Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but it is HOT where I live! It felt like 100 degrees Fahrenheit at 9:30 this morning! It’s one of those days where I just want to sit in the air-conditioning all day, ya know?

So, without further adieu, and in the spirit of AC and iced coffee, here is today’s Friday Top Five.

1. Maddie Grant shared a few great tools for supercharging your association’s content: Scoop.it and Twylah. She gave some great uses for each and I think they’re worth taking a look at for small staff associations.

2. This week, Jeff Hurt challenged the traditional notion that we interact face-to-face first and online second. He points out that we register for conferences online, buy movie tickets online, make appointments and reservations online… Heck, I even order food online! Definitely worth a read.

3. Tom Morrison shared a new concept he adopted at his association called Staff Meeting 24/7. It’s a online repository for ideas, concepts and directions that only staff members can see. Tom shared how it has streamlined internal communications for his association and encourages every organization to use its technology to the fullest – something we wholeheartedly support!

4. Cynthia D’Amour wrote this week about the importance of setting up for success. I think this is something we all know deep down, but can be difficult to put into practice. Do you help your members lean into the learning process so they’ll be as successful as possible?

5. Just in time for ASAE’s Annual Meeting and Expo, Engage 365 posted a great article by Jody Urquhart: Seven ways to get the most out of attending a conference. The number one rule? Network, network, network! Where else will thousands of association professionals be under one roof?!

I was fortunate enough to attend a social media conference on Wednesday, but I have to say – I was a little disappointed. It seemed like the majority of the speakers were only present to promote their own websites or companies. There were a few good speakers, but, for the part, I was disappointed and don’t really feel like I learned much.

How could this conference be improved, and what lessons can small staff associations learn from this?

For one thing, all speakers (except panel discussions) were limited to just 10 minutes. Ten minutes may be sufficient time for one speaker, but not for another. I think the schedule and line-up could have been more carefully thought out to reflect each individual’s strengths.

Please, provide good coffee. This may sound like a minor thing, but I heard more than one complaint about the quality of the java at Wednesday’s event. For better or for worse, a lot of people (myself included) rely on a daily dose of caffeine.

Encourage speakers to focus not on the background of their business, but on their future plans. It was interesting to hear some of the stories, but I would have preferred a more forward-thinking approach from these speakers. I wanted to know their future plans and how they thought social media would affect their businesses in the coming months and years.

Plan to have a strong wifi signal and make sure your venue has adequate 3G service. My iPhone had sketchy service at best throughout the day, and even my MacBook had trouble connecting to the Internet. I was almost unable to do the little work I needed to get done at the conference, and tweeting and taking notes on my phone was extremely difficult. Even if you don’t think your audience will be tech-savvy, be sure they can connect to the Internet. And try to have your event in a venue with outlets!

What practical advice for conference planning can you share?

Happy Friday! Who’s ready for baseball season (not just the spring training games) to begin?! I actually scored some tickets to the Atlanta Braves’ home opener on Monday evening, and I’m psyched to see them play the Chicago Cubs. Any other baseball fans out there?

Anywayyyy … as a lot of people know, there was lots of excitement (err, controversy?) this week in the association world, which was spurred by the removal of a blog post from ASAE’s Acronym blog. I chimed in on Wednesday, and there was certainly a thoughtful discussion going on elsewhere, too. So, without further adieu, here are a few of my favorite blog posts from this week.

1. Gotta start with the post that prompted so much discussion. The Acronym post informing everyone that a previous post on consultants was removed has 18 comments at the time of writing this, and they’re all worth reading. And I’m curious to know: How would your organization handle a similar incident?

2. After moderating a lively Association Chat (#assnchat on Twitter – transcript here), KiKi L’Italien posted her thoughts on the removal of the Acronym post. She thoughtfully considered each side of the issue and filled everyone in on the facts in case they weren’t caught up. Be sure to read the comments on this post, too!

3. Deirdre Reid wrote a great post for SmartBlog Insights about her thoughts as a new CAE. There’s lots of great info for anyone thinking about taking the exam, and Deirdre has a great attitude and perspective about the whole thing. She asks, How many times have you scribbled great ideas down on a notepad in the dark? A must-read!

4. At the aLearning blog, Ellen Behrens wrote a great post called Life Support Can Be Expensive. With all the talk about how conferences have to change for anyone to get any value from them, Ellen pointed out that overhauling them can be expensive, and wonders if conferences are even the ideal places to engage members.

5. Jamie Notter wrote this week about three new leadership models for association professionals to consider. He succinctly discusses “Ecosystems, not machines,” “Innovation as a staple, not a luxury” and “Clarity over control” and asks leaders to consider each one in their own organizations. How could you adapt these for a small-staff organization?

If you’re curious about the original post about consultants that was removed from Acronym, feel free to contact me and I can e-mail you a PDF, along with the original comments.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

Happy Friday! It was a fun week in the association world, and I want to again thank everyone who attended the CRP Virtual Lunch call on Wednesday.

There were also some great posts this week, and amazing discussions in some of the comments, which were all great to read. Here are some of my recommended reads.

1. Cindy Butts wrote a fantastic post with 13 tips for a board of directors meeting via webinar. The ability to hold a meeting via phone or webinar is fantastic, but there are important considerations when dealing with sometimes-fickle technology. From turning off your IM to doing a practice run-through with the president, all bases are covered here.

2. An Acronym post by Scott Briscoe — Consultant wasteland — has a great conversation going in the comments. Scott discussed why associations hire consultants and if it’s truly necessary for them to validate decisions. Of course, the comments got especially interesting, so I encourage everyone to check them out — as well as the post, of course.

Does the crowd always know what’s best?

3. Another great post with fantastic, insightful comments over at Jeff Hurt’s Midcourse Corrections: Two Reasons Why Crowdsourcing Your Conference Content Won’t Work. What attendees want and what they need can be very different things, and attendees don’t know what they don’t know. Might sound obvious, but definitely read the post and the comments. Everyone had such thoughtful things to say!

4. At the SocialFish blog, Maddie Grant wrote an open letter to association CEOs about social media and organizational culture. Inviting all CEOs who read it to respond, she got a few great comments — trust me, you want to read them (especially the last few)!

5. Erik Schonher had a funny anecdote about one of his client’s e-mail marketing campaign — a technology glitch prompted tons of responses! Maybe an unexpected e-mail or message will prompt your members to follow up with the organization.

Thanks for all of the great posts this week! Each one offered some amazing food for thought, and I’m so happy to see so many awesome comments out there. If you’ve never commented on a post before, don’t be afraid to chime in on the discussion.

Hope everyone has a fun and productive weekend!

This is the eighth in an ongoing series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which highlights social networking sites other than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are tons of other social media outposts on the Web, and they’re great places for associations to curate content. The first seven installments can be found here. Stay tuned.

I just realized I haven’t talked about blogs! Depending on your definition, blogs aren’t exactly social networking “sites,” but they definitely allow for social networking. It’s also an easy way to update your membership on what the association is up to.

Some early adopter bloggers claim blogs are “on their way out,” but I still think blogs are a great, tried-and-true way of communicating with others.

There are a few options for blogs: internal and external. If you have a large staff, maybe an internal blog would be useful for keeping everyone in the loop about happenings within the organization. But an external blog can be ideal for keeping members updated and give them another way to communicate with the organization.

A blog post doesn’t have to consist of hundreds of words – it can be as simple as an embedded video or even a “Top 10” list. You don’t even have to post every (week)day, but the more you update (without overdoing it), the better.

Your organization’s annual conference is an ideal time to promote the blog and share awesome content. Blog before, during and after the conference, and share it in your conference e-mail marketing. You can also interview your conference speakers for a more in-depth look. Let your members write guest posts. There are tons of possibilities!

On this blog, I try to mix it up between association management, social media and technology posts. Your association’s blog probably has more of a built-in topic than some blogs – but I think it’s important to mix it up and not necessarily keep it all business, all the time. Show your association’s personality and be creative!

There are many outposts for creating a blog. The most popular are WordPress and Blogger. Both are very user-friendly and intuitive. However, from my experience, WordPress allows for more plug-ins, so if you decide to get fancy later on down the road, it could be a good option.

During the past few months, I’ve shared a few examples of associations doing cool things to get their mission out there. This video, though, remains my favorite. How could your organization use a blog? Of, if you already have one, how do you use it?

If your association doesn’t have a blog yet and you have more questions, feel free to e-mail me at shannon@memberclicks.com. I’d love to hear from you!

(Photo via digitalrob70 on Flickr)