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Social Media Roundup: How to Communicate Better With Instagram

Inject some personality—and some fun—into your member outreach campaigns with Instagram. Plus: look for these red flags when deciding whether to hire new employees.

Thanks to the smartphone revolution, everybody is an amateur photographer. Harnessing the power of mobile images to engage your members, and more, in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Get Personal With Instagram

Image power: As social media tools go, Instagram is still viewed as a relatively new kid on the block. But the online photo and video sharing app is quickly becoming a favorite among association communications professionals and others looking to add some visual punch to how they reach out to and engage with members. Writing for Association Adviser, Kelly Donovan, team leader for online marketing firm Naylor, LLC, suggests 10 ways that associations can use Instagram to improve member communications. Among Donovan’s suggestions: Use Instagram to hold contests. Create a custom hashtag that identifies your event and ask users to submit photos. Once their photos have been submitted, review the images, pick the winner and “regram” it to let your members know who won. Donovan also suggests using Instagram to show off the smiling faces behind your organization, especially leaders and board members, and using the tool as a real-time reporting device to post event-related photos and videos. How do you use Instagram? Tell us in the comments. (ht @JohnSegota)

Hire for the Right Reasons

Love is blind: When recruiting new employees for your organization, it’s easy to fall in love—maybe you really like the candidate for his effervescent smile or her take-all-comers attitude. But, as veteran business consultant Randy Hall points out on his firm’s blog, liking someone is not enough reason to hire them. You have to dig deeper. Hall suggests three “red flags” that should raise doubt about a potential hire’s effectiveness. Ask them about their previous job history. Do they come off sounding jaded or victimized? Do they the place blame on others? If so, think twice about bringing them on board, he says. You should also ask job candidates about their accomplishments, suggests Hall. Pay close attention to how they characterize their role. Do they hog all the credit, or do they spread the love around? “We know that no one person usually owns all of the credit for a remarkable innovation or a breakthrough process, but some people are willing to take it,” he says. As an employer, you should think twice about taking them. Finally, watch out for pontificators—the “orators” who are inclined to call attention to problems within the organization, but have little insight into providing solutions. Hall’s advice: Take your time. Don’t hire someone because you have to fill a position; hire them because they are a good fit for your organization. (ht @chatterbachs)

Come across any interesting links on your social networks today? Share them in the comments.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Corey Murray

By Corey Murray

Corey Murray is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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