Hi, there, and welcome to what will be series of posts surfacing my beliefs on the power of social media (networking) and the benefits it brings to the modern-day association.

As I am certain you are aware, today’s associations are facing big challenges when it comes to member acquisition and retention, reaching the next generation of professionals and maintaining thought leadership within their respective industries.

Over the next few months I am going to share my perspective on what associations should be doing to provide the value their members expect. This particular entry is focused on keeping the conversation going after a major event.

Staying Upbeat, Post Convention

Picture yourself at your annual convention. You have organized amazing speakers, panelists and discussions. Your audience is engaged. The sessions were a huge hit. Your members lined up to ask the speakers and panelists questions. The conversations spill into the hallways. Way to go…your association provided great value to your members!

Then the convention ends, your members go home and the “buzz” from the meeting slowly wears off. You are planning the next event (hopefully after a small vacation) and your members are getting caught up on everything they missed for the past week. They get back in the groove and are really interested in one of the topics covered at the meeting. They want to learn more, but they’re not sure how to reconnect with each other. They may send an email to the speaker or other audience members. They may get “Linked In” or even create a group on Facebook.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could facilitate that ongoing conversation? Creating an online environment on your association website would let you do just that!

A Community All About Association

By creating a social environment on your association web page, you can keep these conversations going year round. Imagine at the end of every session a slide appears… KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING… go to www.theassociationspace.com/interestingtopic. The panelists and speakers could continue contributing. Your members would be engaged with the association and uncover solutions to their issues. You have a place to point your members to for experiencing the content and connection they are clamoring for.

Don’t just use your website to publicize upcoming networking opportunities, use it to facilitate those opportunities. You can now create year-long, instead of once-yearly networking opportunities.

Your members are looking for this experience. In fact, they are creating it on their own. I am amazed each and every day during our product demonstrations when we pull up groups on Facebook, not related to the association, and show the association execs that their members are already creating groups. Not only are they creating groups, they are creating their own events! These associations have no idea their members are doing this themselves. If Facebook and other social networks are serving as the forum, what value is your association providing? Why do your members need your association if they are finding their solutions on Facebook or Google?

You Timed it Perfectly

This is a value-added feature that your members want and they want it now. The good news is that it is not very expensive and doesn’t take much to implement. Your branded online community could be “live” in 30 days… so what are you waiting for?