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 second in an ongoing series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which will highlight 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 installment on Flickr can be found here. Stay tuned.

You know when you find a cool blog post, video or Web site and add it to your Web browser’s “Favorites” folder to reference later? What if there was not only a better way to organize your Favorites, but a Web site that let you access them from any computer or Internet browser?

Such a site does exist! Maybe you’re already familiar with Delicious, but in my opinion, it’s one of the most underrated social networking sites. It’s a great way to jump into social networking without devoting your entire marketing or PR strategy to the social web.

Upon creation of a Delicious account, you can sign in and bookmark any Web sites from any computer or browser, and you’ll be able to access them from anywhere. Additionally, you can tag your bookmarks – some of my favorites for the MemberClicks account include “socialmedia,” “associationmanagement” and “strategy.” (Tags must be one word only.)

You can search your bookmarks by multiple tags, which makes cross-referencing bookmarks a snap. Want to find all your bookmarks that include “socialmedia” and “strategy?” Easy! Want “socialmedia” and “associationmanagement?” No problem!

Delicious also allows for interaction between users. Your bookmarks can be public or private, but this is after all a social media site, so going private is a little counterproductive. (After all, this isn’t your private diary we’re talking about. They’re just Web sites you liked!)

Therefore, when your bookmarks are public, others can find them based on the tags you give them. You can also add other users to your network and search their bookmarks. Delicious even shows how many times a link has been added and ranks bookmarks based on popularity – when you go to the homepage, you have the option of viewing the newest bookmarks, or the most popular ones.

Delicious recently added a “Share” feature, so you can e-mail your bookmarks to contacts whom don’t use the tool.

There are lots of add-ons for Delicious. For example, I use the Firefox add-on so when I right-click on a Web site, there’s an automatic option to bookmark it in Delicious. Very handy.

I highly recommend Delicious for sharing useful information with your association’s staff and members. The URLs are easy to remember (ours is delicious.com/memberclicks) and it allows you to aggregate relevant and important content to refer back to whenever you (or your members) like.

Are you already using Delicious, or does your organization? Don’t forget to add us to your network so we can share links!

Over at PR Squared, there’s a great post about why some public relations professionals haven’t been too quick to adopt social media practices. Many claim their clients aren’t ready, so there’s no need for them to have a presence on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking Web sites.

“Newsflash: it does not matter if your clients aren’t ready.  The mainstream media are ready,” wrote PR-Squared’s Todd Defren.

When’s the last time you watched a sporting event or the nightly news without a mention of Twitter? Countless athletes and reporters are immersed in the site and the so-called “mainstream media” have embraced it. (For the record, I hate the term “mainstream media” becuase I think it’s basically lost all meaning. But that’s another post for another day.)

Are your members on Twitter? Are they on Facebook? With each day that passes, there’s a greater likelihood that they’re active on one, the other or both. So why shouldn’t the organization itself have a presence? It’s easy to create a fan page on Facebook and allow members to interact there. A Facebook group is also an option — check out this great post for the pros and cons of each.

The Lupus Foundation of America, for example, was recently featured on Smart Blog for Social Media for its success generating donations via the Internet. Using Facebook, the LFA increased its donations by 790 percent. It requires constant engagement with users and members, but it’s absolutely possible to achieve results using social media.

Find out where your members predominantely are and create a profile for the organization. Personally, I prefer Twitter simply for its real-time search features and ability to quickly share information and links — things become viral very quickly thanks to “retweeting” and also due to how rapidly Twitter itself has grown.

Going back to the PR-Squared post, does it matter if your members already active online? It makes establishing a Web presence for the organization a little easier, but it could also make those late majority adopters (and laggards!) more amenable to using Facebook or Twitter.

There’s a wealth of information out there for association members, and it’s up to the organization leaders to share it all with their members in the most effective way possible — social media isn’t going away any time soon.

Let’s face it: social media isn’t going anywhere. It’s not a passing trend, but it is an evolving one, and if your organization or group doesn’t have an online presence, it probably should. It’s important to keep your group visible and stay abreast of what’s going on in the industry.

But even if your group doesn’t have an official Twitter page or Facebook fan page yet, you can bet your members and people involved are at least somewhat active online! Unfortunately, they may not be presenting the organization in the best possible light. Sure, there are tons of filters on Facebook (Twitter, not so much), but not everyone uses them to the best advantage.

It’s important to keep a policy fluid — social media and communications are changing at a rapid pace, and a policy that’s too stringent can be suffocating for your members.

It’s not 2002 anymore, and the lines between our personal and professional lives are blurring. Sure, it’s still acceptable to fire someone for writing negatively about the company or work experience, but employers now are realizing that people are going to be on Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites, so their policies have to adapt to accept that.

On social networking sites, nothing is ever really private — a judge could easily issue a subpoena ordering the company to reveal protected information. It’s important to convey to your members or employees that they must be responsible for what they write on the Web. If they have a personal blog, they should include a disclaimer such as, “”The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent so-and-so-group’s positions, strategies or opinions.”

Have a unique and real voice behind your organization. People on Twitter and Facebook want to engage with real people, not a brand. Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are two excellent examples of corporations who have real faces behind their brands on Twitter. It’s all about cultivating relationships online — people see beyond a flashy brand name quickly and want to put a name to the logo.

Define how social media matters to your organization. What do you want to use it for? Marketing? Fundraising? Internal communication? Collaboration? Hopefully, you’ll be able to combine your social media efforts to include all of those, as well as any more uses your group finds beneficial.

Mashable has compiled a list of 10 Must-Haves For Your Social Media Policy, and each one is dead-on.

My rule of thumb? I never post anything if I wouldn’t want my mom to see or read it.