In this series, we’re interviewing several people who do social media on behalf of their associations. In this interview, we talked to Shannon Otto, blogger extraordinaire for Memberclicks, a technology vendor who provides AMS platforms for small staff associations.  Although it’s technically a corporate example, they work hard to build relationships with small associations and we thought it would be interesting counterpoint to the two AMC’s we interviewed for the series.

1) First things first: Tell us a bit about where your social media management role “lives” within your organization. How is it integrated within the structure of the organization? Is it a full time position, or part of another role? What department are you in, if any? How large is your organization?

MemberClicks is an association management software company with about 30 employees and more than 1,400 customers through North America. Social media is now a part of our marketing strategy. My official title is “Marketing Specialist,” which encompasses a lot of stuff, including social media. This position was brand new when I started at MemberClicks in June 2009, and I’ve had a great time exploring the association world through social media. I work with our creative director, director of product experience and president (who is also our head of marketing) to ensure MemberClicks’ personality is portrayed accurately in our blog and Twitter stream.

2) The work of social media often cuts across lots of different traditional silos. Describe the process of how you communicate and work with other departments. How supportive is the organization as a whole about your social media role?

Since my position didn’t even exist a year ago, I’ve had tons of support from everyone at MemberClicks. After a few months on the job and getting everything set up, I held a few internal workshops to explain how Twitter and other social media outposts can benefit both MemberClicks and our customers. I’ve also solicited guest posts for Splash, our blog, from several departments, including Sales and Implementation. In the office, we generally communicate through e-mail, instant messaging or face-to-face, and the Marketing team uses Evernote to keep track of our documents and ideas.

3) Everyone is dying to know how you manage the listening and monitoring process. Do you use a dashboard? Do you use any paid services? Any tips to share?

I mainly use Google alerts – I have a ton set up for many different keywords, including “membership management software,” “nonprofit software,” “memberclicks,” “event management” and other terms of that nature. I use TweetDeck to keep track of #assnchat, #tech10 and any other events that may be going on, and I also get e-mail updates from SocialMention.com. It’s not always fun seeing hundreds upon hundreds of alerts on Monday morning after a weekend away, but those basics have worked for me so far. Occasionally I scan the “Answers” portion of LinkedIn, as well, for similar keywords to my Google Alerts.

4) Let’s talk about the “big three” – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Of course, it largely depends on where your customers are – but have any of these proved especially useful for achieving particular goals?

In my opinion, most of our success has come through Twitter. I’ve posted pictures of Clickers celebrating birthdays, links I think our customers and association leaders would benefit from, and I also post updates to Splash on our Twitter stream. Facebook has been successful more internally than externally, but we’ve got a few ideas up our sleeves for developing our Fan Page a bit more in 2010. We do have a LinkedIn group but there hasn’t been a whole lot of traction, so we don’t necessarily focus on that as much since there doesn’t seem to be a huge demand.

5) How do you measure the success of any particular projects? I don’t mean specific numbers, but do you have a “system” for how to decide what to keep track of, and how to report progress?

I keep track of our clicks and retweets on Twitter through HootSuite (and, previously, bit.ly) and of course I monitor our followers and fans. We use Google Analytics for Splash. Of course, It’s very difficult to monitor the “success” of social media in actual numbers, but if a certain initiative garners participation and attention (i.e. a lot of comments on a particular blog post), we view that as successful.

6) How do you bring stakeholders up to speed on what social media activities are going on (whether it’s members, other staff, the board…) – is it part of your role to teach people about social media? What kinds of things do you do (if anything) to help bridge the digital divide?

I meet with our creative director and president formally once a week to discuss what’s been going on with the blog, which has been my main focus so far. In October, I hosted a series of webinars for our customers on social media strategy and execution, which I would love to continue into 2010. I’ve been successful in getting the majority of our organization to realize how social media benefits MemberClicks. Additionally, I tend to write one or two blog posts each week about how social media can help associations, which I hope have benefited those who aren’t sure how to get started.

7) Finally, tell us about a specific social media project you are particularly excited about, whether it’s in the planning stages or something you’ve had success with.

Personally, I’m most proud of Splash, which I have been writing since August. I initially presented the framework and a few sample posts to the marketing team in the summer and it’s been so much fun to watch it evolve. I have learned tons from the association blogging community, and I’m happy to be a part of it! I try to keep Splash free of a lot of MemberClicks-specific topics, and just focus on association management and social media. Of course, I like to show off the company’s personality sometimes, too!

We have several ideas we’re bouncing around for 2010. For example, I’d love to have more guest posts on Splash, whether it’s fellow Clicker, a customer or another association blogger. And since we’re getting ready to release the biggest update ever to our product, I’m hoping our customers will get psyched and participate even more on the blog and online!