How to Listen to Your Audience Using Social Media

For associations and non-profits who are wondering how to get in the social media game — or how to figure out whether they should — listening is the place to start. While it’s relatively easy to dabble in social media, listening is the critical component in developing a social media strategy that is right for both your audience and your objectives. That’s why Maddie and I wrote an article, Got Your Ears On? How to Listen to Your Audience Using Social Media for NTEN.

This bibliography of links and resources will help you deepen your understanding of the concepts from the article.

Bibliography

Listening Don’t take our word for it. Here are links to some very smart people who agree that listening is critical. More Listening from SocialFish We’ve actually written a lot on this topic. Here are some of our other posts. Listening Tools So what do you need to create a strong listening program? Check out these tools.

New Rules for Engaging Young Professionals

Young professionals are game changers. Do you know the new rules? These digital natives communicate differently than any previous generation. As marketers, we need to adapt. At the DMAW Association Day on Thursday, October 16, Maddie and I discussed a mix of strategies–from traditional marketing to social media marketing and everything in between–that have the potential to engage young professionals in your association. We had a great group discussion afterward, too.

Bibliography

During the presentation, we talked about some interesting concepts and shared a few examples. Here’s a bibliography of those resources along with the slides we presented. Go ahead. Swim a little farther into the young professional pond.

Links and Resources

New Rules for Engaging Young Professionals
Check out the slides from our presentation.

Social Media as an Engagement Strategy

We’re working hard to spread the word about what social media can do for associations. We’re lucky enough to be speaking to several groups over the next few months.

UPDATE: First up on October 8, SocialFish Maddie Grant spoke in Alexandria at Avectra Academy’s premiere event - What Associations Must Know About Social Networking - an interactive seminar and panel discussion focusing on how you can use social media in your association. Andy Steggles from RIMS and Greg Fine from Association Forum also spoke and Rob Miller from Avectra did a great job moderating the discussion. For you DC folks, there will be an encore on October 23 at ASAE’s digs at the Ronald Reagan Building.

UPDATE:The DC encore on October 23 went well. Ted LaBarbera from AAAA joined the panel in place of Greg. He presented some good ideas about blogging and his experience using Sharepoint as a blogging platform. We’ve added a few additional links from the DC roadshow to the bibliography. Enjoy!

Bibliography

During the presentation, we talked about a lot of great resources. Here’s a bibliography of those resources so you can swim a little farther into the social media pond.

Tools Andy argued against building your own social networking environment in favor of a vendor who can easily integrate with your AMS and CMS. Liability Andy mentioned section 230 of the communications decency act. Association Forum Examples Greg mentioned a number of outposts where Association Forum is active. YAP Examples Greg also mentioned YAP as a model for engaging an ad hoc group. More Examples Maddie mentioned the American Anthropological Association, NTEN and the Association Social Media Wiki. Andy mentioned SNAMA. Responding to Blog Comments Maddie mentioned some resources for getting blog comments and responding to negative comments.Books & Blogs Greg mentioned author Jackie Huba. Here is her blog with Ben McConnell. Maddie mentioned Brian Solis and Jessica Hagy. Andy mentioned Frank Fortin. And we threw in a bonus book you should check out–Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

Social Media as an Engagement Strategy
Check out Maddie’s slides from the presentation.