Social Media A Perspective

Social Media
Many associations are exploring social media. Whether in response to member requests, or as a new communications channel, or to appeal to a younger demographic, research shows that many organizations are actively pursuing or exploring social media activities, but not necessarily applying social media in the most effective manner. An advance look at the 2012-2013 Social Media Benchmarking Report shows associations can improve how they use social media. To order the full report, CSAE members please go to http://www.budurl.com/csae2013. Social media is more than a technology though; it is a phenomenon that is changing the expectations of members and potential members. Many associations are struggling to come to grips with how to best deploy social media. Research cosponsored by CSAE shows that while some are aggressively adapting social media as a communications tool, many others are taking a "wait-and-see" approach. This publication brings together previously published articles on various aspects of social media as it impacts associations. As a CSAE member, you are being provided with this document at no charge. For more on how your association can best deploy social media:

Social Media Master Class: Putting Together Your Plan Without Wasting Your Time Toronto, ON January 29, 2013

Table of Contents
Putting the Social Media Cart before the Horse 47 Tough Social Media Questions Part I 47 Tough Social Media Questions Part II 47 Tough Social Media Questions Part III Socializing the HR Cycle with Social Media Using Social Media to Mobilize Support Tying Social Media to your Strategic Plan The Role of Social Media at Your Next Conference Using Social Media for Events Without Wasting Your Time Social Media Benchmarking Survey 2012/2013 -Executive Summary

Putting the Social Media Cart before the Horse Implications and Findings from the 2011/2012 CSAE Social Media Benchmarking Survey (The 2012/2013 report is now available click here) Are your social media plans strategic, focused, efficient, effective, and add value both to your organization as well as its members? (How do you know?) Do you have evidence of the impact of your social media activities, especially given your Social media investment in time and dollars? (Or is it anecdotal at best?) And have your efforts over the last year or two been guided by the "best practices" in the field, or are they guided by the momentum of the past? (Or worse, have you been distracted by the latest shiny social media object?) Implications and Findings from the CSAE Social Media Benchmarking Survey Are your social media plans strategic, focused, efficient, effective, and add value both to your organization as well as its members? (How do you know?) Do you have evidence of the impact of your social media activities, especially given your Social media investment in time and dollars? (Or is it anecdotal at best?) And have your efforts over the last year or two been guided by the "best practices" in the field, or are they guided by the momentum of the past? (Or worse, have you been distracted by the latest shiny social media object?) We have seen many examples of social media initiatives developed after-hours by young and keen communications and IT staffers who believe in the promise of social media. They are explorers, establishing Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, and LinkedIn groups well before any clear strategy is developed or approved. By experimenting this way, these Scouts and Rangers develop or improve your social media organizational IQ, and often carve out roles for themselves as social media go-to people. (The problem, however, is that these folks already had a day job before social media burst onto the scene and still do.) But beyond the experimentation, how should social media be used to achieve organizational goals? To better serve and engage members? For advocacy? To drive event attendance? And to improve the membership value equation? What are other associations doing in that area and what are they planning to do in the next year? What lessons can be learned from them? Let's listen in as Randall Craig of Pinetree Advisors and Gerald Bramm of Bramm Research discuss some of the findings and their implications. Association Magazine (AM): First of all, how extensive was the market research itself? Gerald Bramm: More than 440 associations answered one or more parts of the survey 340 answered the survey in its entirety. The survey instrument was pre-tested

amongst members, and reviewed in detail with CSAE staff (for which we are very appreciative.) Randall Craig: We asked 32 detailed questions on every aspect of social media strategy, policy, current and future usage, budgets, best practices, success stories, and disasters. Gerald: The CSAE membership was very open with their experience, and the survey results all 105 pages of them is a great reality check. It is invaluable for an organization that wants to compare what they are doing with what other similar organizations are doing. AM: Are there any results that stick out? Gerald: There is a significant amount of data, graphics, and analysis within the report, and it will mean different things to different readers. But there is one item that did strike us as interesting: 65% of the respondents rely on informal comments and feedback when it comes to understanding member expectations regarding social media, and 23% admit to "not knowing" at all. Yet, the survey also shows that this year there will be the big rush to put social media strategies into place. Randall: The gap between current knowledge and future intentions raises concerns. How do you know what strategy to put into place without asking your members first? Consider your own organization: how do you know your social media strategy will meet the needs of your members and other stakeholders? I should also mention that this question really needs to be asked twice: At the beginning, to determine the rudiments of the strategy, and then as part of an ongoing monitoring and measurement program. This will ensure that the members' needs are actually being met and that an appropriate "return" is being generated for the social media investment. AM: What social media sites are the most important for members? Gerald: Facebook and Twitter are the dominant sites where it is believed that members expect a presence. YouTube is a distant third, followed by an association page or group on LinkedIn. We would have expected a higher result for LinkedIn; the lower ranking might be a function of what members know about each platform, instead of each platform's suitability. Randall: The issue is also connected to a tough social media choice many associations must make: should they have their own "private" forum on their own websites, fully under their own control, or should they take advantage of the ubiquity of public (but lockable) forums/groups within sites like LinkedIn? The lower results for LinkedIn may only be a consequence of an already-existing discussion forum on their own site. AM: What concerns do members have about social media? Gerald: Lots! Here's a sampling from the report:

Lack of participation/engagement from members Difficulty protecting brand image from damaging 3rd party social media online conversations

Comments on social media not representative of general opinion Difficulty in demonstrating ROI

Randall: And here are some verbatim comments: Staff time allotment to manage social media. Diminishment of the brand -- why belong to an association when you can communicate online for free. Not having a clear social media plan with guidelines and policies for employees to follow. The rapidly evolving pace of social media making it difficult to "keep up". Dialogue among members, visible to external entities like government, conflicting with organization's official position (demonstrating fractured views or dissent that could weaken our advocacy). Gerald: These concerns are not simple concerns: productivity, ROI, risk management yet 27% of respondents had no formal mechanism for keeping up with trends. Most rely on their inner circle and seminars/conferences to keep up to date. AM: What did respondents say about their own social media best practices? Randall: There were two general themes: that communications not be overly formal, and that they should be engaging and conversational in tone. Gerald: Here are a few quotes from respondents: Its about the conversation - treat it as peer to peer messaging. Not to be too advertorial in messaging tone...to continually provide interesting, helpful messages that capture interest and attention, peripherally showing our organization in a positive light, rather than crowing about ourselves. On social media channels be conversational, reflect the spirit of the organization. Randall: One of the models we use in our consulting practice is called the Three Tiers of Social Media Activity - Passive, Broadcast, and Engagement. The Passive tier is all about listening and doing nothing. Broadcast is more about repurposing existing content through social channels. Engagement is all about the conversation and the development of community. The above comments speak to the importance of moving beyond the broadcast. Gerald: The importance of a disciplined approach is also important. From another respondent: We treat social media like any other communications function - it has a strategic plan behind it and each tool is being used in a particular way to support the organization's overall goals and activities. Randall: Let me broaden this insightful comment in another way. Too often, social media is thought of as a marketing and communications tool, driven by the Director of Communications. Social media really needs to be considered a tool no different than the

telephone; it can be used for just about any organizational goal, by anyone within the organization, to reach out to any stakeholder group, for any particular purpose. Used properly, it has the power to mobilize volunteers, to fundraise, to advocate, to recruit staff, to provide professional development (or support) to members, and so on. It is for these reasons that there needs to be a wider social media strategy; that it not be a communications-only initiative. Gerald: Sadly, the data suggests that the reality is exactly the opposite: 61% of respondents reported that Communications/PR had responsibility for social media, followed by Executive Management (30%), and Marketing (28%). We can surmise that it is communications-led because social media usually starts in a Passive and Broadcast mode. Or the ad agencies that "advise" on social media are experienced only in marketing and communications. AM: Any final stats that our readers might find interesting? Gerald: One thing to stress is that we have provided detailed analysis by operating budget, staff size, type and size of membership, and by type of organization. So readers should take care to compare their own experience against appropriate comparators not just the generic survey results. That being said, here are some data points: Almost one-quarter (23%) are not promoting their social media activities. Slightly more than one-third (37%) of those surveyed do not formally track their initiatives. Only one-third of organizations say they measure their social media success. Four-in-ten (41%) are not using any tools to monitor their social media activities. The most common tools are Google Analytics and Google Alerts. Randall: And a few more: Very few organizations have documented social media strategies and risk management policies. (15% and 1% respectively). For the most part they would be described as a work in progress or non-existent. Social media staff training is either non-existent (in 45% of organizations) or rudimentary in most others. This article originally appeared in Association

47 Tough Social Media Questions Part I How does your organization decide to invest in Social Media? A Social Media plan might be proposed by one of your more junior (but Facebook savvy) staff, or perhaps your traditional ad agency. It may not be strategic, or even appropriate, but how are you to know? With all of the fluff being written on Social Media, it's hard to figure out especially because associations are different. Here is a list of tough questions to help you reason through the recommendations that you are given. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. What are others doing including 'competitive' associations? What evidence do you have that they are actually successful? Do they already have a first mover advantage? How have they organized the implementation internal/external mix? Who has organized the implementation consulting firm, ad agency, third world workers, etc. and why this way? What profile has their Board and Executive Director/CEO chosen to have? And why should our leadership follow the same approach (or not)? How has their strategy leveraged their unique advantages? How will the proposed Social Media plan take advantage of our unique advantage?

Opportunistic discussions during networking sessions always yield an idea or two - but the answer to the fundamental question of "what are others doing" has already been answered. The CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices and Benchmarks survey, due to be released in December has responses from 300 organizations across the country. Before starting any strategy, it makes a lot of sense to first learn from others. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. How might other organizations respond to our Social Media initiative? What are the technical risks, and how can they be mitigated? How do we know were not too late to try what is being suggested? Over 500+ Social Media sites; justify why youve chosen the ones you have. What proof do we have that our members/volunteers/other stakeholders actually are on the sites you propose for us to be on? The plan assumes different groups will work together in a new way for the first time how will this actually work? Who is accountable for the success of the initiative?

16.

How will that success be measured?

Probably the most important part of a Social Media strategy is the connection to your overall organizational strategy. How does it leverage and extend what you are currently doing? What new opportunities does it open? Indeed, might the opportunity of social media cause you to consider a mid-course correction to the overall strategy itself? Many associations are grappling with the question of membership cannibalization from externally-controlled LinkedIn groups, and are recognizing that a strategic shift is happening now, smack in the middle of their five-year plan. (Just Tweeting more won't solve this last issue.) In the next installment of this series, we'll look at another group of questions. Whether you are the Executive Director responding to the Board, or a manager pitching an idea up the line, remember that the best answers come when you ask the best questions. Before asking for anything, put your feet in the shoes of the person you are asking. What would their top five questions be? Answer clearly, and its more likely youll get a yes. Randall Craig is the author of seven books, including Online PR and Social Media for Associations and the upcoming Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the co-author of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of 108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and execution. More at www.RandallCraig.com and www.108ideaspace.com and @RandallCraig.

47 Tough Social Media Questions Part II What are the best questions to ask when someone comes to you with their "great" Social Media idea? In the first part of this series, we looked at the first group of 16 questions. [Link to the first article]. In this segment, we continue by adding an additional 15. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Has anyone another association, consultant, or academia done a study to compare or establish benchmarks or best practices? How does the proposed plan How long have you personally used Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube)? What investment is required? Payback? ROI? If the investment were increased/decreased by 50% what would change in your proposal? Who specifically came up with the plan a 20 year old?

Just because someone is young doesn't mean they are incapable of putting together a great plan. Millenials are well educated, self-assured, and smart. Unfortunately, they just don't have the business acumen that their more experienced managers have. That these managers might not understand Social Media means that there is an opportunity for two-way mentoring to close the gap. If the gap remains, then the plan will not likely succeed. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. Most organizations do PR centrally yet the blog/twitter is decentralized how will we control the message? What are the top five risks; how will they be addressed? What are our members doing? Explain the rationale for building the program on third party sites versus our own (or the other way around). How will spam be addressed?

While many people associate spam with email, spam is a growing problem on the social web as well. Hucksters put their promotional comments on your Facebook page, they comment (inappropriately) on your blog, and use your #hashtags for their own purposes. Managing the community is important, and takes time: how will this task be resourced? 27. How will this plan address privacy issues?

28. 29. 30. 31. 32.

What additional law or government regulation must be followed (privacy, Do Not Call, under 18 laws, etc)? How many person-hours/week will be spent on this? (And by who?) Is the plan integrated with our Membership/Advocacy/Conferences/HR/etc, or is it just tacked-on? How is the integration done? With finite resources, what will be stopped if this one starts? Does the plan have clear objectives?

This last question is one of the most important, but it is often left for the end - or left out. Having clear objectives suggests a number of other important activities: monitoring, measurement, and accountability. Many associations have marketing and communications committees where web and Social Media issues are decided. Here's an idea for the courageous: why not table these questions (and the previous ones), and see how well they can be answered. If the questions can't be answered satisfactorily, then maybe it's time to review the strategy and those responsible for it. Randall Craig is the author of seven books, including Online PR and Social Media for Associations and the upcoming Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the co-author of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of 108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and execution. More at www.RandallCraig.com and www.108ideaspace.com and @RandallCraig.

47 Tough Social Media Questions Part III What are the best questions to ask when someone comes to you with their "great" Social Media idea? In the first two parts of this series, we looked at 16 questions, then an additional 16. In this final article, we add a final 15.
33.

How much of the initiative is defensive?

A defensive plan is one that does the absolute minimum, just so that the organization doesn't embarrass itself in the marketplace. There is nothing wrong with this as a stopgap measure. On the other hand, most organizations don't have limitless resources, so spending time and money on a defensive plan takes away from the impact of a strategic Social Media plan.
34. 35. 36.

Can the proposal be phased in? When do the milestones occur to review progress? And what should we look for on the first milestone? How does the strategy take advantage of Mobile?

Mobile now means several things: building web pages for different screen sizes; building "apps"; taking advantage of the user's location; taking advantage of the just-intime nature of mobile alerts. If the Social Media plan only speaks to establishing presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter, then it is probably one of the best plans of three years ago.
37. 38.

Who else has reviewed this proposal, and what reservations did they have? How does this initiative change ourMarketing strategy? Advocacy strategy? HR/recruiting/volunteer strategy?

39. What internal policies will need to change if we implement? 40.

Where does this plan lead? What does Phase Three look like?

It's tempting to say that since Social Media is changing so quickly, planning for a future phase is futile. Not so. Choosing now what a future might look like is a critical doublecheck to ensure that, all else being equal, the current phase is directionally sound. Of course, change will happen, but mid-course corrections are only possible if you know the ultimate destination.
41. 42.

Who within the organization will you need to work hard to get buy-in from? Will any external stakeholders be affected negatively or will relationships be altered by the plan?

Very often, suppliers (and other sponsor/funding partners) are left out of the mix. Does the content and community that is being proposed include anything of value for these stakeholders? And separately, are there any new advertising or sponsorship opportunities that will become available as a result of the strategy? (Note: If the strategy is being developed with a view to increasing sponsorship revenue, who will be responsible for doing the actual selling?)
43. 44. 45. 46. 47.

Who are the bloggers, tweeple, etc. who are most influential in our market? How will the initiative be launched? What books have you read/What blogs/Tweeple do you follow? What do they say about this type of plan? How has this plan worked in other industries? Do any of our suppliers or customers have Social Media strategies that we can camp on to?

Where do you start? First consider how critical Social Media is to your overall strategy, and then choose how many questions need to be answered to justify your investment. You may not have to answer all 47 questions, but answering the toughest ones will yield the greatest benefit. Postscript: How good is your current Social strategy? Try this (no cost) self-audit it generates a report on how you can improve: http://budurl.com/108smaudit Randall Craig is the author of seven books, including Online PR and Social Media for Associations and the Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the coauthor of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of 108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and execution. More at www.RandallCraig.com, www.108ideaspace.com and @RandallCraig.

Socializing the HR Cycle with Social Media Too often, social media is considered only in the context of marketing and sales. The key drivers of the organization people are forgotten. How can an association use social media throughout the HR cycle of recruitment, dismissal, orientation/on-boarding and engagement, and keeping connected to former staff as alumni? (While the action items may differ slightly, volunteers go through essentially the same process.) Recruitment The typical recruiting sequence is: sourcing, selection, reference checks and making the offer. The first three are ripe for social media. Candidate sourcing is the process of collecting prospect names. Here are some ideas: Post the job on social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook in order to take advantage of referrals from connections. Candidates often search LinkedIn directly for postings, and hidden candidates often come forward. Ask your employees (and volunteers) to like the job posting, or to set their status to link to your posting. Tweet about the posting and ask your staff to retweet. The general idea is that by using social media, candidate sourcing and some of the selection process itself can be shortened and the quality of candidates, increased. Often, the best candidates are those who come through referral, both in the real world and online. Candidate selection involves reviewing the resums, creating a short list, and doing the interviews to select the winning candidate. Depending on the size and sophistication of your organization, you may be using an applicant tracking system to manage the process. (These systems may allow you to collaborate with others in a simple way.) One idea is to use a social media tool such as a secure internal blog or wiki to provide a venue for all involved in the selection process to share thoughts on the candidates. Consider using social media to do a quick scan of the short list candidates. Assuming the candidate is not disqualified because of a serious issue, any red flags or interesting experiences can be probed during the interview. Reference checks are typically handled by phone, but the social media world is fertile ground to check out final stage candidates in detail. Some ideas: Compare the resum and claims made during the interviews with assertions made on LinkedIn and other social media sites. If there are discrepancies, ask the candidate about them. Remember, however, that differences may be due solely to resum customization.

Review their Facebook profile. To the extent that it is public, their Facebook (and other site) profiles can provide clues to their personal brand and personal values. You will want to check that these are in sync with your organizations culture and values. Look for them in Google and ZoomInfo. While you need to make sure youre reviewing the correct person, there is a wealth of information online, especially for candidates for more senior roles. A caveat: Social media reference checks should only be used to supplement your decision-making process. There is NO substitute for a real person-to-person conversation. Onboarding/Orientation Once the candidate has been hired, social media can play a critical role in the employees (or volunteers) motivation and success. Most orientation programs seek to provide the candidate with the knowledge and tools to succeed. Here are some ideas for how social media can help: Instead of the typical new employee (or volunteer) orientation guide, why not supplement it with a site where existing employees can share their suggestions and ideas on their first 30 days? Or, after three months, ask the new employees themselves to offer their input. Consider opening access to these tools before the first day. Most candidates want to make a great impression, so why not let them begin early? Use videos (on a private YouTube-like service) to let senior managers welcome new employees and also respond to employee comments and questions left on the videos page. While beyond the scope of this paper, setting up appropriate social media policies and guidelines are critical, or else the organization could be put at great risk. Every existing policy (i.e., confidentiality and privacy, bullying, acceptable Internet use, branding, etc.) will typically need some changes. During the orientation and onboarding process, the new employee will need to be made aware of and agree to them. Engagement Connection to the organization happens through managers and peers, so why not create a venue where this happens online? There are a number of private and secure Facebook-like systems that allow collaboration and connection to take place. For the functionality they provide, the cost of implementing this is surprisingly low. Be careful, however, about dipping your toe in the water with the thought of making a change at a later date. For example, if you start a private group on LinkedIn and then later want to change the venue to one that has more functionality, you may find that many of your group members will not re-register on the new site. And the members who do move will require training . . . and time to get up to speed. Finally, all of the old conversations and uploads are typically lost. Best get on the right road from the start.

There are a number of new social media services that can be used for evaluation. Rypple, for example, allows quick feedback for employees, volunteers . . . and their managers. Dismissal There is nothing inherently social about letting someone go. Yet there are a number of key HR oriented activities that must be addressed when it happens. One such activity happens during the exit process: the employee must be reminded to change their profiles to indicate that their employment has ceased. (They should also be reminded of their confidentiality agreement.) Alumni Some of the most powerful voices in the community include those who once worked (or volunteered) at your organization. Until recently, the cost of running an effective alumni program kept it out of reach for all but the largest organizations. At the same time, the ease of setting up an unofficial group on LinkedIn, Facebook and others has meant that someone else not you may already have created a community and is setting the ground rules. In 90 per cent of the cases its better to set it up yourself. An Underutilized Resource Many organizations have locked down social media, seeing it as a problem. Others look at it exclusively from the perspective of marketing campaigns. A more mature approach is to harness the desire to be social and provide guidance (and the tools) to let social media become a competitive advantage. Organizations who use social media throughout the HR cycle are demonstrating this by example. Randall Craig is the author of seven books, including Online PR and Social Media for Associations and the Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the coauthor of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of 108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and execution. More at www.RandallCraig.com, www.108ideaspace.com and @RandallCraig. This article was originally published in the March 2011 CSAE Trillium Chapter FORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx

Using Social Media to Mobilize Support Weve all seen the recent stream of articles and presentations telling associations to get on the social media bandwagon. But many association executives are wondering, is social media all that its cracked up to be? A fair question. The answer is that although most organizations are still exploring the possibilities of social media, some have already demonstrated the practical benefits of using it to inform, engage and enable members and the public around advocacy issues. The trailblazers include three associations from the CSAE Trillium community the Ontario Long Term Care Association, Community Living Ontario and the Ontario Real Estate Association. Importance of Advocacy One of the primary services that associations provide is advocating on behalf of members. To do this effectively, they have to mobilize an audience around an issue or cause. The challenge is that no one likes being bombarded by emails, calls or letters. This is where social media pull rather than push technology shines. Social media allows you to pinpoint the people that share a passion for or at least an interest in your cause and then, with minimal effort, inform, engage and enable them to support it. Informing Your Audience Getting information out quickly is the first step toward motivating an audience to take action in an advocacy campaign. Theres no way that they will respond to a call to action without first knowing Social Media what the issue is about. Social media tools such as Facebook posts, tweets with links and YouTube videos allow you to do this with ease. The Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) is an example of an association that is using social media to inform members and stakeholders. OLTCA takes the content that virtually every association creates stories written for its online newsletter and vastly extends its reach through the associations Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. Stories are picked up by key stakeholders who in turn post them on their own websites and social media forums. Current Twitter followers include the Minister of Health and Long Term Care! As OLTCA members watch their information spread across the Web, they become more involved in the content creation process and provide authentic voices for the sector. OLTCA now receives more stories on the innovative programs and quality initiatives offered by long-term care homes than the association can publish. The result is a more engaged membership, enhanced credibility for the association and a positive image for the long-term care sector. Engaging Your Audience Once an association has established a social media presence and following, it can begin engaging its audience. There are a couple important points to keep in mind. First, know your audience and where they are. Not everyone you want to reach will be in the same place. Community Living Ontario (CLO) began engaging like-minded organizations and the media with Twitter, but soon realized that it could also be used to

inform MPs and MPPs as well. CLO then created a Facebook page to engage their members and the general public. They have found that different social media tools allow them to reach different audiences. Second, make sure that your content is valuable. Quality will determine whether or not your audience becomes engaged. The offerings on CLOs Facebook page include links to information about members and related organizations; an opportunity for members to post and share content; and news about events and activities of interest. The popularity of the page with its nearly 1,500 fans is due to the organization providing valuable and engaging content and allowing visitors to actively participate in the conversation. Enabling Audience Action Youve now informed your audience about your issue or cause and engaged them in discussion. The final step is enabling them to take action. The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) used social media for the engagement phase in two recent campaigns the potential impact of the HST on home sales and proposed mandatory home energy audits. Past OREA calls to action had been limited to traditional communication channels. For these two campaigns, however, OREA also used Twitter to drive members to their website, where a form allowed them to send an email to their MPP in less than a minute. Both campaigns were seen as successes by the OREA membership even though only the energy audit effort actually got legislation changed. A Balanced Assessment While for many the jury may still be out on everything that associations can do with social media, at least three Ontario associations are using this new tool to inform, engage and enable members and the public to become advocates. By providing relevant content, engaging audiences online and reducing friction in the participation process, they have shown that social media can be an effective means of rallying support and action for issues and causes. Tim Shaw (289-846-3105, tim@amplifi.ca), Leader of Online Engagement at Amplifi, a company offering end-to-end advocacy, marketing and public relations services for associations, non-profits and small businesses, is a member of Trilliums Communications Committee. This article was originally published in the December 2010 CSAE Trillium Chapter FORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx

Tying Social Media to your Strategic Plan When looking at social media and strategic planning it may not seem like they belong together. Social media is immediate and fast moving a way to instantly communicate and converse with an audience. A strategic plan is executed over a period of months or years with objectives that are realized over the long term. A stark contrast. But in order to have a social media strategy that adds value to your organization it must be tied to the strategic plan. Measure, measure, measure Your strategic plan sets the direction and identifies what success looks like to your organization. Success in social media is tied directly to your organizational goals. In social media, its tempting to fall into using metrics like number of fans or followers to measure success, but more meaningful metrics can be identified by looking at how social media is used to engage and influence your fans and followers in a way that support your broader organizational goals. Function, function, function Different groups within your organization perform various functions that contribute to achieving the goals outlined in your strategic plan. Identify the functions that will find the most value in social media. Theres a very good chance that member-facing functions will be able to make more impact in social media than administrative or financial functions. Because the activities of these groups are driven by the strategic plan, aligning social media with them ensures that it too is contributing to the overall success of the organization. Strategy, strategy, strategy Once its clear where social media will add value, a strategy must be developed outlining how that will happen. At this stage, social media is probably written in as a tactic in the broader group strategy, but it is important that a specific social media strategy be developed that will outline more specifically how social media is going to be managed, who you are trying to reach and why, and what type of content will be developed so that it really contributes to the success of the group. And finally, tactics To many people, it seems backwards that the last thing to be considered when it comes to social media is the actual technology. But its true, once you have reached this point social media will be firmly entrenched to your strategic plan: it has good metrics that link back to the strategic plan; is part of a larger functional group strategy; and the social media strategy has outlined how exactly social media is going to managed. And now finally you get to choose which channels will be used to execute your strategy. In the non-profit world where budgets are tight, its important that everything the organization does adds value. The way to make sure that social media is a truly valuable piece of your organization is to make sure that the metrics, function, strategy and tactics all tie back into the overall goals set out in your strategic plan.

Tim Shaw is a Partner at amplifi, a digital advocacy & public relations firm that builds champions for your brand, issue and cause. Tim teaches the Social Media for PR course at Durham College and can be reached at 905-415-4588 or at www.amplifi.ca. This article was originally published in the December 2011 CSAE Trillium Chapter FORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx

The Role of Social Media at Your Next Conference Social media tools have entered the world of conferences and meetings in a way that allows the issues and trends to build momentum in the hearts and minds of audiences before the conference, to ignite more engagement during the conference, and to continue long after the folding chairs have been put away. How many times have you attended an event and felt like you were simply lectured? Oh sure, a few people in the audience interacted with the speakers, but time was limited, and the Q&A session only allowed for three questions. Moreover, once the conference ended, thats it over done. Many of us have attended such events that, in the moment, the content seemed useful, but soon much of what we absorbed is gone from our minds when we got back to our day-to-day busy lives. The content, the issues discussed, and the opinions of others didnt necessarily live on. Basically when the conference was over, so was the discussion. Even when you went online to talk about it with someone, there was no forum, no social platform, no medium to continue the discussion. But that is changing and, for some, it has fully changed. Everyone is online, whether were searching on Google, or Facebooking our friends and family, mostly everyone turns to the Internet to learn and to engage. The proliferation of social media has made it possible for us to capture meaningful information and respond to it in real time. Because of the tools of social media, we no longer have to wait for the newspaper to arrive in the morning, or rush home for the 6 oclock news because with social media, information isnt scarce, it is abundant. Even better, we, the people, now get to add to it, create more of it, and deliver it to others in our own way, on our own time. Know your audience Social media platforms have proved to be a powerful mechanism to ensure that key issues are born, nurtured and mature through online participation. From the social media beginner to the sophisticated user, events and conferences have the potential to be more valuable to the audience when participants have the opportunity to interact with the issues and trends before, during and after the event. How is that possible? Through careful planning, a strategic approach, relevant content and an inviting attitude toward audience participation, social media can deliver many results, such as: improved stakeholder communications, enhanced membership development, and stronger thought-leadership in your organizations area of focus. Where to start? Begin with the audience in mind. Who are they? The culture of your organization is also important. More conservative organizations may use a combination of LinkedIn and Twitter. Other organizations may have a more casual audience and culture and opt for Facebook. But before choosing the tools, also think long and hard about your own social media biases. You may be a whiz at using Facebook to talk to your family and friends and download games, but that doesnt mean that your conference audience is a Facebook group too. Dont choose your tools, just because you might know how to use them well. Give it careful thought.

Aim for quality, not quantity Also be mindful of the natural temptation to try to create quantity. Do you want to facilitate channels of communication, or are you looking to build followers? In life, we tend to go for the numbers and forget the reason we started using the tools. Quality is the best policy, especially for issue-based conferences and meetings. Building followers means nothing if you havent incorporated the tools in which to educate, improve communications, strengthen membership signups, increase donation levels or create media or membership buzz around the topics. As an aside, be weary of snake-oil salesmen who try to sell you on the numbers game. There are lots of people and businesses who will try to tell you they will help you bring in high numbers of followers and likes and thats when you need to ask if numbers of random people will meet the conference objectives, both short term and long term? Chances are, the numbers really dont matter unless all the numbers comprise of increasing your membership, donors or other supporters. Presumably, you want to build something sustainable through your conference, and you are trying to make the issues accessible to specific people. And thats precisely what the tools need to do make the issues accessible, make it easy to weigh in, add value, and foster new conversations and ways to learn. Planning is key But simply acquiring the social media tools is not enough. This comes back to a strategy. Planning is very important and determining how and when you want those channels to be open is key. Some organizations only flip the channels on for the event itself, others leave the channels on all the time. So thats an important decision, and it should be made based on the type of resources you have. If you are a lean, mean organization with few staff, it is an important consideration when it comes to social media, because the one thing that can be said about social media is that it requires care and feeding. What makes social media successful for one organization and not another is having a dedicated resource managing the channels at all times or most of the time. Just because you turn the channels on, it doesnt mean people will tune in and engage. Half (and sometime more), of the job belongs to you when those channels are on. Social media isnt a Ronco commercial - remember, set it and forget it? It is quite the opposite in fact. So remember if you cant care for your social media channel, it wont work for you. Content is king This leads to the next most important part of social media, content. Content is king, and it will drive people to engage, and it can drive them away. When it comes to your event, its not just the content of the conference speaker. There is much more to your organizations conference than the content experts who provide the presentations.

Topics are vast and dynamic, and they live beyond your event. Although youve chosen speakers and their topics based on what is most appealing to your audience (and given the timelines and the parameters of the event), what about the other speaking submissions that didnt make it into the event, simply because you didnt have room? Perhaps those submissions are still worthy of discussion on a social media platform. Quite possibly some of those who submitted great ideas would like to participate on behalf of your event through social media if you dont have room for them at the actual conference. Theres always a way to add more value through social media. In any case, with your audience, your culture, your content and your resources, its now time to choose the social media channels that you want to implement. And once you get those accounts all fired up, remember one thing: nothing happens overnight. It takes time to build the audience, to get people engaging, and to amass raving fans that support your organization on social channels. Specifically for your event or meeting, social media planning is key for pre-event, during-event and post-event activities. Your conference takes place at one point in time, but social media tools can be used to build momentum ahead of the event, maintain or build it further during the event, and sustain interest after the event. To achieve this, think of the following to help you plan. Pre-event: Depending on your audience and content, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can be used effectively to ask audience questions and create conversations with people as a lead up to the event. If youre bringing in guest speakers or keynote speakers, encourage them to use the channels to give teasers about their topic or engage with the audience ahead of time. Use these channels to help build momentum and excitement, or as tool to help your audience engage. During-event: Twitter is the best real-time social channel. If you plan really well, you can have a screen for the audience to watch the tweet-stream of conversations about the conference. Also, plan a hashtag for the event and claim it! A hashtagged event allows people to create searches of tweets specifically about or coming from that event (for example #CSAE12). Also, think about video recording and creating a YouTube account. YouTube is the second largest search engine and if your event is annual, people may want to search YouTube for videos of past conferences presentations. Post-event: Twitter is by far the best social channel for activities before, during and after an event. Posting videos on YouTube is an excellent post-event channel, allowing your audience to view and comment on the event whether they attended or not. Also think of posting meeting presentations on SlideShare for those who want to review the presentations. And if youve chosen to use Facebook or LinkedIn, keep the conversation going with your community, especially if you have an annual event. Always keep objectives in mind and how social media can help you meet your conference goals: membership acquisition, education, fundraising, etc. Also think about how much time and effort you can put towards it. Doing something poorly is not worth doing at all. So plan your resources accordingly: members, staff, freelancers, etc.

Social media is about enriching what already exists for your audience a great conference, a great organization, great speakers, great members and great topics for further exploration, all through the online world. Choose the tools that are going to enhance the experience both for your audience and for your organization

Using Social Media for Events Without Wasting Your Time Todays conventional wisdom is that if youre not Twittering, YouTubing, Facebooking, and LinkingIn your annual conference, youve missed the boat. While this is for the most part true, the excitement of using the new tools can get in the way of applying them productively. In this article, we review practical ways to use social media for your event planning it, promoting it, delivering it as well as after its over. Planning the Event How are event themes, speakers and educational tracks determined at your association? Usually this is delegated to a committee composed of volunteers, staff and perhaps trusted advisors. If the committee chooses the right combination for the program, the perceived value of, and attendance at, the event rises. If the committee makes the wrong choice, your event is in trouble. While it may seem risky to ask embers directly, using social media tools to reach out to members and other potential attendees can generate buzz, collect data and enhance affinity. People are more likely to attend if they have a say in setting the agenda. How to do this? Conduct an online survey on key issues in the industry, asking about preferred topics and soliciting speaker recommendations. Or start up discussions in a forum or blog. Blogs have the advantage in that they are automatically syndicated across the Internet, spreading awareness even farther. Your planning committee can consider the feedback when making its decisions. The information will validate great decisions and help avoid bad ones. Promoting the Event One of the basic tenets of web marketing is that instead of being broadcast from one point, a message should be designed so readers can pass it on. Consider these ideas: Create an event blog to keep everyone up to date. In addition to posting text, ask speakers to supply value-added content such as video clips. The blog can be easily syndicated across the Internet to promote awareness of the event, and improve the search engine rankings of the event website itself. Be careful not to allow the blog to be perceived as an advertising channel rather than a preview of the great value offered by the event. Announce your event on relevant discussion forums, including LinkedIn groups. Create a family of social media sites (YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) tied together so that when one is updated, all are. Since you dont know where on the Web your attendees spend their time, creating a broad, integrated presence ensures that attendees will find you when they come looking for you. As a speaker, I spend time researching each audience to whom I present. What are their key issues? What are they hoping to learn from me? What are their challenges? While the answers can be gathered through one-on-one over-the-phone interviews, if your meeting planner establishes a forum, prospective attendees can share directly what

they are looking for and I can immediately respond. The result is in a more customized presentation coupled with audience pre-engagement that translates into more registrations for the event. While associations use their magazines and newsletters to promote conferences, they should engage other media as well to get out the message. Mainstream media (including trade publications) can generate articles that can be linked to or cross-posted. Bloggers may want to do pre-interviews leading up to the conference. And, of course, the board, staff and key volunteers can comment on each others blogs and tweets, driving interest further. A word about the registration process: The user interface is generally designed by programmers, not marketers. While making it easy to transact is the primary goal, the opportunity to build in social media functionality tell-a-friend, up-selling, crossselling, access to private content and discussion groups should not be overlooked. The most powerful salesperson for your event is someone who has just made a purchase. Why not generate a testimonial just after a transaction by asking why the registrant decided to attend the event? Delivering the Event Social media can play five important roles during a conference: capturing content to be used to market future events enhancing the learning process of attendees expanding the event to include remote attendees capturing information for a post-event virtual event generating publicity for the event and the association Future marketing: Much of the content and other information generated during an event can be repurposed for future event marketing. Testimonials are particularly important. Quick tip: For video testimonials, instead of presenting a waiver to be signed, ask for permission right on camera before posing your first question. Learning process: In addition to creating discussion forums for educational tracks, consider having a Twitter wall for each presentation. This is a projection screen off to the side, with a computer running a Twitter management program (HootSuite, TweetDeck, and Seesmic are examples). This will display tweets about the presentation from both local and remote attendees. This, of course, only works if the speaker is comfortable receiving feedback on the fly. Hint: Place a separate monitor in front of the speaker so he or she can follow the feedback without having to turn away from the audience. Remote attendees: Technology now allows live event streaming, and some events now provide a remote registration option for attendees who cant attend the event in person. Virtual event: Using inexpensive Flip-style video cameras, a team of roving reporters can interview speakers, dignitaries and audience members throughout the

event. The snippets can then be uploaded to YouTube, Facebook and elsewhere. Microbloggers can give a running commentary on particular workshops, and bloggers can do summaries and session reviews. Publicity: Invite influential bloggers as well as mainstream media to your event. Doing this early allows them to publicize the event, further driving attendance. Finally, instead of a traditional news release, use a social media news release. After the Event The goal of the annual event is to bind attendees closer to the organization through networking, professional development and community building. Social media can play a powerful role by capturing the excitement and learning for those who couldnt attend in person. At the same time, it can provide an interactive extension of the conference for this same group. One way to do this is to ensure that the events pictures, videos, speaker hand-outs, transcripts and interviews are recorded and archived. Another is to establish a discussion forum where communities of interest can develop. Summing Up Through the proper use of social media, an associations annual event can provide a new jolt of energy for its emerging online learning community. In turn, the community becomes the planning and marketing arena for next years event. The cycle then continues year after year. Social media thus forms an essential ingredient for todays successful event planners, but only if applied strategically and if associations dont let the excitement of using these new tools divert attention from using them strategically. Randall Craig is the author of seven books, including Online PR and Social Media for Associations and the Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business. He is the coauthor of the CSAE 2012-2013 Social Media Best Practices Survey, and moderates the Driving Event Attendance: Bums in Seats LinkedIn group. Randall is the President of 108 ideaspace, consulting and speaking on web and Social Media strategy and execution. More at www.RandallCraig.com, www.108ideaspace.com and @RandallCraig. This article was originally published in the September 2010 CSAE Trillium Chapter FORUM E-Newsmagazine http://www.csae.com/Chapters/Trillium/Newsletter.aspx

Social Media Benchmarking Survey 2012/2013 Wave 2 Canadian Society of Association Executives Background and Overview Bramm Research and 108 ideaspace conducted the 2nd wave of the CSAE Social Media Benchmarking Survey in the last quarter of 2012. Approximately 300 associations answered one or more parts of the survey. In total, 240 associations answered all portions of the survey. This brief summary describes some of our findings. The full report contains greater details, and breaks down the data by association type and size. To order the report, CSAE members please go to http://www.budurl.com/csae2013. Summary 1. Social Media: Ahead of the Curve or Behind? In the second year of our comprehensive survey we see that social media continues to offer challenges to the organizations responding to our questionnaire. This year we asked respondents if they felt that, with regards to social media, they are ahead of the curve, somewhere in the middle or behind in this area. A mere 10% placed themselves in the ahead of the curve category. Throughout the report, we have used these bellwether organizations in our analysis. Where appropriate we have noted how their attitudes and activities differ from other organizations. 2. Your Members: What are Their Expectations? We asked respondents if their members look to them for guidance in the area of social media. While opinion is divided on this issue, one fact stands out our bellwether organizations are twice as likely to say that their members are looking for guidance. We speculate that it is this demand that has driven their social media activity. It continues to be the case this year that a surprisingly large number of organizations do not know what their members are thinking when it comes social media or they are relying on a gut feeling. Again, bellwether organizations are using a variety of techniques to monitor their members. 3. Social Media: Benefits and Concerns? The top three perceived benefits of social media remain unchanged this year. They are: increases brand awareness, provided networking opportunities and develops community, intermember collaboration and sharing. There continues to be a multitude of additional benefits that accrue from the use of social media. Consider the following comments: Enhances our culture by demonstrating our willingness to effectively

embrace new concepts. Builds relationships with members of media. Could be used to seek member opinion on a policy direction. With regards to concerns, we see that the top three remain: lack of participation/engagement from your members, difficulty in demonstrating ROI and comments on social media not representative of general public opinion. We find it interesting that organizations are concerned about a lack of participation or engagement in light of the fact that relatively few have taken the steps to understand what their members expectations are. 4. Keeping Up With Trends With a continuously evolving social media landscape how are our organizations keeping pace? For the most part they are relying on input from employees and volunteers along with attending seminars/conferences. However, fully one-third admit that they have no formal mechanism for keeping pace. Not surprisingly, relatively few of our bellwether organizations are lacking a formal mechanism. 5. Current Initiatives In overall terms, the percent of organizations supporting some form of social media activity has grown from 77% to 88%. This year we see increases in all forms of social media activity. The most popular platforms remain an association Facebook page or group or a twitter account. As well as increased activity on these two platforms we are seeing increases on all other platforms. As well we see increases in areas that were evident at very low levels last year e.g. mobile apps and Google+. We also see Pinterest making an appearance this year. 6. Dollars and Time Devoted to Social Media Our report contains a detailed breakdown of the amount spent on social media (apart from staff time) and hours devoted to this activity. In both cases, respondents expect significant increases in 2013. However, respondents predicted the same increase in activity last year and the results indicate that these predictions did not materialize. We see the same pattern for social media training. Once again, expectations exceed reality i.e. last year 74% expected that they would provide training in 2012. In reality, only half (49%) provided this training. 7. Social Media Who Has Responsibility? For the majority of organizations taking part in this survey, the communications/public relations department is taking responsibility for social media. This is particularly the case amongst larger organizations. Not surprisingly, within smaller associations,

executive management is more likely to have responsibility for social media. 8. The Current State of Social Media Strategies and Policies We are seeing a substantial increase in organizations that report having a formal and documented social media strategy. Having said this, almost half (49%) of organizations have no social media strategy or have one that is in development. We are not seeing as significant an increase in the percentage of associations with formal and documented risk management policies. Currently over 60% of organizations have risk management policies that are in development or non-existent. This percentage is essentially unchanged since last year. In comparison to the total sample, our bellwether organizations are significantly more likely to have formal and documented social media strategies and risk management policies. However, even amongst this elite group, many organizations are lacking in this area. 9. Promoting and Tracking Social Media Activities Organizations are becoming more adept at using a variety of methods to promote their social media activities. The top three promotional tactics are: promotion on your website, email marketing, and promotion at events. In all three cases we are seeing increased activity this year. Organizations are also devoting more effort to tracking their initiatives. But, while the percentage is dropping, a substantial percentage (56%) are not tracking activities or are only doing so informally. 10. Measuring The Success of Your Activities Last year 32% of respondents said they measured the success of their social media activities. This years number stands at 45%. By way of comparison, 82% of our bellwether organizations are currently measuring the success of their activities. The most popular tools being employed are: Google Analytics, Google Alerts and/or HootSuite, TweetDeck, or Seesmic. 11. Best Practices Once again this year we asked respondents to share with us their own social media best practices. The final section of the report contains these verbatim responses along with examples of social media successes and disasters. Listed below is a small sampling of best practice insights. We have selected them because they illustrate the range of opinions on this topic and the fact that each organization will have its own unique social media challenges and responses to those challenges.

Dive into social media. You learn more by "doing" than by trying to develop the best social media strategy or policy (which can be adjusted along the way). Don't wait and worry. Start now. Base your social media plan on what you want to accomplish and not simply on "getting on the band wagon". Member participation on social media must be driven through modeling by staff as well as media usage among members due to the time required, as it is one project among many that we undertake for our members. Have one policy and get consensus organization-wide, rather than having different divisions create their own (and perhaps conflicting) brands/voice/policies. Autonomy and trust & having a consistent 'voice' ie- one person is in charge of all the Social Media and has developed strengths that present in unique and individual ways/ continual discussion, research and development/ understanding the professionalism and respecting it as you would other endeavors... "responsible journalism still applies" To order the full report, CSAE members please go to http://www.budurl.com/csae2013. Gerald Bramm is the principal in Bramm Research, which provides research consulting services to associations. For more information and to download Geralds whitepaper, 7 Steps to Creating Successful Online Surveys, visit http://brammresearch.com