A-List Bloggers Network

Working with a Certification Board: “Why is it so ##%@ hard?”

Mickie Rops — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:00:49 +0000

Okay, so those aren't my words, I promise! Rather, it's the subject of the upcoming Certification Institute Summit being held October 13-14 in DC. Here's the session description: In this intense, two-day session we will take an in-depth look at executive-board relationships and what it takes to forge a highly effective partnership between the board and executive leaders as well as with staff, volunteers and vendors. We will address those hard questions about what it... Related posts:

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Women Who Tech

Elizabeth Engel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:13:00 +0000

If I were not already going to be in Chicago at SHSMD, I would definitely be checking out this event: Women Who Tech. It's the third version of this annual telesummit and will take place on Wednesday, September 15. As a telesummit, it's a specifically virtual event (but there will be an afterparty F2F component in DC, NYC, and San Francisco).

The event features a solid lineup of presenters, including:

Mary Hodder, Technologist and Founder of of Dabble.com
Beth Kanter of Zoetica Media
Clay Shirky
Elisa Camahort Page, Co-Founder of BlogHer
Rashmi Sinha, Co-Founder of SlideShare
Connie Reece, Co-Founder of Social Media Club
Kaliya Hamlin, Founder of Shes Geeky
Genevieve Bell of Intel
Heather Harde, CEO of TechCrunch
Irene Au of Google
Lynne D. Johnson of the Advertising Research Foundation
Tara Hunt

Topics will include items of both personal and professional interest.

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Association Jam: Top Links for August 2010

Rebecca Leaman — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:41:00 +0000

Blog posts and articles on Leadership and Social Media topped the active topics at AssociationJam.org last month. Events came in close behind, as association professionals were all geared up for ASAE10. Fundraising, Membership, Technology, and Volunteers were tied for third. Here are the most popular links at “AJam” in August 2010....(read more) Related posts:

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100 Ways to Measure Social Media

Maddie Grant — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00:53 +0000

Continuing the conversation we started at Buzz2010 with Olivier Blanchard on social media ROI, I’d like you to take a look at this interesting presentation on Digital ROI by David Berkowitz, which he gave to the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) this spring.

One of my big aha moments from Buzz was that community managers or social media managers who are tracking metrics for their social media activities need not be those who analyze that data. In other words, leave the analyzing to the analysts. Leave the financial ROI calculations to the finance department. (I do think there needs to be some way that those different roles could learn from each other specifically, about social media as a channel for achieving business objectives – but that’s a post for another day). But just as I was thinking to myself, well does that mean we should ONLY be measuring certain things (e.g. conversions) and not others (e.g. influence, engagement, sentiment)? – Olivier answered the question in his talk. He said, it’s ok – even good – to collect all kinds of data. It’s good to measure things that don’t have any demonstrable (quantitative) link to financial impact yet – because maybe some of these things will in the future. And of course there are hundreds of things we can measure with social media and lots of discussion about how and what and when and why to measure them.

So then I came across this slide deck which has a pretty interesting summary of some of these things we can measure. Like all good social strategists, Berkowitz reminds us that we must measure against objectives, of course. It is definitely NOT about measuring everything you can just because you can. But I still think it’s worth tracking some of these “woolly” qualitative things because we’re all experimenting with these channels and these new relationships. Check it out and see what you think.

100 Ways to Measure Social Media – Promotion Marketing Association 2010

View more presentations from David Berkowitz.

While I’m at it, too, here are a few of the press clips/ blog posts analyzing Olivier’s Buzz session. I know this conversation will keep on rolling!

Social Media R.O.I. for associations and non-profits/NFPs (The BrandBuilder Blog)
Social Media ROI (Association Bisnow)
Making sense of social-media ROI with Olivier Blanchard (SmartBlog on Social Media)
Understanding social-media ROI in the nonprofit space (Smartblog on Social Media)
Does your social-media campaign pass the FRY test? (Smartblog on Social Media)
Rant Time: Social Media ROI (Mizz Information)

And here are some pics from the event!

What I’m Reading

Elizabeth Engel — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:32:00 +0000

Jamie Notter clues us in to what's killing our organizations - FEAR.
Have you thought about your elevator speech lately? What will you do if the one person who can get you your dream sponsorship, job, conference speaker, or membership prospect suddenly ends up in there with you?
Looking for social media help? You might want to think twice about picking a PR firm to be your guru.
If, like me, you missed the third installment of Buzz 2010 (Oliver Blanchard on social media ROI), here's a solid recap of what he talked about.
Awesome presentation tips for before, during and after the event and including all different types of presentations. Vow to try at least a few the next time you're presenting.
I finished Shirky on the plane to LA and will likely be doing a post or series of posts based on the items I highlighted while reading.
I also finished The World That Made New Orleans and have moved onto Ned Sublette's most recent book, The Year Before the Flood. It's a personal memoir of both his childhood and 10 months he lived in New Orleans in 2004-2005, decamping several months before Hurricane Katrina, sprinkled with more of his excellent history of and reporting on the New Orleans music scene, but he remains a passionate and engaging (if somewhat polemical) writer.

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Building a Culture of Truth: Walking the Walk

Jamie — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:56:36 +0000

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Link Love Monthly: Best of August 2010

Maddie Grant — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:00:59 +0000

Here’s a monthly selection of links to some of the most interesting posts that we’ve read and shared over the last 30 days. These kinds of posts are what inform our own writing here at SocialFishing; hope you’ll dip in and out at your leisure! The list below is for serendipity; if you prefer our “Must Read” shares about important stuff for association social media, please click here to subscribe, or click here to browse.

Blogworld-or-bust!

You don’t need perfection to be a good blogger, but you do need passion (Mack Collier)

The Art of Social

When should you delete a comment on your Facebook Page? (John Haydon)
Best Buy’s Twelpforce: A Social Media Success Story? (In Progress) (Mirsky and Kong)
Making the business case for social media & getting buy-in from the boss (Mack Collier)
Does your org have a Facebook Page comment escalation flow-chart? (John Haydon)
Three Steps to Make Your CEO Look More Personable with Social Media (The Buzz Bin)

Strategic Thinking

IT & Marketing – Like Peanut Butter and Jelly? (Eric D Brown)
3 Reasons Why CEOs Hate Social Media (Socialnomics)
Association chapter permaculture: Value edges (Acronym)
“the object-idea”: the future of what used to be called advertising (Gaping Void)
Social Media Success is More Than Skin Deep (Mizz Information) – must read!!
Creating Tomorrow’s Organizations (Get Me Jamie Notter)
Pulling it All Together: The 360 Degree Marketing Communications Strategy (Guilt By Association)
Marketers: you are the software you use (Chief Marketing Technologist)

Truth

The Ethics of Online Secrecy (Mike Arauz)
Love: How the essence of a brand fuels its purpose. (The BrandBuilder Blog)
People Pay For Value – Their Value, Not Yours (Six Pixels of Separation)
Fear Sucks (Get Me Jamie Notter)

Analysis

The Death of Facebook (Geoff Livingston)
New Experiments Question the Power of Social Proof on the Web (Dan Zarrella)
Influence is Bliss: The Gender Divide of Influence on Twitter (Brian Solis)
The Age of Disposable Software (Chief Marketing Technologist)
The Feds are Getting Younger and _________ … (Hive Talkin’)
The Web Is Dead? What Does that Mean (to Nonprofits)? (NTEN Blog)

Datalicious

Social Media Spend to Double This Year (Brian Solis)
The 2010 Social Media Usage report: Uncovering some scary numbers (The BrandBuilder Blog)
Measuring ROI Of Online Communities (Engage365)

Toolbox

New and improved moderation features for LinkedIn Groups (LinkedIn Blog)
10 Steps for Successful Social Media Monitoring (Mashable)
Bye, Bye FourSquare. Hello Facebook Places? (Frogloop)
Facebook Places, Revisited (Spredfast Blog)
Facebook ditching FBML and what it means for your custom Facebook Page (John Haydon)
Understanding And Implementing Social CRM (Social Media Explorer)

Event 2.0

Say it Loud and Proud: Top Tips for Hybrid Event Speakers (Fork in the Road)
Tradeshows Don’t Have to Suck (Tradeshow Insight)

Awesomesauce, LOL or WTF

Jurassic Web (Slate) – whoa. What the web was like in 1996.
OpenIDEO – IDEO’s new community for crowdsourcing innovative design ideas
How The INTERNET Works [INFOGRAPHIC] (MakeUseOf.com)
WeePlaces.com
University Website (xkcd) - or many association websites???
Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Today’s Marketing Catch Phrases (FlowTown)
Check (In) Yo’ Self Before You Wreck Yo’ Self: Why Foursquare Users Check In “Off The Grid” (TechCrunch) – whoa on the creepiness.

Clearly this is enough to keep y’all busy for a while, but if you want more SocialFish curated links, here’s the link to the feed to subscribe to Maddie’s Reader shares.

Reflections on #ASAE10

Elizabeth Engel — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:51:00 +0000

Before you read what I have to say, go read Maddie's thoughts, since she says a lot of what I'm thinking, only way better than I could (and notice that she liked a lot of things, too), and Jamie's awesome post on why passion matters.

Let me open with my favorite part of the experience: I LOVED that the CAE recognition was back in the general session (although I heard a rumor that it was just because of the 50th anniversary, which I hope is not true). I know a lot of association professionals have no real idea what the CAE is and think reading all those names is boring, but new CAEs have worked hard for a major accomplishment. You can sit through a 30 minute commercial for ASAE (aka the Joy Behar interview)? You can sit for 10 minutes while people who've achieved a significant professional milestone get to walk across the stage and be recognized. I sincerely hope it's not being bumped back to the CAE breakfast next year. That would be a shame - I rarely go, not only because I'm not a morning person, but also because it's an additional fee (even for people who, for instance, have busted their asses for the CAE program for 6 solid years. Which is a whole 'nother post). Doing the recognition there ghettoizes it, just like Maddie notes happened with the GIVE Award.

Speaking of, although it wasn't perfect in execution, I loved the GIVE Award. I have to give a major shout out to ASAE staffer DJ Johnson, CAE, for coming up with it, and I hope they'll use the good and bad this year as a platform to make it bigger and better next year.

Speaking of DJ (aka the Membership Section Council staff rep), I loved that the incoming MSC member who will be taking over my team's projects from this past year reached out to me to help keep continuity. As far as I know, that wasn't officially recommended, but way to go above and beyond, New Volunteer!

Another thing I loved was the emphasis on service and partnering with Midnight Mission. ASAE's been talking a lot about social responsibility for the past 2 years or so, but so far, it's mostly looked like talk to this observer. Putting muscle behind it (literally, for the Build a Bike teams) is a VERY welcome development. I helped with the service projects this time, and that's a definite on my agenda for St. Louis next year.

I also, in common with many, have to give a some major love to the ASAE staff. Me and my co-presenters were being recorded, and we just HAD to be difficult: Prezi AND Macs. And in practicing what we preach, we were planning to draft an official back channel rep, so we HAD to have Internet access. We had pointed all this out in advance and been assured we'd been good on all counts. When we arrived in our session room about 30 minutes before our presentation was due to start Monday morning, the wi-fi didn't reach the back corner of the LA Convention Center, the AV staff had never heard of Prezi, and no one had a Mac VGA connector. Brian Kirkland and (new CAE) Rosario Ortiz-Davis had everything fixed and ready to go with plenty of time to spare. Just another example of how the staff will fix ANYTHING for you really most of the time in general but always particularly at the Annual Meeting. Association professionals do meetings for a living, so we're tough and we know - great job dealing with a sleepy and slightly anxious/pissed off team of presenters, Brian and Rosario!

Even though I made sure not to overschedule myself with presentations this time (unlike Toronto), I only got to two breakouts. The "Innovate like Pixar" session left me cold, but I LOVED LOVED LOVED the "Fresh Perspectives: Insights from Young Professionals" session (and not just because my padawan was presenting). As someone who's not too far removed from her YP days, I'm so pleased to see all the efforts ASAE is making to reach out to and support YPs. The session consisted of presentation from 3 of the 5 thesis groups in the inaugural Leadership Academy class: recruiting and retaining YPs, the "Volunteer Dating Game," and bridging the communication gap. If someone knows where the handouts and slides are, please put the link in the comments? The session was also recorded, which would be worth checking out (it took place Tuesday, August 24 at 10:45 am).

And of course I have to give a shout out to all the YAP shenanigans: the pre-event mani-pedi party, the flashmob (the Austin CVB rocks, by the way), the YAP party, and the live Sweetspot broadcast (not technically YAP, but hosted by YAPstars Maddie Grant and KiKi L'Italien).

Of course, it wasn't all great.

Last year I hadn't gone to ANY of the general sessions. I made a point of going this year. Mistake. Cavalcade of (as my boss calls them) white male landowners. And why did the opening general session feed DIRECTLY into 5 hours in the exhibit hall? I appreciate that ASAE's trying to compress exhibit hours - we're trying to do the same at NACHRI - but way to kill the buzz. Oh wait, there WAS no buzz from the opening general session speaker (Bill George). I was with the Mojo guy (Marshall Goldsmith), at least sort of, until he made that ridiculous "media addiction is more serious than drug addiction" comment. I admit, I might be reading too much into one comment, but....Look, I'm old skool. I have only a dumb phone, and yes, I do find it somewhat annoying when my smartphone-having friends pull them out and get sucked in while we're sharing some rare F2F time. But the last I heard, heroin can still KILL you. Nobody ever died from iPhone overuse. And don't get me started on Gen-Xers and "inspirational" speakers. Un-mixy things.

Diversity, or lack thereof, struck me as a big problem. I loved the recognition of the DELP scholars. But...well, Mads hits on this way better than I could. I also want to throw in: the ASAE Fellows (this one's close to me because I applied this year and wasn't selected). Two men and two women, sure, but four middle aged CEO white people (yes, I know that they could be diverse in ways that aren't apparent to the naked eye). No young or even younger professionals. No non-CEOs. And then they were introduced, but we didn't learn ANYTHING about them. Not even what, in my mind, would be key: what do you plan to DO for the profession now that you're a Fellow? Some of the Fellows kick some serious ass, but a lot of those names? Never heard of them. Who the hell are these people?

As a matter of fact, I think that might be my new mantra:

That's lovely, but WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

Speaking of doing, we all MUST do a better job welcoming first time attendees, new members, new volunteers - anyone going through that awful "I'm the only one with no friends" ordeal. Toni Rae Brotons makes this point far better than I could. (One small note on this: if you're going to have people in the general sessions stand up to be recognized, BRING UP THE HOUSE LIGHTS.)

In closing, I go back to one of the comments to Maddie's post: One of the comments (from Tom Morrison, natch): "Sometimes not learning anything 'significantly new' means you are leading in the area of innovation." I'm hoping that's true.

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Keep It Legal: Antitrust

Leslie White — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:00:23 +0000

During the “Deconstructing Social Media Guidelines” session at the ASAE Annual Meeting, the topic of antitrust came up a few times. I was facilitating the meeting with my Team SocialFish buds, Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer, and got to talk about my favorite topic, risk. The fear of social media just won’t seem to go away, so we preach your social media policy as a guide for people’s online behavior and a way to mitigate these risks. But when it comes to antitrust issues, your social media policy needs to support your association’s antitrust policy and compliance guide.

While monitoring your association’s social media sites, you find members discussing the fee or price to be charged for a specific service or product. Is that antitrust activity? What should you do? First, you need to understand the antitrust laws and how they apply to your association.

What is antitrust?
Antitrust actions are an inherent risk for associations. An association, whether professional or trade, is a community of competitors where it is easy for members to engage in inappropriate conversations. So what is antitrust? Antitrust consists of any action that could result in an unreasonable restraint of trade such as discussions of pricing, salaries, boycotts, allocation of territorial divisions, bid rigging or “tying” agreements (to get this you have to buy that first). The purpose of the antitrust laws is to preserve competition so any action that tries to hinder competition is viewed as antitrust.

Perhaps the scariest part of antitrust activity is that it does not have to end with a written contract or express agreement that the participants will charge a certain price, refuse to deal with particular vendors or swap territories. Members can violate the laws through informal conversations that have an implied understanding or by mere parallel conduct – everyone does the same thing (raise prices) without a formal agreement to do so.

The penalties for engaging in restraint of trade or unfair competition practices can be severe. The Federal Trade Commission has more resources than your association and can pursue these types of cases aggressively. Mark Alcorn, an association industry lawyer and management consultant wrote in his Association Law Blog about the financial ruin of two dentists in New Jersey that agreed to not do business with an insurance company. The Sherman Antitrust Act is a criminal conspiracy statute so the person can face criminal as well as civil actions. A conviction can carry stiff fines of $100,000 for individuals and $1 million fines for the association per offense.

The risk isn’t new, association discussion forums and meetings have always given members the opportunity to behave badly. The rise of social media just offers additional communication channels and formats in which members can seek an unfair competitive advantage. People often forget that social media activities occur online and electronic information never disappears, it leaves a nice a trail for government prosecutors to follow.

Antitrust Resources
So what does this mean to your association? Your association needs an antitrust policy and compliance guide. You also need to monitor your social media channels for violations of the policy. If your association does not have an antitrust policy and compliance guide, create one immediately. If you are a member of ASAE, its Knowledge Center has many resources:

Board of Directors Resources: Policies
Legal Forms and Models
Policies: Antitrust

Mark Alcorn’s Facts Association Executives Need to Know About Antitrust offers an overview of antitrust with a sample antitrust policy.

What To Do
If your association does have an antitrust policy, review it to ensure it addresses any changes due to social media (probably not). Depending upon your corporate culture, antitrust may not be in the forefront, so you may need to remind your members of its dangers. An educational campaign may help members to remember the types of conversations they should avoid.

Next, as you monitor the social media conversations, immediately stop any conversations teetering on the edge, or blatantly illegal antitrust discussions. A gentle reminder to the participants will frequently be enough to bring these to an end. [If your association manages a listserv, you may already have some language to this effect in your terms of use or staff monitoring guidelines.] If the members continue the discussion, than you should refer the issue to the person responsible for antitrust compliance. Those seemingly innocent inquiries about salaries, what fees or prices are charged for a service, or discussion of vendors may lead to allegations of antitrust activities. Make sure your staff and members understand this issue and continue to monitor your social media channels to interrupt any illegal or inappropriate activity.

How to Control Your Privacy Settings for Facebook Places

Maddie Grant — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:00:12 +0000

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How the iPad Changed My Life

Jamie — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:43:59 +0000

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What Was She Thinking?

Cynthia D'Amour — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:37:27 +0000

Tripped by risky action.

Today I got a request to do a survey.

From an organization I belong to.
Asked social media questions.
And questions to determine member values.

What was the problem?

Three questions didn’t work.
The survey was not set properly.
Data would be meaningless.

I tried to help.

Shot the staff person in charge an email around 8 AM.
Perhaps she could change it in time?
At 7 PM I got a surprised response.

An intern did the survey.

She didn’t proof his work.
Before sending to their CEO list.
(Didn’t proof her three-sentence email to me either.)

Leaves me shaking my head.

She asked me for 10 minutes of my time to complete survey.
But couldn’t take the same time to proof the student’s work.
She put the organization’s reputation at risk.

With lots of people looking for work, not the smartest thing to do.

Makes me think of chapter leaders…how do you make sure your important communications are seen by a second pair of eyes before hitting send?

20+ Free Webinars for Nonprofits: September 2010

Rebecca Leaman — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:31:00 +0000

September is a busy month for just about everyone – a new school year for many, harvest time for both fundraisers and farmers - and a whole new crop of free nonprofit webinars is here. Have a look – you’re sure to find an online learning opportunity that’s of interest to folks in your organization. As always, you’ll want to check back from time to time through the month, as late-coming webinar notices are often added in the comments section, down below. And if you’re aware of a free nonprofit webinar...(read more) Related posts:

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More Thoughts on #ASAE10

Matt Baehr — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:35:56 +0000

10 Thoughts on #ASAE10 ...
10 Thoughts on #ASAE10 ...
Liveblogging from #ASAE10 As the conference kicks off in earnest today, we’re planning...

10 Thoughts on #ASAE10 ...
10 Thoughts on #ASAE10 ...
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Always the Last to Know: Tumblr

Elizabeth Engel — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Billed as "the easiest way to blog," Tumblr is designed to live half way between FB and Twitter, with the goal of fostering real community rather than just a bunch of broadcasting into an echo chamber. The platform allows you to easily share photos, text, links, quotes, music, and video from pretty much any device that can connect to the Internet.

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