Association Puzzle

Guest Blog: Social Communities Add Value to Association Membership by Bob Cramer

Professional and trade associations are seeking ways to add greater depth to member services, in order to justify the cost of belonging. In our current economic climate where many people are trying to reduce costs, such groups are finding that it is becoming increasingly harder to retain existing members and attract new ones.

 

The good news is that associations can harness the power of social media to reach members in new and exciting ways. By transforming their static web presence into dynamic social communities, associations can create valuable online resources for members that provide a distinct ROI.

 

Benefits of Social Communities

 

You may be familiar with mainstream social communities – popular online sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Associations can leverage these same concepts to enrich member experiences on their own websites, using social media tools that include message forums, blogging, photo- and video-sharing, and the ability for members to create their own profiles, join groups and “friend” others with like interests.

 

An energized social community will attract new members to your association and create a gathering place for like-minded individuals to network and share professional and educational content, news and perspectives, enhancing the value of membership.

 

As one example, attendees of industry conferences can benefit by having a way to easily connect without regard to geography. Post-seminar, the dialog between members can continue and new business contacts can find one another in the community for further networking. Video and audio from key conference sessions can also be made available for members to download.  

 

Subject matter experts also have the perfect forum for sharing knowledge in social communities. These individuals can educate others, as well as collaborate on ideas leading to real-world solutions to industry challenges. Similarly, if your association has an online journal, an integrated social community can provide a venue for members to expand on published topics through article-level commenting, interactive Q&As and message boards. Both authors and readers will be able to connect in ways that are inherently more flexible and meaningful.

 

Also, remember that establishing a social community enables a continually refreshed source of information – in the form of new blog comments, new message board entries, new photos and videos – for members to explore. Compared to static websites with infrequently updated content that members only visit occasionally, your social community will become a regular and valued online destination.

 

Realizing ROI

 

Associations that deploy online social communities can expect higher levels of member retention, since they help to keep members active and engaged, and provide new levels of knowledge sharing and networking previously unavailable through passive website experiences. Social communities are also a natural attraction for younger professionals that many associations desire to expand their membership base.

 

Additionally, social communities can create important new non-dues revenue streams. In particular, higher website traffic resulting from social community deployment can allow associations to generate greater revenues through third-party ads and sponsorships. Blogs and message boards also add dozens of new pages, resulting in more online advertising space.

 

Conclusion

 

As we approach a new decade of Internet growth and impressive social media expansion, associations need to start now to leverage these accelerating trends. Clearly, it is more a question of “how” and not “when” – the time has already arrived. Social community should become an important differentiator in the services and value your association membership offers.

 

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About the Author

Bob Cramer is co-founder, CEO and chairman of ThePort™ Network, Inc. (www.theport.com), a leading social media solutions provider. He is also co-founder and chairman of A.D.A.M., Inc.

Guest Blog: Social Capital and Social Media by Michael T. LoBue, CAE

Editor's Note: In response to an Association Puzzle posting about social media, Michael LoBue sent this very thoughtful response. With his permission, we reprint it here to further thought and action on the use of all of our networks, both personal and professional.

 

Indeed, research into networks and social media show an interesting balance between homogeneity and heterogeneity of information shared as producing the healthiest networks.

When the information shared in a network is too similar for too long, the networks wither. Similarly, when the variance of information shared is too great, the networks wither.  Balancing these two is the trick.

I think associations are in the "social capital management business" and always have been.  We just didn't recognize it by this notion.  I can recommend a great read:  "Bowling Alone" (by Robert Putnam). It came out in 2000 and I dismissed it as being suspiciously timely to the .com phenomenon.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  

 

It's a very detailed and comprehensive analysis of social capital over the 20th Century, and particularly the last half of the century, detailing patterns of social engagement and why there's been such a drop off since the 60s.  The first half of the book gives a detailed description of what

went on.  I was certain I knew the reasons for it.  I was only partly right when I found in the second half of the book he teased apart the most likely culprits and I think gives a good analysis of "why and how" about 5 or 6 factors contributed.

Since then there's been Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everyone", which is also a good read, but I think a good deal more superficial when compared to Putnam's treatment.  The logical extension of Shirky's premise is that social media tools will replace formal associations.  I think there's cause

to examine elements of firm theory and how the marginal cost of communications is now zero might impact the value proposition of any formal enterprise.  But I think Shirky's view is naive because for his premise to be true "communications" has to be the primary value of the formation of any organization and it clearly is not the entire value package.

If you're truly interested in these issues and how social media may fit into our futures, I strongly recommend both of these.

[As an aside,] I couldn't agree with [Association Puzzle] more about new communications tools being "extras" for the perspective that new things, especially technology, is valued for its new capability, not because it's a substitute for incumbent tools.  Of course, this happens sometimes -- printing press vs. monks handwriting old scrolls... but I think it's the exception more than the rule.

 

Michael T. LoBue, CAE, is with LoBue & Majdalany Management Group, which provides a wide range of association management services. Visit them online at http://www.lm-mgmt.com and read their blog at  http://lmmgmt.typepad.com/ 

Guest Blog: Saving a Dead Hard Drive by Joanna Pineda

Editor’s Note: This amazing story was shared on an ASAE & The Center listserv and I asked the author to please share it here too. Obviously, it’s not just people that get crazy from the heat.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, my son's preschool director had a dead drive.  I took it home to my husband who looked at it, ran diagnostics, tried a boot disk -- nothing, the drive could not be recognized.  Our senior network administrator tried, too -- nothing.

 

So we decided to put it in the freezer, as the old urban legend says.

OMG -- wouldn't you know it, it worked! We put it in the freezer for over 24 hours and when my husband remounted it, the drive was recognized and he was able to get ALL of the data.

*Put your hard drive in a freezer bag -- buy a good one to keep out moisture

*Keep the drive in the freezer long enough for the parts to cool down; we kept it in for over 24 hours

*Be sure you have a spare drive ready to copy all data

*Document drive details like partitions, OS, etc.

*Don't rely on the drive to keep working more than once; pull the data and run

*Make sure you have plenty of time to work on the recovery; you probably won't have more than one shot at getting the data

 

 I have more details on my blog, but I just had to share!!!!!

 http://www.thematrixfiles.net/blog/cryogenics-for-the-terminally-dead-hard-drive/

 

Joanna M. Pineda

CEO/Chief Troublemaker

Matrix Group International, Inc.

Phone: (703) 838-9777

Fax: (703) 838-9799

E-mail: jpineda@matrixgroup.net

Web: http://www.matrixgroup.net

Blog: http://www.TheMatriXFiles.net

 

 *** Award-winning Web design, application development, hosting and integration services. ***

Guest Blog: Get the Right Files to Your Printer and Designer

Editor's Note: Guest Blogs is a new category where Association Puzzle shares the experience and insight from a variety of people in the association community. Today's Guest Blog is by Sherry Stoner, a freelance graphic designer, and she clearly explains the best way to get that art to the printer or designer without making everyone crazy. Sherry's contact information is at the end of the blog.

If you need to send “print ready” files to your printer or designer, here are some things to note in preparing your materials:

If there is text involved, the best format is the native format (program that was used to actually create the ad) along with all fonts and supporting art (pictures, logos, etc.) that were placed in the document.

If you don’t want to send native files, you can send a pdf, or eps file – if the files are created correctly.

EPS files are actually best for vector-based ads (ads with text) because it keeps the text clean. However, if sending files in this format, the text will need to be outlined in order to eliminate any font issues that may arise.

The danger of requesting a jpeg or tif file is that the client will most likely not understand what is meant by "high res" and send a low-quality image file. The text will be rasterized on jpeg files and tif files, and unless the resolution is high enough, the text will be fuzzy and pixelated.

A pdf will be just fine – if the pdf is generated correctly. These things need to happen in a pdf to make it correct and deliver the high quality you want to see in print:

1. Make sure the quality setting is set to "print quality." Do not use "screen quality" or “smallest files size” setting.
2. Make sure to tell it to "embed all fonts" (otherwise, the fonts will default to something whacky!)

That’s all it takes to create a high quality print file that will be easy to use for both your designer and printer of choice. If these settings are used, and the artwork that is actually placed in the native files was high res to begin with, then the pdf will work just fine.

If, however, low res images were used in the layout (which happens often) then, the text will look good, but the images will not be sharp.

A few other things to note:

*Make sure all of the images you use are in the correct color mode – cmyk if you are printing cmyk and grayscale if you are printing black and white.

*Make sure the original images placed in your artwork are high res (usually 300 dpi or greater) at the final scaled size (that means, if you blow up an image, you will decrease your resolution by whatever percentage you have increased).

Example: if you have an image that is 300 dpi at 1” x 1” and resize it to be 2” x 2”, then it will decrease the resolution to 150 dpi. However, if you have an image that is 72 dpi at 12” x 12” and scale it down to 2.8” x 2.8”, then the effective resolution will be 300 (that’s why some of your 72 dpi images work and some don’t).

While the world of design and print can be confusing, today’s technology makes it easy for everyone to work together and share files. A few simple steps can make your print project a breeze!

Sherry Stoner
Graphic Designer
sherrystnr@yahoo.com
304-676-3243