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Friday Top Five: Succession Planning and Authenticity Happy Friday! It's been a busy week here in MemberClicks-world but that's the way we like it! With the Sweet Sixteen this weekend, there will likely be lots of exciting basketball...

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How to follow the Great Ideas Conference remotely In case you haven't heard, ASAE's Great Ideas Conference is going on now! Great Ideas is an annual conference in Colorado hosted by ASAE. Association professionals from around...

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Recruiting new, young members What if associations started looking at what college admissions offices are doing to recruit students these days, using some of these techniques as models for recruiting young...

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Splash: Refreshment For Your Small-Staff Organization Rss

Score more Facebook engagement with coupons

Posted on : 05-24-2012 | By : Shannon Otto | In : research and stats, social media

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Do you want more interactions and engagement on your association’s Facebook page? (Who doesn’t, right?)

A new study from Wildfire Interactive reports that coupons and Offers on Facebook sparked the most interactions. And it makes sense. People fan brands and organizations for information and discounts.

Not surprisingly, video contests have the lowest response rate. (The barrier to entry is just too high.)

Even if your small staff association’s page doesn’t have the ability to include Facebook Offers directly in the newsfeed, you can still offer exclusive codes, offers or discounts to your fanbase.

Some ideas:

- Discounted event tickets
- Exclusive content for fans only
- Coupons for a business that your association has partnered with
- Discounted webinar codes

TALK TO US: What kind of exclusive discounts can you offer your Facebook fans?

 

Tip: Ensure your social media policy is fluid

Posted on : 05-23-2012 | By : Shannon Otto | In : social media

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Even if your group doesn’t have an official Twitter page or Facebook fan page yet (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for?!?!), you can bet your members and people involved are at least somewhat active online! Unfortunately, they may not be presenting the organization in the best possible light. Sure, there are tons of filters on Facebook (Twitter, not so much), but not everyone uses them to the best advantage.

It’s important to keep a policy fluid — social media and communications are changing at a rapid pace, and a policy that’s too stringent can be suffocating for your members. (I mean, think about social media just three short years ago. Things are changing quickly.)

It’s not 2002 anymore, and the lines between our personal and professional lives are blurring. Sure, it’s still acceptable to fire someone for writing negatively about the company or work experience, but employers now are realizing that people are going to be on Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites, so their policies have to adapt to accept that.

On social networking sites, nothing is ever really private — a judge could easily issue a subpoena ordering the company to reveal protected information. It’s important to convey to your members or employees that they must be responsible for what they write on the Web. If they have a personal blog, they should include a disclaimer such as, “”The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent so-and-so-group’s positions, strategies or opinions.”

Have a unique and real voice behind your organization. People on Twitter and Facebook want to engage with real people, not a brand. Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are two excellent examples of corporations who have real faces behind their brands on Twitter. It’s all about cultivating relationships online — people see beyond a flashy brand name quickly and want to put a name to the logo.

Define how social media matters to your organization. What do you want to use it for? Marketing? Fundraising? Internal communication? Collaboration? Hopefully, you’ll be able to combine your social media efforts to include all of those, as well as any more uses your group finds beneficial.

Mashable has compiled a list of 10 Must-Haves For Your Social Media Policy, and each one is dead-on.

My rule of thumb? I never post anything if I wouldn’t want my mom to see or read it.

New App: Pages for Facebook

Posted on : 05-22-2012 | By : Shannon Otto | In : social media

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Does your association frequently update its Facebook page remotely, at events or conferences?
Do you have access to an iPhone?

If so, be sure to download the new iPhone app, Pages for Facebook. (Unfortunately right now, this app is only available on iOS, but I would not be surprised if a similar Android app comes out soon.)

We see this app being extremely useful for associations whose Facebook pages get high traffic (and spam – you can delete comments and wall posts right from your phone!), and for those associations who host multiple events.

There aren’t too many bells and whistles, but the app does let you share status updates and photos, in addition to its moderation tools.

Do you think this app will be useful for your association? Do you do a lot of updating on-the-go?

Staying active on the job

Posted on : 05-21-2012 | By : Shannon Otto | In : professional growth

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There have been several articles in recent (and no-so-recent) years about the dangers of sitting at a desk all day. But we thought this infographic (below) provided some great ideas on how to stay (relatively) active while working a desk job. Coworkers might look at you funny for doing desk exercises, but ask them to join you!

P.S. We also love the idea of starting a walking club. For 30-60 minutes each day, grab some coworkers and do some laps around the block!

TALK TO US: How do you stay active during the day?

Friday Top Five: Passion and truthiness

Posted on : 05-18-2012 | By : Shannon Otto | In : friday top five, links, marketing, professional growth, social media, technology

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Happy Friday, Splash blog readers and MemberClicks fans! Spring (and almost summer!) are in full swing and this weekend is sure to be a great one. We’re wrapping up the week by sharing five of our fave blog posts from around the association blogosphere this week! As always, feel free to link to your own posts in the comments, or share any posts that were particularly meaningful to you.

1. Maddie Grant at SocialFish shared a particularly wonderful presentation by Olivier Blanchard: Why Your Social Media Efforts Aren’t Working. We highly recommend taking a look at this, even if your association’s social performance is strong. (There are always pointers to be learned!)

2. The phrase, “too many cooks in the kitchen” certainly applies to the story David M. Patt shares about organizing a spur of the moment email. The anecdote serves as a perfect example as to why just a few people should be in charge of organizing events and large undertakings. Project management is a skill!

3. Seth Godin wrote this week, We’re seeing digital awareness coming to just about everything. And it’s true. Seth shares a story about a parking meter, but the analogy applies to lots of things in today’s hyper-digital world. How has digital made your life easier – or more complicated?

4. Stephen Colbert has been talking about truthiness since 2005, and Deirdre Reid hit on the topic this week. (According to dictionary.com, it’s a real word too!) Rather than actually meaning something is true, truthiness applies to the quality of seeming to be true according to one’s intuition, opinion, or perception without regard to logic, factual evidence, or the like. Have you experienced a situation where something appeared truthful and then turned out not to be?

5. Last but certainly not least, Tom Morrison writes how having a life purpose statement can inspire to take action in life. Tom writes about his passions and interests, and they can apply to his personal and professional life. Do you have a life purpose statement How has it changed your lifestyle?