Social Networking: The Future of Professional Associations?
Recently I came across a blog posting about a new social networking group called
Circle of Moms. Launched in October 2008, the group already has over 850,000 members who have created over 1000 communities dealing with everything from raising toddlers and swapping recipes to sharing money-saving tips. Members can form their own personal "circle of moms" by connecting with other mothers they trust who may be geographically nearby or who share specific interests.
In order to make the group as accessible as possible, Circle of Moms has both a dedicated website and a Facebook application, in addition to an email notification feature to alert members to new updates. Having both a website and a Facebook presence gives the group multiple touch points, and the phenomenal growth gives clear evidence that this strategy is working very well.
At a time when professional associations are struggling to attract and retain members, it seems obvious to me that moving to a social networking approach is the best-and perhaps only-hope for the future. The traditional associational paradigms are simply irrelevant to many younger people; there's too much structure, too many hoops to jump through in order to participate. The key to association revitalization will be to simplify structure and remove barriers to participation, while adopting the viral marketing strategies that are working so well for groups like Circle of Moms. Furthermore, in order to get better buy-in from members, associations need to learn from successful social networks and allow the members to drive programs, not the other way around. People will support causes they believe in. Professional associations would do well to look to their members for ideas on what initiatives to pursue, rather than simply trying to force members to support programs envisioned by leadership.
There are plenty of networking success stories to be found which can serve as models for associations looking to revitalize, but it's important to look outside the box in order to find them. We dare not allow the old "we've never done it that way before" excuse to prevent us from recognizing and adopting new paradigms in order to keep professional associations relevant to today's workforce.