuite, TweetDeck, or Seesmic.

11. Best Practices

Once again this year we asked respondents to share with us their own social media best

practices. The final section of the report contains these verbatim responses along withexamples of social media successes and disasters.

Listed below is a small sampling of best practice insights. We have selected thembecause they illustrate the range of opinions on this topic and the fact that eachorganization will have its own unique social media challenges and responses to thosechallenges.


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Dive into social media. You learn more by "doing" than by trying to develop the bestsocial media strategy or policy (which can be adjusted along the way). Don't wait andworry. Start now.

Base your social media plan on what you want to accomplish and not simply on

"getting on the band wagon".

Member participation on social media must be driven through modeling by staff aswell as media usage among members due to the time required, as it is one projectamong many that we undertake for our members.

Have one policy and get consensus organization-wide, rather than having differentdivisions create their own (and perhaps conflicting) brands/voice/policies.

Autonomy and trust & having a consistent 'voice' ie- one person is in charge of all theSocial Media and has developed strengths that present in unique and individual ways/continual discussion, research and development/ understanding the professionalismand respecting it as you would other endeavors... "responsible journalism still applies"

To order the full report, CSAE members please go tohttp://www.budurl.com/csae2013 .

Gerald Bramm is the principal in Bramm Research, which provides research

consulting services to associations. For more information and to download Geralds

whitepaper, 7 Steps to Creating Successful Online Surveys, visit

http://brammresearch.com
http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://www.budurl.com/csae2013http://brammresearch.com/http://brammresearch.com/http://brammresearch.com/http://www.budurl.com/csae2013

Documents

Social Media Document - A Perspective