How do you respect executive concerns and member habits when you introduce a social media network as your association’s communication hub?

Tom Morrison, CEO of the Metal Treating Institute, recently summarized how his association revamped its entire communications strategy to incorporate social media as a hub of member activity and information. He presented his summary for the webinar, Association Social Media in 2010: What Associations are REALLY Doing and What’s Getting Results.

Private vs Commercial Social Networks for Associations
MTI used a private network as its social media hub as opposed to the free commercial networks such as Facebook because it provided:

• Ability of association to own its message for advertising
• Ability of association to archive and access content
• Increased integration and collaboration

Executive Fear of Social Media Exposure
One of the first questions executives ask about social media is, What happens if we get negative remarks?
“You have to move through it,” Tom advises. “No matter what, your members are talking … If you don’t wrap your members now [in a social media network] someone else will grab them.” Providing a format gives leaders an opportunity to hear trends and issues as they arise, when they are more easily addressed.

Social Media Benefits for a Business Case
Tom presented several benefits for nonprofits and associations to incorporate social media for communications:

• combat attrition: Competitive advantage attracting younger members and volunteers
• stimulate more active committees
• efficiency and savings in postage and print
• gives voice to long distance members
• opens up revenue opportunities
• connects members who don’t attend meetings

Engaging Members Who Don’t Attend Meetings
Tom’s last point is not heard often, but having been involved in nonprofits as a member or a professional for most of my life, I know that promoting meeting attendance is always a challenge, especially in far-flung geographical areas or urban regions where traffic is a major issue. So it was motivating to hear that 60% of his association members had not attended meetings in the last 2 years but the social media initiative had since engaged 50% of those who were not attending meetings.

Planning Is Key to Use Social Media as Communications Hub
The MTI strategy made member benefits the core theme in all its communications. Members’ reasons for joining the association would be reinforced in both online and print messages.

The key to transition was a marketing plan to introduce the new network to the membership in three phases:

• Pre-launch
• Launch
• Maintenance – someone has to keep the conversation and information flowing.

Preparing Members
To reassure members used to the current structure, Tom played down the technology of social media networks and focused on member needs and benefits instead. “We said, ‘Hey, we’re having discussions that you want to be in on.”

They did not pull down their print messaging, but emphasized that news could be obtained more immediately online. MTI kept its messages simple and leveraged their online content by including it in their weekly newsletters.

Tom’s full presentation is accessible at Association Social Media in 2010: What Associations are REALLY Doing and What’s Getting Results at the Avectra Academy website.

I would also like to remind you to draft social media policies and guidelines to mitigate risk. You would be proactive, as it is estimated that only 10 percent of the companies that use social media have a social media policy in place.