I recently attended my first Lunch & Learn hosted by Association Media & Publishing. What a great program for association professionals! This one was covering use of social media — an important topic around here at Hammock.
One of the things that I always find most valuable at such gatherings is the questions people ask. They give you a little window into understanding the association audience they serve.
I found myself asking “How would we answer that at Hammock?” since we are using all types of social media tools as part of our content marketing strategies every day. Instead of blurting out answers there, I circulated the questions to our Internet marketing team and here’s what they said.

Q. Why are people using social media goals rather than business objectives?
Q. How do you know your members want videos? It seems you may spend the money and are hoping it get their attention?
Q. Who should do the tweeting?
Q. Where should we be posting articles and content, our site, Facebook, other platforms? How to include this with Twitter?
Q. How do you set up multiple Facebook accounts? Should there be a separate one for the publication?
Q. How do some associations become so evolved as to have a social media person?
Q. How do you issue a member survey about social media and its importance to members?
Q. Tips for moving members to the social networking platforms?
Q. Why are there are people using social media goals rather than business objectives?
A. Great question and one I was asking myself. If specific, measurable business objectives (e.g. membership renewals, conference registrations, new member acquisition) are not the purpose of using social media, then there is no point in spending resources on it.
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Q. How do you know your members want videos? It seems you may spend the money and are hoping it get their attention?
A. Videos, like all other media, are designed to appeal to members in a specific way and to appeal to those that prefer to watch a video rather than read a blog or peruse photographs as examples. They also allow you tell a story or convey a message in a way other media cannot. Plus videos can be a great way to point to a deeper level of content or, better yet, drive a viewer to a specific action that supports your objectives. Videos — like all other media — do not stand alone, but are a corner piece of the content puzzle. So measuring their effectiveness on the number of viewings will not tell the whole story.
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Q. Who should do the tweeting?
A. It doesn’t really matter who the authors of the tweets are as much as the objectives and purpose (as long as they are qualified to tweet on behalf of the organization, of course). Have a strategy — whether it is using Twitter to point to content and directing traffic back to specific areas of your site, or supporting a certain blog post as a way to pushing new, brief insight that prompts the reader to want to learn more — is more important that the “who” behind it. It should be used as another push media that supports the overall content strategy.
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Q. Where should we be posting articles and content, our site, Facebook, other platforms? How to include this with Twitter?
A. We firmly believe the content should reside on your branded site where you can track its effectiveness in delivering on your organizational goals. The social media platforms are perfect ways to drive traffic back to the site and provide snippets of great content, but the content should reside on the site. This way it will build your organic search results, especially when the content is search engine optimized. That said, you should push your content to wherever your members have formed a community. Participate there, as well — not just on your own URL.
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Q. How do you set up multiple Facebook accounts? Should there be a separate one for the publication?
A. Facebook pages are a solution to this dilemma. If the question is, should an individual have a separate Facebook account for business, a Facebook page can solve that. If the question is, should the Association have a separate Facebook page for a publication, it is a situational thing. Some associations are large and have multiple magazines going to different types of audiences. In those cases, yes, have separate Facebook pages. If the magazine and the association are closely intertwined and the magazine content is “about” the organization, then one Facebook page will do.
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Q. How do some associations become so evolved as to have a social media person?
A. Making a commitment to effective use of new media is growing and many are staffing up, which is a great sign. But most associations are reticent to make the move or do anything beyond creating a platform page. That may be why we are seeing more and more organizations outsourcing these functions so that they are leveraging outside expertise to deliver results without committing to additional head count. The challenge for a lot of traditional media people is this: They see communication as a platform medium while social media is a two-way conversational medium. In fact, it’s more a place than a medium. That’s a hard concept to grasp for a lot of traditional media people.
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Q. How do you issue a member survey about social media and its importance to members?
A. This can be quite tricky. If you ask the obvious questions (do you use Twitter?) then the response rate will be disappointing. But, if you position the questions around what needs members have (Do you have a difficult time keeping up with the steady stream of industry information?) then you will uncover ways to better serve your membership with new and innovative solutions. Also, where and how you survey members will influence the outcome. For instance, you can run a survey on your Facebook page or there’s even a survey third-party application that uses Twitter. People who responded to a survey using those would be self-selecting and skewed to be pro-social media.
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Q. Tips for moving members to the social networking platforms?
A. Members and prospective members will find the platforms. They key is to be there waiting for them when they arrive.
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Q. How do you use Twitter lists and is this important?
A. Twitter lists are great for you to curate topical lists for your members. For example, if you have different councils or committees or types of members, a Twitter list that collects the accounts of users in those specific groups might be of help to people.
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Social Media Graphic Credit: Damien Basile, via Flickr, creative commons.