Happy Friday, everyone! We hope everyone has had a good, productive and fulfilling week. In keeping with our Friday tradition, below are five our of favorite blog posts from the last week in the association community.

1. Jeffrey Cufaude shares 10 tips for engaging a volunteer community. Small staff associations likely have to rely on volunteers for many things due to limited resources, so this list is definitely a must-read!

2. How do big brands manage social media? Maddie Grant shared a great – long! – video about how large brands manage their social media efforts. There’s also a conversation about social media management systems. Of course, most nonprofits and small staff associations likely do not have those types of resources, but there are always lessons to be learned and idea for how to scale your own efforts.

3. Could your association implement social dining? Deirdre Reid examines the concept and gives some great background info. (I kept comparing it to the speed dating concept in my head as I read.) Although your organization might have to rely on volunteers, social dining could be a fun member meet-up.

4. Pinterest really is everywhere right now – even on association blog! KiKi L’Italien shares how nonprofits and associations can utilize the popular pinning social network. You may already be familiar with the social network for personal use, but KiKi shares great tips for how your association can get involved. The best tip? Make your content pin-friendly.

5. Aaron Wolowiec shared feedback from one of his quotes from LSAE: There is no such thing as constructive criticism. Does “real” constructive criticism exist, or is it simply criticism cloaked in good intentions? There are great lessons here for all leaders and managers – the first being, to give positive feedback first, then follow it up with things that could use improvement.

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! Here at MemberClicks, we’re enjoying a delicious barbecue lunch in honor of Alabama’s 2011 college football national championship. (Our founder, Thomas Howard, is a proud Bama alum.)

All college sports talk aside, it was a great week in the association community! Here are a few of our favorite posts from around the blogosphere.

1. Wes Trochlil always shares great, practical advice – particularly about databases, which we’re definitely interested in. This week, he shared a wonderful example of collecting data you don’t use  (such as fax numbers!). Stop collecting that stuff and simplify your databases!

2. Shelly Alcorn relates an unfortunate customer service incident at a popular bookseller. This is a reminder that your customer service processes should be as simple as possible. Don’t over-complicate things for your members.

3. Does your association make it clear to its volunteers that they are representatives of the organization? David M. Patt reminds us why that’s so important, and why they should exhibit the same levels of professionalism and sense of responsibility as your staff members.

4. It’s always hard to decide when to let someone else fail, Jeffrey Cufaude writes. However, do we even have the right to make those decisions? Jeffrey explores this question in a wonderful blog post this week.

5. You may be familiar with one of the latest social media platforms – Pinterest – but do you know why it could be important for nonprofits and associations? Those of you who are visual learners especially will find Pinterest – a virtual pinboard and scrapbooking tool – interesting.

Image source

Good morning and happy Friday! All of a sudden it’s feeling like winter here and I’m not gonna lie – I kind of miss those 50-degree days in December. Regardless, it’s feeling a bit more like the holiday season. (I can’t believe 2011 is almost over!)

Anyway, let’s get down to business with five of our fave association blog posts this week. There was some great content out there thanks to the Technology Conference!

1. Erik Lanke, who writes a lot about generational dynamics, and this post asks: which battle are you fighting? There are some great concepts and ideas here.

2. Are your virtual presentations exciting? Free or low-cost webinar services are plentiful, making it easy to present to people from afar. But are people really paying attention? Jeff Hurt explains how to make your virtual presentations relevant and exciting.

3. David Nour presented at this week’s Technology Conference, and Mark Athitakis sums up three great takeaways. My favorite? Why are you thinking of social media as little more than a customer service tool? Yes, it’s great for customer service but there are so many more uses.

4. Cindy Butts shares a few great ways to avoid the dreaded burnout that can come with association management. My favorites? Add something life-changing to your life and “feeling good and looking good.” If you feel good, you’ll more than likely do your job better.

5. Are you thinking about big vision in a big way? Shelly Alcorn pushes back on the notion that big vision is old-fashioned and out of date. Does your association have a duty to be critically thinking about the world and make people in your profession stop and think? Great ideas.

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a productive week. We’ve been staying busy here and are starting to gear up for the holidays! Are you dressing up for Halloween?

It wouldn’t be Friday if we didn’t share a few of our favorite blog posts with our readers. Be sure to chime in with your own in the comments!

1. How does your organization think about volunteers? Jeffrey Cufaude advocates “thinking of volunteering as something everyone should do because it is one of the most significant ways to build a strong professional network, to connect more to the professional community in general.”

2. Joe Rominiecki links to a great Seth Godin post about the difference between stupid and lazy. Not doing something isn’t the same as not wanting to do something, and association execs should be careful to not make excuses with the word, “can’t” when they really mean “won’t.”

3. Has your association delved into the world of virtual presentations? How successful have you been? Jeff Hurt shares a few things to keep in mind, and how to best plan your presentation. After all, he reminds us: “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

4. Everyone has a different way of coping with conflict. Some people straight-up avoid it, but David M. Patt doesn’t recommend that. Putting off decisions to avoid conflict is not the sign of a good leader. Don’t be afraid to compromise.

5. Shelly Alcorn shares a Dilbert cartoon from last Sunday and challenges association professionals to avoid the common pitfalls of thinking creatively. Don’t insinuate that anyone’s ideas are awful. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’ll sound ignorant. Don’t be afraid to suggest risky ideas.

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend!

By Duncan McCreery, MemberClicks Director of Customer Experience

This being my second straight year attending ASAE, I must say that I had a much more difficult time choosing among sessions to attend than I did in 2010.  While I went back and forth on a few tough choices, one that never left my list dove into the tactics and strategies behind member engagement programs.  Standing shoulder to should in the crowded room made it clear that I wasn’t the only one who had made this session a priority – and for good reason.

First, let’s start with the definition of engagement offered during the presentation:

Repeated interactions  that  strengthen   the  emotional,  psychological  or physical   investment  a  customer  has  in  a  brand.    The  process  of  moving new  customers   and  members  from  observers into users  of  the  resources made  available  by   your  organization.

Now this definition is really important because we’re talking about an approach to engage what is likely a diverse pool of current and potential members.  To truly engage members, we need to communicate that the organization understands the primary needs of each membership segment and that the organization’s offerings serve those specific needs.

When prompted for engagement program examples, several of the session’s attendees described programs where staff members systematically called each member to talk about the organization’s latest happenings or to solicit feedback from them.

Whether specific individuals did this full time or the work was spread across several departments, it sounded like the organizations with 50+ staff members had a lot of success with these programs.  It made me think how a small staff could take this concept and make it work without having the same amount of man-hours to invest.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s all about getting more bang for the buck.  If you can be strategic about taking full advantage of the touch points you already have, you can accomplish the personal touch and deliver the targeted message without having to launch a new program that requires 50 people to make phone calls.

The key is to speak to the needs.  If you’re aiming to grow the ranks of your student members, make sure, for example, you’re offering networking events that include young professionals and students.

Our presenters offered some great examples of targeted communication from the for-profit world included below.  As you’re watching these ads, ask yourself who your intended audiences are and how you can best deliver the message to them.  In these examples, how does Toyota demonstrate they understand the needs of each audience?

As you think about applying or revising your small-staff’s membership engagement strategy, here’s one quick way to get started:

1. Write down each of your membership segments
2. List out the primary reasons why people from each segment join the organization
3. Send surveys to each of the membership segments to find out what you do well and what they would like to see
4. Re-examine your programming and communications to make sure that the needs of each segment are covered regularly
5. If there’s a gap, target communications to that group with information and events specifically for them

If you have any examples of what your organizations is doing with its membership engagement strategy, please feel free to share!