Are you ready to host your association’s content on Facebook? The pressure for publishers to shift their content from their own sites to the gigantic social network is increasing, with media organizations among Facebook’s first targets to be enveloped by its platform. And some, such as BuzzFeed and The New York Times, appear ready to give in.

This trend of hosting content on third-party sites is expertly summed up by Nieman Journalism Lab Director Joshua Benton, whose latest column examines the origins, and possible future, of “distributed content.”

“This shift is a predictable result of the rise of mobile devices. When I started using the web in the 1990s, every website—whether NYTimes.com or someone’s food blog—lived, in a technical sense, on the same level.”

But as the landscape evolved at the onset of the age of smartphones, “the open web became just another app, living alongside all the others.”

At the end of the day, publishers of all shapes and sizes are going to have to make major decisions about distributed content. And to that end, Benton concludes his column with these suggestions:

• Bet on native advertising.
• Focus more energy on the platforms that are still open.
• Consider going premium.
• Go for scale.

What do all of those recommendations mean? Read Benton’s full story here.

Great-Ideas Recap of the Day

An important read from @AnnaCaraveli: Where is the line drawn between personal & professional? http://t.co/EydWYnmOzm #assnchat

— Deirdre Reid, CAE (@DeirdreReid) March 25, 2015

The 2015 Great Ideas Conference may have come to a close earlier this month, but leaders in the association world are still drawing insights from the event. Demand Networks managing partner Anna Caraveli, for one, has an intriguing post on drawing the line too sharply between the personal and the professional when communicating with association members. (ht @deirdrereid)

More Good Reads

Nonprofits looking to get a discounted boost on their social efforts, and to give back at the same time, should check out Space Chimp Media’s “Chimpy Care” initiative. Nonprofit clients will get a 5 to 10 percent discount, and at least 5 of the company’s yearly profits will be given back to charity.

The key to retaining volunteers may rest in constructive criticism, according to Monique Goodyer of Monaco Compensation Lawyers, in a guest post for VolunteerMatch’s Engaging Volunteers blog.

“A MOOC isn’t a webinar and it’s not a regurgitation of a PowerPoint presentation.” Love them or hate them, massive open online courses can have an impact on your organization, as Event Garde Digital Content Manager Kristen Parker argues in her latest post.

(photojournalis/ThinkStock)