Happy Friday! Did you have a good week? I did! As always, there was lots of great reading in the association world this week.

1. This is sort of a lengthy article, but I think it’s worth the read. Tapping into the Nonprofit Board’s Talent offers some great advice about how achieve better board relations. The article makes a great case for why your board should be involved in strategic and business operations. New perspectives can be a good thing!

2. Bruce Hammond wrote a great post on how not to fundraise. After an interesting experience with a certain university, Bruce shared some tips for making sure you target the right people in your fundraising efforts. Fundraisers should be trained and data should be carefully studied to prevent awkward situations or potentially losing a donor.

3. Over at ASAE’s Acronym blog, Joe Rominiecki wrote a post about Third Tribe and wondered whether or not it could be considered an association. Is this subscription Web site anything new? Is paying monthly a model associations should consider? How long will Third Tribe last?

Don't have an awkward elevator ride

4. Jeff Hurt had a few great posts this week, but his 20 things to do to make your conference experience more successful was my favorite. From using the Twitter hashtag to practicing your elevator speech, conferences are all about engagement and meeting new people. Jeff’s post captures this perfectly.

5. I’ve written a lot about how important it is to find your members on the social networks they’re already on, and so have Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer. Maddie blogged Thursday about a new tool called Flowtown, which can find your members across social media platforms (for a small fee). Just import your e-mail list and voila! Instant social media insight!

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a fantastic weekend! Let’s finish February strong!

Happy Friday! How was everyone’s week? I hope it was productive and fun, and I’m sure you guys are ready for the weekend. As usual, there were some good discussions and posts around the community this week. Here are my five favorites.

1. Over at the Acronym blog, Joe Rominiecki chimed in on the discussion about newspapers and associations. More specifically, he discussed micropricing and if it could benefit organizations. He concluded that micropricing could be one way to solve associations’ financial woes, but many are probably reluctant to experiment with it because it’s so tricky.

2. Samuel J. Smith put together an awesome list of 43 Social Media Tips, Tricks, Big Ideas and Real-World Examples for Meetings and Events. There are tons (43, to be exact), of great links separated into specific categories and they are definitely worth taking a look at.

3. I loved this post by Brian Reuwee at the Drake Co. blog: Innovation and Associations. This blog is so awesome because it’s written by staffers at an association management company, so its posts always have a unique perspective. The kicker question? So do stand-alone associations foster a more innovative environment than AMCs?

4. Cynthia D’Amour’s mother just got a new laptop, and the trackpad threw her off a bit. Of course, I wasn’t surprised the encounter made her wonder if associations “train volunteers (or find alternate ways) when asking them to do something not natural to them?” As someone who has helped my own mother navigate her computer, this post hit home.

5. Last, but of course not least, Jeff Hurt busted 10 conference adult learning myths in a great post this week. Did you know that fun and laughter are keys to helping attendees remember important information? Or that people can only remember eeight to 10 messages per day? Head over there and check out the rest!

No matter what you’ve got planned, I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

F is for Friday (and Five)! I hope everyone has had a good and productive week! Hooray for the weekend!

1. Seems like many people are writing posts based around the letter C – I keep waiting for someone to make a “Sesame Street” reference and say, This post is sponsored by the letter C! I really enjoyed Jeff Hurt’s post this week: The Four C’s of Conferences and Social Media. Jeff discusses Content, Communication, Collaboration and Cumulative Value. A great read!

2. I linked to these Acronym posts in yesterday’s blog, but they bear repeating. It’s so inspiring to see so many people (and associations!) donate money and time to help the Haitians who were affected by the earthquake on Tuesday. Very timely and relevant posts.

3. I loved the slideshow Elizabeth Engel posted the other day about free (or low-cost) Web tools. The slideshow was created by ASAE and The Center’s Amy Hissrich, and is packed with useful information. With the subtitle Quick Wins for Your Web Site, this presentation is a win.

4. David M. Patt chimed in on the mobile technology discussion with some reminders for us all – we don’t need to be attached to our phones 24/7. Our smartphones are certainly useful, but just because we have access to all information, all the time, doesn’t mean we should ignore the real world.

5. Rather than making a New Year’s Resolution, Shelly Alcorn picked a word of the year: Authenticity. She writes, Many calls for authenticity are routinely promulgated on blogs and in staff, board and committee meetings. Unfortunately, I don’t see a lot more than talk when it comes to actually embracing authenticity. Definitely watch her blog this year, because she plans to discuss look outstanding!

Honorable Mention: I was featured on the SocialFish blog on Thursday discussing social media and MemberClicks. If you haven’t seen the piece yet, check it out! Thanks, Maddie and Lindy!

From all of us at MemberClicks, have a fantastic Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend!

This is the fifth 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 installments on Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr/Posterous and YouTube can be found here. Stay tuned.

So none of the other social networks available work for your organization? But you still want to find a cool place for your members to hang out at online? No problem! Ning is a service that allows your create your own branded social network. As of November of this year, Ning boosts 37 million users – pretty nifty!

In addition to member profiles, Ning features sections for videos, photos, chat, music, groups, events, forums and blogs. The basic service is free, but there is also a paid premium service, which allows for a custom URL, more customer support, ad space and more storage space.

Ning can be a great outlet for niche organizations. Its purpose is to create community – but unlike Facebook and Twitter, it’s completely customizable.

Some of the great features include:

- RSS feeds in and out: Stream information from your outside blog, a news Web site or another source.

- Chat: Much like Facebook’s chat, members can chat in real-time when they’re logged on.

- A variety of other apps, as well as search engine optimization

If your members aren’t active on another social network, consider how Ning could benefit your organization. It’s more inclusive than Facebook and still allows your members to maintain their privacy while interacting with one another. Ning is all about building a targeted community for your members. As it says on the home page, “Ning lets you create and join new social networks for your interests and passions.”

The International Society for Technology in Education has set up a fantastic Ning network for its 2010 conference. The conference isn’t until June, but the network already has 553 members, 23 groups and a good sampling of photos and videos. ISTE is building hype and anticipation for the main event, and there’s even a great countdown in the right column!

Take a look around, get some inspiration and see if Ning is right for your organization or event.

This is the third 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 two installments on Flickr and Delicious can be found here. Stay tuned.

What do you get when you cross Twitter with a traditional blog? One of two sites: Tumblr or Posterous.

Although there are some important differences, Tumblr and Posterous do have a lot in common. Both let you compile all types of media – text, links, photos, videos, audio clips and more – into a virtual scrapbook to share with your members.

First up, Tumblr.

(Don't mind my goofy thumbs up)

Tumblr users can “follow” each other, much like on Twitter. (Following doesn’t have to be reciprocal.) There’s also the option to “like” a post, or “reblog” it and add your own comments if you’d prefer.

As far as mobility goes, there are great BlackBerry and iPhone apps for Tumblr. Personally, I’ve found the BlackBerry one very easy to use. Tumblr allows for Twitter integration, so your posts on Tumblr can be automatically sent to your Twitter stream, and tweets can be sent to Tumblr.

Newsweek magazine has recently started using Tumblr. They posted a great explanation of “Why they Tumbl” on Tuesday. In the post, they fully admit they’re not sure how to monetize Tumblr, but that they hope it creates a dialogue between magazine and readers.

Next up, Posterous:

The great thing about Posterous is that it was designed to be used via e-mail. Simple e-mail anything you want – text, photos, audio, even iPhone videos – to post@posterous.com. Your subject line will become the title and the e-mail’s body will become the post itself. You can even add tags in the subject line by including a double parentheses: ((tag:socialmedia, photos, association)). You don’t have to set up an account before e-mailing — whatever your e-mail address is becomes the URL (http://youremail.posterous.com). (Although if you want a specific URl, I’d recommend signing up for an account first.)

Update Posterous via e-mail

Posterous is handy if you’re on-the-go and attached to your smartphone. Like Tumblr, the site also has a community aspect: users can subscribe to other users and marks posts as “favorites.”

Media Bistro has done an excellent job using Posterous as a community blog. People can submit contributions to a specific e-mail address, and three curators approve and post the content. Granted, Media Bistro isn’t an association, but it is an online community that uses Posterous as a user-generated blog.

The best part about the contributions? People who submit don’t have to have Posterous accounts – just an e-mail address from which to send content!

You can export content from Posterous to any other social sites on which your association has a following – and vice versa. Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – you name it, you can automatically post information across the board with a simple e-mail.

So how can associations use these sites?

Imagine if conference and meeting attendees could easily submit their own videos and photos to one main aggregator. ASAE and The Center had a great online hub for ASAE09, and they also had a Flickr group to aggregate attendees’ photos. I think Posterous would have been a comparable alternative because it lets many people share different types of media in one place. Attendees (real-life and virtual) could contribute their own videos, photos and thoughts to the community to create a great “scrapbook.”

Check out the FAQs for both Posterous and Tumblr, and I also love this Mashable post comparing and constrasting them. Each has its pros and cons (Tumblr allows for more theme customization, Posterous lets people submit contributions more easily), but maybe one of them is right for your association.

If you have any questions about either Posterous or Tumblr, feel free to e-mail me at shannon@memberclicks.com!

(Posterous screencaps via Mashable.)