Apr. 15, 2009 - A 98 Pound AE Weakling? A five month program to association strength through social networking
I have a couple of presentations coming up for state association AE seminars, and the topic is “Doing More with Less”, or how to manage an association during an ‘economic challenge’. (Did I say that right? Do I sound like an economist?)
One of the major points of my discussion will be using social media as a way of building your association community. In a previous post, I discussed how an AE can use Twitter as a part of the association manager’s toolbox, and hopefully you found that helpful. But I had an AE friend who wrote, “All well and good, Lindenau, but I have two questions: where to I find the freaking time to do this, and how do I get started?”
Well, actually, the two questions amount to the same answer. In getting started with adding a social networking dimension to your skill set, I have one major caution: don’t, don’t, DON’T jump in without a plan. If you do, one of two things will happen: (a) you’ll lose perspective and burn out fast, or (b) you’ll make yourself look foolish in the eyes of your members and your publics.
Develop, instead, a clear business plan for your association social networking program. Write it down. Establish a goal and some measurable benchmarks, and an overall approach to what you want to accomplish. In other words, get a program. Then, stick to it.
I am going to suggest a plan of action for you to consider. I’m assuming you are the AE of a mid-sized or smaller association (you big guys with Realtor Association Kingdoms can hire management consultants to help you…like me, maybe). But for those of you with limited resource associations, declining memberships, and not enough bake sales to fund outside help, here’s what a social networking plan for your association might look like.
Weeks 1-3. Do some homework. Set aside a couple of weeks in your personal growth plan to learn about social media. One AEI seminar does not make an expert, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, once you got home. So, for your two weeks of personal growth, do the research. First, read blogs like this one. Try Cindy Butts’ wonderful blog “On the Verge” on Blogspot. And for the real estate industry, select a couple of blogs from “A Directory of Real Estate Blogs” or the blog section at Internet Crusade , or the Real Estate Today blog. And most importantly, check and see who’s blogging in your association, and follow that blog. Remember, though, you are only listening and researching: don’t spend too much time at this—maybe 20 minutes a day for a couple of weeks. What you are doing is putting your ear to the door, and listening to the conversation.
The second part of doing your homework is going to Twitter.com and signing up for an account. Then, search. Type in key words like ‘real estate’ or ‘real estate(location)’. Poke around and follow some of the results. Social networking is about listening as much as it is about talking to people. And think about this: when I ask people why Realtor associations have so many committees, they often answer, “So we can be in touch with our members and know what they are thinking.” Listening on Twitter accomplishes the same thing—and without the meeting!
Weeks 4-10. Ok, here’s the next step: establish your voice. You’ve listened. You know what members and other industry and association professionals are talking about. Now, set up a blog. Yes, YOU set up a blog. Don’t hide behind the association president—you are the association manager and you have some answers to questions that members want to know. So set up a blog from the AE. You can do it on your association’s Members Only page or, if you don’t have one, use the Internet Crusade’s free blog (that’s what I use), or one of the blogging sites like WordPress or BlogSpot. They’re free too, and if you worry about being too public (for instance, you’re going to blog about the new dues increase or the RPAC Kiss a Pig fundraiser), there are ways to limit your blog to registered users.
The important thing to remember in blogging is to keep it interesting. What you are doing now is communicating with members—perhaps by posting some interesting photos of the pig-kissing and some entertaining comments. You don’t have to be profound, but you to have to be informative and helpful. Again, you are building community. You can leave the profundities to your president in her blog.
The next step of your speaking-out program is to establish your social networking accounts. You’ve already established a Twitter account, but you need two others: Facebook and LinkedIn. Visit each of the sites to get a feel for what they are: they are both social networking sites, both have followers, and each will bring you different results. LinkedIn is more business-oriented, perhaps, but in neither application will you want to appear frivolous. Your goal in establishing a personal account is to put a face and a dimension to you, the AE of the real estate association—so tell people that you like sports and Portuguese Water Dogs and have seventeen grandchildren. And don’t use the Realtor “R” as your photo, use your own picture!
I’ll have more ideas for setting up an Association blog in another post, but now’s the time to get started. Then begin to use your Twitter account as the more personal ‘face’ to your association. You can build awareness for yourself, your employer, and your association causes and programs in 140-letter micro-blogs.
Weeks 11-16. Now you begin to develop your audience. As an association AE, you will find you have several audiences—your members, your peers in association management, and the industry-specific public (newspapers, consumers, and government officials, to name a few). In the beginning, it’s best to concentrate on just one area—probably your members is the best place to start. As you gain confidence, you may want to develop strategies to reach other segments of the industry, but your immediate members and affiliates is a good place to begin.
The best advice I can give you is to write helpful material. Social media is really based on a principle of giving: people won’t ‘follow’ me unless I have something to offer them. Always ask yourself, “Why would someone want to know this?” Or, as someone else has observed, don’t answer the question “What’s on your mind?” (which Facebook asks), but think of what you’d like to be on the minds of your readers. That you are having mustard on your hotdog is not so important as wondering aloud how the housing recovery process is faring in your community. And let your networking tools interact: post to Facebook and Twitter the link to your latest blog entry, or send out a link to your education class flyer. And make sure that you publicize your addresses and contact information—again, check out my blog information on using Twitter for some insight here.
Weeks 17-20. Finally, stand back and assess your results. Is your social networking program working? Do you see some interest being created in your association and its programs? Are members beginning to feel more informed about the association? Are you forming bonds with members in new ways? Is the ‘them’ vs. ‘us’ demarcation between members and staff going away? And most of all, is there a return on your investment if time and skill in pursuing this marketing program?
If, after you’ve tried it, it’s not working you have a couple of options. The first is to experiment with some new tactics. Those might include some courses on social networking and marketing for your members: after all, they have to use these tools for you’re your efforts to bear fruit. You might form an informal advisory group of those who do follow your efforts—ask them for a critique of what you’re doing, or how you might be providing more compelling information.
The other option is, of course, to spend your resources elsewhere. Social networking isn’t for everyone. But as an AE, you owe it to yourself and your members to try. I personally think abandoning your social networking efforts would be a mistake, because I think in one form or another social networking is here to stay: it’s impacting too much of our lives to ever go away or be dismissed as a fad. It’s changing how we get news, build brand, sell product, encourage openness and transparency among our members.
I think, too, the popularity of social networking has some real messages for us as association executives: it says
a.Our members want personal interaction. They want to know about US as people, not just as go-fers for the Board of Directors. They want to trust the association management, and they want to know the manager personally. All those bureaucratic layers (not to mention the ‘invisible hand that steers the ship’) are going away in our modern world.
b.Members expect interaction. It’s no longer acceptable to say, “if you don’t like it, vote in the next election” or “write a letter to the committee chairman.” Almost every site they visit on the internet has feedback and opinion built in: associations should have those capabilities as well.
c.It’s no longer enough to just convey the party line, or the association marketing message. Members are finding out that social networking participants are turned off by empty bragging and heavy-handed and self-serving observations. Your networking followers want value in return for listening to you. Social networking is the wisdom of the whole, not the preaching of a few.
So there you have it. It’s not rocket science, as they say. Just follow the steps: 1. Spend a couple of weeks listening for 20 minutes a day; 2. Start a blog and keep it going for a month or so. Then, take a couple of weeks to establish your association’s personal presence (you) in Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. You’re now going into the third month of this process, but again, you aren’t working on this more than a half hour a day, if that. 3. Build your following. You’ll need friends and fans on Facebook, and followers on Twitter, and contacts on LinkedIn. Make sure your members know about your contact points, and regularly ask members to give you theirs. 4. Then, assess and tweak! Make adjustments to your program to make it more effective, and perhaps expand it to include staff. Think about other applications for your skills (a Directors’ Blog? A wiki about topics of specific interest to members?). In five months of careful and well planned activity, you’ll have the confidence and personal skills to utilize social networking to build a strong association and, at the same time, solidify your important place in your management of your organization.
Judith - You've been spying on me again! You have captured exactly where we are in terms of our social networking progression. AEI made us all realize we needed to do "something". I have been lurking, reading and researching ad nauseum, and have announced to our BOD that we will have an association page on Facebook by the May BOD meeting. I have stuck a toe into the Twitter pond, and signed up for LinkedIn and FaceBook a while ago. (It's a great way to keep track of teen-agers!)
But must I really blog??? If I write a blog and then link it to the current social networking darlings (FB, LI and Tw), aren't the same people going to see the same stuff over and over? Yes, I'm whining.....
Truly, I love the plan you have mapped out. It's what we have been doing informally. Just today I was thinking, okay, if I read anymore without doing something I am officially procrastinating.
Your support and guidance is most appreciated, as always!
Nancy--You really MUST blog! First, because you personally have lots of help and insights to offer your members. And secondly, because every AE needs that personal link to the members. And third, because the current environment everywhere is one of transparency. Get with it!
And don't worry that the same folks will see you everywhere. Each one of those networks you mentioned does have a different set of users. And even if a member uses all three, they only have to read your blog once...it's their choice, not yours!
I hope I was able to give some simple direction--but the main point is, have a direction or a 'game plan' when you get started. There's simply too much going on in the social networking area: don't be a victim of it, but plan how you use your resources and know what results you want to achieve. Otherwise, the social networking thing can seduce you into wasting hours of your time...take it from one who knows....
A behind the scenes look at organized real estate--what works in an association, what doesn't, and what a long time AE sees as challenges facing the industry from the viewpoint of its professional organization.
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