Marketing nSights

How Do You Know If You Are Doing a Good Job?

2012-01-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

by Melynn Sight

Association communications are, without question, a challenging and ever-changing field. But it’s still very much a young field. There is no single job description for an association communicator. I have one, but I’m not sure it would hit the mark in your association. Every association’s job description is unique.

In our Build a Plan workshop we talk about measurements. Sometimes they are numbers. Other times, you have to ask yourself a few questions to gauge how well you are doing.

Are you any good at this? If you really want to measure your success, you have to patch together a performance review that matches your sometimes-patched-together and often changing job description.

While it’s fairly easy to measure the effectiveness of many of the tactics that you document in your communications plan, it’s harder to measure some of the big picture changes you want to see. You communicate individual programs and services, but to what end?

As you sit back and look at your communications program as a whole and evaluate your own performance as an association communicator, consider these questions:

How does your communications strategy make you stand out from your competition and overcome member distractions? Are you conveying what is unique, and valuable, and significant to your members? Is it clear to the people who matter most to your success what you offer them? Does it have appeal? Is it exclusive? Is it credible? Are your communications different enough from your state (or local) information? Have you compared them lately?

Is your organization perceived as a leader or expert in something? What’s your status or reputation in the eyes of your members? How does your strategy help you position your association as a leader in one specific area? How trusted is your organization to deliver on that promise, and how does your plan maintain and build trust with your members?

Do your supporters remember you? You might be surprised how many supporters you really have. Those supporters are your best advertising. Are you identifying those supporters you worked to create over the years - like past officers and volunteers? Is it going strong? Or are your supporters feeling overlooked or forgotten? Are you communicating regularly with them? Are you reminding them what you do that is valuable? Are you asking them to share your good work with uninvolved members? Ask them for their support. Consider making your supporters, especially your biggest fans, part of your team.

Are you connecting with new people? Unless your target audience is a very well-defined and limited group of people with little turnover, your communications programs should be bringing new members into your target audience. This often requires trying entirely new approaches to tap into that distinct audience. Have you planned for two-way dialog to identify your new member superstars, potential leaders, committee members or volunteers? Listen to them closely and learn what’s important to them. A focus group is a perfect way to seek information quickly.

Perhaps most importantly, do you love your job? Your communications work is about helping members do their job better. It’s important. It matters. Thanks for taking it on.

GSAR Wins Big with Small Bottles Big Help

2012-01-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

Last year we kicked off an initiative called Small Bottles Big Help. The goal was two fold: to help associations give back to their community and help them get some media attention when they did it.

We asked AE’s and their staff to collect small bottles from hotels during their travels. Even better was to make this contest an association-wide effort. Shampoo bottles, lotions, and other toiletries. At the end of the collection period, we asked them to donate the bottles to a local shelter or charity in need.

These small bottles go a long way toward helping local homeless, women’s or disaster relief shelters. The shelters often don't have the funds for extra necessities - common items we use every day. Many of us leave unopened toiletries when we check out of a hotel. What better way to give back then to bring the bottles home and donate them to a good cause?

The response was overwhelming! The association who donated the most bottles by November 30th won a webinar hosted by Melynn on a communications topic of the their choice. Lynnore Fetyko, CEO of Greater Syracuse Association of REALTORS® (GSAR) and Katie DeAnthony (communications director) were equally excited. A staggering 2,336 bottles entitled them to bragging rights and the prize.

Most important, the bottles were donated to two shelters in the Syracuse area - Vera House and Dorothy Day House. The Vera House is a comprehensive domestic and sexual violence service agency providing shelter, advocacy, and counseling services. The Dorothy Day House provides 24-hour emergency shelter for women and women with children who are homeless or housing.

Thank you to all who participated in Small Bottles Big Help. And for all of you who are stewards of goodwill in your community in your own way.

Please click on the photos below to view images from GSAR on their donations.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

2011-12-29T09:15:00.000-08:00

Airplanes are great places to brainstorm. I had my share of airplane time in 2011. Someone recently asked me: "How many miles did you travel in 2011?" I have no idea. The mileage doesn't matter to me. Planes are valuable office time for me. I don't think about how many miles I'm flying, but the time to clearly think and plan while I am in the air.

Here's what I've been thinking and planning about marketing, communications and working with you:

The past 12 months
Lucky me. Thankful for bright, committed Association Executives who strive to get better

nSight Marketing worked with 40+ associations across the US to help you get to know your members' needs, plan effectively, grow better leaders and think about communications in a more organized way.

The last 12 weeks
Information Gathering

While I work, I was on my annual Q4 sabbatical. I was multi-tasking of course - working and learning, thoughtful reflection, surveying my team and target audience to get the facts and a basis for new ideas.
I attend one major communications learning event per year. This one was at Southwest Airlines and the focus was brand and execution.
I want insight from my customers and target audience, so I asked myself: What are my goals and what do I want to know?
Analyzed my process and decide if I walk my talk. In other words, I want to make sure that I follow my own beliefs about my communications, and interaction with my current and potential customers.
Formally asked my employees and support staff what we do well and what we can do better.
I began getting nervous about starting the year at ZERO. Just like everyone else.
Started on my plan for the new year. A plan to do better work with the heads and hands around me.

The next 12 days
Focus

Update my brand promise and value proposition.
Work with people around me to be sure we implement significant learning events and communications changes for the better.
Finalize the 2012 plan.
Stop eating and drinking so much!

The next 12 months
Passionate

To work with associations who are determined, deliberate and aggressive in building a strong and living value proposition.
To help association executives and leaders create and communicate their brand and their value in order to exceed their membership and business goals.

A wish for you
I wish you quality quiet moments - wherever you can find them.
I wish you thinking back to celebrate.
I wish you thinking ahead to get better.
I wish you a team who helps you get better in delivering the highest quality in every interaction.
I wish you joy in your work - knowing how many lives you touch in a positive way.

Happy New Year!

One Association's Story of Building a Communications Plan

2011-12-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

If communications are on your Association's radar screen, then the more honest you are about your current situation, the clearer the path is to improving it.

Kudos to Boulder Area REALTORS® Association (BARA) for having the courage and the trust to bring someone in from the outside to change the way communication looks for BARA members. In her own words, here is CEO Veronica Precella's story:

"Each year the Board of Directors of the BARA gather to work on a plan that answers the question “Where are we going?” This year, as the result of an all member survey and two focus groups, it was clear that our communications to our members are inadequate. The entire BOD invested time to create the communications plan so that as we move forward, we move as a cohesive group towards our goals. Everyone has “bought in” and we are clear on the direction the plan will lead us."

BARA's investment went beyond homework. The Board of Directors and staff attended a full day communications workshop together. After a day of discussion, brainstorming and then reaching consensus on some key communications methods, Veronica and her staff now have a document and a new process to propel their communications forward.

The feedback about the planning day was that the process was thought-provoking and creative. The Board and the staff made some efficient decisions throughout the process. They have new questions to consider and are confident about moving forward.

The plan also includes five benchmarks and measures so the Board can confirm if the new communication approach is moving in the right direction over the next year and beyond. It includes surveying members again next year to determine if the changes made a difference with the key audiences.

Kudos to BARA. Now that the plan is complete, Veronica and her staff of three will implement the aggressive, yet manageable, plan. Creating a plan can help achieve your goals - with a staff any size - if there are enough "eyes on the goal" and the goal is important enough to your future.

If you think one or more of your staff members would benefit from a communications workshop, here is some additional information on creating a simple, usable communications plan.

Thanksgiving 2011 from the WSJ article Countdown to a Food Coma

2011-11-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

This is the aftermath of Thanksgiving, 2011. Below are the cliffnotes from “Countdown to a Food Coma” from a Wall Street Journal article published on 11/22/11. read the full article

Here are strategies for Before, During, and After the biggest meal of the year:

⁃ Day Before: Go for a 30 minutes stroll or more vigorous activity. The benefits of exercise on how fat is processed after a big meal kick in many hours later.

⁃ 8AM: Eat a healthy breakfast to rev up metabolism.

⁃ 11AM: Avoid the temptation to snack in the kitchen.

⁃ 4PM: Thanksgiving Dinner

⁃ After the Feast: Take a leisurely walk. Skip the late-night leftovers, and get back to regular meal sizes and schedules.

Commentary: I didn’t follow a single one of these steps and feel like I've been eating every 4 hours since Thanksgiving eve. From a dietary standpoint, I’m ready to go back to work!

From a thankfulness, family togetherness and filling of the heart (versus the tummy) standpoint, it was a healthy, fulfilling, rejuvenating holiday! I wish it would last a day or two longer!

Donuts anyone?

Planning Goes High Tech and High Output

2011-10-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

Imagine there are no flip charts. Imagine if you can. No board table with members sitting in their predictable random order.

With no typical meeting room distractions like fluorescent lights, a laptop and overhead box projecting the slide on the pull-up or pull down screen.

Imagine all the people – board members - in a comfortable, refreshing and unpredicted environment - a relaxing setting that makes you feel good. Sofas, high top tables and bar stools, and bit screens across the living room type feel. Don't like sitting in a sofa all day? Move to the table where you can sit up straight. Need some coffee? Go make your own, one-cup at a time.

The agenda was adaptable and manageable:

A beamed in webcast - a state economic outlook with a drill down into the local area for this association.
The presentation on the big screen from a legal update to a discussion on value - what it is, how the association is doing with it, and ideas to communicate better.
Presentations that were more like a big screen movie than a business meeting - and additional small television screens around the room
The group focused on the vision and mission when discussing their strategic issues, their goals and what it would take to achieve them.
Strategic Planning – real collaboration without rush or distraction.

The remote beamed between the walls, and breakout sessions with iPad for each group to document their ideas. It makes the output easy to capture and collect - and readable.

Settings like this where technology looks easy usually are not. Association Executive Mark Epstein (Tri Counties Association of REALTORS®) was behind the scenes certain the connections worked and the environment was laid back and easy.

When it comes to thinking differently, being strategic, a new, unexpected environment lent to board member focus, thinking clearly and being "there" in mind and body and spirit.

The ROI was obvious as we said goodbye. Comments included "relaxed, comfortable, engaged, productive and all on the same page."

Great Marketing Starts with the Member

2011-09-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

I hear questions like this once a month:

“Why do members only complain? They don’t recognize what we do well?”
"I'd like to create this printed brochure, can you give me your comments?"
"We started posting all our news to Facebook. What should we expect?"
"I am thinking about going back to advertising in this publication."

Marketing is more than an activity or two. Most businesses that have marketing problems that could make so much progress if they had a marketing – and communications process across the organization.

When they don’t, they do things like realize an event is planned, and they rush at the last minute to report the news about it.

Could this be you?

Great marketing starts at the beginning. And the beginning is the same as the end - your member.

Marketing is the process that establishes your value and commitment to your member, manages the process of member satisfaction, and keeps those members coming back (or coming) to your events and classes in the first place. So the focus of great marketing is on the members, not just on the marketing tactic.

This means that to develop more effective marketing plan, think closely about your members (or prospects). What should you think about? Try something along the lines of:

What are their daily problems in their industry? What would they like you to provide that they could turn to you for help?

What news and information is important to them?
What other services would they like from you that you don’t offer today?
How satisfied are they with your high-value services (list them out)?
How can you help them, and in turn get them to recognize that you are there to help them?

The answers to these questions will help guide you to a sensible choice of creating your marketing tactics, and give you a better idea of what you need to include in your messages.

A Letter to An Association Executive

2011-09-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Good morning Association Executive, Executive Director, and/or EVP,

I hope this note finds you well.

I'm in the middle of a 2 -day webinar with all of the Real Estate Associations of Hawaii and Guam! It's the most interesting workshop I've ever done - as you can imagine. Not only the technology link, but the challenges that these associations have living in the same small geography and all wanting to deliver value through their communications.

I was working on today's "part II" and thought of you.

There is a step in this workshop where the group learns about key messages. That includes a combination the BENEFITS and the potential BARRIERS to your members responding to a call to action - whatever it is you want members to do (or to overcome).

As I think about your communications director and the work he/she has to do to really OWN your communications - I believe it begins with a common promise - one that your staff and your board creates together. A promise (or brand) that you can live, and communicate in both live and written interactions with members.

If identifying and communicating your "value proposition" is important enough to your association, it might be something you want to incorporate into your new board's planning early next year. You can do it yourself, or bring someone in from the outside if you need some help to keep you on track.

I think this is a way you can take your staff to the next level of unity and presenting a consistent voice of value to your members...and setting the expectation of what the staff will deliver and what the member can expect from you.

I know this is a little bit "out of right field", but sometimes these ideas just jump in my mind. Today, I decided to stop what I'm doing to tell you about it.

All the best,

Melynn

P.S. Just FYI, if your communications director or YOU would benefit from attending a communications plan workshop (to develop your communications plan for the upcoming year); The next one is a one-day workshop in Dallas in January...I'll link here in the event you want to learn more.

One Association's Journey to Creating Value

2011-08-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

by Melynn Sight

Creating value really matters in an association’s strategic plan. Even if the words “creating value” aren’t spelled out, one of the many reason for strategic planning is to use your resources (people, time and money) to focus on key member, industry and/or market issues. To determine value, you could start with this question: “What promise do we make to solve a significant issue for our members?”

Value has many forms - it may be a tool, an emotional benefit that is safe or efficient, or the way an association communicates the key benefits of membership. While it may seem like a daunting task to embark on improving value in your association, most times just putting your head down and going to work is an ideal place to start. Yes, as they say, "Just Do It".

Seeing association leadership in action makes it very clear to me that there are three equal elements to creating value: planning, leadership involvement and implementation. Meet the Nebraska Pharmacists Association.

I take pride in the chance to take part in their path to creating more member value. Here’s what I see in a board and staff that makes the process work:

Strategic planning narrowed down NPA's 2011 goals to three important ones. Board member names were attached to each goal, making them the lead for developing the operational plan to support the goal.
There is a real champion for member feedback - the member services director knows that productive planning can't happen without knowing exactly what’s important to Pharmacist members current and prospective customers. A member research project was funded - two surveys: one for members, and one for non-members.
With the final results, the staff reviewed the findings and key messages. The board received them as well. But it didn’t stop there.
Last night at 6:30, 12 staff and board members conferenced for 90 minutes to discuss the survey together. First we reviewed the highlights of the survey process and results. Then I gave them three specific conclusions in the form of recommendations, and ideas about possible activities to support them.
VERY SPECIAL STEP: After the presentation, every board member expressed their one biggest take-away from the report - the top priority that NPA should do to operationally support their strategic plan. Once they were finished, the ED had a list of a dozen insightful ideas about how the board and staff together can focus their efforts to make the right kind of change to chip away at meeting their goals.
Not only did they spend 90 minutes making progress on their strategic plan, but took a stab at a process to firm up their value proposition - soon they will reconvene to work on their new elevator speech.

How do you spell V-A-L-U-E C-R-E-A-T-I-O-N? A board and staff determined to do the few, right things to grow the organization. Leaders who not only wants to make positive change, but also willing to be part of creating it.

Board and staff lead for a reason - to learn about what members value, and then make the right decisions about what belongs in a strategic - and operating plan to deliver on the promises they make. Congratulations, NPA.

Why Would I Brand My Association?

2011-08-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

by Melynn Sight

Your members have options. They can 1) Use your service to get what they need, 2) Get their services somewhere else, 3) Get their tools and resources themselves, without anyone’s help, or 4) Do nothing at all. What will it take to get them to choose you?

Whether your goal is to grow membership, or improve value to the member, the better you can articulate your promise, the more members you will attract, and convert from joiners to lifetime members. Loyal members get involved, respond to calls-to-action, read your mailings, and tell their non-member colleagues about you.

Your brand is your promise.

A brand tells your member the one thing that makes your association valuable to them – bar none. The brand is your promise to them. It is a statement – a symbol that describes clearly how every staff person and board member will interact with members. The brand begins with your knowledge of your members’ biggest needs. It reflects your culture, your philosophies, what you’re good at (or what you aspire to be), and ends with promise that never ends.

There is an important, unexpected benefit to branding. When you declare your promise to your members, it’s a unified statement of your value. When a company commits to a promise that “We Try Harder” (like Avis) or “We’re In It For You” (like OKC REALTORS® Association), the staff and leadership is responsible to deliver on that promise.

It is not only a “marketing promise”,

it is an organizational commitment delivered

in every single interaction.

People have the obligation to reinforce the brand for their small piece of your business.
When leadership makes decisions based on the brand, it is a demonstration of their commitment over time.
Finally, the brand is a tangible way to measure the efforts of your organization, so that each staff member and leader is not only satisfying his/her piece of the pie, but also delivering on the association’s unified brand promise.

Branding doesn’t stop when new leadership takes office, or when a staff member is replaced. Brand building that lasts requires trust and consistency, year after year. You earn your brand by continuing to deliver it over time.

It’s not about your logo.

The definition of “brand” (noun) came from cattle-ranchers, who burn a mark – the “brand” – on the haunches of their cattle to differentiate their cattle from other ranchers. Unlike the literal definition of the brand, this is not what I mean by a brand. In marketing terms, a brand is a distinctive characteristic that sets a product, service, person, or place apart from other products services, people, or places.

The European Brands Association proposes that a “brand is a constant point of reference; a contract, a signpost, a relationship. It is a signpost because it shows consumers a way to fulfill their needs. It is a relationship because trust and loyalty are earned over time.” This may be the most misunderstood and undervalued marketing concept. Let’s explore more below.

Good customer service is not a brand.

Customer service is a basis for running a good business. However, it is difficult to call it a true point of differentiation. You will need to work harder to determine a promise your members will consider valuable and one that gets their attention.

Building your brand and then delivering can actually provide your members a return on their investment.

As Warren McKenna says, “You brand yourself through your people, your places, and your things.”

Branded People – Consider your association staff, volunteers, committee members, and board of directors as “Agents of Change”. From the mailroom to the boardroom, your constituents can be a strategic force for change.

Branded Places – Build events on a philosophy of “anticipate, experience, and remember.” Any physical place is an opportunity to build a relationship. Every place you are in front of your members, at industry conferences, training events, seminars, etc., you have the opportunity to build on your brand.

Branded Things – Develop touch points that can demonstrate value while also providing unique channels to service members: membership materials, websites, brochures, newsletters…the list goes on. The continuity of these vehicles is essential in building a two-way dialogue with your members, to build on your brand.

What’s involved in determining a brand?

A brand will be useless if it doesn’t help you improve your members’ experience. For your brand to be relevant, you must identify what your members really want (the vital needs). Discover their top three needs through a member survey. Find out what members think is most important.
A brand can be a way to change the skills or direction of an organization. You must evaluate your desired strengths against your current strengths in order to brand yourself realistically. A branding assessment, though not long or involved, will help you direct your efforts. It can bring your staff and board closer, can bring focus to a trait that requires development, and can position you to attract a more involved membership.
Ultimately you want to fill in these two blanks:

Why would members join if they didn’t have to? In other words, what one valuable member benefit do you want to be known for?
If you are known for the one benefit above, how will it help you achieve your association’s goals?

Selected properly, and embraced by your leadership, your brand is an intangible yet invaluable asset. It is the basis of the way you communicate your association’s value.

For more information on branding, click here for nSight Marketing’s one-pager on the topic.

Melynn is dedicated to improving value to your members through communications and committed to the success of trade Associations. She can be reached at melynn@nsightmarketing.com or 913.220.7753.

Finding and Growing Leaders - Plant Seeds Often and Handle Them with Care

2011-07-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

by Melynn Sight

When was the last time you really thought your process of finding and developing potential leaders for your organization? Communication, finding them, and growing them them is vital. Not unlike gardening, the process of growing healthy leaders involves a few important steps. Done properly, you will see seedlings grow into buds, and then into vibrant blooms!

A common practice across associations is to create a once a year, e-flyer along the lines of “We Want You” to volunteer for a committee or a director’s position.

As with any other call to action, there are three rules to follow:

Determine your target audience (first)
Understand what they are thinking about the benefit and barriers to this activity. Address them in your pitch.
Be specific about what you want them to do.

Find them first. Then cultivate them.

Here are ten promising practices about casting your net wider in order to foster the right kind of people for your committees and leadership:

Use association events to look for members who are involved in discussion, who are passionate and sound like they are open to ideas and do-ers. If they are involved in Church as a volunteer, they are a good prospect.
Look for those with whom you have good business experience (even those on the other side of business dealings).
Personally invite aspiring leaders to a board meeting.
Take time to make personal phone calls to prospects. If each board member and committee chair made two calls, the effort is minimal and the results can be many.
Document brief written or video testimonials from past presidents, board members and committee members to share with prospective leaders
Do some informal mentoring for a member you think has leadership potential (you will get as much out of it as they will!)
Give constructive feedback.
Set up a formal mentoring program with your past presidents and a small group of prospects
Develop leadership communities. An experienced group of members, business owners and past president would make a good team to nominate members for leadership.
Make leaders accessible (not untouchable); ask leaders to spread out, reach out and speak out about leadership opportunities. Follow the 5 “W”s:

Who
What
When
Where
Why

Then add one more to the list: Welcome them.

These are some ways to fertilize the leadership ground. Good luck in your search for the best unexpected but quality seeds.

From the Hearts of Many Associations for Joplin, Missouri

2011-06-28T06:03:00.000-07:00

by Melynn Sight

I am inspired by outpouring of association and members inquiries looking for ways to help victims of the Alabama, Louisiana, Joplin tornadoes. Being closest to Joplin, only three hours away, the church, civic, corporate, government and even NFL sporting team elbow grease dedicated to helping in the area is inspiring. From stays of one-day to weeks-long doing all kinds of jobs.

Tracy Osborne, CEO of my home town’s Chamber of Commerce and former Joplin resident, is keeping us posted on the grass-roots movement of Rotary clubs, agencies, church groups, construction companies and families helping Joplin clean up their town of 50,000. There are no schools to convene this August. Tracy says 40% of the students have been displaced, since they no longer have a home in Joplin. There are no school supplies or computers or classrooms. Everything will be replaced.

I taught a leadership class recently for an association in Kissimmee, Florida. Two students approached me at different times: the first asked if I could connect her with a reliable place to donate money; her brokerage firm wanted to help. The second said her business is looking to make a collection of supplies that Joplin needs and will send anywhere it’s needed. And just last week, I sat in a board of directors meeting of a large NAR association who approved a significant contribution on behalf of the membership to Joplin relief. From very far away.

Individuals are springing to action; there are heroic efforts every day helping hearts of the homeless and helping survivors begin to put their lives back together. The story that began on the evening news is now in the hands of regular people from near and far giving of their time and treasure. The communities and families will need help for a long time. Thank you for showing the spirit of community.

Do What You Can. But Do Something.

2011-06-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago, I lost a good friend to cancer. It’s the second girlfriend I have lost to cancer. I cooked meals, checked in, said prayers; but in retrospect, it’s not enough.

I remember when my dad died. Someone said to me “I just didn’t know what to do, so as a result I ended up doing nothing. I’m really sorry.” I vowed that day I would never be someone who opted for nothing - instead of doing something.

About ten years ago when Mimi was diagnosed with brain cancer, I decided that minute I would grow my hair out and donate it to Locks of Love (they create wigs from live hair for cancer victims who lose theirs). It took almost three years, and Mimi didn’t make it to know that I did it or why, but it gave me something to think about. That no bad hair day would ever be worse than living with cancer.

Three months ago I decided to grow my hair again. Coincidentally, it’s the same time Connie’s Leukemia came back. Connie lost a seven year battle in May. So here I go again. This time it’s for you, Connie. Not that you needed a wig to be beautiful, or graceful, but I want to do something for someone else who isn’t as lucky as I am.

I’m on a campaign that whether it’s a friend who is sick, or tornado relief, or your business: We’ll all be sorry if we work the same plan we always had, or haven’t changed anything about our business (or our life) year after year.

Do what you can. But do something.

Keep Your Eye on Your Communications Goals & Test Out Your Plan

2011-06-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Launch and Learn. That’s what happens when you document your plan. And experiment.

Kudos to Leslie in Palm Beach; to Jackie in Kansas; to Sionara in Nevada and Carrie in Minnesota. For the rest of you who are working on your plan right now: What will you do differently?

Remember it all begins with your communications goals and picking a few specific target audiences. These are the two keys to making real change.

I was impressed with one AEs choice of her target audience: HIGH PRODUCING SALES AGENTS. She is not so worried about the others. Carol and Leslie want to target their communications to the tech savvy. The ones who are looking for help. Those who will see value in what their association offers.

You have to admire a plan that sets aggressive goals and takes on new ideas so you really have to make change to reach them.

I respect those of you who print out your goals and your target audiences and post them in front of your computer screen so you can see them every day. If you don't, the plan will be a good exercise but it won't create real change.

Chris Brogan asked a great question in his recent blog about launching a plan - What are you doing differently? Are you learning from it what needs to change?

Keep working your plan. Keep iterating. Keep working on it in the "live" environment as best as you can, and keep your eye on those few measurable results that let you know whether you are succeeding or not.

Keep your eyes on your communications goals, and test out your plan.

Your Audience is on the Go

2011-05-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Imagine this: you are waiting in your car, standing in line at the post office or grocery store, or waiting for a meeting to begin. You are on the train, the bus, or in a taxi. Long gone are the days we sat and enjoyed the quiet time. Today we grab our mobile device to check email or social media. Let’s face it, email was made for mobile devices.

At the NAR conference the past week, I saw more members and staff multitask on their mobile devices than looking at where they were going. Did you notice the same thing?

“On mobile devices, email is far and away the No. 1 activity of how consumers spend their time", says Loren McDonald, Vice President of Industry Relations at Silverpop.

As you craft your weekly email and other marketing pieces, think about your target audience, and write for them. They want snippets of information while sitting at a soccer game, waiting for a lunch date, or even sitting in a meeting. To reach your members, design you content for any device. Don’t expect members to read a long article on the run. Write each topic for your weekly update with no more than 2-3 lines of text. Link to more if members can and want to read it. Insert links that members can touch to read further.

Think of the world as it is, not as the association sees it. It takes some effort to craft a short snippet. If you do, you will connect with more members in prime time - while they are on the go.

Why Would I Brand My Association?

2011-04-19T07:34:00.001-07:00

Your members have options. They can 1) Use your service to get what they need, 2) Get their services somewhere else, 3) Get their tools and resources themselves, without anyone’s help, or 4) Do nothing at all. What will it take to get them to choose you?

It is not only a “marketing promise”,

it is an organizational commitment delivered

in every single interaction.

People have the obligation to reinforce the brand for their small piece of your business.
When leadership makes decisions based on the brand, it is a demonstration of their commitment over time.
Finally, the brand is a tangible way to measure the efforts of your organization, so that each staff member and leader is not only satisfying his/her piece of the pie, but also delivering on the association’s unified brand promise.

It’s not about your logo.

Building your brand and then delivering can actually provide your members a return on their investment.

As Warren McKenna says, “You brand yourself through your people, your places, and your things.”

A brand will be useless if it doesn’t help you improve your members’ experience. For your brand to be relevant, you must identify what your members really want (the vital needs). Discover their top three needs through a member survey. Find out what members think is most important.
A brand can be a way to change the skills or direction of an organization. You must evaluate your desired strengths against your current strengths in order to brand yourself realistically. A branding assessment, though not long or involved, will help you direct your efforts. It can bring your staff and board closer, can bring focus to a trait that requires development, and can position you to attract a more involved membership.
Ultimately you want to fill in these two blanks:

Why would members join if they didn’t have to? In other words, what one valuable member benefit do you want to be known for?
If you are known for the one benefit above, how will it help you achieve your association’s goals?

Selected properly, and embraced by your leadership, your brand is an intangible yet invaluable asset. It is the basis of the way you communicate your association’s value.

For more information on branding, click here for nSight Marketing’s one-pager on the topic.

Melynn is dedicated to improving value to your members through communications and committed to the success of trade Associations. She can be reached at melynn@nsightmarketing.com or 913.220.7753.

Stats About Association Membership in 2010

2011-03-31T05:39:00.000-07:00

Association Executives and communicators - I think this information will help you do your job better.

The #1 reason that members joined an organization is to network with others in their field*
The #1 reason that members did not renew membership in 2010 was because of the perceived lack of value*
The #1 way the leadership of organizations define success is "growth in member counts”*

Are these statistics true for you? If you want communications to be valuable, put your goals and the plan on paper, and on purpose. If you don’t take this step you’ll simply be reporting the news. Your members will see features, not value.

So how do you best deliver value? Through a communications plan that includes:

Knowing clearly what is most important to your members.
Knowing your goals, and how your communications will help you reach those goals.
Messaging properly.

If you have a system, the people and time to create your plan, you are ready to go! If not, consider the Build a (Communications) Plan Workshop to give you the framework you need.

Go to www.nsightmarketing.com/buildaplan.html to learn more.

*Statistics according to the Membership Marketing Benchmark Report by Marketing General, 2010. To read the full report, click here.

Systemize & Improve Your Communications With a One-Day Workshop

2011-03-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

When it comes to busy, distracted customers or members, how do you win the battle for more readership? Wouldn't it make sense to plan your communications knowing what your member needs? With a strong link to your organization's goals? Too often, fully admitting it, communications departments suffer from divided attention syndrome.

Our Build A Communications Plan Workshop is the answer to helping you look at communications in a more systematic way. The goal of the workshop is to help communicators be more relevant to their customers or members -- to deliver value, versus reporting the news.

The workshop will be held in the following locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada on April 21, 2011
Chicago, Illinois on June 9, 2011

During this informative workshop, you'll learn about the “fraction of selection” formula, and how the words you chose will determine readership. Then walk through the ten steps to building an association communications plan and actually do it. Step One is your communications goals, and ends with a budget for communications. And in the middle you’ll learn about how to develop calls to action, communications strategies and tactics to reach those goals.

You may be asking “Why should I consider this workshop? Is it for me or for someone on my staff?” Here are a few reasons why:

A plan helps direct your focus - beginning with your communications goals.
A plan makes you set measurements so you can look at communications as a business asset, and not a necessary expense.
Since communications are a staff project, someone needs to direct the communications. The plan helps the you take the lead in directing your communications. It creates consistency in your messages.
When you invest in communications education, you will become a better communications leader.

You'll learn the 10-step approach to your communications plan, and be better prepared to meet the goals of your organization. When that link is missing, communications will be busy-ness, versus a true asset to your business.

I hope you will decide today that you, or a member of your organization, should attend our one-day Build A Plan workshop. This is not a workshop for a packed house; there will be no more than 20 participants in each session. The size of the group encourages interaction and personal attention.To learn more about the workshop or to register, please click here.

Please email me if you would like to talk further or have any questions. I look forward to seeing you at one of the workshop sessions!

Living Your Brand

2011-03-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

One inspiring hour.

Do you ever think about your hourly rate? If you’re in business, you are probably very careful about what you do to fill your most productive hours.

Some things are not about the pay. Today on my way to coffee with someone I connected with over Facebook, I was thinking about my hourly rate. Was this meeting going reveal value in exchange for my time away from my office?

I wish for more inspiring hours like this. I am lucky to meet a lot of people in my work life who are big, great thinkers and excellent communicators. Being around these people help me get better at what I do. I always learn from them. My world is mostly filled with smart and visionary Association Executives and business people. I look for what makes them unusual, successful, and authentic. I often leave a conversation saying to myself “There’s another one.”

Today’s meeting topped the list in a very different way. This wasn’t an association executive; rather, it was a successful, young and caring association member and entrepreneur. My goal was to learn more about his story. And his personal brand.

A personal brand isn’t about where a person works, or that they are in sales. A strong brand is the one thing that makes a person authentic. David’s brand is the way he cares and wraps himself around other people’s problems - to try to help overcome them. He gets so much satisfaction from helping someone figure it out and solve a problem.

After one hour and a half, I got it. I got what David was all about. He lives his brand…he believes that what he gets is in direct proportion to what he gives.

So here’s the challenge for each of us: Since we all have some level of online presence, how do we live our brand through the tools we use to connect with other people?

David said it well: Think of social media not like a cocktail party, but approach it as Personal Interactive Marketing. Take what you learn and use it to teach others. Be authentic. And let others provide the feedback (and even accolades) about you.

David the REALTOR® is a very inspiring brand. I like being someone who knows him. Now I know why others want to know him too.

You can find David Van Noy on Facebook and Twitter. And at www.reeceandnichols.com.

The Benefits of Creating a Communications Plan

2011-02-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

by Melynn Sight

Still not sure that a systematic approach to your communications will change the way your members look at your association? Here’s what three Association Executives from all size associations say about investing the time into creating a communications plan:

"As AE’s, we wear a lot of hats. To be successful it is important to thoroughly research all issues and initiatives, and impossible to be an expert at everything on our own. The guidance and direction from an outside expert kept my discussions and actions moving forward in a thoughtful way.

It seems that although we (associations) are all very like minded, we have very different perspectives. We develop our approach to serve our members based upon our own experiences. Sharing varying perspectives and considering other approaches greatly enriched the quality of the group discussions, and improved the final product."

-Rob Hulse, Executive Officer
Lawrence Board of REALTORS® (250 members)

“The main benefit of creating a communications plan was determining what information our members really wanted and how they really wanted to receive it. Then, we outlined the steps to actually answer their needs!

Working with other association staff people throughout the process broadened my perspective and ultimately made my plan better than it would have been had I done this on my own.

Once the plan was complete, my Board of Directors was impressed with the plan and thought it did a great job of showing where we are and where we need to go."

-Robin Maccini, EVP
Greater New Bedford Association of REALTORS® (543 members)

“The primary benefit of the plan was that we needed more of a structure and new ideas to better engage our members. Going through this process opened our eyes and minds to what we might be doing wrong, and how we can improve, change and revamp our current process. Also, we were able to see how we can strengthen areas that we might be doing “ok” in, but need a little push to get a better response.

The most valuable steps were (1) identifying our key audiences and (2) learning how we should change our messages to reflect the various personas."

-Diane Streichert, CEO and Liz Peters, Communications Director
Burlington Camden County Association of REALTORS® (3,700 members)

Right on the Money - Professional Development

2011-02-14T09:09:00.000-08:00

by Melynn Sight

I sat in the room thinking about the money that associations invest in Professional Development for their staff. The investment instructors make (on their own dime and away from their work) to learn and make connections. More recently, at the Professional Development Director’s Summit in Wichita Kansas, RAPDD was one of the most well-run meetings I have ever attended.

There was healthy balance of staff and educators - Director and teacher and practitioner (including REALTOR®-teachers who came to learn and get better at their positions.)

For me, one of the best parts of the meeting was dedicated people on both sides of education with one mission: delivering more relevant education.

There were many gems to take away from the conference, among them:

Since this meeting was only about education, people were really focused on making connections and delivering quality education.
I felt new energy and insight that helped people look at their jobs differently.
Inspiration to be different, “do" different, and find the more passion for their work.

I was surprised by a few comments:

Education is not important to my association ... Education is on the back seat on the priority list ... I can’t communicate the way I want to about educational offerings ... I’m at the mercy of my communications director to do “that”.

To these objections, I wonder if education is core to their association’s value proposition. I suspect YES. In my perfect world, education directors work with communications staff to determine the best way to wrap education into the communications plan. Making education a bigger part of the value proposition. Maybe it’s a new strategy, and new tactics to get members’ attention to come to class. It involves selling the ideas to the communications director or the Association Exec. Prioritizing education may seem like a difficult or even hopeless activity, and it may take a long time to convince other staff or leaders of your proposition. Yes, association staff, at the end of the day, we are all in sales.

Happy 5th birthday RAPDD.

A Strategic Plan of Big Dreams

2011-01-25T12:28:00.000-08:00

by Melynn Sight

In an MLS board meeting last week, I saw before my very eyes that a little dose of big thinking can be the beginning of very big progress. It was two years ago this month, in a strategic planning session when someone offered up the bold idea: “I’d like to see our MLS become a statewide cooperative of regional MLS centers. That way our MLS would benefit all of our members across the state.” I think most of the room dismissed the literal vision. The vision of a statewide MLS set the bar higher for operations, marketing and continuing progress in training and education.

Leadership agreed on the steps that prepared them to expand. It would include: (1) Raising awareness of MLS capabilities with current users, (2) Launching a Public MLS site and (3) Creating a talk track and process to open conversations with surrounding MLS organizations.

With the framework in place, the CEO, and her staff went to work.

It takes more than 18 months to accomplish big dreams. Caution to those of you who want your strategic plan to be an 18-month look into the future. There is big progress on some of the plan, and slower progress on other parts. Your lofty strategic issues will realistically be part of a 3 to 5 year plan. I see a CEO and a board showing three qualities: patience, vision, and planning.

How much progress has this board made on their plan? There were visitors to last week’s MLS board meeting: A neighboring association came to the board room to ask if they could join forces, and how could the two boards work together to accomplish it?

This is what you call a plan coming to life. This is a strategic plan.

Why Would I Belong if I Didn't Have To?

2011-01-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

What’s the strongest brands you know? Brands that have been around for a long time - through generations. Brands that are reliable time after time after time. Brands that offer trust about the value you’ll receive when you go there, or buy that product.

I’m on a roll this winter helping associations find their promise. Just yesterday a great comment came up: Why can’t we chose great customer service our brand promise? And so we began to talk about it.

Think of some of the best customer service brands around: Nordstrom, Zappos, and I was introduced to a tire company in Spokane called Les Schwab. We discussed the consistent and significant investment it takes to build a culture and train employees to deliver a promise of impeccable customer service. The money it takes to get shoes from Zappos’ warehouse to your front door in (sometimes less than) 12 hours, and the level of trust and empowerment it takes a team of tire salesmen to fix a flat tire for no charge, in the hopes of a future sale. Even with an occasional snafu, Ford Motor company still delivers reliable and innovate products even after 100 years (without any bailout money).

One of the best reasons why an association should not chose customer service as their brand is that members won’t compare your service to other associations; they will compare it to Nordstrom’s.

For whatever you chose as your promise, you have to be willing to make decisions based on it, and spread it through your culture, and make it part of the way you do business.

Remember, A CHARISMATIC BRAND is any product, service, place, or person for which people believe there is no substitute.

A brand promise is (1) A commitment of added value, (2) Distinguished by some unique characteristic(s) and (3) A basis for daily decision-making and behavior.

As Dr. Glenn Forbes, CEO of Mayo Clinic says: “If you just communicate a value but you haven’t driven it into the operations, into the policy, into the decision-making, into the allocation of resources, and ultimately into the culture of the organization, then it’s just words.”

Pick what you do very well today, or aspire to become, and make it part of your daily work. You can be the Nordstrom of associations in with a unique, compelling promise.

Several associations across NAR have created a brand promise that will get members’ attention and change the perception of members' experiences. I’d love to talk to you about them.

Ten No-Tech ways to Market On a Dime

2011-01-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

by Melynn Sight

Are you are a small association with limited budget? Are you a large association where trade-offs are necessary to fund mission-critical projects? Are you in-between? No matter which describes you, you can always use ideas on how to market on a budget; here is a top 10 list of ways to improve member connections and save money at the same time. If only one of these ideas catches your attention, it will help you focus on the member and get you out of your daily grind. Here goes:

10. Listen twice as much as you speak. Tap into unconventional sources. The greatest way to get ideas is an ad-hoc group of volunteers. And great innovation comes from your new members. Even better, get out more! Even a small association can pay for a little market research one time a year. Caveat: when you come back, be sure to turn it into something valuable whether that means an action, an article, or a debrief to your members.

9. Refocus on fewer, better offerings. The hardest thing for a staff is what to do away with. What is your sacred cow program, one that you do every year that loses money, or you see declining attendance or readership? Give it up for connecting your members’ needs with a new tool.

8. Start using social marketing regularly. Give thought to your posts, and be regular with them. Know who participates in social media and market to them.

7. Give more face time! No matter

Save as Draft

how wired we get, there will always be the need for building face to fact trust. What I mean is make a point to be present at members’ event or meeting. Make a live phone call to new members to introduce yourself and show that you are available.
Do the same things, but do them differently to get better results, like:

6. Change the time you send emails. Most email research says Tuesday through Thursday from 11am to 3pm is the best time; recently, I read “What Americans Really Want…Really”. Dr. Frank Luntz found that the best time to send emails is 6:30am. He found most people go online within minutes of waking up to check their email. (Sound familiar?)

5. Conduct a communications audit. Print them all out. Step into the conference room Close the door. Lay out your communications side-by-side on your conference room table. Is the member seeing branded documents? Are the benefits and call to action clear? Does the member have to scroll on their monitor to get to the good stuff in your newsletter? Chances are they aren’t reading down there. Invest some time in an unbiased review to identify a few things you’ll change to improve your connections.

4. What’s the current state of your homepage? Just look at it. Have a group of new members look at it and give you feedback. Better yet, Google WeWe calculator and run a test to see if you are focused on your member, or promoting yourself.

3. Ask board members to deliver your key messages to five other members. Key messages are based on the promises you make to your members as an association. They carry through the year and through all of your communications.

2. Ask each board member and committee chair to personally develop a list of 10 easy tasks and then solicit 10 uninvolved members to each do one task. Get more members involved!

1. Tap into your staff. Facilitate a 15-minute meeting where you and staff brainstorm -0- dollar tactics that will really pay off.

Don’t repeat for the sake of repetition. Make some positive change in 2011.

A Communications Review

2011-01-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

Could your business benefit from having an extra set of eyes scrutinize the effectiveness and relevance of your communications? Perhaps you are unsure about how your communications build on your brand, increase loyalty, and better connect with members and even your employees. Whether that’s a committee of volunteers, or an outside view, it might be time to consider a Second Opinion.

The goal of a communications review is to study the flow of information from your communications (to and from your members, prospective members, and the public);the structure, flow, and practices of your staff and documents that touch them. Most important, how well you are achieving your communications goals in reaching each critical audience.

The review identifies the positive highlights of your communications and your process. It identifies communication inconsistencies and suggestions about how create the best possible communications standards and measurements going forward.

The results create a basis for a positive change. It helps you make the adjustments that will improve relevance to your members.

As with any audit, we look at four primary categories in a review:

Irregularities between your association goals and your communications tactics - In other words, communications that don’t provide a direct value link to your communications goals. In the perfect world there is a set of communications tactics (across all platforms) have a common purpose and target audiences; and all of your materials show intentional coordination.

Compliance in communicating agreed-to messages and adhering to a communications process - The goal is that staff understands and supports the key messages and priority of your association, and there is discipline to focusing on “what’s in it for the member” when delivering member materials. In addition, there is a standardized process for distribution of your communications.

Measurements and feedback mechanisms to track your progress.

Willingness to accept ideas for change - Is yours a culture of continuous improvement and willingness to try different ideas? This is a key indicator of the work you have in front of you to take the recommendations and use them to improve long-term practices and results.

The result of the review is a written assessment, including specific suggestions for improvement.

The way you always communicated in the past is not necessarily relevant today.

Members want to get information, and learn differently. It’s up to you to keep up with the changes and figure out how to tell your story across platforms to make better (and more) connections. Is it time for another head in the game?

Never Forget - We’re All in Sales

2010-12-17T03:56:00.000-08:00

We are all in sales.

If sales is the process of establishing credibility and rapport in order to further a relationship, don’t we all do that? CEO, communications director, attorney, paper delivery person? Every communicator in your association is charged with getting a member to do something. So it’s fair to say we are all in sales.

No one ever makes a sale just giving the facts.

First the buyer (the member) has be aware of you and what you do to bring something different to their business. Knowing what the members needs or wants is crucial. (Target your audience.)
Link how your offering (service, tools, information) will help the member do something better determines if they will consider you to help them (this is called the benefit exchange).
Be clear on what you want them to do (your solution). The term Always Be Closing, or the ABC's of selling means giving the member options to respond to your call to action. Anything from a place (or person) to get more information, to registering right there.

Sales: the process of establishing credibility and rapport in order to further a relationship, Look at your work from a sales perspective, and change the way you present your communications. This approach helps you step into your member’s shoes to craft key messages to help solve their problem, versus promoting the association's best features.

Strategic Planning’s Link to Communications

2010-12-10T02:46:00.000-08:00

Association Executives spend this time of year planning to do strategic planning. Yes, we all plan to plan.

To be honest, during the past 25 years I wondered the practical purpose of a mission statement, a vision, and a strategic plan. I pretended I “got it” each time I went through the process during my years in corporate America - but it was more of an exercise than a part of the operational plan.

The mission didn’t really guide our daily actions, even though the statement was framed and hung on the wall. Most of the time, the head of the organization didn’t talk about it; nor could the managers reiterate the mantra. I don’t think it guided their daily actions.

A vision was misinterpreted for the mission, and didn’t inspire anyone. Rarely did we talk about it, or use it for any communications about long term goals and directives.

Strategic planning was a required activity, but no one referred to it. Until the end of any given year when it was time to do it again. We were focused on today and tomorrow. Plans were all short term, in hopes we would hit our annual goals.

Truth be told I pondered this question for years; does it all really fit together? And what does it have to do with communications? I have resolved that communications is a critical part of all three of these concepts.

Communicating the mission and vision is the foundation of any organization’s work. The strategic plan doesn’t get done without communication of the big goals, the progress, and the work that needs to be done today. For an association:

Strategic goals translate into annual goals.
Annual goals are the basis of marketing goals.
Marketing goals guide the planning for how you will get members to do what you want them to do, by communicating in a language they will respond to.

I wish I knew who to give credit for this saying. I know I didn’t invent it. But I adopted it many years ago:

Most of the time, we don’t see the world as it is; we see the world as WE are.

Thanks to whomever coined this phrase. It works for associations and it works in life.

It takes a clear set of eyes to get an association’s real work on track, and remind the leaders what they already know: members don’t know as much, care as much or want as much as those who volunteer for and run the business. That's why it's an art to developing a strategic plan to reinforce your promise to members so that you’ll get more of their attention.

Association Executives tell me communicating value is one challenge they never finally overcome. It may be the reason your communicators give members the facts and think that’s enough. So think again. See the world as your member sees it, let them know your vision and how you plan to get there. If you do, you’ll take the first step to connecting your strategic plan, your mission, and your vision to your daily work.

Having One of Those Days?

2010-11-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had one of those days? You know what I mean...one of those days - where you don’t feel inspired to keep at it, stick to it, hang in there, and not give up. I suspect each of us has a quiet moment when we let this thinking overtake us for a moment. Or even longer.

Just as I have a habit of collecting subject lines and newspaper headlines that I like (ever since high school), I also keep a "keeper" file. It used to be a manila file, then it became a plastic sleeve, then a large file folder in the cabinet, and now the keeper file is on my desktop. It contains sayings of all kinds, but each of them hit home at some moment. So in my sub-file called “one of those days” there are some sayings that help keep me going.

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” - Theodore Roosevelt

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone made a courageous decision.” - Peter Drucker

"All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause -- there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once." - Joss Whedon

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” - William James

"Going one more round when you don't think you can. That's what makes all the difference in the world." - Rocky Balboa

And at the last COCSA meeting I heard one of the best yet:

"You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time. Let’s roll up our sleeves." - Kate Rufolo-Dreher, Incoming President, Congress of Chiropractic State Associations

In a moment when you are tempted to throw up your hands thinking you’ve done all you can, and need a little inspiration, perhaps this will be a start, or an addition to your keeper file.

Explaining Member Benefits

2010-11-19T05:05:00.000-08:00

It can be a challenge to help members connect the dots about the benefits of their association membership.

We know from studies conducted at ASAE and other sources that members join an association for two overarching reasons: for their personal benefit and for the good of the profession.

Yesterday, a real life story helped me put my arms around a sometimes-intangible benefit called legislative affairs. Most associations consider governmental or legislative affairs a primary member benefit. How to explain this in a way the newest member can understand?

My husband, Dan Sight, a commercial REALTOR®, flew from Kansas to Washington, DC at the request of the National Association of REALTORS® to speak to the United States Senate subcommittee on banking about the state of the commercial real estate market.

The lobbyists prepped him, got him to the Senate Chamber on time, because they wanted a REALTOR®, not a lobbyist to "testify".

Before I go any further, remember that we should focus on three important decisions before starting to write:

Who is your target audience?
What does the news means to them?
What is the goal of the message?

Here is what I would say to every commercial member of an association about the value of being a member of the National Association of REALTORS®:

Have you ever wondered about the power of an organization with 1.1 million members to a commercial REALTOR®?

Today, the Senate subcommittee on banking heard from Dan Sight, Chair of the Commercial Committee of NAR, about the state of commercial real estate lending. Dan is not an officer of NAR; he is just a caring, involved volunteer leader who supports his industry and his fellow practitioners.

The meeting provided a direct line of communication from the real estate industry to government officials - efforts that will sustain the viability of the business for all members. In other words, conversations like this can change the future for the better for your profession, your buyers, renters, and sellers. It can change banking laws, lending laws, taxes, and other conditions that affect the commercial real estate market and your ability to be successful.

If you were an 80,000-member commercial association (and not part of NAR), you may not have a seat at the table.

The target audience – commercial members
What the news means to them – the association influences important decisions for their business
The goal of the message – to explain the power of a collective membership in fighting for members.

Whether your industry is real estate or not, this link is just as important in your association. Explain local member benefits and national activities. Link them to what members want and need. This is a clear and direct way that might just get through to busy, distracted, and sometimes indifferent members.

Play Back What You Learned for a Payback to Your Members

2010-11-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

After attending two well-run conferences this past week, I am energized by your open minds. Your willingness to share, and the time you spent together will better your associations.

Organizations make an investment to bring staff and volunteer leaders together. These conferences were full of excellent programming, collaboration, and networking.

It occurred to me while riding the down escalator this morning: Let’s face it, member dues are in some part what makes meetings like this work. How do members back home get an ROI from your time at the conference? How can leaders and staff best communicate back your learnings from the week? And what will you change for the better?

Association staff, you are better at what you do because of what you learned. Communications directors spent the better part of two days in “continuing education”. The sessions were intense. Can you identify two or three gems that you will take home with you? Will you write them down and share them with your counterparts? Will you apply the knowledge to connect better with your members or fall back into your old ways?

Association leaders spent a lot of time talking, listening, thinking, and collaborating at this meeting. You are in idea overload. Can you find the energy to report to your staff and even your members about the best information you bring home with you? Can you think of two ideas that are worth pursuing that you never though of before?

Being there is not enough. Representing your members is not enough. I wish you the determination to communicate what’s in it for the member. Make sure your members know the changes you make. That’s a return on both your and their investment.

I Am Convinced of the Potential of Association Marketing

2010-10-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

I am convinced of the potential of Association Marketing.

I am convinced that any association has the potential to add enormous value to the member experience.

I am convinced that choosing your target audience and beginning with your association goals, you can get more members to do what you want them to do.

I am convinced that if you don’t resource marketing properly, you will not advance your value.

I am convinced that without a clear message platform, you cannot establish a connection with your members (a connection is a prerequisite to “convincing”).

I am convinced that creating a Marketing & Communications (MarCom) plan helps you segment, target, and measure your results against your goals.

I am convinced that good customer service is not enough.

Barriers you might be up against:

I don’t have time to create a marketing/communications plan
I can’t invest in a plan I’ll never use
I can’t afford it
I can’t sell this to my board
I don’t have a marketing department
Every department has different messages
I want to show value but I just don’t know how to do it

Think about what you can do if you remove some or all the barriers above. And besides, none of them are true. If you are as convinced as I am, what’s stopping you?

Create Your own Career Karma, and Make a Difference in the World

2010-10-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

This is Breast Cancer Awareness Week, so I’m dedicating this post to those who work and fight for breast cancer awareness and other great causes.

In 2007, Bill Gates quoted one of his mother’s favorite expressions in his commencement address at Harvard. I Googled it and found that Mary Maxwell Gates’ expression originated in the New Testament: Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 48: "From those to whom much is given, much is expected." That is an inspiration.

TIKKUN OLAM is a Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world.” Michael Jackson made it memorable with this song: “Heal the world, Make it a better place. For you and for me and the entire human race. There are people dying, If you care enough for the living, Make a better place for you and for me."

Do you ever wonder if you make a significant difference in just one thing, one small difference that might start a ripple of change?

Trying to make a difference is always on my mind. It’s part of my values. It’s a key component of my business. It’s part of my brand.

I think of this every Monday on my drive to Rotary. There are special people who dedicate hours and days and years of their lives to making the world better through great community causes.

· As I review marketing material for Reach Out and Read, a non-profit in my town, I appreciate how a group of generous people can make a difference in the lives of pre-school children they don’t even know. So I help out, too.

· As I read in the news about my friend Barb Unell, founder of Back in the Swing, I’m again inspired by the power of one person’s tireless efforts. Back in the Swing is a one-week campaign that helps breast cancer, and all cancer survivors, get back to living after cancer treatment. The Kansas City program will go NATIONAL this year.

· As I help my soulmate Ethel Davis celebrate the honor of "Fearless Leaders of Kansas City,” I’m touched by the endless ways she gives back to the world. She inspires me and teaches me more about the brand of giving with your head and your heart.

· As I see my friend Christina Eldridge lead missions to Africa and at home, I am inspired, and I think about how making a difference is a tangible piece of her values and her personal brand.

· And always, as I watch my mom continue to work tirelessly for our local children’s hospital, her ongoing dedication to a cause reminds me how important one person can be. She’s been volunteering her time there for thirty years. Whenever a special occasion comes around, she tells us she doesn’t want a gift. Her standard response is always “Please just make a donation.”

I also see a lot of people working hard, but taking what they can and forgetting to give back. There are people who expect things from the world, who maybe don’t understand how good it feels to give back as well.

When I think of them, I come back to thinking to myself: "From those to whom much is given, much is expected."

A Communications Plan Comes to Life!

2010-10-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Rarely do I get the chance to say WOW so early in the day. But this morning, association executive at GrNBAR, (Massachusetts) Robin Maccini wowed me.

In May, 2010 I assembled a small but diverse group of associations (in size) to do an experiment in innovation. We selected one of the biggest challenges common to all the participating associations. To gain agreement was relatively easy: Not enough members read and appreciate our communications. This problem statement gained agreement across the board: small and large associations alike.

Over the next four months, we lost a few association executives to other pressing issues; but four of us have been meeting frequently to chip away at this problem. The process involved:

Brainstorming the root of the problem from the AE’s point of view
Conducting member communications survey to understand members' point of view
Conversations and education about what innovation and communication means
Promising practices from various associations who have addressed their communications issues already
An overview of the strategic communications planning model
The assignment to write a plan of their own.

This is where WOW comes in. This REALTOR® association in New Bedford, MA - with 580 members and a determined association executive has developed a strategic communications plan that will both (1) earn her respect from her board and staff, and (2) give the association, and the communications staff clear and though-out direction, including built-in measurements.

Every association has the chance to WOW your members with a renewed approach to your communications. I doubt that Robin will fail in her efforts to change the way members perceive the value of their membership.

For more information about the communications plan, click here.

Calling All New Association Staff Directors! It's Time to Live Your Brand.

2010-09-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

If you are a fair weather football fan, like me, you can appreciate the connection between coaching, playing, team dynamics, structure, process, hype, spirit, determination, coordination in football - and business. I love a competitive, well-matched game.

True football fans block out everything else and focus on the players, the coaches, the rivalry and the true grit that happens when 22 players get on the field on any given Sunday. Those like me try to learn something I can use on Monday.

So when Danny (my husband) showed me this inspiring article of a rookie who gives his heart to the team, it speaks to me that really amazing football players have their own personal brand. In my presentation on Creating Career Karma (your brand), I make the point that your brand is your internal promise, a reflection of your values, and the unique footprint that is only you. It’s the way you package and use what you have every day that makes you unique.

The second thing that competes for my attention during a football game is how one new person can change the dynamics of a team. So, new Communications Director, Marketing Director, GAD, Membership Director, CEO - what do you bring to your team that’s different, and makes the whole team perform better?

You are your story.
What is the unique feature
that distinguishes you
from all the others?

If you want a great example of a solid personal brand and how it can change a team, click here to read a great article.

Communicate About the Latest National Housing News

2010-09-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

Housing is front and center in the media this month: NBC nightly news on September 1st, home sales was the lead story, and now on the cover of time magazine. These are difficult times for your members who interact with consumers every day. Kudos to you if (1) your association’s lead (newsletter) story or (2) special email report addresses this timely topic.

This is a perfect time to help provide your members the answers to their - and their customers' worries. Below are five things you can do today to show empathy and relevance in light of this negative media :

- The news reports may or may not be consistent with your market. If you have current market reports for your area, publish them again. Use e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, your website(s) and other means to clarify the negative reports. If this reaches consumers, it is all the better.

- Reinforce the reasons to own a home: build a home for their family, build community, and have privacy, and build equity throughout consistently paying down the principle of their loan. These are still the reasons to buy a home.

- Work with your AE and your MLS director to prepare simple, direct talking points about your market easy enough that a new member can understand.

- Offer someone to explain the reports - someone accessible at your office. Or schedule a webcast to review them as a group with members.

- Tell members NAR is working on a response to the recent reports.

Communications are critical now. Provide information that members can use today. This is a real life timely example of how to be relevant and deliver member value.

Strategic Communications Plans

2010-09-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

I am working with three associations who are in the process of writing a strategic communications plan.

This impressive group of three association executives began with defining a problem statement about their association’s communications back in May. They range from 200 to 800 to 4,000 members. I refer to them as Partners In Innovation. They are partnering with each other to figure out how to better communicate and get more of their members' attention.

As they look past Labor Day, each association is at a crucial step; they have all the information, conducted the research, and know the 8 elements of the plan they’ll create.

So now it’s time to write the plan. Their challenge is to block out the time, sit in a quiet empty room with all of their notes, survey results, matrices and thoughts, and prepare to make sense of it all. Their goal is to come out with something worthy to present to their board of directors.

It can seem overwhelming, but in getting to know these CEOs (and one communications director), I think they will create some great work.

For anyone who is undertaking writing a communications plan, I’d remind you, in Dave Ramsey words, “You can’t wander into a goal.” You’ll never get there without a plan. I know one thing: if this were easy, everyone would be doing it. And they are not. Here are three reminders about constructing a usable plan:

• Creating strategic communications ties your communications to your association’s strategy.

• A Strategic communications plan is specific in the tactics, but first it aligns to the annual objectives of your association.

• The plan begins with “why we’re doing it” and “what we need to change”; then it lays out the “how”.

This project began with three associations defining a specific problem with their communications. The temptation is to document today’s communications, and justify why it still works. But we all know this is not the way to get different results. For Partners In Innovation, this is their chance to be bold, do something different, and hopefully change their minds about how they communicate.

Get a (communications) plan, man!

2010-08-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

Every day, 6,000 pieces of information travels in and out of your brain. This means there is a lot of multi-tasking going on inside your head. And for you type A personalities, this means competing priorities.

Building a business, or an association, presents a continuing dilemma of just what things to do first. Part of the leader's job is to carry the big-picture torch.

I went to a meeting this morning with two very bright, aggressive real estate professionals trying to build a business-quickly. One is the leader, another the agent. One of their reasons for meeting centered around the question "What do we do with social media? How should it fit in to our "plan"?

Social media can be miles more efficient than the most sophisticated tools from the olden days (in the 80's). Think Hoovers, Standard & Poors, Lexis/Nexis, Dunn&Bradstreet, as examples. Remember? Volumes of hard copy books sat in our office or bullpen with descriptive company and contact information. It was already out-of-date by the time we received the volumes via postal mail. But it was all we had to get to the right decision-maker, or to determine connections.

In later years, Xerox had a department of its own with a hotline for up-to-date business information we could call to navigate a prospective corporate account.

Today, tools like this are accessible online. These profile resources are invaluable, and we can add tools like LinkedIn to the list. Social media can help make connections we only dreamed of in the 80's and in a fraction of the time.

That said, I can't stress enough the importance of setting tactics (activities) and specific clients aside, and starting at the beginning, with three marketing basics:

The WHAT: Your specific goals and time frame - To build [what area of your business] between now and [when] for [what offering or product]? This determines the connections you need to make.

The WHO: Your target market (by segment, geography or other descriptor). If there is more than one - prioritize them. EVERYONE is simply not a practical target audience. You can attend to most of your audiences, but listing them specifically forces you to think about the individual needs of each audience.

The HOW: The ways you get your message across (media choices - including social, traditional, in-house, outsource, live, technology use).

I could feel one of my coffee-mates thinking on a larger scale. He began talking about how to re-look at their next informational video for a particular area of his business, and how several activities could link together to form a campaign. He even talked about the prospect list and various components of the plan (video, email, postcard, and phone calls) based on the newly identified goals.

The other one could not get past a variety of ideas swirling around in his head and what he had to do today. And maybe, in the scheme of things, this is where his head should be.

I could tell one of them will probably carry the plan and keep them focused on the goal. That was the Broker. If the leader thinks ahead with a systematic approach, I think the team can make it work!

If you asked them, what would they say?

2010-07-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

During an Association Executive workshop yesterday we went off-track to a great conversation about surveys. Most association executives know the value of conducting surveys, but about half of those that were in the room say they do not conduct a survey of their membership at least once a year.

Let's begin with a thought that will ground this discussion: Members don't join to solve association problems. Members join because they want the association to solve their problems. They want their association to be relevant. Danger: don't look to your board or your loudest members to tell you what's important to them. Invest in your members' feedback with a survey.

Some great questions came up in the meeting, so here they are below, along with the answers:

1. Should I send several small surveys or one large ones? I suggest one survey per year. They should be roughly the same questions each year. This way, an association executive can review results over time. I think polls are fine more than one time per year (a poll is defined as a one-question survey for a particular purpose, and not so often that it becomes an annoyance).

2. What is a good response rate? Reliable data depends on several factors — response rate is one of them. I like to strive for a 15% response rate for an association — and it is achievable. The next factor is percentage of accuracy, or your confidence level (it is easier to rely on extreme answers, like YES or NO, than middle of the road answers, so you'll have to decide what margin of error you are willing to tolerate.) Finally, your population size: the smaller your population or sample size, the higher your response rate should be to be valid for the entire membership.

3. Should I share the findings? One way to actively listen to your members is to show them you hear them. The best way to do this is to share the handful of the loudest or most revealing results, and say what you plan to do with them. Communication creates confidence, and confidence helps build trust.

4. What about focus groups? I love focus groups for specific, direct feedback on a specific topic. I wouldn't substitute a focus group for a survey. The sample size is too small.

5. How long should surveys be? A survey should ask the questions you most want feedback about — but no longer than 15 minutes to take the survey. You'll be wise to tell your members how long the survey will take and how you will show your appreciation for their time (see next question).

6. Should I offer an incentive? Yes, I rarely achieve the response rate an association needs without some kind of incentive. This can vary from 1 year free dues or fees, to a $25 gift card. Members are busy, so an incentive almost always improves response rates.

7. How can I assure members that the survey is confidential? One option a CEO suggested is surveying your members after a big meeting, in person. This way you can collect anonymous results. I don't recommend that option for one important reason: it doesn't represent an adequate sample size. You achieve an adequate sample size with either a random sample or your entire membership. Those members who attend meetings are a demographic of their own; they are not random. An electronic survey records email addresses; therefore, if this anonymity a priority, you might consider a third party to administer your survey.

And finally some advice no one asked for but I think is very important: Decide on the goals of your survey in advance. Don't just survey for satisfaction purposes. If you don't really want to know if your members find their membership valuable, then don't ask. And if you ask, be sure to follow up with questions like "What makes your membership most valuable?" and then "What one thing the association can do to make your membership more valuable?"

Collecting feedback should be as much a system as any other system you have in place. You'll see the value of conducting an annual survey year after year when you have the data to compare your results over time. Using your survey results to set new goals is productive. Setting new goals and then measuring improvement year-over-year will keep you relevant.

To serve members well I would share the following rule...associations should formally solicit feedback from members one time per year. Why? Because there is one person who can tell you if you are on the right track, and that's your members.

Communicating the Top 10 Benefits of Membership

2010-07-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

When someone asks me the question about how to list or display the top member benefits, I ask the Association Executive what they think are the top benefits of association membership? Many times, that list includes features (a list of tools, offerings, classes, services, plans) described as “benefits” of membership. Beware the laundry list of benefits.

Benefits vary from person to person, but there are only a few true member benefits to any one member at any particular time. They usually fall into three categories: 1) What’s in it for our profession, 2) What’s in it for me as a business owner? 3) What’s in it for me as a practitioner to become better at what I do (or keep my license)?

I would limit your member benefits to a few, and answer about the significant processes, tools, offerings, or services that you do really well and what it means to the member; the important things that members can count on you to deliver consistently from person to person, every time you interact with them.

I think association executives have a perfect opportunity to ask their board of directors together to talk through your most valuable member benefits. I promise you will spur some great discussion about what you do well today, and what you'll want to work on for the next 24 weeks of 2010 and into 2011.

E-mail Etiquette: What's the First Thing You Want to See in Your Inbox in the Morning?

2010-07-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Each morning, I admit, while my single-cup coffee is brewing, I glance at my blackberry out of habit to see "what's going on". I also admit, I am rarely up after 10pm, which is when many of my vendors and colleagues do their best work. So often I'm getting answers and questions, and to-do's to move projects to the next step. Then there are mornings when I wake up only to this (see the image right over here).

Maybe others share my habit. I read from a so-called expert that if you want someone to read your e-mail, send it at 6:30am. I confess, I read some email as early as 5am. Listen, I don't want it to be from my association, and I don't want it to be even my own e-newsletter. PLEASE...

I will tolerate a "past due notice" from my hosting service, or a subscription. It's a gentle reminder of what I should do that day.

So it got me to thinking about the best time for associations to send e-newsletters, calls to action, latest market statistics, education reminders, and other information material. So here's a list of rules I am establishing for myself as a mid-year resolution that you might want to think about too (July 5 seems a good half-way point in the year):

1. I will clearly identify the headline with a compelling title that will encourage my clients, future clients, and my followers to read it.

2. I will carefully shorten the topic of each of my three articles with a working link, so readers can make an educated decision to read it.

3. I will insert a relevant video or cartoon to entice, entertain, and educate my readers.

4. I will measure my open rates and links to see what my readers seem to be interested in. I'll take action to keep getting better at it.

5. Regardless that I only send one "mass" e-communication each month, I will send it on the same day, and the same time, but never first thing in the morning.

My "first things" are for catching up on what I don't get to do the other 23 hours of the day. So unless I owe you something, or have a spectacular idea for you, I will not send general information first thing in the morning. Deal?

Apple Lives Their Brand. Here's What That Means:

2010-06-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Apple is a marketing phenomenon. I know, you don't need anyone to tell you this, but I'll ask you to indulge me while I share a short story:

I pulled into the Apple store yesterday morning for a major technical problem with my new MacBookPro. I mean major. The spinning wheel that couldn't be stopped, shut down, re-started or ignored. That means I'm out of business.

As I pulled in, there were 200 people lined up outside the store. It is iPhone launch day. How did I not know that? Which means Apple really didn't have time for me yesterday.

Apple sells to hundreds of customers every single day, at this store alone. I know this because I'm there pretty often with my new laptop for training and technical problems. Or perhaps, seriously, it very-well-could-be a few operator errors!

The manager met me at the door, called me by name, and asked what was going on. I've been in several times with laptop problems. She is always somewhere in the store and we make eye contact. There were no "Genius Bar" appointments today, but she took my laptop anyway. She disappeared behind the silver door to the back room.

As I wait in the store, with a steady flow of apple-heads with credit card in hand, it occured to me that Apple, while they do not make a perfect product, does have best-in-class customer service.

In the middle of this chaos, the manager made me feel like I'm the only one who matters right now.

_________________________________________

A few hours later the Apple store called. To my complete surprise, they had a new laptop waiting for me. I brought it home, ran the back-up to restore my files and I'm back in business in less than 24 hours.

Sherri and the Apple team delivered on their promise, otherwise known as their brand: Innovation, Reliability, and Simplicity.

What's your brand promise? Would any Joe (or Melynn) off the street feel that you deliver on your promise after any interaction?

Collaboration: The Intersection of Common Goals and Creativity

2010-06-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Partners in Innovation (PII) is a project in innovation as much as it is an effort in collaboration. Four diverse associations are participating, along with four dedicated, quality Association Executives They vary in size and geographic location, from Pennsylvania in the East to Utah in the West. We will soon see results from the communications survey sent to 6,000 members. While we wait for the responses, let’s remember why we came together in the first place – to innovate and overcome their most pressing communication problem: Not enough members open, read, and appreciate their communications.

During my travels this past week, I found the new "all-in-one dental floss gadget" tucked into my travel kit. Using it for the first time, it hit me what we are trying to accomplish with this communications project - to approach ages-old communications in a new way. It will require innovation.

One of my favorite marketing philosophies is a concept called "The Possible Service." It happens in big for-profit business, and can happen in your association. It's a marketing approach containing one (or all three) parts. Marketing has evolved from being:

1. Service-driven - offering services or tools to the member based on what the company decides to deliver.

2. Market-driven - finding out what the customer needs, and building services or tools to meet them.

3. Imagination-driven - this kind of marketing answers the needs of the customer through innovation. It’s based on what the customer says they want; but it’s also about giving the customer something they need that they haven’t even asked for. Let’s use an example anyone can relate to: the 1970’s introduction of overnight (too many spaces in these lines) shipping. Before this, the only option for sending and receiving important documents and items was either the fax machine or US postal mail.

The PROBLEM: Original documents and products took too long to send and receive.

The BIG GOAL: Sending documents with reliability and speed.

THE ANSWER: Overnight shipping. (Think “absolutely positively overnight,” and “It’s not just a package, it’s your business.”) These award-winning campaigns promoted the solution to a customer problem that they never dreamed possible.

So, does this happen inside associations? As a matter of fact it does. The Florida Association of REALTORS® delivers concise, compelling, information to their target audiences through their innovative (and award-winning) website. Oklahoma City REALTOR® Association (OKCMAR®) gives members a cup of Starbuck’s coffee when they visit the association’s retail store. They grew the R-Shop from a closet to a non-dues revenue-machine for the association.

We’ve already made progress in this collaboration to change the way associations communicate regularly with members. While members respond to the communications survey with their thoughts about their communications preferences, let's collect ours, and continue to innovate. Start making your own short-list of the unexpected ways to get your highest-priority messages through to your members. We'll be back together soon to continue the collaboration effort, so stay tuned.

The best part of this project - members will get out of it what this dedicated group puts into it.

It's (Mostly) All About the Package

2010-06-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

If you don't think your communications acts as your storefront, think again.

I was in a neighborhood yesterday I don't frequent often. I have seen a little grocery store 50 times.The building is great. The windows are great. Cossentino's neighborhood grocery is very enticing and 'hip' from the outside.

I came downtown for a meeting and decided to come 15 minutes early to finally visit and go into the store.When I walked it, it had really good eye appeal, but with further strolling, it was just that, a grocery store.

The outside design pulled me in, and I left, along with my recycled bag with of $16 of nothing...a greeting card, some jumbo corn nuts and purple spinach!

I think there's lesson here... whether it's your association's "store", your Facebook page, your newsletter or your website - is it inviting? Intriguing? Does it look good enough to your uninvolved member so that one time, they will come in and look around?
Think about communications that are eye catching, straight-forward and scan-able. In other words, show members the quality you bring to them with the package; Then, deliver on the promise once they chose to come in.

Even if the content isn't fancy, when the package is interesting, you are likely to sell them something. If your message is simple and reliable on the inside, you have the chance to bring them back or even compel them to make a PAC contribution, attend a class, or become a fan.

The Brand Called You

2010-06-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

From: Issue 10 | August 1997 | Page 83 | By: Tom Peters

Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here's what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc.
________________________________________

It's a new brand world.

That cross-trainer you're wearing -- one look at the distinctive swoosh on the side tells everyone who's got you branded. That coffee travel mug you're carrying -- ah, you're a Starbucks woman! Your T-shirt with the distinctive Champion "C" on the sleeve, the blue jeans with the prominent Levi's rivets, the watch with the hey-this-certifies-I-made-it icon on the face, your fountain pen with the maker's symbol crafted into the end ...

You're branded, branded, branded, branded.

It's time for me -- and you -- to take a lesson from the big brands, a lesson that's true for anyone who's interested in what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work.

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.
It's that simple -- and that hard. And that inescapable.

Behemoth companies may take turns buying each other or acquiring every hot startup that catches their eye -- mergers in 1996 set records. Hollywood may be interested in only blockbusters and book publishers may want to put out only guaranteed best-sellers. But don't be fooled by all the frenzy at the humongous end of the size spectrum.

The real action is at the other end: the main chance is becoming a free agent in an economy of free agents, looking to have the best season you can imagine in your field, looking to do your best work and chalk up a remarkable track record, and looking to establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh. Because if you do, you'll not only reach out toward every opportunity within arm's (or laptop's) length, you'll not only make a noteworthy contribution to your team's success -- you'll also put yourself in a great bargaining position for next season's free-agency market.

The good news -- and it is largely good news -- is that everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.

Click here to read the full 8-page article.

Jump Start Innovation by Following a Few Ground Rules

2010-06-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

Most real estate associations realize the value of innovation, but some find it hard to achieve. Association leadership, especially in small and mid-size associations often lacks the time, the tools, and the creative process to nurture exciting new ideas. I recently brought together a few small and medium sized associations to innovate their communications process. As our “Partners in Innovation” process gets started, we’ve discovered ways to jump-start innovation.

1. Set side the time to get creative. The participants all said the biggest creativity boost was simply allocating the time to looking for new ideas. Taylor Oldroyd, CEO of the Utah County Association of REALTORS®, said, “We all get into ruts. Setting aside time specifically for this project allows me to focus for a minute, to ignore the staff members that are poking their head in, and instead actually take the time required to do some creative thinking.”

2. Bring together diverse participants. All of the associations in the project have strategic plans and are constantly discussing how to communicate, but have had trouble coming up with new ideas. What’s different in this project, according to Diane Streichert, CEO of the Burlington Camden County (New Jersey) Association of REALTORS®, “is the integration of people from different sized associations and interaction with people from all parts of the country. It’s lead to more innovative ideas.” Her Communications Director Liz Peters agrees. ”You toss around ideas daily in your office, but its even better to hear ideas from other people that we would never have thought of,” she said.

3. Designate a facilitator to keep the creativity flowing. My role in this process is to guide the conversation and push the participants to keep digging deeper. The participants all agree having one person whose focus it is to facilitate makes a huge difference. “It gives me a purpose, a reason to stop and think and engage,” said Rob Hulse, Executive Officer of the Lawrence (Kansas) Association of REALTORS®.

4. Give yourself license to think crazy thoughts. After their initial meeting, the group was given an usual homework assignment. Before our second phone call, I asked them to come up with the craziest idea for improving their communications they could imagine. “It was helpful to have that direction, that push to come up with something that isn’t traditional,” Hulse said. And it lead to some very useful ideas we can refine as we move ahead.

We are determined to show that process like this can lead to positive change that your members will see right away. Please stay tuned, I will share the fruits of their labor as we progress!

Strategic Planning Tips

2010-05-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have, or will conduct strategic planning sessions on an ongoing basis with your leadership teams, this entry is for you. I made an installment in my own continuing education yesterday by attending a seminar on strategic planning. I wanted to hone my own skills and learn a new promising approach to an old concept.

ASAE never disappoints its members. The presentation gave me an entirely new approach to consider. Including:

1) The strategic radar screen - where to place strategic issues that come out of scanning the industry for issues that either effect your members' profession (or the industry).

2) Asking for insight (not feedback) from members-at-large along the way, as to not plan in a vacuum. Insight asks for answers to questions like "Why is there a lack of readership to our communications?" or "Why are members not interested in our legislative activities?" Ask these questions before and during the process. Feedback, on the other hand, asks member to evaluate something you have already decided to do.

3) The importance of putting staff and elected leaders at the same table (and place them strategically next to each other) with placards and assigned seating.

4) Always ask a committee chair to make presentations along with their staff counterpart.

5) Measure everything - even if the measurement is "excitement and momentum", or better-yet, as specific as "the # of large brokers and brokerage companies who have re engaged in the association". Same goes for any other industry!

6) Top way to build consensus with members and the Board? Communicate, communicate, communicate! Isn't that the key to any successful initiative?

Jim Dalton puts it this way: "Members don't join the association so that they can solve the association's problems. Members join the association expecting that the association will help solve THEIR problems."

Good luck, good planning, and then great execution!

Why You Need a Marketing Plan

2010-05-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

I know what you are thinking. "Why do I need a marketing plan? My people know just what they need to do to get things done. My board (and I) come up with new ideas all the time, and having a plan would be pointless."

Does this ring a bell with you? It does with a lot of business owners and CEOs. A plan reminds you of the key themes you will always talk about to members so they will hear a consistent messages. And the new projects you decide to undertake. And changes you decide to make in the way you do business.

When it comes to pest control at my house, Gunter Exterminators sends me a postcard. When it's time to rake the leaves, the piles make themselves bigger in the yard, and the weather changes to ring the alarm. When prescriptions run out, that's an indicator it's time to re-order. As April 15th approaches, I know my taxes are due.

When it comes to connecting with members, and sticking to the priorities, and being clear and concise with your audience, there's nothing to remind you if not for a plan.

A plan requires you to sit down and scribble or type what you already know. Along with deadlines and measurements. How many members opened the mail? Attended the event? Answered the call to action? When done right, the plan begins with your association's immediate goals. What do you want to accomplish in the coming year? The marketing plan outlines how you will "sell" the ideas and programs and tools, in order to reach your goals. Each and every one of your goals that effects your members.

Marketing is everything you have to do to come up with your products and services, making members aware of it, getting them to want it, and then selling it to them.

So next time you think you don't need a plan, think about how for-profit business runs business. It's just like you. Plan, organize, implement and measure. Then recycle as needed.

Never Mistake Motion for Action

2010-04-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation with an Association Executive last week at the AE Institute. After a one-hour session about Being Relevant, she came up to me and said "It's hard to create more relevance when we don't sell a product or a service. I'm a small association and I don't have staff, or new tools. I feel like I am spinning my wheels trying to show value for the dues my members pay."

In a for-profit business, improving shareholder value happens by increasing revenues - either selling more, or spending less. In a not-for-profit buisness like yours, members are your shareholders, and your value comes from helping them do their job better, so they can be more successful. And what it takes to be successful changes with market conditions, with changing laws and regulations, and based on the tenure and knowledge of your members. Step into their shoes and understand what they need, and you will begin to turn relevance into member value.

You will improve relevance (and build value) when you keep up with change. Every association can find areas for change, no matter the size of your membership. AE Institute and other conferences offer tens of hundreds of possible ideas to make change in a mere four-day meeting. Back at home, you can make small change in the professional image of your members by contributing positive stories to the media (social and traditional media). Instead of reporting the news, change the way you communicate by learning to translating the benefit of national industry news to what it means to your member locally.

Create value by keeping pace with change - and your member will begin to see, and then understand your value. The art of being a successful leader is to chose the right areas to change. If you are not careful, you could spin your wheels with too many ideas of how to make the most effective change. As Ernest Hemmingway said "Never mistake motion for action".

What My Dentist Taught Me About Being Relevant

2010-03-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

Lynne, my dentist, is also my client. I have spent the past six months helping position and promote Lynne and Abbie’s practice to their patients. The goal for their marketing is more referrals. They so some of the common things that all dentists do. But they do it much differently than any dentist I have ever seen.

While helping Lynne and Abbie express the promise of their practice I began to think about how I feel about my current dentist’s office - and the differences. There are three things that differentiate Lynne:

1. Schutte & McKnight’s promise is a personal and satisfying dental experience. They communicate how the health of your teeth is connected with your overall health. They explain how health problems show up in your mouth, and how something wrong with your teeth can affect other parts of the body. What an attention-grabbing concept I had never thought about. This made dental health relevant to my life.

2. First impressions matter. My appointment began in the dentist’s personal office with she and my new hygienist (Stacey), just talking for 15 minutes. We talked about why I decided to come to the office, what I expected, and if there was anything about a dental office that bothers me so she could make sure to avoid that concern. Unique. Really thoughtful and engaging.

3. When your level of service is authentic and very consistent, it’s easy to live your brand. What Lynne showed me had heart, and expertise. She tactfully showed me, at 50 years old how to properly brush my teeth. She taught me something.

Needless to say they deliver on the other little things too: Lynne’s handwritten thank-you note, the iPod that distracted me from the drill, and the late afternoon phone call “just because”.

Lynne and Abbie did not start off thinking I would be their patient, and neither did I. Like any other service business, you can gain great advantage “…doing common things in an uncommon way.” (George Washington Carver. That, to me is the best definition of relevance.

If you can say “wow” about a dentist, I just did.

To learn more about Drs. Schutte & McKnight's practice, please visit www.schutteandmcknightdds.com.

Be a Good Listener to Find Out What Members Need

2010-03-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Go ahead, ask your members why they belong to the your association? Ask open-ended questions, and I’ll bet your members will free flow with ideas.

If you ask them, members will probably answer with many of the same reasons associations were formed as early as the 1830’s: education, networking and referrals, information (in the form of research and statistics), forums to discuss common problems, and standards (or codes of ethics) to keep the industry strong. How about this: a sense of community.

In a challenging economy, the answers will be more specific and tactical.

From surveys from associations across the country, I find that members really want three things:

1. Teach me something I can use to keep me relevant with my customers,

2. Communicate with me about the market, new trends, and what you to advocate on behalf of the industry and my business, and

3. Help me make more money.

Let’s just suppose for a minute that every member wants some or all of these three things. Are these needs specific enough that you can answer them with your services, products, and programs? YOU BET YOU CAN. If you deliver on your members’ biggest needs, will you become more valuable to your members? YOU BET YOU WILL. Are these three member needs universal across industries? YOU BET THEY ARE.

If you haven’t recently asked these kind of questions, now is the time to start. Here are three tips to make your survey worthwhile:

1. Ask filtering questions so you can look at the responses by category (new members, or age groups, or full time v. part time members)

2. Be specific in the questions you ask so that you get specific, actionable input and ideas

3. Do something with the results!

Is it smart to trust (what you think your members think) but verify that it’s still true? Is today a good time to survey your members? YOU BET.

Four Business Tips to Start a New Year

2009-12-29T04:24:00.000-08:00

I’ve learned four concepts during my business life that have stayed right here in my head for more than twenty years. What makes us remember certain lessons while others go into one ear and out the other? The four tips below have become so much a part of my work life, they are now an automatic part of my thinking. I hope this will be a good reminder for you and maybe even a pass-along to your staff:

1. Plan, Organize, Implement – It’s the business equivalent to “ready, aim, fire.” Whenever I begin a project, I plan what outcome should look like. In light of smaller association staffs and more emphasis on deliverables, the planning step is sometimes shortchanged.

Planning means deciding goals first—yours, your staff’s, and even your boards’. Put yourself inside the head of your association’s members and consider how they will see the final product. What are their current expectations, perceptions, needs? Do you plan to meet those standards or offer an alternative? Answer these questions before you start.

Organizing means putting yourself at the event, reading the e-newsletter, or otherwise stepping into the shoes of your members. What will your audience be anticipating, and what will it take to overachieve your goal? What steps will take to get from here to there in an uncomplicated, logical fashion? Organizing helps anticipate speed bumps, even while in the heat of putting a project together.

The success of any project or event is in direct proportion to your preparation. You deliver more than meets the eye. You deliver assurance that you know exactly what your members need out of the project.

2. Trust. But Verify – This has helped me both as a businessperson and even as a parent! It’s the notion of not trusting every spoken or written word. An example is hearing a board of director say in a meeting, “We know our members want more services. The problem is they’re not willing to pay for them.” Sometimes, a membership survey reveals that members are, in fact, willing to pay more for additional, tailored services. This is the business equivalent of trusting that your kid is at Jake’s house, then calling Jake’s mom to be sure.

3. Manage Up – When I finally grew up to pay more attention to the little things in my career, I remember when my most memorable boss sat me down and said, “Melynn, you have to learn to manage up.” I didn’t understand the concept until years after he spoke the words. What he meant was that every effort, every day, making the boss look good boosts the entire organization. This may sound self-serving to my boss—and I suppose it was—but it has become a priority in my business, and has paid me back in my own career. The passion in my work with associations is to master your communications and value proposition. If I do it well, I make the CEO and staff look good. Yes, I like to have pride in my work. More importantly, the Association CEO and staff have pride in the work they helped create. My first boss might have long forgotten this conversation, but I never will.

4. Once in a while, you will need to sit and have a drink with someone you don’t especially like – I’ll explain with an example: I meet some of the most professional, forward thinking, smart Association CEOs, AEs, EDs and EVPs in this business. Sometimes, there is a “rub” or a disconnect between him or her and their incoming elected leader. This is frustrating for the executive, not to mention unproductive, inefficient, and a waste of a lot of energy. Is the conflict a result of an ulterior motive by the elected leader? Does the leader really want interfere with the AE’s business? Or is the disconnect because of two diverse personalities and backgrounds that just don’t naturally blend together?

When you reach into your sock drawer with your eyes closed, unless the socks were in pairs already, you’d have about the same chance of finding two perfect mates as you would of finding a perfect balance between an AE and volunteer leader. Sometimes getting away from the formal setting and getting to know your colleague as a person first starts to build a small bridge to respect and trust, not to mention a respectable working relationship. It’s a small effort with maximum potential. So have a drink with someone you don’t especially like—and see what happens.

Four simple business ideas. I can attest that these lessons are tried and true. Although I continue to learn new lessons every day, I value the wisdom of the mentor who taught me these. I encourage you to pass your most treasured tips on to your staff. There are future leaders in your association who will appreciate the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

Why Would I Brand My Association?

2009-12-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

Your members have options. They can 1) use your service to get what they need, 2) get their services somewhere else, 3) do it themselves, without anyone’s help, or 4) do nothing at all. What will it take to get them to choose you?

It is not only a “marketing promise”,

it is an organizational commitment delivered

in every single interaction.

People have the obligation to reinforce the brand for their small piece of your business.
When leadership makes decisions based on the brand, it is a demonstration of their commitment over time.
Finally, the brand is a tangible way to measure the efforts of your organization, so that each staff member and leader is not only satisfying his/her piece of the pie, but also delivering on the association’s unified brand promise.

It’s not about your logo.

Building your brand and then delivering can actually provide your members a return on their investment.

As Warren McKenna says, “You brand yourself through your people, your places, and your things.”

A brand will be useless if it doesn’t help you improve your members’ experience. For your brand to be relevant, you must identify what your members really want (the vital needs). Discover their top three needs through a member survey. Find out what members think is most important.
A brand can be a way to change the skills or direction of an organization. You must evaluate your desired strengths against your current strengths in order to brand yourself realistically. A branding assessment, though not long or involved, will help you direct your efforts. It can bring your staff and board closer, can bring focus to a trait that requires development, and can position you to attract a more involved membership.
Ultimately you want to fill in these two blanks:

Why would members join if they didn’t have to? In other words, what one valuable member benefit do you want to be known for?
If you are known for the one benefit above, how will it help you achieve your association’s goals?

Selected properly, and embraced by your leadership, your brand is an intangible yet invaluable asset. It is the basis of the way you communicate your association’s value.

For more information on branding, click here for nSight Marketing’s one-pager on the topic.

Melynn is dedicated to improving value to your members through communications and committed to the success of trade Associations. She can be reached at melynn@nsightmarketing.com or 913.220.7753.

Communicating using the Internet Tools

2009-11-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

At my Rotary meeting this week, two of our young members presented a program entitled: "Social Media: Why it's Not Going Away and More on What it's About" (Average age of the club member in this club - 58 years).
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My boomer-age Rotarian friend leaned over and said "Do you have facebook?" I said "Yes, I have it all". To which he replied: "I don't know why I would use it except to keep up on my kids".

It made me think of three things I would say to him, and other baby boomers who still want to grow their business:

1) For the 95% of us that are actually looking for new business, a blog, a Facebook profile, or LinkedIn page are necessary places to establish a brand, and credibility and relationships. Blog about your specialty. Offer up helpful tips on your Facebook page that people you know will value. It helps show that you know your stuff. Without advertising. (It's especially helpful to have someone specific in your mind - a "persona".)

2) The same reason you belong to Rotary or frequent social, philanthropic luncheons, or other networking functions is the reason Facebook is an efficient way to get connected to your community and get into conversations. Conversations lead to introductions, and meeting new people is simply good for business.

3) Information is abundant on the internet, and access to knowledge and ideas are available from unlimited sources. Quickly get information right to your desk by Googling the exact information you need! My last Google search was for a remedy for my dog after being sprayed by a skunk on Halloween! Without the instant access to information, and a subsequent 6am visit to Wall Mart, my house would be unlivable (and my animal impossible to live with)! This info, not out of a veterinary journal, came from bloggers about their pets. Who knows when people are looking for financial planning or accounting advice in a pinch will run across you!

Remember, the purpose of communication falls into one of two categories: to inform, to build a relationship, or a call-to-action. When people talk to each other, it is either to exchange information or to ask someone to do something. As Stephen said this week at Rotary, the fastest segment of users on social media are over 40 years of age. Try it for yourself. In the end, you have the choice not to use this technology, if you don't find it useful!

The generation gap seems to both widen and become narrower at the same time! I hope more of our clubmates will chose to see what it's all about.

Get What You Pay For

2009-10-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

In this summer's edition of REA Magazine (a publication for association executives in the real estate industry), I wrote an article that any association executive, association ceo, or executive director should consider reading. Any executive who juggles members, staff, and a changing market likely has faced this same conversation in a board meeting.

The article compiled a list of seven ideas to keep members motivated in a downturn. AEs surveyed talked about how their offerings change in times of economic distress. As expected, conventional wisdom was split right down the middle: offering education and other member services for free is a real draw. To balance this out, other AEs believe that associations actually create more value for their offerings when they charge a small fee for a class or an event. (Read the article here_Marketing in a Downturn)

Since publishing, two convincing arguments have surfaced to add to the list! One AE has acquired a fax-to-email service that he gives away as an incentive for joining - generating nearly 200 new members this year!

Another board of directors made the decision to raise dues - by 30%! At the same time they laid out several payment options in advance to help ease the transition. "It was a necessary step to keep the association healthy" says the executive director. The jury is out, but he believes transparency in communicating the association's finances helps to build member loyalty.

Executives and marketing types have mixed feelings about which direction to take when the goal is delivering more value to the member. Corporate giants have experienced the same dilemma, with related consequences. It is a great article that we in not-for-profit marketing should learn from. Why Charging Just a Little Can Be Smarter Than Charging Nothing at All. (Link to Fast Company).

Free is tempting, but is it a legitimate business strategy?

Are you listening?

2009-09-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

My favorite quote of the week: “In a society of super-sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.”                                                                                                      – Erma Bombeck

If you and I haven’t met yet (or better yet if we have), you know my mantra from spending the past 20+ years with real estate professionals: REALTORS® really want three things from your association:

     1. They want to LEARN something they can apply to their work,
     2. They want you to ADVOCATE for them to keep the industry healthy, and
     3. They want you to help them MAKE more money! That’s it.

In a recent article I wrote for an association newsmagazine outlined how Nobu Hata, a REALTOR® in Minneapolis uses his Facebook business page as a referral and sales tool. He admits to getting nearly 30% of his leads there. Instead of telling you more here, you can link to the article by clicking here.

If you want to give your members a two of their three biggest asks – learning helping them make more money, you have my cyberspace permission to link this article onto your blog or forward it to your membership in your e-newsletter! Please use caution when promoting this: Social networking is not a selling strategy; it is a social strategy, and is meant to build relationships. As you well-know, the best sales professionals approach the relationship first, before (and many times instead of) a direct solicitation.

Let me know if Facebook is helping your members by replying to this post.

Making Decisions by Fact

2009-08-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

In today's tight economy, many associations are re-examining their role to find the most important ways to support their members.

While in a client review of member survey results, a staff member teased “we have a case of what’s new - itis.”

This association GETS the purpose of formal member input. Here’s more about the comment she made: “A member survey helps remind us what’s important to the TOTAL MEMBERSHIP of the association – not just the current leadership, or the staff alone.

At the office, we get wrapped up in what we do every day. We promote the programs we’re responsible for. The staff and leadership are always coming up with something new to offer to members that will help them avoid risk or enhance productivity. So we have a case of “what’s new”- itis.
We have the same problem in our city with restaurants – there are hundreds of people at the new restaurant that opened. There are only 12 people at the new-ish restaurant that opened 6 weeks ago. But that 6-week-old restaurant is really just getting good. The staff is finally trained; the chef is familiar with the food.

But like that old restaurant, we want to move onto the newest project we’re working on. And we need to show the leadership that the newest project is successful. So we go full steam behind it -to the detriment of the stuff we created last month or last year - even if that stuff is actually more important to the members.

We like the Marcus Buckingham principle of improving on your strengths, not focusing on your weaknesses. A survey shows us what our strengths are … so we can build on them.”

Association marketers and staff play a key role by providing your leadership insight into what members want and which programs are worth hanging on to.

A commercial for commercial members

2009-08-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

In Mid-August on a Monday morning, the Wall Street Journal carried a front page story on the foreclosure of a prime commercial development on the west coast; the very same day, section B covered the virtual halt in the commercial real estate market in another part of the country. This week, a Bloomberg news headline read “Commercial Property Values Fall as Rent Drop Forecast”. Bottom line, this is not what associations want to see on in the news. Life is not good for your commercial members.

While on a long delay Friday night, I sat myself on the floor of Washington Regan Airport (with nowhere else to sit), and thought about what an association might do to encourage one segment of your membership who is struggling. Here are three ideas to get you to start thinking:

1. Consider your value proposition to these members. Even though they may be a small segment, is there a thorny issue in your city or state that you can watch, influence or even overcome for them? When you take this on, you help stimulate their business and begin changing their mindset about their business? You probably already do some legislative or political action work on behalf of your members. Get the word out so that your members understand the value of your efforts and what it means to them. Legislative affairs may be the least understood member benefit - in any industry.

2. When there is some good news, like Bloomberg reported just yesterday about existing home sales up 7.2%, encourage commercial members that positive news for the industry is good for all segments – so keep looking for the opportunities that are out there – albeit fewer, those who are looking full time will get the breaks.

3. From coast to coast I see commercial REALTORS® who avoid their residential counterparts. Look for RCA members in your association who get referrals from their residential counterparts. Promote the heck out of it. Tell the stories. Help change the culture. One testimonial from an influential member can sway a lot of long-standing public opinion.

If you say no to these ideas, I trust you can go find a solution of your own. Don’t hide behind the “RCA is a small segment of our membership” excuse. Like one savvy CEO told me, “What’s good for commercial business, and your town square is good for selling houses.”

If you have a great idea, or one that has worked, share it with your peers by replying to this post.

Social Media - Good Bad and Ugly

2009-08-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

Freedom of Speech…How about the concept “Bad News Travels Really Fast?” For all of you (us) involved in the real estate industry, I’d like to remind you of the power of social media as you read about the Twitter debacle between Horizon Realty and their tenant-Tweet-er.

Follow the story below about the “Sue first, then ask questions kind of an organization” who sued their tenant for broadcasting about mold in her apartment. Horizon is in the spotlight - they have a great PR opportunity to rectify the situation. Some bloggers have suggested dropping the lawsuit, admitting to a potential error, and fixing the mold issue. There's an idea!

How about the power of communation where 20 followers turned into hundreds of thousands. That is some powerful communications tool. It may even be monumental enough to convince some of you sign up for this Twitter-thing just in case there's some news you need to know!

Link here to read the story: http://www.copyblogger.com/horizon-realty-group/#more-3986

Need more volunteers?

2009-07-20T05:57:00.000-07:00

Off the subject of social media for a while...REA Magazine is known for offering promising practices for Association Executives (AEs) in all areas of association management. I think the editor, Carolyn Schwaar is a master at editorializing many "right on" themes. I recently wrote an article for the Magazine; AEs who don't seem to ever have enough willing volunteers to fill committees might take a gem or two from your fellow CEOs:

Building a successful association hinges on finding volunteers to give their time, energy, and talent. Yet some associations continually struggle to attract volunteers. These days, some fear even asking members who are experiencing a challenging business environment. Here are some new (and some tried - and- true) tips for recruiting volunteers.

1. Ask them in person. Ask 10 members why they got involved in their local or state association, and nine out of ten will say, “Because someone asked me.” Soliciting for volunteers is, after all, just like selling anything else. Cold calling is a difficult way to sell. People do business with people they like. CEO of the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS® Diane Ruggiero advises, “You must ask them in person if you really want to get someone to say yes. Go to their office, meet them for coffee, or ask them out for lunch. Make them feel important and always tell them the purpose, the WIIFM (what’s in it for me), and the time involved.”

2. Build trust by being honest. It’s critical to be completely up-front about the commitment involved. Pinellas REALTOR® Organization CEO Ann Guiberson agrees. “Tell volunteers whether it’s a task force that’s going to meet once or twice for two hours each or if it’s an ongoing commitment.” Always overestimate the time commitment slightly just in case a project takes longer than expected. Also, always explain the purpose of the assignment and its importance to the association. Otherwise, a potential volunteer may not think the work is worth his or her time.

3. Find ways to use members’ expertise. Find out what skills and abilities your volunteers bring to you and then match them to committee assignments (but don’t assume someone has skills or particular interests; ask first). A good skill-to-task match makes volunteers feel not only comfortable, but that their expertise is useful to the association. For Vice President of Administrative Services at the Kansas Association of REALTORS® Christy Stinger, the matching process was really common sense. “Two of our members have accounting backgrounds. With so many REALTORS® who are well versed on financials and budgets, those people make sense on a budget and finance committee. Another woman who wrote op-eds for the local paper was appointed to the governmental affairs committee for her ability to explain and communicate her opinions.”

4. Explain the benefit from the members’ point of view. Jim Helsel, 2009 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS ® treasurer, has volunteered since the beginning of his long career. He suggests focusing on the payoff from volunteering. First, Helsel tells potential volunteers that they’ll not only get personal satisfaction and enjoyment from volunteering, but that they’ll also have fun. “Emphasize the networking and learning opportunities in volunteering,” he says. “There’s not a person I’ve met during this journey that hasn’t helped me in my career when I’ve needed it,” Helsel recalls. He credits his volunteer work with bringing referrals from across the country.

5. Follow your instincts. Helsel advises AEs to watch for and nurture prospective volunteers. “Many times it is the AE that sees a reason to push someone to ‘go to the next level’ and use their talents to work for the association and for their industry,” he says. “AEs learn to spot talent. No one sees more than an AE.”

What about us old dogs?

2009-07-17T04:08:00.000-07:00

Business, gaining prospects, on-line networking, talking about what you do...does it all fit together?

From my most recent association member survey conducted in June, I learned something surprising. While the Young Professionals segment (gen x and gen Y) fall into the 20% range of the total association membership, 38% use some kind of social technology!

Could that mean that the boomers and even civics are beginning to adopt to this type of technology to make more connections?

I continue to get feedback that confirms this trend. While teaching a writing class at an association this week, I asked for a raise of hands for those who use social networking technology - either facebook or Linked In (specifically). While about 20% of the class said "yes", at least five were tenured professionals.

Joe, a 63 year old veteran commented he had received four leads from Facebook this year. Honest! He acknowledged he has been referred to as 'you dog', but never call him an old dog. Joe, and others have begun to realize online is a place where people can spread their word, and without a single advertisement, it can lead to new prospects.

Social Networking - I was thinking just what you might be thinking!

2009-07-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

There was a time I was stuck on the belief that I am not social, and I don't do well at networking. So, this must mean social networking is not for me.

The more I read, listened, asked, and grumbled, the more conflicted I was feeling.

One day, I invited a friend out for a drink. In return, I had an hour to ask him all the idiot questions I had about tip toeing into Social Networking.

Social - I came to realize, was simply a common place where groups of people gather.

Networking was linking up to friends, family, colleagues, and other people to extend my reach in order to find my way to other people.

In the past, social networking - in my mind - should be a direct line between tapping the keys on the keyboard and magically getting more business, or finding the person who could help me make a connection. This just isn't so.

The turning point was realizing everything we do is grounded in who we know. And the more connections we have is a good starting point for helping AEs learn right along with me how this technology can help associations.

This blog is for my Association Executive friends and colleagues. It is a safe place to ask the "idiot questions" (this is my term) and listen to what other people are saying about this technology that is growing in terms of importance and relevance.

Stay tuned and feel free to join in. This is all about learning from each other. We're about to get started.