And you know social media tools can help you do that.
And you know there's a global paradigm shift towards the user, where you need to let your members have more of a collaborative voice before they abandon you for some other association that does that for them.
You know all this, right?! We've been banging on the drum for ages! And now you want to just know how to start!
Here are two useful FREE e-books to help get you on the way. They are written in clear, simple language, won't take long to read, and can get you started RIGHT NOW.
The first is Customer Service: The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media, by Brian Solis. 31-page e-book is here. It's not aimed at associations specifically, but there's nothing in here that can't be used in the same way as a for-profit company would.
"Outbound customer and community relations is among the most important campaigns any company can integrate in its immediate and future initiatives. It not only helps PR and customer service, it builds relationships, creates enthusiasts, and ultimately instills customer loyalty."
IMPORTANT NOTE: It's not about the tools. "Technology will always evolve and the tools will continually change".
As per Brian, here's how you start.
1. Find a champion (or several) within the organization, at any level, who is willing to speak up and present the idea of monitoring relevant online conversations to whoever will ultimately give the go-ahead. Maybe that champion is you, but if not, call in a favor (or find someone who can).
2. Set up a person or group of people whose job it is to listen to what's out there. Call them "Community Relations Manager" or whatever pithy title works for your association.
3. Get them to start by setting up Google Alerts for your association, your services, products, your "key personnel", and your competing associations in the same field.
4. Get them monitoring social media search tools like Technorati, Bloglines, My Blog Log, etc. through which they can see the context, how often, how positive or negative, etc., in which the association and its relevant services are coming up in blogs.
5. AFTER they have a good sense of the ongoing conversation, they might be in a position to set up a Facebook group or other external or made-to-order internal social network, or to set up an association blog, or even a microblog (Twitter/Jaiku) presence.
The point is: START BY LISTENING FIRST. Appoint one person (if you are a small association, or several people across several departments (PR, marketing, product development, training, etc), if you are a big association) to listen to the conversation that is already taking place about your association, and from there you will find the rest relatively intuitive as far as how much more you can expand your association's reach.
Read the book for specific examples, but this is it in a nutshell and you can start TODAY.
I'll talk about the next e-book in part 2.
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