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.

As a follow-up to my post about how associations can use YouTube, I just couldn’t resist sharing this. The employees at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore. put this incredible feel-good video together to promote breast cancer awareness. It’s a great example of an organization letting their personality shine to convey an important message. How can your association creatively get its mission or message out?

This is the fourth 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 and Tumblr/Posterous can be found here. Stay tuned.

Ah, YouTube … home of the Muppets singing “Bohemian Rhapsody,” dancing babies and brides and the “Numa Numa” guy.

Sure, it can be a source of endless entertainment, but can YouTube — or another video service such Vimeo — really benefit your organization?

ASAE and The Center has its own YouTube channel. They post interviews with ASAE staffers and conference speakers every few weeks. Of course, during this year’s annual meeting, posting was more frequent.

Maybe you don’t want to post videos right away. No problem! Simply create a channel for your organization and compile some of your favorite YouTube videos for your members. But taking it one step further can really enhance the experience for your members.

What videos could your association create and share?

• Conference highlights or random moments
• Interviews with keynote speakers
• Interviews with attendees
• Videos created by members
• News updates relating to the industry

Not to be cheesy, but the possibilities are practically endless!

Videos can be great for helping virtual attendees get a more complete experience. Or they can just be amusing — they don’t necessarily have to be 100 percent business-focused. They can showcase your association’s personality and aid in recruiting new members.

You don’t have to have any fancy video editing software to take advantage of YouTube. You don’t even have to have a great camera — many cell phones have video capabilities, and Flip cameras are pretty popular. Videos can also be easily embedded into your association’s blog or homepage.

One major suggestion I have is to keep your videos shorter than five minutes — three, if possible. People just don’t have the attention span to watch videos longer than that online — let alone waiting for it to buffer!

Also, YouTube recently rolled out YouTube Direct, which “enables your organization to request, review, and re-broadcast user-submitted videos with ease.” Your members can upload videos directly to your site and then administrators can review and approve (or deny) them. It was built with news organizations in mind (“citizen journalists” can send amateur videos to them with ease), but I think it’d be great to issue a call for videos from conference or meeting attendees!

YouTube is one of the most-trafficked sites on the Internet, and for good reason. There are lots of amusing videos to be sure, but there is also a great potential for creating and sharing valuable content with your members.

Oh, and for more YouTube goodness and why you should use it, check out this post from Small Business Trends!

Do you use YouTube? What do you share? Or, would you consider it? What would you share?

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.)

By Duncan McCreery, MemberClicks Lead Maximizer

What can associations learn from one abysmal NFL team and its fans?

For those who don’t follow the NFL, the Browns are terrible. In just about every national poll, the Browns are rated in the bottom three teams in the league.  The team is so bad, my own mother teases me for wasting my Sundays watching them play.

Browns quarterback Brady Quinn (10) was sacked four times by the Baltimore Ravens.

There was significant national media coverage in the past few weeks about a few especially disgruntled fans who planned to stage a protest during the start of a Monday Night Football game against the Baltimore Ravens. The protest organizers asked fans in attendance to vacate their seats during the opening kickoff.  If the plan had been executed, ESPN would have televised the start of the game and a seemingly empty stadium.

In recent weeks, many journalists and bloggers have written in support of, or disappointment in, the protest. Instead of focusing on whether the walkout was a good or bad idea, let’s look at the parties involved and their motivations.

The protest organizers have paid hundreds of dollars – yearly – for season tickets for several decades and asked other paying attendees to participate by walking out. Although overall attendance is down this year, tens of thousands of people paid for tickets and will still attend every Browns game for the remainder of the season, despite the abysmal play on the field.

Clearly, there is a powerful force at work that motivates fans to purchase tickets and attend games. Given that the team has only won one game this year, the motivation for fans to purchase tickets does not stem from playoff expectations. Having purchased tickets and attended games within the past year myself, I would suggest that Browns fans are so dedicated because we are emotionally attached to the organization.

What can association leaders do to develop the level of dedication in their members that Browns fans display year in and year out?

I’m not saying that associations should prioritize emotional bonding over delivering meaningful content and successful day to day operations, but, undoubtedly, there is tremendous value in connecting with members on a higher level than more traditional offerings at meetings and conferences.

Unlike the Browns, who can rely on native Clevelanders’ youthful attachment to the organization and undying faith in the yearly draft for this emotional connection, association staffers and board members need to make a concerted effort to show that they, the leaders, value the members’ participation and support of the association

As Robert Hall advises in his book Chaos for Breakfast: Practical Help and Humor for Nonprofit Executives, this can be as simple as dedicating time to answering the phone instead of letting a call go to voicemail, or embracing volunteer enthusiasm and channeling it to help the association reach its strategic goals. It doesn’t take a lot of time or resources to leave a great impression with members at every interaction, and these little efforts will go a long way to ensure the success of the association in the long term.

The question is: what can leaders in the association do to engage members on a higher emotional level?

(Photo by Chuck Crow of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)