Dear Association CEO,
Tired of social media yet? You’ve surely had many conversations, at this point, with various people in your organization, about using social media to advance your mission. Everyone–from your marketing director and your publications manager, to your advocacy guru and your conference manager–has some idea of how they should be blogging, tweeting, or creating a social network.
That’s all well and good, and (stop us if we’re wrong) you’re not disputing the myriad business advantages of starting to build a social media presence in this day and age when many of your association’s members are actively communicating using these tools. But you’re a little worried…
- You’re worried about how much time will be involved in getting all these activities going.
- You’re feeling the stress from other managers and directors who have tight budgets and too much work spread among too few people already.
- You’re concerned that with lots of people doing little experiments in a piecemeal fashion, there will be duplication of effort and wasted time and energy.
- You’re particularly concerned about lost revenue from traditional sources like your paid job board.
- And, let’s be honest, you’re not particularly comfortable with letting just any employee speak for the organization (and your PR director isn’t either). You’re keen to get some guidelines and policies in place but everyone has different ideas for where to start.
So then, the challenge your organization faces is how to evolve into a social organization. This evolution will affect individual staff, internal processes, and the structure and culture of your association. And the challenges can’t be solved in an instant. You’ll probably want to help assign them to your people to tackle one at a time (or one area at a time).
But you, as CEO, have a different challenge.
Your own challenge is not about determining how your association applies social media tools in the right way, nor how particular tactics achieve specific objectives. Fundamentally, your role is to help your staff prioritize and defend their ideas by having them tell you why and how they advance the mission of the association. You are closer to the mission, the vision, the strategic objectives of the association than anyone else. You must live the mantra of “clarity over control” – in other words, that those activities that are very directly and clearly driving the mission of the organization require less control because all stakeholders – staff and members – know why this work is important and relevant to the association. They know the strategic intention of that work and their role in making it actionable.
If you can help your staff be clear about how their social media activities will advance the mission, you can begin to lay the groundwork for becoming a more social organization. The digital age (the advent of the social internet) demands less of a “mechanistic”, top-down, controlled system and more of an organic, evolving ecosystem. Your role, as CEO, is that of facilitator within this ecosystem. You are now the master cat herder – and here’s a secret you probably already know. How do you herd cats? …You tilt the floor. You point everyone in the right direction, not just through words but through action and through intent. The world around us is shifting, and you have a crucial role to play in what these changes mean for your association and this industry.
Sincerely Yours,
Maddie and Lindy
SocialFish
{ 49 comments }
Socialfishing:: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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Socialfishing:: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/cY61cc /via @maddiegrant <awesome>
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Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/cY61cc Via @maddiegrant
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RT @Avinio: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/cY61cc Via @maddiegrant (Love "You tilt the floor")
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Story of my life
Thx! RT @maddiegrant: Socialfishing: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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RT @adamcohen: RT @Avinio: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/cY61cc Via @maddiegrant
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RT @SocialFishFood Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/b2af6l "You tilt the floor" <– I like that
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RT @stevebridger: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/b2af6l
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RT @stevebridger: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/b2af6l "You tilt the floor"
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RT @jamienotter: Socialfishing:: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/cY61cc /via @maddiegrant…
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RT @SocialFishFood Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/96oPsj <MUST READ and fwd to your CEO!>
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RT @stevebridger @SocialFishFood Evolving to a Social Organization: Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/b2af6l
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Bravo and so in tune with some of the points from #crplunch yesterday. There was some conversation about whether we had need for a socmed board position … but that’s not the issue. The issue is not what tools but what results.
Oh and I’ve got a great visual of the floor tilting!
Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/9qADrI
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RT @SocialFishFood Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/96oPsj AND to the gov leaders as well??
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PLEASE RT – I have a one year NTEN membership to give away to the first person who gets their CEO to leave a comment!! http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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RT @maddiegrant: PLEASE RT – I have a one year NTEN membership to give away to the first person who gets their CEO to leave a comment!! http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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RT @maddiegrant: one year NTEN membership give away 2 1st person to get CEO to comment! http://bit.ly/cY61cc @SteveDrake help me out here!
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RT @SocialFishFood Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/96oPsj
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PLEASE RT – I have a 1 yr NTEN membership to give to 1st person who gets their CEO to leave a comment http://bit.ly/cY61cc /via @maddiegrant
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Maddie:
Excellent and very well stated. I think this is a great companion piece to so much of what David Armano writes about creating the social business.
A social organization requires social business planning. It demands a new kind of leadership — one based on letting go of the command-and-control model and embracing openness and relationship building. It requires that organizations define a new set of clear goals and objectives. An open organization allows for collaboration on products and services from grassroots, customers and bottom-up employees. It connects internal and external ecosystems and communities for mutual gain.
A social organization allows for calculated and managed risks with sandbox covenants. Team members are allowed to experiment with clearly defined outlines so they feel secure rather than threatened by change. To stay true to authenticity, the organization embraces failure as part of learning as all relationships embrace failure and success as part of their natural success.
Associations must consider how to “be” more social and not just “do” social media. Thanks for sharing.
PS…I really like it when you, Lindy or your other guests write original content. You all have a lot to share and I learn from you.
Thanks for the comments!!
A NOTE TO ALL READERS: I am giving away a one-year membership to NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network – http://www.nten.org) to the first person who shows this to their association CEO and gets them to comment here and give us their take on this post. Must be a CEO or ED and must be someone who has not commented before.
W00t!
Your post was shared with me by Patrick McGary of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. A great discussion, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Social media is a huge challenge for me as a CEO–simply to see the returns and be able to justify the time when so many other things must be done. I’m enjoying the conversations we’re having at our organization, and looking forward to supporting our growth. Hopefully our members will be joining us for the ride!
Brilliant!! Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO by @maddiegrant http://ow.ly/1qLo5 (via @JeffHurt)
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RT @maddiegrant: SocialFishing: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/9qADrI
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Bravo to Jeff’s comment, “Associations must consider how to ‘be’ more social and not just ‘do’ social media” — and to this post, of course.
It’s not enough to just post updates on Twitter or Facebook. There has to be a mindset within the organization that facilitating and encouraging these conversations is a GOOD thing. The “fear factor” associated with social media is a huge obstacle, but ignoring social media isn’t going to make it go away.
Everything is changing at such a constant and rapid pace, and it saddens me that associations are still afraid to give up control. Anything that helps members “associate” more often and more easily should be at least considered, if not embraced.
N ice post Maddie. As president of an AMC and CEO of 9 associations, I see my role as part advocate, part strategic and part tactical.
In experimenting with social media tools and tracking trends, I can help advocate volunteers and see the possibilities for their association. And, I can nurture our staff to work with their volunteers to build strategically focusd tools that help meet the oranizations culture and target audiences.
We’re finding that different SM platforms fit our different oranizations.
One of the key questions for me as the owner is what do I need to provide to ensure you can use social media with your associations? Is it training? time? tools? technology? Encouragement? All of the above.
Steve
RT @BrianReuwee: RT @maddiegrant: one year NTEN membership give away 2 1st person to get CEO to comment! http://bit.ly/cY61cc Done!
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Challenges to Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO — http://bit.ly/czSTYc
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Nice post, Maddie – and it’s great to address CEOs directly – but you still need to explain to associations why they should want to evolve into social organizations. Telling them their members are already doing that (many aren’t) isn’t enough.
Social media strategies should be developed because they will enhance the member experience and deliver greater value to members, not because the staff likes social media and wants to use it.
The CEO needs to be persuaded that members, not staff, will benefit.
RT @JeffHurt Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO by @maddiegrant http://ow.ly/1qLo5 #assnchat #eventprofs
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RT @SITENCC RT @JeffHurt Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO by @maddiegrant http://ow.ly/1qLo5
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@jaybaer – my post was inspired by yours on the Exact Target white paper – thoughts? http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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Maddy and Lindy:
First, a disclaimer: I am responding to this post because you asked me to. I am a full-time association CEO. I have one job and one association.
I am not tired of social media. Frankly, I am offended by it. Almost as much as I am offended by the liars and thieves on Wall Street who precipitated the global financial crisis by duping Americans into believing that a credit default swap is an intelligent way to create value in the economy. It is a freaking scam that we are paying for now and that will continue to crush the life out of us for generations to come. Social media? To me it is mental masturbation. It is a perverse distraction to the real world mission of creating customers, providing them with value, and advancing the common business interests of my members.
You say my role is role is to help my staff “prioritize and defend their ideas.†No. I want them to embrace the mission of the organization, think clearly, act with integrity, and be productive. If they do that, they don’t have to prioritize or defend anything.
You talk about “clarity over control†as if to say one is more important than the other. Clarity and control are both important. Just as “work†and “family†are both important. You elevate one over the other at your peril. If I say “work†is more important than “family,†then I will likely lose both. The key is to balance clarity and control. It’s a paradox. It isn’t choosing between a right and a wrong. It’s choosing between two rights. That’s hard. And we must do it every day.
You ask “How do you herd cats?†as if to suggest that cat herding is an appropriate way to look at the world. You don’t herd cats. You herd cattle. You herd sheep. Not cats. You let cats do as they please. If you don’t like that, then don’t keep cats around.
You say “You point everyone in the right direction, not just through words but through action and through intent.†Wait a minute. If I point everyone in the “right†direction, doesn’t that violate your principal of clarity over control? In truth, I don’t point anything; I invite. An association CEO doesn’t command people to do things; he or she uses influence to encourage people to do things. And people do things, ultimately, because they see value in doing so.
Running an association – from the CEO’s perspective – is about being a good marketer. Here is my 8-word definition of ultimate marketing: you talk / I listen / I make / you buy. The two most important phrases in that formulation are the first two: “you talk†and “I listen.†If you forget that, then you’re lost. Right now, everything about “social media†– from the point of view of those who are selling the wonders of social media – seems to be about “I make†and “you buy.†I should know – I have a web and association management system platform with seven different “best of breed†vendors that are supposed to be working together. Guess what? They’re not. And my members and I are not any better off for all the additional effort and expense.
I want the social media gurus to stop selling me the information technology equivalent of a credit default swap, join the real world, and start addressing real problems. I’m sick, tired, and offended by the games, the mental masturbation, and the colossal waste of time that social media seems to represent. Let’s get back to creating customers and advancing the mission. Everything else is crap.
I am offended by "social media" right now. http://ow.ly/1qLo5
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Evolving into a social organization: An open letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/dxeOpH
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@Maddie & @Lindy, love this post! We need stuff like this to help get the attention of old school thinking.
@pat jones – I got to tell you, I’m scratching my head on many of your comments. On one hand I see you on this blog actively commenting and you also have a twitter account with thought provoking posts. You’re doing social media. You make some great point about single sign on and on the need for lead vendors to pull all the pieces together. Good stuff and hopefully the AMS’s are reading this!
On the other hand, on Twitter I see you engaging with your peers, but not your members. Guess what, your members are out there doing the same thing you are – engaging w/ peers.
Anyone that is telling you that social media is about “I make, you buy” doesn’t get it. Your social media strategy needs to be about listening, helping, connecting and providing useful info to your members. You need to publish and share both original and aggregated content that helps them. 9 out of 10 interactions need to be of this variety to allow for trust to be built so you can sprinkle in an occasional “buy our stuff”.
This CEO letter is right on. It basically is saying that social media touches can be helpful across all departments and silos. Thus the importance of having a team effort and empowered employees. You can’t look over everyone’s shoulder on this one.
I used to run a pretty large company w/ 500 employees, so can appreciate where your coming from. It took me a while to jump on the social media bandwagon, but I clearly see the benefits now. Bottom line, we’re at a tipping point and it ain’t going away. If you don’t embrace and start playing fast, you do have a real risk of becoming irrelevant.
Your members are going to have conversations with or without you. If it’s under my watch, I’d be talking with them!
Dave Lutz
Velvet Chainsaw Consulting
Well, this is just a great letter. "Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO" http://j.mp/cMdZ7A
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RT @maddiegrant: SocialFishing: Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO http://bit.ly/9qADrI
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Necessary to becoming a social organization is first being a learning organization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_organization) and, unfortunately, too many organizations fail in that regard. If an organization has a learning culture, I see no reason why they’d be opposed to social media. If it’s personal bias that otherwise doesn’t arise in a learning culture, that’s alarming, and they need to focus on breaking that bias. Shunning preconceived notions is part of being a learning organization, and it’s part of being responsible to yourself, your staff, your organization, and your members.
thx 4 RT @VelChain: RT @SITENCC RT @JeffHurt Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter 2 CEO by @maddiegrant http://ow.ly/1qLo5
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Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO — SocialFish http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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Well Maddie, I think there is plenty of reason to be tired, even angry, of all this social media stuff. The fact is there is a lot of noise (a lot of ego) going on with social media and it turning a lot of people off. Like a bad loud rock band!you can’t understand all the words and turned off by the attitude.
The social experts preached fear or die, then techy tools or you don’t get it and only recently have begun to describe solutions that solve problems!that is what I hope Engage365 can do.
I think CEO get (at least most) of what you are saying but things are not as simple you describe. As Pat Jones points out there is a balance that needs to be understood. Control is the new four letter word. I don’t know of any CEO’s that think they †have control†!nor wants it. I’d replace control with “hold†. A CEO we needs to balance clarity with the responsibility to hold the organization (staff, members, employees, customers) to its mission and values as we hold on to our traditions of the past and embrace the future.
I value the input of my socially engage team members, customers and influencers (for the record SocialFish is in my top influencers) to our organization. I have embraced social media as an important communication and networking tool as a business opportunity with the products and services we sell!there is a lot of value creation to be done. But there is a lot of meaningful insights and contribution going on and it’s not on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, of other web social places. I’m deeply concerned that the loudest are getting the attention and hope we can still keep bridges to those that are not web social.
RT @chelsead Brilliant!! Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO by @maddiegrant http://ow.ly/1qLo5 (via @JeffHurt)
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Sadly, there are so few social trade associations in DC – Report on Advocacy Analysis 2009: http://www.slideshare.net/marcaross/report-on-advocacy-analysis-2009 – that there seems to be little, if any, “titling of the floor†happening on K Street.
There is such a rapid movement to digital communications, smartphone use, broadband expansion, social campaigning and video production outside of the beltway that most of the K Street establishment appears blissfully clueless to the new communications and advocacy environment. Even worse, some want to blame “techies†and “social gurus†for forcing them to change their operations and advocacy efforts using unknown websites and bizarre sounding social tools.
It is true that most of America’s largest institutions (media companies, brands, trade associations and political parties) still exist and are in place – but they are not the same organizations they were just a decade ago. As Clay Shirky rightly points out in his book – Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations – everyone is now a media outlet thus giving the rise to mass amateurism and diminishing the power and influence of professionals at trade associations and mass media organizations who in the past controlled news and shaped policy. Furthermore, the overall media landscape has been transformed where now personal communication and publishing are now united functions, happening in real-time and without regard for waiting for approval to type, post and/or edit.
This is real and it is happening – social media is here. Why are organizations continuing to grapple with the how, why, when and where? More of K Street needs to spend time on Main Street working for a political campaign. Candidates and activists aren’t debating, planning and waiting for someone to “tilt the floor;†they are executing and moving forward.
And you can’t say all this social media thinking and chatter is a new craze. The achievement of eBay (launched 1995) coupled with the success of Napster (launched in 1999) were some of the first shock waves foretelling a change to media creation and information dissemination. The reshaping of media and information was further cemented with the development of Wikipedia (launched 2001) and YouTube (launched 2005) where user-generated-content (UGC) is empowering everyone to be a journalist, scribe, activist, entertainer, thought leader – even a media mogul.
What K Street needs to fear it that every year more and more talented communicators and organizers are coming to DC that know how to move quickly, shape the debate and engage activists on a limited budget with less resources. It is no surprise that the economy is moving forward with fewer workers due to technology driven productivity – embracing these dynamic changes sooner rather than later will serve the current leaders on K Street well.
@BunnysGotMoxie http://ow.ly/1veMr (comment by Pat Jones) #assnchat
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Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO — SocialFish http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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SM is co. culture change RT @maddiegrant Evolving into a Social Organization: An Open Letter to the CEO — SocialFish http://bit.ly/cY61cc
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Good point having a plan on how social media will benefit the company, and convincing the CEO is important, as with most projects in the business world, good sponsorship is required.
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