Did anyone happen to catch this Mashable article from a few days ago: Why the Cloud is the Safest Place for Your Data? There was a lot of good info there, and it definitely touched on subjects that we support.

Obviously it’s important to keep your information as secure as possible. After all, it’s not just your information — it’s your members’ too. With almost-constant news of security breaches, you may be tempted to pull back from the “cloud” — storing your information online — and start using a good old-fashioned hard drive. However, as Simon Crosby points out, that’s not always a smart idea.

When you keep your data in the cloud, any of your staff members can access it — provided you want them to. This keeps the data fluid and constantly updated, and you don’t have to  e-mail attachments of hard copies around. With a richer user experience, you’ll find that your staffers are probably more likely to keep information fresh and new, simply because it will be easier for them to do so.

And when it comes to credit card information, you want to make sure whatever vendor you’re using is PCI Compliant. This is a set of measures that merchants must adhere to, but it really is all about security.The security measures put forth by the Payment Card Industry apply to all organizations, regardless of size of number of transactions.

Unfortunately, just because the vendor you use is PCI Compliant doesn’t mean your organization is. It’s extremely important to be familiar with your merchant account agreement, which should discuss the security measures it has taken. Keeping your organization’s information in cloud can be safe, but only if you take the right precautions.

I recently took a long weekend trip to New York, and when I returned to the office, I had more than 1,000 items to read in my Google Reader.

Slowly, I’ve made my way through them and in the process, I stumbled upon a few links that can really benefit small-staff associations.

A guest on post on Mashable discussed how to deal with negative feedback in social media. This article is full of practical tips and strategic advice for damage control. Social media is, first and foremost, a conversation, so your association should make an effort to join it.  If a negative sentiment about your organization pops up on a social network, do you know how to respond? Do you know who will respond?

This post from Converstations offers a new perspective on Facebook Pages. Would you ever let your members take control and ownership of one of your organization’s social media outposts, such as Facebook? By making the goal of the Facebook Fan page to be a section for and by the community (with the business or brand being the “Fan of the Community”), now we may have something.

I wouldn’t be surprised if your organization’s members created a Facebook Page or Group “unofficially,” before the association got on board. If members already have accounts created at Facebook, it’s only natural for them to want to gather there, making it a “one-stop shop” for all their communication needs.

Rather than reprimanding or ignoring the “unofficial” gathering, try embracing it. Over the last few weeks, the association community has seen what volunteers and members can do, and it’s truly extraordinary. Communities can thrive (or fail) with or without an association backing it up. Your organization should try to help its communities prosper in the cloud (i.e. online spaces) rather than tearing them down.

And if the conversation grows negative, remember to evaluate the offending comment and see if there’s any truth to it. Use it as an opportunity to grow.

Image credit: Flickr