How do you know it's time to invest in social media?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
I received a lot of great comments on my post What should be in your association's social media plan. One comment from my friend Henri Makembe inspired this post.
Every association should invest in social media.
Wait...hear me out. I'm not suggesting we all go blow our entire budget on the latest gadgets and gizmos for our website. But I firmly believe that every association can benefit from spending time getting to know social spaces all over the web, listening to the conversations that are happening in those spaces, and eventually, helping to guide those conversations as leaders in your industry or profession.
The investment that every association should make is time, not money. In the long run, the time you put into getting really good at this will bring you closer to your members, your market and the issues that matter in your industry.
And if you find that your audience is actively participating in the social web, well, then it's time to ramp up your skills and take a hard look at creating a social media plan that is in line with your group's mission and objectives. And yes, it's probably worth spending some money. But now you'll have a much stronger case based on the value you've already created for free.
4 comments:
jeremy
said...
this may be extreme, but it won't be too long before you have NO choice but to invest in social media. this is primarily due to the way that communication is evolving (i.e., if I don't like what you are saying on FB, I can de-friend you...and then you just can't reach me...at all. You don't exist.
So, if associations want to maintain a conversation with their members, tey will have no alternative
October 7, 2008 7:26 PM
So, if associations want to maintain a conversation with their members, tey will have no alternative
Maggie
said...
I totally agree, Lindy--I think that spending time learning and monitoring is a necessary first step for any association even considering investing in social media. Not only do you "learn by doing"--thereby reducing potential training costs once a social media plan is in place--but you get a sense of what might be worth investing time and money in and what might not be very useful to your members. And, most importantly, you'll be armed with concrete answers to the inevitable "What do we stand to gain from this?" There's a big difference between explaining to decision-makers what Twitter is (after which they will ALWAYS ask "What's the point?”) and being able to say we have 100 followers, including x number of members, reporters, bloggers, etc. Any concrete number or example you can pull from your experimenting will prove invaluable in terms of getting buy in to proceed with developing and implementing a social media strategy.
October 8, 2008 10:00 AM
Henri
said...
Lindy,
I'm flattered that I inspired a post. But I still disagree a bit with what you're saying. I posted a response on my blog.
http://www.makembe.com/index.php/2008/10/09/how-do-you-know-its-time-to-invest-in-social-media-my-response/
October 10, 2008 7:49 AM
I'm flattered that I inspired a post. But I still disagree a bit with what you're saying. I posted a response on my blog.
http://www.makembe.com/index.php/2008/10/09/how-do-you-know-its-time-to-invest-in-social-media-my-response/
Caron Mason, CAE
said...
My opinion of the matter is that you just don't know until you try. Yes, an organization should plan ahead and try to figure out the benefits and costs (including time) before jumping into social media. But I also see a lot of social media as being low-cost and easy to experiment with. If you succeed, the benefits are high. And if you fail, there usually isn't much harm done.
For example, my last association was very reluctant to try a blog . It took years of convincing (maybe begging is a better word) until senior volunteer leadership and senior staff finally gave me the go ahead to try although they warned me it would most likely fail.
The first blog we launched wasn't very successful--but it had a very small audience. We took the lessons learned and tried again with a larger blog that reached out to all in the association's represented profession (members or not). After only two months, it's the first thing that pops up on several Google searches and, traffic-wise, is one of our most popular webpages.
October 18, 2008 5:12 PM
For example, my last association was very reluctant to try a blog . It took years of convincing (maybe begging is a better word) until senior volunteer leadership and senior staff finally gave me the go ahead to try although they warned me it would most likely fail.
The first blog we launched wasn't very successful--but it had a very small audience. We took the lessons learned and tried again with a larger blog that reached out to all in the association's represented profession (members or not). After only two months, it's the first thing that pops up on several Google searches and, traffic-wise, is one of our most popular webpages.
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Great post. At what point would you determine whether or not the association needs/should invest into social media? Or do you believe all associations could take advantage of social media given the right plan and resources?