Social media for Associations - Tony De Nazareth
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Social media presents both opportunities and threats for associations. While public networks like Facebook and Twitter allow associations to raise awareness cheaply, they also face issues of noise, lack of control, and potential damage to reputation. Associations are better served using a private social network they control, as this allows them to fully achieve their goals of education, collaboration, lobbying and more. A private network minimizes noise and spam while allowing personalized, engaging content through intelligent systems. The best approach is to use public networks for awareness while fostering deeper discussions and community among members through a controlled private network.
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Social media for Associations - Tony De Nazareth
- 1. Association Matters Social Media for Associations Obligation, What does the social media landscape currently look like? Opportunity or Since the exponential growth of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, one of most common statements we hear is “You’ve got to have a social media strategy”. In this article, we will Threat? look at the myths and the facts relating to social media and analyse what approach, if any, an association should take to developing a social media strategy in this new world of online communication. Most associations recognise the power of social media but are not sure how it applies to them and whilst they have experimented in this field, they have yet to embrace it whole heartedly. Many of them have been around for some time and it might be difficult to grasp the application of social media to an existing association given how varied they are. It may be simpler to consider the impact of social media on the formation of a new association. The social network as a model for an association As we consider the challenges faced by Associations With web 2.0, the internet is a “many-to-many” network model. operating in rapidly changing environments we Previously established media are either “one-to-many”, where one talk to Tony De Nazareth MBA FCA AMCT about the message goes to many people such as through print or broadcast seemingly ever present topic of ‘Social Media’. media, or “one-to-one”, e.g. the telephone or email. For the first time the internet allows you to engage with your users but also Whilst there has already been much discussion allows users to engage with you and with each other. They can post regarding social media and the relevance and their own content, blog, ask questions or answer other peoples’ and even create their own events. Consumers have become potential benefits to Associations we ask Tony to the producers and this completely changes the ways in which take a fresh, experienced and objective look for us. organisations can communicate with their target audience. Tony is a director of NinetyTen Limited - a company specialising in private social networks. How a social network mirrors the goals of an association Tony is also a member of several associations A brief search on Wikipedia gives us the list of goals of such an and quickly realised the potential of social media organisation as: advertising, education, political lobbying, publishing, for associations. He was instrumental in getting collaboration, standardisation, conferencing and networking. NinetyTen to create Engage, a private social network The structure of social networks lends itself incredibly well to assisting for membership bodies and considers this hot topic the achievement of all of these goals. for us in the article that follows. Education can be achieved through the publishing of informative articles or through the asking and answering of questions online utilising the network. The main benefit of Q&A style online forums is that other members of the association can participate and provide answers, not just the administrators. Standardisation can be achieved through discussions with members, the outcomes of which can be published with immediacy and in one place. All of the above requires collaboration between the organisation and its members. It can reduce the need for large, expensive conferences with relevant parties coming together on a digital forum instead, although the benefits of face to face interactions need to be considered. The members will also tend to network with each other through these interactions which makes it much easier for them to form links with people who share similar interests, thus strenghtening the overall levels of engagement. AMI 9
- 2. Association Matters Political lobbying can benefit from the use of social networks in users and this is over and above the chatter of regular users. Your terms of gathering opinion very quickly and, in some cases, even message has to compete with literally hundreds of others to be seen providing direct action. A great example of this is the use of Twitter. or heard. Advertising can be turned on its head on social networks. Associations must also bear in mind that they do not ‘own’ the Controlling a network of professionals allows you to sell advertising content or the users. Nor do they control the rules of the network. opportunities to companies who know that their message is getting This means that they should have in place measures that minimise to the right people instead of advertising on behalf of an industry. disruption to the Association and face the reality that they are This means that, in most cases, having a private social network will hostage to the rules of the network. The control aspect is more actually generate revenue. troubling as it is difficult or impossible to moderate the comments of individuals who are intent on creating problems. Free social networks are a threat... Your own social network should be your most powerful …Unless you control them. asset Members, or potential members, can set up their own versions Referring back to the goals of your association, as defined in the of social media platforms just as easily as you can – with the real above paragraphs, not many free social networks can cover all of threat of weakening the power of your organistion or, even worse, this in one platform. A bespoke system can neatly wrap up your damaging your reputation through impersonation. entire ‘raison d’etre’ in a single point of service. It is undoubtedly true that using a social network like Facebook to A private network is very similar to a public network in terms of raise awareness of your association is very useful. Public networks features, communication methods and their goal of creating also have the advantage that they are free and already contain an active community through an online presence. With private much of your intended audience. networks Associations have the ability to use features that are not readily available on public networks. These include the use It must, however, be understood that it is not necessarily the best of intelligent systems to learn from your members and produce tool to communicate with your members or foster private discussion. unique and relevant content that is personalised to them. Used The pitfalls of a public network are both noise and control. correctly this gives rise to greater engagement and at the same time Thousands of companies are all competing for the attention of the minimises the effect of noise and spam on the network. 10 AMI
- 3. Association Matters Making the best of both In order to get the most out of social networking, associations need to use both public and private networks. Gaining a real understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each type will help to maximise the benefits and reduce the costs. The public networks are an excellent way of finding potential members. The majority of your target market will be on at least one of the networks, and it’s a relatively simple job of finding them. You can also push ‘teaser content’ to the free networks in order to funnel people onto your private network. “You have got to have a social media strategy”... ... Or do you? As the structure of a social network mimics most of the goals of the association it must follow that your social network could be your most powerful asset. A well-managed community can be worth far more than the sum of Whether you decide to use the free or bespoke private networks its parts. By having your members creating content and reporting implementing these strategies can only help to maximise your breaking news on your behalf your other members benefit from opportunities and improve member, and potential member, greater immediacy, a broader spread of information or opinion and engagement. personalised information so that they don’t need to sift through all of the chaff themselves. But, if you decide to do nothing, you risk potential members setting up their own network with the potential negative impacts discussed In addition, you have the ability to create multiple links from above. As a result of this potential threat you are obliged to do other social networking sites pointing to the natural place for your something. And, the good news is that, if you do it right, you will members to go – your website. You become independent of public end up with the perfect association management tool. sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and others making a sound investment in your own social media hub. This Tony De Nazareth is happy to be contacted via private social network makes it easy to monitor and service because www.ninetyten.com it is one single location with administrative tools to help you manage it effortlessly. Private networks are not always free but, even with cost implications One social network. Yours.SM they can offer revenue streams that may offset the cost of the network. AMI 11