Social media surprises from our mothers
It wasn’t until I was in high school that I really started to recognize my mom had an identity beyond being putting a healthy, home-made meal on the table every night, making sure we understood our homework, and offering encouraging words or a forgiving smile when we needed it the most.
Now, I always knew she was a cool lady, but recently I’ve been starting to see where I must have gotten the Internet-nerd gene from in the family. Over the last couple years, my mom has started to get into social media: She uses Bloglines to read RSS feeds (she’s got mine in there!), we chat more over IM than we do on the phone, and a few months ago she asked me how hard I thought learning Dreamweaver, a website-building application, would be for her (my answer: Go for it!). Oh, and although she doesn’t have an account yet, she knows what Twitter is. I can’t even say that for most of my friends.
Since we’re all very passionate about social media here at Hammock, I figured I wasn’t the only one whose mom was starting to warm up to the new media bandwagon. Read on to find out whose moms have embraced this new technology and whose might still be a bit leery.

We often hear, and it was recently affirmed in the Angerosa Research Foundation’s Web 2.0: How Associations Are Tapping Social Media report, that the reason many associations fail to execute social media initiatives is because they lack an internal champion or advocate. The benefits social media can bring to an association are significant and include engaging younger members, creating member interaction, connecting event attendees and driving membership growth. That’s why it’s so important that someone in your organization becomes your association’s social media champion. Here are some tips for how you can become that very important advocate in your organization:

• Don’t be intimidated
  We often work with clients who are interested in social media, and some have been for some time, but have been paralyzed by their fear of the tools and technologies to get them started. It’s understandable that social media can be scary, but don’t let it prevent you from meeting your association goals. If you can’t do it on your own, look outside your organization to a company for help to get you started.
• Do your homework
  Get familiar with the social media tools that are out there. You need to understand not only what they are, but also how they can be used to work to meet the needs of your association and its members. Social media is an active media. Simply setting up social media accounts will not position you in a way for success. Social media will be effective only if you learn how to harness its power to work for you.
• Network with colleagues
  Just like you would talk with fellow association executives on other new initiatives, projects or issues to get their input, there is no reason not to do the same with social media. Seek colleagues who have embraced social media and learn how they are using it with their association. Your association’s needs won’t be exactly the same as others, but it will give you a frame of reference and some good case studies to use to help build your case for social media.
• Establish goals
  Once you’ve grasped the fundamentals of social media and connected with others already using it in the association community, think about what you want social media to accomplish for your association. Are you struggling to recruit younger members? Are you trying to address member attrition? Or are you trying to increase your website’s traffic so that you can generate more online revenues? What’s important is that on the front-end you think about what you want your social media indicatives to accomplish so you will have a case for why you need to pursue these efforts and how they will bring value to your organization.
• Set a strategy
  Now that you know what your goals are, you need to determine which social media tools, alone or in combination, will be part of your social media strategy. This is when the preliminary research and networking you did will pay off because it will allow you to customize your strategy to that which is optimal for your association.
• Make your case
  You’ve created a social media strategy for your association and now it’s time for you to make the case to the key decision makers. Be prepared: Develop a list of obstacles you predict will be raised by your senior leadership. Share how other associations are successfully using social media. Paint a picture as to how you would implement your strategy in phases, and how it will be measured.
• Execute your plan
  Congratulations! Your social media project has been approved and you are ready to implement it. Once it’s in place, don’t forget how important it is to keep up with the content and the tools. Social media requires constant attention and fresh content so make sure you have the resources in place to maintain the quality you planned for. And if you need help, contact us.

Hammock has entered into an agreement to become the official social media sponsor of the Society of National Association Publications and its annual Association Media & Publishing conference to be held this year, June 3-4, 2009 in Washington, D.C., at the Capital Hilton.
To generate interest in the event and provide a place online for attendees to set up user profiles, discuss the agenda, interact with speakers and network, Hammock has created a pre-event online conference community for SNAP. The site, which launched this month, is managed and hosted by members of Hammock’s social media team.

For most associations, events are an integral part of their annual calendar. Despite the effect of the current economic situation on many events, the good news is that events provide associations a perfect opportunity to leverage the power and excitement of social media. There are so many ways an association can engage its members before, during and after an event with social media tools. Providing this type of new and exciting value to attendees is a smart way to provide additional member benefit and reverse shrinking attendee numbers for future events.
Here are five tips for associations looking to engage their members before an event through a social networking community site:

The New York Times yesterday had a very interesting article and accompanying diagram, which they referred to as the “Celebrity Twitter Ecosystem, ” showing which celebrities follow each other on Twitter.

How to use social media to recruit and retain members
In today’s economy we’re all trying to do more with less. Associations are no different. Budgets are being carefully monitored to ensure that any potential waste is eliminated. Tough choices are being made.
This leaves associations in a challenging place—with the need to minimize costs but find a way to retain and recruit new members. What are they to do in this environment? Although each association is unique, here are some ways to take advantage of the power of social media to effectively recruit and retain members:

Associations can take a few lessons away from the wealth of information doled out during the panels and core conversations that filled the days during SXSW Interactive in Austin March 13-17. The five-day conference brings together the best and brightest minds in social media, technology and design.

No matter the subject of the hundreds of panels and conversations that were going on, several topics kept coming up again and again, and associations can learn valuable lessons from those discussions:

1. “What’s your blog address?” If your association hasn’t started a blog yet, today is the day. A blog provides your association an easy way to disseminate information and receive feedback all in one place, and helps build credibility by giving visitors a glimpse into a more personal side of your company.
2. Respond to every email. Members and potential members of your association, along with members of the media and just curious web users, are likely to contact you online. No matter how crazy or far-reaching the email is, answer every single one. This will not only reiterate good customer service and response on your end, but it will let the folks behind such inquiries know that there is a real person behind your web presence. Recruit other members on your team to take on this task because it could get overwhelming.
3. Create great culture. What’s the atmosphere like within the walls of your association? Do you provide free soft drinks to staff members? Is everyone required to wear a suit every day? The culture within your organization will be very evident, and it will trickle down in the interactions—both online and offline—that you have with members and potential members.
4. Start the conversation. Your members and potential members are online. They’re blogging, tweeting and having conversations across a wide variety of applications and platforms. Jump in! Start the conversation and get information about your association and the benefits of membership out to a new group of readers online. Not sure how to get to started? Blog about a new benefit. Tweet a question about the best place to schedule a business dinner. Post pictures from a recent event to an online photo-sharing site.

We like to stay on the leading edge of the curve when it comes to technology, social media, publishing, business and so much more. So when dates are announced for SXSWi each year, we don’t pencil it into our calendar–we write it in huge letters in permanent marker!

Results from the Angerosa Research Foundation

Many association executives we talk to are interested in social media and how other associations are taking advantage of social media tools. A report recently released by the Angerosa Research Foundation provides some data and benchmarking for this in their study “How Associations are Tapping Social Media.” The report covers a range of related information including overall trends, wikis, blogs and strategic issues.

Probably of the most interest to many executives are what benefits associations are reaping from these social media efforts. The report is definitely worth reading, but in the meantime, here are the top seven benefits from the report for those associations who are using social media tools:

1. Relevance to younger members
2. Opportunities for member interaction
3. Improve member retention by increasing engagement
4. Connect before/after meetings
5. Increase the frequency of brand interaction
6. Create member-generated content
7. Source of non-dues revenue

The report indicates that there were other unexpected benefits mentioned by respondents including increases in knowledge about member issues, member interaction and responses to public policy and advocacy issues.

Click here to download a PDF of the executive summary. If you are interested in a social media strategy for your association or if you have questions about social media, contact us to learn how Hammock can work with you to help you meet your association’s goals.

The social media services company Vitrue recently released their list of the most social brands of 2008. Social brands were defined as those with the most mentions in social networking, blogging and microblogging sites. They used a “social media index” to track these mentions but did not differentiate between positive and negative conversations. The purpose of the index is to capture a brand’s share of voice on the web. The top 10 brands/branded products were the iPhone, CNN, Apple, Disney, Xbox, Starbucks, iPod, MTV, Sony and Dell. View the full list here.

There are three lessons associations can take from these big brands/products to help generate more mentions in social media venues for their groups:

1. Join the chatter
   You must make the effort to participate and make your own mentions on behalf of your association. This will help you learn what type of content solicits the most feedback and comments from readers. Keep an eye on trackbacks to see how many other people are linking to a post.
2. Give them something to talk about
   Once you start to understand how mentions are made and what drives the participation, concentrate on the type of content that will be of the most interest to your target audience. What will get them involved and talking? The conversation you are seeking can take place on your site and on other social media sites. The important thing is that you foster the conversation with compelling and fresh content that will connect with your target audience’s passions.
3. Be responsive
   To keep the conversation flowing, keep an eye on comments on your site and others that mention your association. If questions are asked, respond to them promptly. If suggestions are made, for example, to improve your annual event, share your association’s response. Showing that there is a two-way dialogue for these online conversations will increase the likelihood of a jump in volume mentions.

And don’t forget to measure your success. Keep an eye on your analytics to see the effects of your efforts so you can constantly tweak your strategy. If you have questions about social media marketing or want to learn more about how Hammock can help you develop your online community, contact us .