Buzz2009: Association Social Media Spotlight - SmartBrief

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Buzz2009: Association Social Media Spotlight

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Brands & Campaigns

What works in the private sector doesn’t always apply in the trade association world, so we made sure one of the sessions at last week’s Buzz2009 focused specifically on how practitioners are pioneering social media programs at their associations. The panel, moderated by SmartBrief’s Rob Birgfeld, focused on how leaders at four organizations are using social media to deepen their connections to existing members — and find new ones.

Here are a few key lessons we picked up from the experts at that session:

  • Not every tool will work equally well for every association. Rob’s quick poll of the panel on which tool had generated the most tangible results for their association yielded a mix: Twitter: 1, LinkedIn: 2, Groupsite: 1.
  • Encourage your members to create and share content. Brian Pratz, product manager at IEEE, talked about the engineering group’s successful 125th anniversary video project, Gold Around the World. Volunteers can be a great source of ideas and labor, he said.
  • Use social media to hype your events. CEA’s senior director of communications, Tara Dunion, talked about how all the social media buzz around her organization’s event, CES, also boosted traditional media coverage for the event.