Although Facebook and Twitter have, yes, emerged as popular social media tools for associations and nonprofits, LinkedIn has recently redesigned its groups and I think organizations could start to take advantage of the “professional social media network” a bit more.

The changes will be rolling out over the next few weeks, but LinkedIn seems to be making an effort to encourage more discussions and conversations. Additionally, users can “follow” a certain group discussion if they find it particularly engaging. The feed will appear on your homepage and in your inbox. Users can now “like,” “pass” or comment on a discussion. This will push the most engaging conversations to the top of the group page.

Many people still prefer to communicate professionally through LinkedIn, rather than Facebook, which I think organizations can take advantage of. Many reserve Facebook for personal connections only, and keep LinkedIn purely professional. If your organization’s members prefer this, definitely reach out and see if engaging them via LinkedIn is possible. Or perhaps they’ve already created an “unofficial” LinkedIn group for your organization — particularly if it’s a small or local group.

Here’s a short video on LinkedIn’s new features. Do you think your organization could take advantage of them?

If you’re already using LinkedIn’s new group features, what do you think? Have you noticed more members engaging in conversations?

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.)