Effectively, it is the fast track to membership success. Intuitively, we all know that members using the associations services is good, but seeing the statistics to support it highlights the critical nature in the membership lifecycle of member engagement. Overall, we had more than 650 unique associations respond to this question. Organizations that reported a higher level of usage where more likely to say that they experienced better outcomes in their membership results. MORE

If your board (or C-suite) hasn’t accepted the fact that your association must offer online education to your members and market, then you’ll want to read this post from WBT Systems. Working on a suicide helpline changed how Natalia Dashan talks to everyone. MORE

If we haven’t met and you see me walking around, please introduce yourself, I’d love to meet you. I continue to learn new things about the “bones” of an AMS, a technology I thought I knew enough about but apparently didn’t. MemberSuite describes the difference between real and pseudo SaaS AMS and suggests 12 questions you can ask a potential AMS vendor to find out what they’re really selling. Quick hits before we get to next week’s free webinars: What is quantum computing? ( MORE

The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community… I just bought a wreath at the farmers market and I’m listening to the Christmas Cocktail Jazz playlist on Spotify. In a 2019 survey of high-tech companies, more than 40% of the respondents said they hire Customer Success Managers , according to an article in the Harvard Business Review. I know of at least one AMS company that assigns a Customer Success Manager to each of their clients. MORE

Innovators across the association and nonprofit spectrum earn a night in their honor. “Washington’s Leading Association and Nonprofit Innovators,” an event in Arlington, Virginia’s, Crystal City neighborhood, recognized 20 association executives for their groundbreaking approaches to technology, revenue, and events. IADD now shares the videos with its members as part of its educational and recruitment efforts. MORE

We have just launched the questionnaire for the 2011 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Survey and I want to invite blog readers who work for a membership organization to participate. If you are on our survey list, you would have already received an email with a personal link to connect you to the survey. Please use the link provided in the email to respond. Share to Twitter Share to Facebook. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). MORE

In her book, The End of Membership as We Know It , Sarah Sladek, makes important points – based on best practices in membership marketing -- that membership professionals should take to heart in order to grow a successful program. And] while the economy is likely to rebound sooner or later, the other two influences are here to stay.” Sladek proposes a number of solutions to help in meeting these membership challenges. Innovation is a must:” 5. MORE

It’s so sad to meet an association professionals whose boss doesn’t provide a budget for professional development—how cruelly ironic considering associations are in the lifelong learning business. I can see how members and customers might be more apt to reply to a request for advice than a request for membership or program feedback. B-to-B social review sites are becoming more mainstream and influential , says Ian Bruce at SiriusDecisions. MORE

He writes, “Most of us know or have heard of associations that use tools like Facebook or Twitter to promote conferences or other products and services, thereby increasing their sales. Finally, I am pleased to report that I have found just such an association—and it turns out it has been succeeding at it for three years already.” Share to Twitter Share to Facebook. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). in Alexandria, Virginia. MORE

I must admit I exceeded 140 characters a few times already but only to add a bit of commentary to articles I shared. I plan to continue being pithy on Twitter—at least in my own mind—and not use more characters just because I can. If you work in an association, I encourage you to think about content strategy for five minutes because the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Foundation is studying how associations use content strategy. MORE

Innovation through Collaboration. We are always looking for new innovative ways to do things better. So I wanted to share two items that I came across this week that attribute successful innovation to collaboration. First, innovation is collaborative. We come out of the womb with the ability to sop up information from people around us. And cities play to that strength. Cities enable us to learn from other people. MORE