See how an association can use social media to control and maximise the market.

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.
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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