I've Got Money Riding On This Post, So Read Carefully ...

So, as you've probably heard, Drake & Company is going to be hosting our first annual Invitational Forum for Association Leaders.

Before you rush off to book your plane tickets and hotel reservations, I wanted to take a moment to answer the question we're hearing a lot. Besides "How can I sponsor this great event?" For that answer, you'll need to give us a call at (636) 449-5050. Here ends the shameless self-promotion.

Here goes:

Out of all the challenges and issues facing associations today, why did you pick content management/marketing as your key topic?

Simply put - because it's what associations do. We eat and breathe content. Or we should, if we want to stay alive and kicking. And if your association does something day-in and day-out, don't you want to make sure you're doing a darn good job at it? In fact, don't you want to be the best at it?

According to Junta42, one of the leaders in content marketing, it's a "marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action." In other words, companies have found that it's far more effective to reach customers and prospects by providing information and knowledge - rather than "selling at" them.

But this is what associations have been doing all along. Think about it - do you know an association that doesn't publish a newsletter, magazine, directory or journal? That doesn't host a website, forum or online community? That doesn't offer educational conferences, webinars, training or tours? That doesn't communicate regularly with members, trying to keep them up-to-date on the latest industry trends or news? This is all content. It may vary in frequency, format or packaging, but it's all content.

Whether you're an association staffer or volunteer leader, I'll bet you $20 that you're dealing with at least one or more of the following "content" issues:

• Are we providing content that is valuable and relevant to our members - or can they go elsewhere for the same, or better, stuff?
• How much of our content should we be giving away for free? Or, how can we bring in more revenue for the content we're already producing?
• Are we picking the best medium to tell our story? Should we be publishing a print magazine or an e-newsletter? A webinar or a face-to-face meeting? A video or a white paper? A website or social media? (Hint: all of these answers are valid, depending on your association.)
• How do we improve underperforming content vehicles - i.e. that newsletter no one opens or the blog that no one has time to update?
• How we do measure the ROI of our efforts? Are we using our content to engage and educate our members or simply to promote our association?
• What can we do to improve our content on a daily basis, without increasing staff?

If any of these issues sound familiar, then I'd encourage you to mark your calendars now for the Forum.

If not, let me know, and I'll pay up. Right after I check with our finance department to see if this counts as a business expense.

Fresh Start – Decluttering My Inbox

Several weeks ago I determined that I was an email (note new AP style!) pack rat. So out of curiousity I emailed my fellow team members at Drake & Company. I simply asked them, “How many emails are in your inbox?”

The responses, which added to my inbox, were interesting. One person clears her inbox daily. Another only keeps one page view’s worth. There were many who replied with numbers that were expected – 50, 180 and so on.

However, some were truly impressive – 1,000, 2,500 and the winner, around 15,000. And to the email police, I will not divulge my sources! Through no fault of her own, one person had all of the emails she had ever received (six years’ worth) multiply and show up in her inbox when they installed her new computer.

Yikes! So with spring finally here, I am going to take a spring cleaning approach to my inbox and other folders. Cleaning out my hundreds of emails will help reduce my stress level and simplify my work day – well, at least it sounds like it might work.

Here’s my plan of attack:

• Ease in slowly – simply start by deleting the email offers from companies that I’ve ordered things from in the past.
• Just like clearing clutter at home – box it up. Make a folder that stands out from the rest and move all those emails into it. BUT don’t just put them aside and forget about them. Set a date (it can even be a year from now) and if you haven’t used them, then delete the whole thing!
• Donate items to charity – in this case, forward emails to your coworkers and let them deal with them. In polite terms, you are just delegating items.
• Get organized without having to go to a store and buy all those bins! Make folders for: 1) your clients, 2) annual conferences, 3) committees, 4) publications, 5) people and 6) whatever else you can think of.
• And what about all the emails that are already in your “attic” (existing folders)? Just thinking about this can be overwhelming – I am going to start by deleting the folders that are marked 2008. Surely, no one is going to enquire why I didn’t run an article from three years ago, are they?
• Delete, delete and delete all of those interoffice email streams about everyday subjects.

Once I have my spring cleaning done, I’m going to decide exactly what I’m going to do with those new emails in my Inbox. Less procrastination, more decisiveness! Deep down I know I don’t need every email I keep, just in case …

Spring cleaning will probably not cure me of my pack rat tendencies, but it’s a start. Email overload isn’t just an association problem – how do you keep from getting buried?

**Plan to attend The Drake Invitational Forum for Association Leaders - June 14-15, 2011, in St. Louis, Mo. Click here for more information.

Make a Video for Your Association - It's Easy!

When I was asked to create a video on communication audits for a Drake & Company blog in January, I admit I was a little nervous. I have absolutely no experience with video production. I think many association professionals are also intimidated by the thought of creating videos (much as I was) and assume they need fancy equipment, expensive editing software or a professional production team. But, I am here to tell you that it is actually very easy to create a video and, by doing this, you are creating additional exposure opportunities for your association.

Here are the top 3 things I learned from making my first video:

1) You don't need a fancy camera to create a quality video. At our office, we have a FLIP camera. These are easy to order online and relatively cheap - around $150. The FLIP camera is very small and easy to use; trust me - if I can use it, you can use it! I also purchased a miniature tripod to use with the FLIP to keep the video steady during taping. You can find a tripod at any camera store for $5. This helped tremendously and gave my video the professional quality it needed - no amateur shaking!

2) Once uploaded to my computer, the opportunities to post my video are endless! I used YouTube as a sort of storage place for the video. Then, I was able to embed it on the Drake & Company blog. I also sent the video out via Facebook and Twitter by posting the link to the video. And it's easy to embed a video onto your website, which will help you gain more exposure for not only the video but for your association. Plus, most people enjoy watching a video as opposed to reading endless text.

3) Recycling is not just for paper. Now that my video is on YouTube, I can always go back and re-use it in the future. Maybe in 2012, The Drake Invitational Forum for Association Leaders* will have a workshop on communication audits. The workshop leader may choose to reference my video. As we all know, once something is a part of the World Wide Web, it never goes away. There may be an association leader who is looking for information on communication audits in a couple of months and they might stumble across my video. They may think, "Wow, it looks like Drake & Company is very knowledgeable on communication audits; I think my association needs a communication audit; I'm going to contact Drake & Company."

Start thinking today about what video message you want to create. Getting your video on the Internet opens up another resource for others in the industry to learn about your association. It makes you and your association look like a thought-leader in the industry, which is always a good thing. What are you waiting for? Create a video for your association and utilize it on your association's website, blog and social media outlets. Your association will become a video star - I think I hear Hollywood calling!

*Check out the 2011 The Drake Invitational Forum for Association Leaders - June 14-15 in St. Louis, Mo. Click here for more information.

1 is Better than 3

Like a lot of other association professionals, I love ASAE's Great Ideas Conference.

And I'm once again presenting an idea lab ... the third time in a row that I've been selected to make a presentation.

For 2011, I'm actually presenting with two colleagues (Diane Johnson and Den Gardner) who have collaborated with me for more than a decade in a joint conference of three separate national organizations. It took a lot of planning, but it's been a blast and has resulted in a record-setting meeting for the organizations.

So, we're sharing the success and the lessons we've learned. It's designed to help others thinking about "merged" conferences come away with tips and techniques make a joint conference work. We titled it "One is Better than Three."

We'll focus on seven (7) key areas.

1. Cultures
2. Cash Box
3. Multiple staffs
4. Scheduling
5. Content/speakers
6. Decision-making
7. Legal

Hope you will attend our session at 10:45 am, Monday, March 14. A PowerPoint outline is available at http://www.greatideasconference.org/. We've been labeled as #ideas11 Id5. Come join us!

The Digital Media Guru: Navigating the New Facebook Pages

On Feb. 10, Facebook rolled out a redesign of Facebook pages that made the pages look and operate more like user profiles. This redesign removed tabs from across the top - a negative as seen by many businesses and organizations that had created a custom tab as their landing page. But the changes do give page admins the ability to post and comment on other Facebook pages through a “Login as Page” feature.

The right-hand menu has also been tweaked. There is now a section that displays the page’s admins (if you choose) as well as a section that shows you how many of your friends have also “liked” that particular page. Also, just like profiles, a page can now feature relevant photos at the top. This could lead to some very creative uses for Facebook Pages.

Some other changes include the way photos are displayed in photo albums. Now when you click to view an existing photo, a floating box appears, leaving your page underneath, so you can view the photos as a slideshow, similar to other photo viewing tools out there.

Image 1

The best new feature, in my opinion, is the “Login as Page” option. This capability allows admins to interact with the rest of Facebook as a page instead of as an individual. For example, I can login as myself like normal, click on “Account” in the top right corner, then select “Use Facebook as Page” (see "Image 1"). Then a pop-up window will show me a list of all the pages that I admin, and I can select which one I want to login as (see "Image 2"). Once I click “switch,” I can navigate to the other pages that DrakeCo “likes,” and make comments and “like” various items on that page.

Image 2

When you are logged in as a page, you will also see a different News Feed. It will display the news and updates from the pages that you’ve “liked.” This is a great tool for pages to see only what their favorite pages are doing and saying without having to scroll through the profiles of friends or family members that are tied to your personal profile.

Pages can’t do everything a regular user can, though. Most importantly, they cannot post on a user’s wall or comment on his or her status. The lone exception to this rule is for a user who has opted for the “everybody” privacy setting; Pages can comment on status updates for those individuals. Overall, I think these changes to Facebook pages are pretty good once you get used to them and will be beneficial to businesses and organizations. The "login as page" is a feature I know many have wanted for a long time, including myself since I admin 10 different pages for the associations we manage at DrakeCo.

Since most members in our associations don't know me personally by name, the fact that I can now comment and interact as the page, or association in our case, gives a voice to the association. Now I'm not just a single person speaking on behalf of the associations, but the association as a whole responding. Here are a few articles from others discussing these changes to Facebook pages:

• Mashable - Facebook Launches Pages Re-design
• Social Media Examiner - 8 New Facebook Changes: What You Need to Know

What do you think about the new changes to pages? Good or bad for your organization?  

"The Digital Media Guru" will be a regular feature by Lauren Mangnall, Digital Media Specialist at DrakeCo. I recently assumed the role of digital media guru at DrakeCo where I develop and implement website and social media strategy for all of our association clients.