As I mentioned in my last post, I recently started a new job, a large part of which is covering tech and cybersecurity issues. After five years of obsessively focusing on social media and community management, it’s an interesting change and fun to be learning so much. At the same time, though, it’s kind of […]
What does the collaborative economy mean for associations?
I’ve been reading and thinking about the collaborative economy for a while now, and of course can’t help but wonder what it means for the association industry. Never heard of “collaborative economy”? Jeremiah Owyang defines it in this post: “the Collaborative Economy enables people to efficiently get what they need from each other.” Going by […]
How to Showcase Online Community Wins for Membership Marketing
Reading this article about Sermo, an online community for physicians, reaching 260,000 members, a part that jumped out at me was this one: “Over the years, physicians collaborated on tens of thousands of cases and although many successes go unreported, over 50% of iConsult cases posted are “Solved on Sermo.” Our average solve time is […]
Online Community Spurs Inter-Association Collaboration
Perusing Twitter yesterday, I happened to see an SLP (speech-language pathologist) tweet a link to this ASHA Leader article. It’s a great article about a grassroots movement among SLPs and other healthcare practitioners to figure out a way to reduce stress on clinicians and foster patient-centered care in long term care facilities. It’s also a […]
Using Online Community to Increase Member Retention
For the past few days I’ve been in Orlando at ASAE’s Great Ideas conference. I love this conference because it’s small and the content is good and it’s not all about the expo hall (as much as I love me some expo hall). Also, it’s sunny and warm here and not a snowflake in sight, […]
What Your Association Conference Looks Like on Twitter
This is a bit nerdier than usual, but I thought this was a pretty cool representation of what an association conference looks like on Twitter via NodeXL, a free open source template for Excel that lets you explore network graphs. I am working on my Excel-phobia and can only dream of being able to create […]
Why Online Community is About More Than Community for Associations
There’s been a flurry of attention over a recent Associations Now story about how Doximity, a private online community for physicians, is outpacing the AMA in terms of membership. I started to reply to one of the comments in the original story, but then my response got so long I figured I should just write […]
How to Create a Pinterest Place Board for An Event
If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with Pinterest. Also with social media and associations. So when they announced Place Pins at the end of November, of course the first thing I thought was “this could be cool for an association’s annual conference.” Then the holidays came and went, and I didn’t have time […]
Why Associations Need to Revisit Communication Strategy in 2014
I’ve been “doing” social media in the association world for six years now and if I had a dime for every time I’ve heard the comment “but our members are older and aren’t using social media,” I could probably retire right now. Associations use that “truth” to justify keeping the status quo with their communications […]
Is Your Association’s Website Any Better Than HealthCare.gov?
(I published this on SocialFish today; posting it here too) because I’m kind of obsessed with this issue lately) Every day (or at least I strive for every day….) I read the Washington Post. And it seems that every day since October 1, the first page has been dedicated to chronicling the failures of HealthCare.gov. Deirdre Reid […]