[Editor’s note – this post originally appeared on November 11, 2010.  I thought it would be fun to repost it today, January 29, 2014 – and see if things have changed.  Rather than edit any of this post, I’ll hand it over to you.  What do you think?  Was Lindy right, 4 years ago?  The floor is yours.]

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* deep breath * There. I said it. And I know I’m going to get a lot of grief over it, so let the debate begin.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and my thinking has been influenced by research, including the September Pew Internet report on “The Rise of App Culture,” and a report on global mobile statistics from MobiThinking. I believe that associations need to get mobile right, and fast. I disagree that apps are the answer. Here are five reasons why.

1.) There are too many barriers to using your app
So, first someone has to have a phone that works with native apps–for the most part, that’s an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and maybe a Windows phone or other smartphone. Then, assuming your app works on all of those phones, they have to download the app. Then they have to USE the app. See? That’s three significant barriers right there.

2.) Popular app types don’t favor association apps
App users heavily favor games, followed by news/weather, maps, social networking (inflated by successful Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter apps), and music. To me, these are lifestyle apps, and each of these categories will be dominated by the big players in those spaces. I could never advise an association to try to compete for mobile app users in any of these niches.

3.) Association members are not ready yet
According to Pew, only 29 percent of adults with cell phones use apps on their phone, compared with 72 percent who use SMS (text messaging) and 38 percent who access the internet. App users skew younger and male, too. If we’re fishing where our fish are, apps are a miss this year.

4.) By the time association members are ready, mobile apps will be on the decline.
According to ABI Research, mobile app downloads are expected to peak in 2013, then start a slow decline. According to their senior analyst, Mark Beccue,

“We see two emerging trends: first, many applications (increasingly built on web standards) will migrate from app stores to regular websites, and for some sites you won’t need an app at all. In addition, more and more popular applications will be preloaded on mobile devices. Social networking apps in particular will be pre-loaded on new products.â€

This is important. The first thing people think of when we talk apps is native apps–the ones you download from the App Stores, or the ones that come pre-loaded on your new phone (and pre-loading partnership deals are probably not an option for associations.) But as mobile web browsers and the sites we design for them get more sophisticated, “web apps” will begin to take the place of native apps. If you used http://asae10.org from your mobile phone, you used a web app. And you didn’t need to download anything–you just went to the URL in your mobile web browser. One less barrier. So to be clear in this post, [native app = bad]  and  [web app = good].

5.) There are better ways to invest in mobile this year.
A year from now, building mobile apps will be cheaper and easier. We’ll know more about the market, and there will likely be more of our fish in the sea, so to speak. There will also be more vendors with web app options, rather than native apps. So for this year, where should associations be spending money on mobile? I can think of a few things to invest in…

• Optimizing website content and user experience for the mobile web
• Researching member use of mobile (including iPad/tablet),
• Optimizing email for mobile web
• Continuing to optimize presence in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, which have the most popular social networking mobile apps that people are already using.
• Experiment with opt-in text messaging (especially for event registrants, volunteers, and grassroots advocacy use). Remember, the adoption rate for SMS is 2.5 times the adoption rate for mobile apps.

Think I’m wrong? (Maddie might.) Then at least test the concept before you commit big dollars to it. Don’t rush in to building apps, and waste resources you need for other kinds of mobile innovation.

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(photo credit)

I’ve been thinking about community management a lot lately. In our role as consultants for SocialFish, Maddie and I have talked to hundreds of community managers about what they do, how they do it, and the why behind it all. Our latest community management consulting package drills down into what we’ve learned and how to apply it. Here are five quick lessons we’ve picked up along the way.

It’s natural, I suppose. To want to compare yourself to others. It starts when we’re little. One of those many things we learned in Kindergarten, if not before. Back when associations were first starting to adopt social media, we worked with Jeff De Cagna and some other association thought leaders to record examples of what folks were doing on the Association Social Media Wiki. Then association social media took off. There are thousands of examples now.

And people still want to know how they compare. We get asked for comparisons all the time. Usually, we look for outstanding examples where there are deep similarities in terms of goals and strategies. As consultants, that’s our job. The one thing that we couldn’t do? The wide, global comparison across hundreds of associations that Association TRENDS is now offering in their new Association Social Media Report 2012: Adoption and Activity Levels, Rankings and Best Practices..

The report is $297. And it’s worth the money to see 330 associations’ activity metrics on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. They customize the report with your numbers, which is pretty handy. The report even includes charts that break down the data by national or regional, large staff or small staff, and even sector–i.e. finance, manufacturing & engineering, energy & utilities etc.

Not that this report is perfect. It’s not. We chatted with Qrisp and TRENDS, and laid out the pros and cons like this:

• PRO: So glad that there are so many associations compared here.
• PRO: Love the break down of associations.
• PRO: Glad they kept it simple and just pulled the basic, publicly accessible metrics.
• PRO: Appreciate that they’re planning to do this annually–the report can keep getting better and more useful.
• CON: What? No LinkedIn? (They’re already planning to add LI, so phew!)
• CON: The best practices are suspect. But then, we have a bit of a problem with Best Practices over here.
• CON: We also noticed some data discrepancies. It happens. And there is a way to report data problems to them if you choose to get the report and you find something out of whack. (I almost said “something fishy” but that’s a good thing for us SocialFish. Ha.)

Bottom line: Do you think a comparison will help you either A) get credit for your work or B) light a fire under your team to get them moving ahead with social media? Then buy the report and budget for it as an annual social media status checkup.

It’s time for our quarterly recap of what we’ve been working on. Well, it’s February, so I guess I’m running a little behind, but who’s keeping track, right? So here’s the review of what we got up to in the fourth quarter of 2011. Better late than never. It was a good year.

JOINT VENTURE WITH COMMPARTNERS–In case you missed it, the biggest news this quarter is our new relationship with CommPartners. We’ve been working very closely together since we launched the joint venture in November. Our focus is the intersection between social media and learning that is so important for associations who want to extend member engagement online.

STRATEGY WORK–We have clients who come to us at a stage where they understand the tools, they see the benefits, and they need help defining a social media strategy for their organization. We work through our strategy process, starting with a social media assessment and brainstorming session. We draft a roadmap that defines social media work in a way that is tied to the organization’s strategy, and then we help work through setting up appropriate training, processes, and working teams to execute the roadmap.

• Solar Energy Industries Association–This quarter, we followed up our initial assessment with a brainstorm session with SEIA’s super-creative staff. The group had tons of ideas. We took careful notes, let it all meld in our minds, and then produced a social media roadmap to bring it all into focus for this growing trade association.
• National Fluid Power Association–NFPA is a trade association based in Milwaukee. They operate with a small staff, which adds some interesting social media challenges and opportunities for them. We got started this quarter with an assessment and trip to Milwaukee for the brainstorm with staff.
• Digestive Disease Week–DDW is the conference and expo for physicians and researchers in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. Four different societies sponsor the event, which has dedicated staff of its own. DDW needed a strategy and plan specific to the event. We did the assessment with the event staff–great scores all around!–and then we visited their Bethesda office for a brainstorm session.

KITCHEN SINK CONSULTING WORK–Much of our consulting work is completely unique to the organization we’re working with. Often, these projects start with a weekly or monthly phone call where we offer insight and perspective. And then at some point, we jump in and get our hands dirty to help in some other way as well. Here are some of the special projects we worked on this quarter.

• American Society of Civil Engineers–We put together a social media playbook for ASCE staff, so everyone in the organization will know how to work with the social media team, how to get started with social media, and how to troubleshoot typical social media issues. We also put together a walkthrough video for their brand new MyASCE community.
• IEEE–For months, we’ve been working with an ad hoc social media committee. This quarter the committee submitted a final report to the IEEE board. We also worked with IEEE staff to research how IEEE conference organizers are using social media. We surveyed conference organizers, and interpreted the survey results to uncover next steps.
• National Society of Accountants–NSA is working on a blog strategy. This quarter, we helped with an initial blog plan. We worked together on a welcome packet for new bloggers, and we’ve been working within Higher Logic to manage bloggers and content.
• Avectra–We’ve continued our work with Avectra, teaming up to look at Social CRM concepts, how they will impact associations, and how Avectra can help streamline the work through better technology.

SPEAKING AND TRAINING–In addition to our consulting work, we do quite a bit of speaking and training.

• ASAE Technology Conference in DC–I (Lindy) presented on a session with Paul Gannon and Jeff De Cagna on mobile. I also presented a deep dive session on Social CRM. Meanwhile, Maddie presented on launching a blog using Association Tech as the model.
• Maddie also spoke alongside Jamie Notter to the Air Force about their book, Humanize. It’s selling well, by the way. They’re becoming super stars. I plan to ride their coat tails as far as possible.

THINK TANK–We’ve continued hosting a Think Tank Webinar Series with the help of CommPartners. This quarter, we did a webinar on hiring for social media, featuring Elizabeth Engel from the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions. She’d completely lost her voice the day of the webinar. Luckily, we’d pre-recorded the presentation, and she was able to save her voice by text chatting with participants.

INFOGRAPHIC–As always, we’ve been writing like crazy. This quarter we tried something new–an infographic on mobile strategy. We collaborated closely with Results Direct to make the mobile infographic come to life.

So that’s it. Our fourth quarter of 2011 in a nutshell. We’ll be back with another update in a couple months.

I’m confused. I figured I’d start this post with that, just so you know that I don’t have any answers here. Only questions. At the risk of inadvertently raising political ire from every corner, I’d also like to start by saying that both sides have important points to make.

I’m talking about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261. The Senate version is PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), or Senate Bill 968. I won’t get into comparing the two bills–that’s not my thing. For the purpose of this post I’ll focus on SOPA. Oh–and don’t bother clicking on those Wikipedia links if today is Wednesday, January 18. Wikipedia is decidedly against SOPA, and is creating a huge buzz by blacking out today. They got my attention–thus this post.

Let me see if I can round this up–excuse the vast oversimplification. Or use the comments to correct me! SOPA is supposed to protect copyright holders and give them a means of combatting copyright infringement online. Even if the website is not based in the US. There’s a medical angle here, too, as one intent of the bill is to stop the illegal import of counterfeit pharmaceuticals into the US market via Internet sales.

That’s the gist, but there are problems with the way SOPA is written according to many Internet analysts, scholars, and online businesses. And problems with the approach to enforcement. Folks who are against SOPA have made all kinds of doomsday predictions, which I don’t completely buy in to. But I will say this–the legislation adds a lot of additional legal risk and burden to those of us who are trying to do the right thing. Meanwhile, the folks who are actively flouting the law are probably going to find a quick technical work-around.

There were hearings on SOPA in November and December of 2011, and it was scheduled for more debate in January, but it looks like it’s all on hold until February now.

SOPA–or whatever legislation evolves out of this bill–could have a big impact on associations who are managing online communities and knowledge bases. If you have members or other stakeholders uploading content to your website, you should be paying attention to this issue. The fear is that one unscrupulous person would upload the wrong thing, and your whole website would be blacklisted. (See? Doomsday.) But here’s the thing. The most recent law on the books for this stuff is the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which includes the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act. 1998 was the year Larry and Sergey started this little research project that turned into Google. That law is OLD. There was no Facebook. No Wikipedia. And probably not much of an inkling about the problems that SOPA is trying to correct.

Take a look at this infographic provided by businessinsurance.org. It’s not unbiased, but it helped me understand some of the moving parts in this complicated issue.

I invite you to use the comments of this post to share your thoughts on SOPA, PIPA, and the potential impact on associations. Keep it civil, but let’s have a real conversation on this stuff, shall we? I know some of your associations have taken a stance on this issue–don’t get yourself in trouble here, but if you’re able to give us your thoughts, please do.

Hey SocialFish readers–you deserve to be recognized. Consider this a heads-up.

Every year, the ASAE Communications Section’s Gold Circle Award (GCA) competition recognizes the extraordinary communications efforts undertaken by associations. This year’s awards ceremony will be held several months early to coincide with the Marketing, Membership, and Communications Conference, May 23-24.

That means you need to get your submissions together now in order to get in under the January 20 deadline.

There are several categories where outstanding social media work could potentially be recognized:

• Innovative Communications
  Recognizes an outstanding association/nonprofit communications program, vehicle and/or format that pushes the limits of innovation and/or technology to communicate with the intended audience(s). Entries in this category should employ new and emerging communication vehicles or utilize known communications in new, experimental or innovative ways.
• Integrated (Multi-Vehicle) Communications Campaign
  Recognizes an outstanding association/nonprofit communications program launched in 2011 that consists of a minimum of three communication vehicles, such as digital, print (magazine, journal, letters, etc.), social media, website, film, or radio.
• Magazine
  Recognizes an outstanding print (includes non-interactive PDFs) or electronic digital/interactive magazine produced by an association or nonprofit for its members. Must have been published within the 2011 calendar year. Entries must be submitted in original format intended for end users.
• Media Relations Campaign
  Recognizes an outstanding overall media relations campaign designed around an association or nonprofit (or one of its initiatives, programs, products/services, special events or issues) that was launched in 2011.
• Web Site
  Recognizes an outstanding association/nonprofit organization’s overall Web site targeted at the public, the association’s membership or other stakeholder group(s). This category includes associations’ general websites, issue specific sites, public education/campaign sites, policy related sites, or any other website created by the association for a specific purpose.

I’m doing a session all about mobile with Jeff De Cagna and Paul Gannon at the ASAE Technology Conference on Wednesday morning. Mobile is something Maddie and I think and talk about a lot. And after posting that “mobile apps are a waste of time for associations” on this blog last year, I’ve gotten a number of requests to talk more about it. The post was meant to be provocative. A year later, a lot has changed in the mobile landscape. Still, I stand by a lot of the reasoning in the original post, even as I agree that completely ignoring native apps is also a mistake. It’s all about the big picture, and how mobile can fit into that picture in a very holistic way.

Enter Results Direct. We’ve been watching their work in the mobile space for awhile now. Talking with Katie, Russ, Cecilia, and the whole gang over there is always worthwhile for us. So when we had the chance to develop this infographic together, we jumped at it. We asked ourselves, what are the key questions that will help associations think strategically about their mobile presence? Take a look and tell us if we got it right. View the full-sized infographic: Associations Going Mobile.

This was originally posted over on the Avectra blog. If you follow Avectra (and if you’re into SCRM, you should!) then you can skip ahead to the next post in your reader.

The ASAE Technology Conference is next week in DC–where did November go? Every year, I look forward to a fun-filled, possibly snowy week of techie good times. And this year, I’m even more energized about #Tech11.

I’ll be facilitating a deep dive on Social CRM for Associations on Thursday, 12/8, starting at 8:30am. Deep dive means that we will actually have a good chunk of time together as a group to have meaningful thinking and conversations about how social media intersects with membership management. Three hours, to be exact. And if things go the way I expect, those three hours will fly by.

Attendees at #Tech11 know their stuff. And, when it comes to the integration of social technologies into existing association tech, I anticipate that this session will set the agenda for the next year. Some very smart individuals who have helped shape my thinking will be in the room, including:

• Polly Karpowicz, CAE, Director, Web and Publications at American Political Science Association
• David DeLorenzo, Chief Information officer at National League of Cities
• Shepherd Smith, Senior Director of Marketing at Avectra
• Dave Martin, Vice President, Marketing at Electronic Retailing Association
• Rich Finstein, President, CommPartners

Maddie and I attended the ASAE Summit Awards Dinner a few days ago. It’s a beautiful event held annually in Washington, DC. We were at the National Building Museum, with it’s spectacular architecture highlighted with uplights, an understated stage set, and beautiful party decor. We had drinks, wine and a three-course dinner. There was a live performance of the national anthem by Northwestern High School’s talented choir, and later a performance by Nashville music star, Gabe Dixon. And a lot of money was raised for ASAE’s Power of A Fund.

For the 1,100 people who attended, it was an awesome, memorable event. But it’s not about all of the pageantry. It’s not about the expensive party, the fancy space, the lobster and filet. It’s not about the wit and perfect delivery of Velma Hart, who emcees the event. It’s about the work that associations do to improve the world around them. It’s about stories that need to be told. For example:

• Associations make the roads safer. The American Occupational Therapy Association is responsible for Older Driver Safety Awareness Week. By 2040, 1 in 5 Americans will be age 70 or older. Many older adults will face challenges that will affect their ability to drive safely. It’s good to know that AOTA and its members are out there now, providing resources for drivers, families, and health professionals to keep older adults mobile and active in their communities.

• Associations feed the world. At the local leve, the Kane County Farm Bureau is turning crop proceeds into food on pantry shelves through their Harvest for ALL program. With as many as 40,000 people in their community impacted by hunger, their member farmers are making a difference. At the international level, the Million Dollar Round Table and MDRT Foundation organized 2,300 volunteers who spend two hours packaging one million meals. The Million Meal Challenge made a difference for children and families in Haiti, India, Jamaica, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

• Associations improve health care. The Pediatric Nursing Certification Board is increasing the number of Certified Pediatric Nurses to ensure that more children receive the best possible expert care. How? By putting nurses’ success above the organization’s revenue goals through their No Pass, No Pay CPN Certification Program.

• Associations help people find new opportunities. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers Education Foundation is responding to the severe shortage of qualified workers needed to tackle America’s infrastructure problems. Their Construction Challenge directly engaged more than 11,000 kids, and made a global impression on more than 18 million students who now have an awareness of opportunities to succeed in construction-related jobs. And the National Industries for the Blind is tackling the 70% unemployment rate among people who are blind through their Business Leaders Program, which has impacted more than 6,000 people since 2003.

What does all of this have to do with the cheeky social media snark we normally serve up here? Nothing. And everything. How much could association programs like these grow–how many more people could we help–if every association had the know-how and the resources to tell their stories online?  This is what our work is all about. Empowerment.

So if you’re reading this, please share these stories. Check out this YouTube Summit Awards playlist for some great videos to share. You never know who might see them and be inspired to make a difference.

You know those social media icons on your homepage? You probably have a LinkedIn icon up there. Now check the link. Where is it going? Does it link to the group you’ve been working so hard to build, or does it link to your organization’s company page? Let’s compare:

NTEN group on LinkedIn

LinkedIn Groups enable people to join, discuss topics that are important to them, and interact with other group members. Group members can also show the logo on their profile, if you enable that setting.

NTEN company page on LinkedIn

LinkedIn Company Pages are profiles for organizations. Only someone employed by the company may update the description, or post status updates to the company page. People may follow your organization, but can not interact with others following the organization.

We’ve been seeing a lot of links to company pages from social media icons on association home pages. And I think that’s a mistake for any association who has a group on LinkedIn. A company page is a great asset if you’re doing a lot of recruiting on LinkedIn, or if you’d like another place to post company news. But associations with LinkedIn groups should prioritize that effort first–especially in those social media icon links. NTEN does it right on their web site, by the way.

Where does your LinkedIn icon go, and why?