Last week, Bob Farrace , director of publications for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, asked this Twitter question on the ASAE Technology Listserv. Are any associations out there maintaining an official association Twitterstream? There are a bunch of associations with an official presence on Twitter. I'm considering setting one up and I'm looking for some successful practices that will let me use it for more than "Early bird registration ends today..." messages.

A good social media plan will have many elements in common with a good marketing plan. For example, social media is never a campaign . And while your members are used to getting emails and brochures, they may not be ready for all the possibilities social media creates. Here is what I would put in my association's social media plan. But there are differences. For that matter, your boss and staff might not be ready either.

Have you filled out the Social Tech Survey for associations yet? Even if you haven't taken on any social media initiatives yet, but plan to start something in the next 6 months or so, you should fill out the survey. was honored to be involved in producing the survey, along with association superstars Ben Martin and Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation. I The carrot?

The blogs are all a twitter (Twitter's twittering, too) with the release of Digital Snippets, a new web service designed to take the work out of creating the ultimate Social Media Release (SMR). Check out these two templates to see what we're talking about here... Social Media Group's Digital Snippets Template An earlier version from SHIFT Communications So with this shiney new toy comes much responsibility. Digital Snippets comes from the group that did this SMR for Ford . The tool itself is among a new generation of PR services trying to perfect the template for the SMR.

Rosetta Thurman wrote a terrific post this morning about the Fort Wayne chapter of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network opting out of the national association. It seems that it was too much work, too burdensome, for the  local chapter to follow all of the rules that the national association set to be recognized as a [...] ...Tags: Tags: Social Media Rosetta Thurman Surfrider Foundation Young

I had the pleasure of designing, and participating in, today's NTC session starring nonprofit communicators Danielle Brigida, National Wildlife Federation; Felicia Carr, National Parks Conservation Association; and Wendy Harman, American Red Cross. Common denominator here, beyond marketing expertise, is that all three women are all boldly plunging forward into the wild west of social media.  Talk about a branding brain trust!  Danielle, Felicia and Wendy shared their org's brand definition, the

If you're not familiar with my business partner Maddie, she blogs daily about social media as it relates to association management and innovation. We wanted a true social media homebase for our business SocialFish. Maddie Grant and I are combining our blogs. That means that starting soon, this blog will redirect to our newly redesigned homebase, SocialFishing .

This post is the third in a 4-part series on social media policies . This is a good idea for every association operating in a social space. Intel even puts their moderation guidelines right into their social media guidelines for employees . Tags: social media policie In this part, we're looking at user agreements and moderation guidelines for an organization's official presence in social spaces like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. (Remember, Remember, I'm not a lawyer.

Once, when I was representing social media on an arts marketing panel, a fellow panelist said to me, one-on-one, something along the lines of “ okay, but how does this sell tickets ?” The longer answer is about social media metrics and the complexity of conversation, and it’s not really an answer. There is a lot of great writing and research out there, by people like Beth Kanter and Rachel I guess I didn’t get that point across! I gave him the short answer .

Should my association have a social media policy? This post is the first in a four-part series meant to clear up the confusion around policies that your association may need in order to make the most out of the social web. The true goal of every type of social media or web policy should be to make interacting on the social web easier, more comfortable, and safer for your stakeholders. I get that question a lot. Short answer...yes.