Happy Friday! Who got up early to watch the royal wedding (should that be capitalized?) this morning? I definitely did, but I combined with a workout so I felt a little bit better about the 6 a.m. wake-up call. It was certainly exciting and, as somewhat of a fashion enthusiast, I was mostly just interested in who would design Catherine’s dress.

But! It doesn’t really matter whether or not you’re interested in the royal wedding because so many other awesome things happened this week in the association community! Before you head out for the weekend, be sure to give these five awesome posts a read:

1. Jeffrey Cufaude asked an interesting question this week: Who yields for innovation? He gave a few examples of who yields to whom with regards to decision-making (youth to age, etc…) and then asked how innovation fit in. He writes, the deference often needs to be to the difference and the rules for yielding must be reversed. Could your organization reverse the rules?

2. At the Engage365 blog, Michael McCurry gave six reasons associations should use QR codes at their next event. Has your association investigated QR codes at all? Michael points out that they can be used to easily get information – such as handouts – to members.

3. Eric Lanke reminded us that talking to your members counts as research – and it’s probably a pretty great way to research too! He points out that simply picking up the phone and talk to members – especially before kicking off a new program – is a great, easy, efficient way to get feedback. Does your small staff association use this research method?

4. At the AEM blog, David M. Patt shares a great example of what not to do with regards to customer service. Often in our everyday lives (ahem … perhaps a DMV visit?) we experience terrible service and become frustrated. Try using those experiences to improve your own association’s service.

5. In the wake of ASAE’s Marketing, Membership and Communication Conference this week, Joe Rominiecki wrote a post at the Acronym blog encouraging association professionals to ask questions. Don’t assume others know what you know. Put yourself in others’ shoes. Understand your colleagues’ perspectives. Great post.

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend!

So, if you went to ASAE’s Annual Meeting and Expo in Los Angeles last year (or if you read this blog back in August), you might remember that we were fortunate enough to host the Small Staff Association Reception. Well, we’re gearing up for this year’s Annual Meeting in St. Louis already, and we’re honored to be the sole sponsor of the event once again!

The Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of association professionals from across the U.S., and offers education, networking sessions and opportunities to meet with business solution providers.

“This is our second year hosting this event, and it’s a natural fit for us,”  MemberClicks President Thomas Howard said. “We continue to build our company around the needs of small-staff associations, and this is an excellent opportunity to interact with and learn from them.”

The 2010 reception in LA was the largest such reception at the annual ASAE meeting, allowing hundreds of small-staff professionals to network, socialize and exchange ideas.

Of course, we’ll also have team members at the expo in Booth 319 and we’ll be available for private appointments outside of show hours. For more information about attending the Small-Staff Reception, contact MemberClicks at 800.914.2441.

Photo source: Kevin Patrick

The other day, BlogHer, one of the largest networks of blogs around, released its annual social media study. Each year, BlogHer conducts a great study that is practically the definitive guide to how women use social media. The study explores passion and relevance, media usage patterns and purchasing influence among social media users.

Here are some highlights:

• 88% of the active blog readers in the total U.S. general population trust the information they get from familiar blogs
• Over 50% of the active blog readers in the general U.S. online population have made a purchase based on a blog recommendation
• For the second year in a row, Twitter did not score particularly high in the general population for any usage behavior.  Its acceptance as a valued tool for product information is much lower than blogs or social media, although it is still seems to be appreciated as an entertainment device for following celebrity tweets.
• New media such as smart phone apps, shows moderate (but growing) usage levels, but the passion for these devices is extremely high.
• We asked what (about technology) made users feel most hopeful about the future, and the #1 response by a wide margin (64%) was “Social media makes it easier to stay in touch with friends and family”.

What does this mean for small staff associations?

Essentially, it continues to prove that social media should not be ignored. It demonstrates how important it is to know if your members blog, since bloggers’ opinions are valued so highly. It means that associations should continue to seek out new technologies but not force members to be early adopters. It shows that social media is a set of tools designed to keep people in touch with one another — and your association can be part of that community.

How well do you know your members?

I read a great blog post titled, “A day in the life of your customer” and it really made me think. Ben Yoskovitz recommends actually mapping out the daily details of your customers’ (members’) lives and using that knowledge to really understand their needs.

After all, what is your association’s purpose? Its mission? To continue to better serve your members? How can you do that if you truly understand what they’re all about.

Consider implementing a “shadow” program where staff members (you guessed it) shadow members for a day or so. It doesn’t have to be too drastic, but it can really shed some light on what stress points are prominent in members’ lives.

Be conscious of how survey questions are asked. Those surveys can provide awesome insight into what value your members get from the association. Just because you’re revved up about creating an iPhone or Android app doesn’t necessarily mean your members will use it — but maybe they’d love to have text message updates during conferences.

How can you better understand (and meet) your members’ needs?

Happy Monday! How was your (holiday) weekend?

I’ve got a few great slideshows to share (one from the awesome Deidre Reid). Definitely check out slideshare.net for all kinds of awesome presentations.