Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had an enjoyable long weekend (if you’re in the U.S., that is). Hopefully your shortened workweek isn’t too crazy…

I’ve got a few informative slideshows to share with our readers today.

I think a common theme here is engaging with your fanbase. Social media makes it easier than ever for nonprofits and small staffs to reach out to large groups. How is your small staff using new media to its advantage?

Happy Friday! Who’s ready for the weekend? I’ve got lots of fun plans on my agenda, including a 10K! (OK, maybe not everyone considers that “fun.”) What are you up to this weekend?

Of course, it wouldn’t be Friday if I didn’t share a few (five, to be exact) of my favorite association blog posts from the past week. Which posts were you favorites?

1. Jamie Notter wrote an insightful post about inclusion and associations, and how including groups of all kinds into the fold can bring change. “Cultures that that know inclusion are ones that can handle paradoxes,” Jamie writes. How has your small staff association made an effort to include different groups, such as young professionals?

2. Eric Lanke highlights a post by Michael Schrage by questioning it a bit. Eric suggests associations ask themselves why members want to be associated with them. What’s your brand image? What does it say? And how can you change it if you don’t like it?

3. At the Midcourse Corrections blog, Jeff Hurt wrote a great post about the most important engagement at your meeting. Of course, he writes, engagement is quite the overused word, but there are two different kinds: psychological and behavioral. Which one is more important? Psychological. Read on to find out why.

4. David M. Patt shared a great example of an association successfully using Groupon to its advantage. The Chicago Area Runners Association offered a $20 discount on its $44 membership, which increased its membership by 1,314. Pretty cool, huh? Could your organization use a social buying tool for something similar?

5. At the SocialFish blog, John Haydon shared four different types of Facebook Deals and how nonprofits can utilize them. The deals include Individual, Loyalty, Charity and Friend, and each one is a little different with slightly different benefits. Is your small staff association looking into Facebook deals at all?

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! In case you missed the post earlier this week, everyone is invited to the MemberClicks Holiday Shindig on Thursday, Dec. 16. If you’re going to be in Atlanta, please stop by our office and celebrate with us!

Of course, there were lots of great posts in the association community this week. So let’s get right down to it!

1. Cindy Butts at AE on the Verge had a great post about a new word she learned: thank-a-thon. Basically, the association sets aside a specific time to call members or volunteers (or write thank-you notes). With Thanksgiving just last week and the holiday season now upon us, this is a great way to reach out to members and volunteers alike.

2. Deirdre Reid discussed transparency in association leadership, and how important it is for members to trust their association. Without transparency, the association has nothing. Leaders shouldn’t hide their decisions behind closed doors, Deirdre writes. Good food for thought.

3. In a great post at the Acronym blog, Joe Rominiecki writes about member engagement and which method is more effective: one big push or chipping away slowly. He uses fundraising as an example, and the comments on this post are definitely worth reading. Lots of good questions here.

4. Jeffrey Cufaude discussed two evaluation questions association professionals should be asking in order to measure lasting impact and change. His suggestions are simple but could prove imminently helpful for determining the usefulness of a conference or learning session.

5. Jeff Cobb discussed the correlation between happiness and success, and how difficult each term is to define. (Probably because they’re different for every person!) Does success lead to happiness or does happiness lead to success? An interesting, thought-provoking post.

We hope everyone has a fun/productive/relaxing/fill-in-the-blank weekend!

Throughout the past year (and 310 posts!), I’ve highlighted tons of cool tools small staff associations can use, whether they’re social media-related or not. I thought today, I would compile those posts into one handy guide for future reference. Most of these tools are free (or very inexpensive), and many can help increase your productivity, become more active in the social Web or revamp the way your office runs.

1. Simplify your phone communications with Google Voice: Google has tons of free tools that are great for productivity. Google Voice allows you redirect as many numbers as you want to a single voicemail inbox, so all your calls can be directed to one phone number. Great for organizations with just one full-time staff member.

2. Applications to boost your productivity: I covered Google Reader, Tweetdeck, Evernote and Typinator. Of course, there are tons of RSS readers out there, and dozens of applications to manage Twitter (I’ve also used HootSuite and CoTweet).

3. All about podcasts: I shared a few different podcasts relevant to association professionals, and discussed using podcasts to communicate with your members. Subscribing is easy — anyone can do it straight from iTunes. And I recommended Audacity for editing your audio content.

4. Two options to improve your organization’s communications: TextMarks makes it easy for organizations to set up text messaging campaigns that members can subscribe to. This is a paid service, but it’s fairly inexpensive and has tons of benefits. And Phonebooth has both free and paid services that include a local number with up to five extensions, call forwarding and voicemail with transcription.

5. Create your own check-in application for conferences: With the popularity of location-based applications increasing, many associations may be wondering how they can participate in the trend. DoubleDutch allows organizations to create their own applications for events, distinguishing between different booths on the trade show floor and session rooms.

6. Have you heard about YouTube’s Nonprofit Program?: YouTube provides nonprofits with premium branding capabilities and allows them to raise funds with a Google “donate” program. Additionally, nonprofits will be listed on the Nonprofit channel’s page and have the option to add a “Call to Action” overlay on videos to drive campaigns.

7. Cloud computing now even more collaborative with Google’s changes: Google recently rolled out a slew of changes to its Docs, making them even more user-friendly and easy to use. With awesome chat features built in, collaboration is a snap for organizations — especially if you travel a lot.

8. PostRank: Social media stats and Google Analytics combined: PostRank combines stats from Google Analytics, your blog, Twitter and Facebook to give you a comprehensive “engagement score.” You don’t have to include every element, but the more you have, the more accurate your engagement score will be. Additionally, PostRank offers real-time social media monitoring so you’ll always be on top of your mentions and comments.

9. Looking for a tool to easily manage your organization’s social media presences?: Postling lets small businesses (or associations!) manage all of their social media outposts in one handy dashboard. Additionally, Postling can monitor mentions of your organization across the Web. You can allow multiple users or administrators access to your dashboard, and select which accounts they have access to.

I hope some of these tools benefit your organization, whether through increased productivity or better social media engagement!

Photo source

I was browsing SlideShare the other day and wanted to share a few presentations I found. I think small staff associations can benefit from them both — there’s some great information here, and they both come from excellent sources (ASAE and Peggy Hoffman, respectively).

What do you think? Has your organization started getting involved with mobile technology or crowdsourcing (or both)?