Iran-Kodak-Cause: the Power of Social Media

The recent events in Iran ... freedom fighters using Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. to spread work of the resistence after the Government shut down "legacy media outlets ... has shown the power of Social Media tools to bypass governments, organizations and the media.

Seems as though this is a lesson for those of us in the association world ... as we transition from traditional communications tools to the variety of tools in the Social Media arsenal.

Thanks to a Tweet, I had a chance to watch a presentation of Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kodak's Chief Marketing Officer, at the 140 Characters Conference. http://www.blip.tv/file/2251088/ He talks about why Kodak is rapidly adopting Social Media tools to meet its four core marketing objectives: 1) Engaging; 2) Educating; 3) Exciting; 4) Evangelizing.

Aren't those four "Es" characteristics of many of our organizations? What tools are you using to engage, educate and excite your members? And engage in evangelize to help find new members?

By the way, Hayzlett's presentation itself shows the power of Social Media for associations. Notice I did NOT attend this conference. Yet, I was watching a video of one of the keynote speakers within three days of the conference. And, this video is speeding around the world ... and making people like me think I should attend this conference the next time it is held!

What are you doing to share the content coming from your conferences and educational programs? "Keeping it" for "members only" ... or, sharing this content as a way to building awareness, trust and knowledge of your association, industry, profession?

Meanwhile, cause marketing continues to offer trade associations and professional societies a new strategy to engage members, build positive awareness and generate funds. While Corporate America and charitable non profits continue to aggressively expand their adoption of cause marketing alliances, many trade associations and professional societies seem to standing on the sidelines. I don't understand why. The Cause Marketing Forum asked me to give a Masters Series Telesession on how companies and causes can "tap in" to the association world. Here's the Power Point. http://bit.ly/cukWB I'd like to hear from trade associations and professional societies: what is holding you back?

What are your thoughts on these two issues?

Steve

Social Media Debate: Content Trumps Everything

When I first started managing conferences, I quickly discovered that topics (content) drove attendance. In survey after survey, participants told us they made a decision to attend based on the ontent (topics), not speakers and not location.

Commentaries and presentations about whether or not social media will transform associations fill the "air" at conferences, in blogs and on social media sites themselves.

Focusing solely on social media is like trying to decide whether to hold a conference in April or May when the real issue is who is the audience and what topics are important to them.

I was reminded of this the other day when a meetings magazine reporter was interviewing Miriam Yanders (our meeting planner) and I about "challenges to drive attendance to annual conventions."

Miriam and I shared our findings from back in 1993 and 1994 ... content (topics) trumps everything. If you deliver content relevant to the target audiences, they will come.

Get the content right and your association's members will flock to you.

Once you have the content right, you can determine how to deliver that content in a way that boosts your oganization and benefits your audiences (members, potential members, etc.). And what is really exciting today is that we have a whole host of delivery vehicles:

• A traditional conference
• A Webinar
• A blog
• Facebook Fan Page
• LinkedIn Group Discussion/News
• Tweets with links to blogs
• Web site
• Videos (via YouTube)
• Audio (via Podcasts)

Focus first on content. Then on the delivery vehicles. And, determine which of those vehicles is the best tool to reach most of your audience to deliver the content important to them.

A couple of thoughtful blogs help give more detail on content marketing and what it means to your organization:

Five Reasons why Content Strategy comes before Social Media:
http://bit.ly/1a89Vw

How to Attract and Retain Customers with Content:
http://bit.ly/ezFYs

Your thoughts?

Steve