Is your association using chat at all to reach out to members?

NACHRI used chat, as embedded in Adobe Connect, rather successfully this past summer to host a discussion with a panel of experts on a critical, time-sensitive policy issue (for the curious, the idea of community benefit in hospitals and how it might affect their tax status). We were able to go from idea to hosting the chat in about 2 1/2 weeks, we had about 60 participants on the day, and the transcript was later posted to our web site (on the linked wiki that does require membership to access). All in all, a very successful event.

But there were a few downsides - you had to register in advance (and be a member even to do that) and have the client side of Adobe Connect set up properly. If you found out too late or had technical difficulties with the platform, you were out of luck.

What if that same task could have been accomplished without all the hoops?

It can - chatting through Twitter, a good example of which is #assnchat.

What is #assnchat? A large group of association pros regularly gather on Twitter (weekly, Tuesday, 2 pm ET) to chat about association related topics.

What do they talk about? Anything and everything. You know how great it is when you end up at the Right Table at lunch at a conference, or standing in the Right Group at the cocktail party, or you meet someone who's really smart and engaging and knowledgeable? That's what #assnchat is like every week.

Want to participate? Follow #assnchat on Tuesdays.

Feel like it would be too hard to follow from Twitter, TweetDeck or Hootsuite? Check out TweetChat next Tuesday.

Does your association use chat? If you aren't using chat, why not? If you are, have you tried it on Twitter?

Originally posted @ Thanks For Playing