More Event Hype: Have You Signed Up For My Talk Yet?

Next Thursday (Dec. 10) I am joining forces with smart-guy Sean Bordner to talk about "Private Social Networks vs Publicly Available Tools" at the Grand Hyatt Washington. 

I'm pretty excited about this presentation topic because it is a question a lot of association people ask me and one that I faced previously in my career. How does one know if it is enough to have a presence on Facebook and interact with members from there as opposed to using a private network built to work with a database?

Not every association has the same goals or needs. We'll get to talk about that during the session (I'll be giving examples of associations who have successfully stayed with a public social networking tool) and it should be a good time.

The event is free, but you need to register to attend. It starts at 8 a.m. and runs until 11 a.m.

If you have any suggestions about association examples I should use or if you have any questions about the event, please let me know by commenting here or emailing me at klitalien [at] delcor [dot] com.

Here's what we're scheduled to go over:

• How are associations utilizing publicly available tools?
• What is the process to follow when making the decision?
• What should you look for in a public or private solution?
• Can both options peacefully coexist within the same organization?
• How do you measure ROI for a community?
• How can you make sure that whatever you choose integrates with your overall strategy?

Hope to see you there!

Twitterverse, I Love You

I'm all about the love lately...I love gadgets, I love lurkers, and j'adore Twitter!

Why all the effusive sentiment? This morning I was meeting with a group at work discussing Twitter and I posted a number of questions to the "Twitterverse" to answer. People responded with some great tips for tools and advice on using Twitter, so I wanted to share that feedback with all of you.

It's all about the love...

• kirbstr @kikilitalien I like @SocialWhale best right now, it has a web-like interface and has great extra features #delcor
• maggielmcg RT @kikilitalien Dear Twitterverse: Please share your favorite Twitter tool! #delcor
• maggielmcg @kikilitalien Also, Twitter widget in Netvibes--has retweet feature that works the right way! #delcor
• desabol @kikilitalien My faves are SocialScope on the Blackberry. Socialite and Tweetdeck on the Mac and bit.y for shortening.
• EmilieBarta @kikilitalien My favorite Twitter tip = interact!! Don't just push out information; Twitter is a two way street.
• ericjgruber  @kikilitalien twitterfeed.com, friendorfollow.com and Mention Notifier (http://bit.ly/notifier) #delcor
• RvanHilst @kikilitalien I love Twhirl for operating both work and personal accounts at the same time. #delcor

KiKi L'Italien What is your favorite Twitter tip? I'll share it at my work meeting on Twitter this morning #delcor

Jeff De-Cagna

Use Selective Twitter status app on FB so you can choose which tweets update your FB status. Is this the kind of tip you're seeking?

4 hours ago · Delete

KiKi L'Italien

Actually, a very good one. Point taken! :)

4 hours ago · Delete

Deirdre Reid

If you're in a helpful mood and short of time, do a filter in Tweedeck by "?" and see whose questions you can answer. Good for associations!

4 hours ago · Delete

Thanks to everyone who responded! It really added to my meeting and alerted me to some good tools I wasn't aware of. Feel free to spread the love by adding more tools or tips below! :)

The 3 Most Important Benefits I Get For My Membership Dues

I just spent a couple of days in Providence, RI, with ASAE & The Center association leaders and I have come away from it with more connections, knowledge, and motivation to help get me revved up again to live life like I mean it. If anyone wants to know what they get for their membership dollars, I can tell you what my membership dollars pay for:

• Knowledge - The listservs, section councils, education sessions, publications, and other ongoing communications that add to the overall industry knowledge that is available has helped me from the very beginning of my association career. Much as the platform for the listserv conversation needs to be made more efficient, it was the first ASAE product I was drawn into and it provided the most learning for me in the early days. It also helped acquaint me with some of the big names in the association world.
  
• Connections -I love the Annual Meeting, with all of its ups and downs, because I get to learn from the most experienced and interesting minds in the community in the hallways and at the social functions. I back up what Jeff Hurt said recently about challenging conference attendees and speakers to put more effort into making the best of the learning sessions and opportunities available for teaching at the meetings. I have never walked away from a conference or workshop without learning something extremely valuable to help me do better in my career and for the industry. The times when I have learned the least have been when I haven't participated as fully as I should have in one way or another.
  
• Experience - ASAE & The Center has afforded me the opportunities to volunteer for councils, task forces, and all kinds of activities which have enabled me to learn detailed data about studies related to my work and have helped me to hone a variety of leadership skills. Through my volunteer efforts I have been able to fully embrace the importance of what all of us do for our organizations' members and in that way I think I will always find myself evangelizing membership. Passion is not too emotional of a word to use.  If a person isn't passionate about their industry, learning, career, community, money, or anything else influenced by the power of an association; then what else? 

While I was at the ASAE & The Center Leadership Retreat I received valuable career advice from friends who make hundreds of dollars per hour for consulting. This isn't the first time that has happened (and I'm fairly certain it won't be the last). But what am I giving back to ASAE as a result of their help in making this exchange possible on an ongoing basis?

• My energy and time - Because of ASAE & The Center's investment in me, I am going back to my council (I am vice-chair for the Component Relations Section Council) with a new commitment to helping the rest of the group get the most out of their time as possible by leading in a way that will help them and the Society.
• My money - I recently donated to the Annual Fund for Research & Innovation and I am going to be posting and tweeting occasionally about this on an ongoing basis to see if I can get my friends to do it, too.  [I'd like to check in with ASAE and see if there is a way that I could prove to ASAE that the association blogger and Twitter community can put up some serious dough...maybe get a code and more price points at which to donate online ($100 is the least amount you can donate easily online right now) so that we could show our strength. I'll let you know if anything like that comes together. :)]
• My attention - I will care about ASAE. I will talk about ASAE. I will share news about ASAE and with that attention others will see how much value I place with my involvement. If people see how much I get from my experience, then maybe they will join or participate more, too. This may seem like the most passive of the three ways I am giving back, but it could be the most valuable in the long run.

What do you get from your memberships? What do you give back?

The Stress Check List: New Job

Years ago I read a stress list that featured all the life changing things that could cause one to be overly anxious or depressed. On the list were the usual suspects: divorce, death, trauma were included. There were also a few that one may not expect, such as marriage, giving birth, and changing jobs. It's this third one that I've been experiencing recently and I can say that anxiety is most definitely a part of my life right now.

My new job is fantastic - that's the positive side of the coin. The people I work with seem especially smart and funny while the balance between life and work is a priority from the top.

But no matter how amazing the workplace is, it cannot change the fear I have of smiling and having something stuck in my teeth - forever branding me in their minds as "the slob." (check)

...or of having lipstick smeared on my face. (check)

...or of forgetting someone's name. (check)

...or of forgetting some code and locking myself out of the suite. (check)

Everytime I open my mouth to say something, it is likely that at least one person in the room hasn't heard me speak before, so I am hyper aware what I say could impact their view of me for years to come. No pressure.

After working at my previous job almost five years, it is hard to start over and to learn the ins-and-outs of the communal kitchen: rules for sharing office creamer and the labeling laws for food kept in the refrigerator. These things are still marked "tentative" in my brain.

Also, I am going from working for associations to working for associations as a consultant. There is a difference there.

Still, as anxious as I am, I have a lot of nervous excitement for this new direction. I am working on a subject I'm passionate about and I now have a legitimate reason for reading materials about social media and technology for communities. Fabulous news!

I know this is an unusual departure from my typical blog posts here on Acronym Soup, but I was thinking of all the people I knwo who are going through job changes and I felt compelled to share my thoughts. If anyone wants to share similar stories or tips for starting out on the right foot with a new job, please post! How do you start your day? What are some things to avoid? Please share!

Etiquette and the Perfect Lunch Spot

There is a great bookstore off of Dupont Circle in DC called Kramerbooks & Afterwords. They have a special brunch on the weekends and a knowledgeable staff in their bookstore. When Monica Lewinsky's receipt from the store came to light during the most heated portion of the Clinton-intern scandal, Kramerbooks refused to share the details of her purchase.  They are that solid in their commitment to their patrons.

I may be slightly exaggerating when I say Kramerbooks stands for the last bastion of respect for the intelligentsia in DC. But, I am in no way overstating it when I say, Kramerbooks has a great lunch menu and drink specials.

Because they do.

In fact, if their lunch menu was less inviting, I may not have ventured there  today for my business meeting with a couple of colleagues. If their atmosphere were less inviting, I may not have entered into a fascinating dialogue with a few patrons about social media and etiquette.

Our conversation centered around the pervasive use of smart phones and the way people use them in social settings. Each person shared their own experiences with people answering phones or texting away during otherwise intimate moments with friends.

And the conversation got me to thinking...:

• I hadn't taken my smart phone out during our conversation
• Would it one day be acceptable to interrupt the current conversation for phone or text (except in emergency?)
• Was it already acceptable and I didn't know it?
• What does this mean for meeting attendees?
• We really need an etiquette guide/baseline for meeting attendees and speakers
• Oh yeah, I've been working on this very issue with a few association people...better get back to it!

A few weeks ago on the weekly #assnchat Twitter conversation (facilitated by Jeff De Cagna), a group of us discussed putting one of these etiquette guides together. The idea was to create something as a guideline for attendees and speakers to reference for social media use during a meeting.

My conversation with the patrons at Kramerbooks today reminded me that people were still looking for guidance with this kind of behaviour...and that we need to start working on this project again as a community.

Issues we will address:

• acknowledging the meeting's social media policy
• acknowledging the speaker's social media policy
• public disclosure about using SM during a session
• your rights, rules, and risks when using SM during a meeting
• what to include in a meeting program about social media

If anyone is interested in working with a group of us on an association social media etiquette guide for meetings, please email me at klitalien@delcor.com.

If anyone is interested in learning more about Kramerbooks' drink specials, check out their online menu. :)

Social Media Show & Tell

Happy (New) Media Monday!
Association professionals are buzzing about their latest forays into social media and it is high time we gather together and share our stories, don’t you agree?

You are invited to call in to the “Social Media Show & Tell” this Wednesday at noon ET for this month’s CRP Virtual Lunch. Just have your latest example on hand and we will share our stories and answer questions for others on the call. If you would like to share your story, please email me before Wednesday and I will be sure to introduce you to the group!

Bring your coolest social media success or just listen to everyone else's for ideas! We will have examples in specific areas, such as:

- Social Media for Member Engagement

- Social Media for Events

- Social Media for Project Collaboration

- Social Media for Fundraising

The Twitter hashtag for the CRP calls is #CRPLunch.

Register at http://bit.ly/2Ap2EN.

Dial in number: 218-936-7979

Passcode: 189780

You can earn 1 CAE point by registering and participating in this event.

The Day After

My flight landed at the BWI airport around 11:20 last night and this morning I am debating whether to continue writing this very sentence or to jump back into bed for at least 20 more minutes of shut eye.

Friends, this could be a very short post.

After every big conference I attend, I like to sit and go through a digital brain dump, whereby I look at all my notes from the conference - all the business cards I've collected - and try to save it all in some kind of meaningful way that will help me or someone else in the future. Reason being, my mind starts letting go of the context for my notes very quickly after writing them.

Here is a random Top 10 List of things I learned during this recent trip to the OSA Frontiers in Optics Annual Meeting in San Jose, California:

1. Fly Virgin every time you can when flying to the West Coast. I was able to comfortably work away online with my very own outlet under my seat powering up my laptop and cell phone during the entire flight. The wifi worked great and my seat was super comfortable. The ability to work during the long flight from DC to California was fantastic! Plus, the food you can order at your seat is the best airplane food I've eaten so far.

2. Always make sure you have the appropriate adapter for the LCD projector when using a Mac laptop. I ended up locating mine in the bottom of my laptop bag, but I panicked for a little bit.

3. The official Twitter hashtag for a conference is a necessity for organizing large groups of people for social events (or any other events) on the fly.  Make things easy for conference attendees by having large monitors displaying the hashtag feed in appealing way (using Twitterfall or Visible Tweets) so that even the Luddites in the crowd can be informed of the latest conversation about the conference.

4. Free drink tickets make you everybody's friend. :)

5. Attendees are expecting wifi to be available everywhere. They will miss it if you don't have it.

6. Protein bars and Starbucks Via instant coffee: Must-haves for the conference suitcase!

7. Use the Bump application if you have an iPhone. Anyone who has an iPhone can easily transfer contact information with another iPhone user just by using this free application. So much easier than trying to hold on to business cards all evening long. I wish they had this available across all smart phones and with an easy way to organize new contacts by tagging, but maybe in a couple years...

8. Conference organizers: Have a few free registrations that you give out to members who agree to blog about the conference daily. You will not be sorry. These bloggers will not only help archive the member-experience for your conference, but will also add to the overall buzz. At this conference, bloggers had identifying ribbons and the association promoted the blogs before and during the conference. This should be something you offer for every conference - the promotion pays for the registration.

9. Looking for a good giveaway idea? Multi USB ports. Thumb drives. Laser pointers. And yes, hand sanitizer. These things stick around and people love them.


10. Idea: Have a "photobooth" kiosk in which people can either add their comments about the conference and have it automatically tagged with your hashtag and added to the Twitter stream displayed on your Twitter monitors, and/or record a short 2 minute video with their thoughts about the conference that is posted to the conference's official broadcasting site. I haven't seen this done yet, but it would be amazing to have on site and is totally doable.

Xer-Rated: Grade A Fresh

A delicious new conversation has erupted due to Maddie Grant's Xer Meme. Matt Baehr of BlogClump fame tagged me and now I am here picking up what Maddie is putting down.

The gist of the conversation? "Have Xers Sold Out?"

I think I quit my first real job out of college because of that question. My younger sister (who was attending art school in Chicago by day and singing in an all-girl punk band called "Twat Vibe" at the time) accused me of selling out. In her eyes, I had given up on my idealistic dreams of being a poet/artist in exchange for wearing suits to my marketing job where I made a whopping $26K a year.

But guess what? Along with loving stationary and pens and pretty paper; I also really got a kick out of seeing my name on a business card for the first time. I loved the chance to "change something from the inside" and it made me feel like I'd achieved something special. I liked wearing suits. I liked having an office. I liked having a steady paycheck and access to logo items. Who couldn't use a dozen golf towels with my company's logo on it? Class-y.

But my sister's comments made me wince. Had I sold out? What if I had? Should I try to do something else? Was it too late? Had I become just another cog?

I quit my job. I don't think I claimed the "sell out" reason at the time, but I know it played a role. I was a rebel in high school and had always prized individuality and creativity above all else. After I quit my job, I decided to immerse myself in poetry again and started working on a plan to have a creativity workshop based on exploring the five senses (an idea I still really like). I went so far as to have the area art studio, which was supported by grants from the NEA, agree to let me host the classes there. But I doubted myself too much and backed away...and went back into the "corporate world" where I could at least be sure I had insurance.

Today I truly believe I am living a GenX-agreeable lifestyle. Yes, I have the regular job, but I also do creative things on the side (and get paid for them). Yes, I have a nice car and live in the 'burbs with my husband, child, and dog...but I also went rollerskating with my sister after I had my daughter and still listen to the Cure on rainy days. I still push the envelope, too. I still expect more from my workplace than a paycheck. And yes, I would still walk away from a workplace if I didn't enjoy it. Absolutely.

I bring creativity to my day-to-day job and push into new areas focusing on building relationships. I do a lot outside of my paid work to learn and broaden my horizons...Gen Xer's are all about access to knowledge and I am no different.

I think the biggest change for me has been in my beliefs. I believe in myself more and consequently believe in others more than I ever have. I am hyper-aware of the changes that have taken place recently for our society and the ability for all of us to communicate with each other with an amazing speed!

Matt's opinion matches my own. I haven't sacrificed my integrity or morals for a paycheck. I've been able to apply my spirit and desire to change things to my work - all of my work.

This was fun to think about - thanks to Matt (and Maddie) for passing this on to me! Now, I will tag a few more people on this for their thoughts:

Deirdre Reid
Shannon Otto
Elizabeth Weaver Engel

It's All About the Benefits: Discussing the Latest Developments and Trends in Membership Benefits

This Wednesday is another CRP* Virtual Lunch and we will be discussing association membership benefits and the trends for developing new, shiny perks for our members.

Erik Schonher, editor of MEMBERSHIP 2.5: REINVENTING VALUE (http://bit.ly/1shp8D), will facilitate on the call.

People can register for the free conference call at http://www.asaecenter.org/ProgramsEvents/EventDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=43460.

I love these Virtual Lunches...I always learn something new and I usually marvel at the ideas I come up with while listening. This time I'll be taking notes for an article later, but I'm expecting great things!

Here's the announcement that went out earlier:

Each month the Component Relations Section Council has a discussion on a topic of interest to its members. Share with your fellow CRPs your challenges and successes! This is an opportunity to bring new ideas to the table and get some feedback! Follow the discussion on Twitter at #CRPLunch.

This Month's Topic: It's All About the Benefits: Discussing the Latest Developments and Trends in Membership Benefits

Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Time: Noon - 1:00 pm EDT
Fee: Complimentary
Dial in number: 218-936-7979
Passcode: 189780

Please note: this is an Audio Only program.

KiKi L'Italien
Manager, Membership & Education
OSA
+1 202.416.1432
klital@osa.org


*CRP = Component Relations Professional

Engaging Your Chapters with Social Media: Resources

In my recent presentation "Engaging Your Chapters with Social Media" at the ASAE Annual Meeting (with co-presenter Peggy Hoffman), we mentioned several resources we found to be useful for listening and monitoring online conversations about your organization or industry. I decided to share several of these resources here. Please note that I haven't included information on paid online community sites as that topic lends itself to a blog post all its own (NFi, HigherLogic, Socious, ...etc...). If you have questions about these sites or if you know of some new sites that are even better, please comment here.

The two basic social media alerts you need to have now!

Google Alerts
Examples of things to monitor:

• Mentions of your Society

• Mentions of your competitor
• Industry keywords

Google alerts

Google Alerts are emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for your search terms. You can also choose to have your alerts delivered via feed to the feedreader of your choice (e.g., Google Reader or add the feed to your iGoogle page). They currently offer alerts with results from News, Web, Blogs, Video and Groups.

SocialOomph.com (formerly known as "TweetLater")
Examples of things to monitor:

• Mentions of your Society

• Mentions of your competitor
• Industry keywords

SocialOomph
SocialOomph can be used to set up alerts and track keywords in the public Twitter stream. SocialOomph monitors the Twitter tweet stream and periodically emails you a digest of the tweets that contain those keywords. You can also use this to track your @replies.

Another great thing you can get from SocialOomph is the Twitter aliases who are commenting on your topic area or Society.

For example, some of the people who post information you put out are not your members...

1. You can get new members this way

2. You can identify current very vocal members this way

3. You can also view these sources as outlets for your news...how many followers do they have?

Transparency is the expectation.

Some examples of free groupsites you can use to start member communities:

Groupsites.com (formerly known as "CollectiveX") http://www.groupsite.com/

Ning http://www.ning.com/

Drupal http://drupal.org/

Great sites for managing multiple Twitter accounts:

HootSuite: http://hootsuite.com/ **Note: I really enjoy HootSuite for its ability to track link clicks when using its link shortener which is built in and doesn't require visiting another site!

TweetDeck: http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ **Note: I like the way TweetDeck is formatted and its iPhone app works well for tracking various hashtags and groups!

Splitweet: http://splitweet.com/

Other helpful links:

Twellow: http://www.twellow.com/ **Note: This particular link will be very helpful to you if you are trying to build up your list of people to follow (listen to) for your association. You can identify Twitter users who follow or show interest in your association topics/industry.

Polldaddy: http://www.polldaddy.com/

KnowEm UserName Check: http://knowem.com/


These are just several of the helpful resources you can use to help manage your online social media engagement with members. I have my favorites, but I've included some second and third favorites here since tastes can vary. Do you have some that you think should be added to this list? Essentials you can't live without for your monitoring and engagement practices?