To be honest, when we set out to create Confabb, we didn’t have any discussions about how a social network for the meetings industry would affect industry associations. We just thought people like us could use a good, functional central site for finding events they want to attend and for keeping in touch with the people they met. That was it. I can’t even remember if associations were ever a part of our conversation, unless we talked about reaching out to them to generate awareness for Confabb. In that respect we felt we’d be a value-add.
But, as has been the case with these new social tools, there exists the probability of disrupting the status quo. Broadcaster/Author/Columnist/Blogger Kare Andersen reminded us of that recently when she emailed to alert us to a post she’d written on her “Say it Better” blog about the possibility of social networks eroding the membership (or taking the place) of associations.
And why not? Associations have physical overhead, staffs to pay and are burdened by a lack of proximity to the very events they help put together. I’m sure they’re bureaucratic as well; would all of an association’s membership get to be heard on every issue facing the association? Probably not. But not because the association wouldn’t want that input, it’s just the size and composition of a physical world association dictates a need for a centralized, top-down leadership structure in order for anything to get done.
The web has changed that top-down model. You see it everywhere, especially within newspapers and television; people are going around the centralized model and are mashing up their own programming or responding to free ads. So it makes perfect sense that Confabb or any other of the social sites could, conceivably, start to pull members away from associations.
Wouldn’t it be convenient for an IAEE member to fire up a browser and instantly message other association members headed to Expo! Expo! in advance of the show? And wouldn’t it make sense for those members to communicate industry happenings or association news with the membership at large right from a blog so they can get down to business when they finally meet live? Doesn’t it make sense to hear back from the at-large membership as well? Instant feedback via a socially-powered site would allow the association to modify the show content to address membership issues as they arise. What about all the members who can’t make the show? Should they miss out on the benefit of their association’s annual meeting just because work or family keeps them from attending? Or could they participate live, via steaming video and chat? Social tools remedy all these scenarios and more. So it makes perfect sense for socially networked sites to start siphoning away association membership.
But they really shouldn’t. Instead, as Kare argues, it makes more sense for associations to embrace these new social tools. There will always be a place in business for associations. They’re repositories for the history, membership, intellectual property, and best business practices business is built upon, so they shouldn’t ever go away. But they should make themselves more democratic, more transparent, more accessible, and more nimble by taking the best tools the web has to offer and putting them in the hands of their members. This will shore up their membership, encourage a deeper level of participation by a wider scope of the membership and encourage new people to become members.
We’re not seeing resistance to this in associations, per se, but they’re taking longer than they should to wise up to what’s happening on the web. If they don’t move faster, sooner, it won’t be long until their membership numbers slip down a very steep slope.
The internet era has come! Almost every country in the world has enjoyed the internet, and so do the people and industries. So, why not the associations also? I agree that the old-fashioned associations will have longer response time, but I doubt that they will stay that way. Associations are still needed in business practice and group relationship with the government and other social groups. However, these reasons are not strong enough to keep their members. Hence, either they like it or not, associations must change into new form of organization and social tools.
J.C. Carvill
Email: support@cosmosing.com
URL: http://www.cosmosing.com/jeanclaudecarvill/index.php
Social nets are only commoditizing some association services. So associations will have to emphasize their other competencies. Advocacy, research, analysis, event planning and hosting, etc. For all that social nets are growing, they are still far from universal, just as not everyone lives all day on the net.
The old ways of making money will be hurt, and the change will be hard.
I agree with the earlier posting that associations are still needed and perform too many functions that cannot be easily replaced by new technology. That said, I do believe that advancing social media and social networking tools will force associations to modify the way they view their organizations. User generated content and user managed communities represent the member or customer voice in its purest form. The questions are “How do associations define themselves?” vs. “How do members define their associations?”. The delta between these two represents a sea of opportunities and challenges that must be carefully navigated.
The challenge associations face in the blogosphere is a deep divide along generational boundaries that separates those who do blog and those who won’t. At IAEE we deploy blogs into spaces that are largely occuppied by those who are likliest to prefer high-tech communications — our future leaders co-hort, for example, consists of many who are 40 years old and younger. We use blogs for our annual meeting; and are about to launch a new blog at CEIR for those who are focused on key exhibitors and market leaders. All this said, the vast majority of members appear not to have the time or inclination to use blogs routinely (yet?). Nevertheless, we will continue to expand our means of communications and the opportunities that we provide to members to build and expand their networks using all the tools we have available to us. As is the case with almost everything today, nothing is simple.
I edit a hardprint/digital magazine called Association Meetings International and have worked ’social networks threaten associations’ into a story I would like to publish. But I need full names, pictures and email addresses of the posters before I can do that. Can anyone help me with this?
Many thanks
Rob Spalding
Hi Rob,
Sorry for the late reply. We had a lapse in blogging due to some work we’ve been doing on the site and with partners and just didn’t pay the blog the attention we should have been for the past two weeks. We’ve emailed over the requested information.
All the best,
Jon