If you missed the last issue of ASAE and the Center's Technoscope e-newsletter, you should check out Jacqui Olkin's article on "Demystifying Taxonomy." It is a great overview of what a taxonomy is, why it is important, and the key elements of developing and maintaining one. A must-read for any association thinking about a major redesign of their website(s).
Tagged: taxonomy Jacqui Olkin Technoscope
Once again, DigitalNow was a great conference with lots of gleanings. Check out their site for downloads of notes, videos and presentations for the sessions you missed.
One of our clients, the School Nutrition Association, was featured as an example of an association that is creatively utilizing virtual worlds to educate. They are partnering with Whyville, a site similar to Second Life, but targeted to a younger audience. Kids are presented with food choices and their health either improves or worsens (as exhibited by their avatars or face parts, which they acquire based on their experience in Whyville). Very cool.
Another of our clients, the American Cancer Society, has harnessed volunteer efforts to raise over $100,000 of real dollars via Relay for Life in Second Life.
Tagged: School Nutrition Association Whyville American Cancer Society Relay for Life Second Life DigitalNow
Danny, a colleague at Ironworks, shared an interesting article by Mark Hurst about assessing customer needs. Mark's friend owns an organic fruit company and wanted to update his web site. He obviously needed to start with better understanding his customers' needs and how they wanted to use his site.
When we conduct focus groups or usability testing to do this, we often start with specific scenarios to test based on what we predict customers will want to do or what we want them to do. However, Mark and his friend were concerned that they would only test known problems and would not uncover unexpected challenges that users may experience.
They decided to replace standard usability testing with "listening labs" in order to generate a more iterative or "organic" experience. This less-structured approach (which could also be applied to focus groups or usabiltity testing) helped them discover some new issues and potential solutions that would not likely have been identified during the standard test scenarios.
I would like to experiment with this approach with some of our future user research and will let you know how it goes.
Tagged: Mark Hurst usability testing listening labs focus groups
Alan Evans makes a clever (I think) observation about audience segmentation in this recent post.
Tagged: audience segmentation Alan Evans magazine stand Clever Think
Just back from a week in Lake Tahoe for some incredible skiing (over 11 feet of new snow at Heavenly during our stay). I added a Photo Album on the right with a few pictures.
Meanwhile, check out my article on Knowledge Management in the Web 2.0 Age in the latest issue of Associations Now (page 57). I talk about how traditional KM and social media are converging into powerful eKnowledge solutions and use the American Institute of Architects' soloso.org site as a case study. And don't miss The Fine Print sidebar that explains the technology behind Soloso.
As mentioned previously, Mark Carpenter, General Manager, eKnowledge, for AIA and I will be doing a session at the Association Technology Conference on January 31st in DC. Read the article and then come with your thoughtful questions and suggestions. I would love to hear from others who are pursuing eKnowledge initiatives.
Tagged: eKnowledge knowledge management social media Soloso Association Technology Conference Associations Now Mark Carpenter
In researching a session I am organizing about successful online communities for ASAE and the Center's Annual Meeting next August, I came across this 5-minute tutorial on the Texas Medical Association's site. It helps their members understand how to use their active communities of practice. But it is also a great way for other association professionals to gain insight on how to generate successful online communities.
Please contact me if you have active online communities, may be attending the Annual Meeting next August in San Diego, and are interested in participating on this panel.
There is also a good article in Bottom Line Briefing about how the Lupus Foundation is effectively using some 3rd party social networking tools to generate consumer communities on a tight budget. Wick Davis using to work for me at the American Diabetes Association and is taking the Lupus Foundation to new levels with their web presence.
Tagged: Texas Medical Society online communities Lupus Foundation Wick Davis
Thanks to Ben Martin for calling my attention to the 3-minute Blogs in Plain English video on the Common Craft Show blog. I have already found it to be a useful tool in helping associations educate their stakeholders and constituents about the potential value of blogging. It is one of the easiest and inexpensive ways for an association to relate to its constituents on a more personal level and for constituents to share their knowledge and experience with others.
BTW, congratulations to Ben as being selected as one of the "5 to Watch" -- five young association professionals who are viewed as rising stars and featured on the cover of the December issue of Associations Now. Some may not know that Ben is also an avid musician, so I awaiting to day when I see his shining face on the cover of The Rolling Stone.
Tagged: Blogging, Blogging in Plain English, Ben Martin, 5 to Watch, Associations Now
I posted earlier about eKnowledge and what I perceive as a trend toward the intersection of social media and knowledge management. We have been working with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for several months on such an initiative and they officially launched their innovative eKnowledge site -- soloso.org -- in September following several weeks of beta testing.
Their General Manager, eKnowledge, Mark Carpenter and I will be showcasing Soloso during a session at the ASAE's Association Technology Conference on January 31st. I am also authoring an article for the January issue of Associations Now. BTW, the November issue has a great supplement on social media.
For AIA, this is first and foremost an effort to make it easier for their members to access the enormous and ever-growing repository of knowledge assets for archtects. After all, just getting the information management piece right is a tall order. But AIA wanted to do much more. They recognized that much of the knowledge within their industry resides with their members.
So they have created an innovative site to enable members to share this knowledge with others. As examples, members can comment and rate current content, upload archtectual projects of their own, and identify others who share professional interests.
The site is built on Oracle's content management platform, utilizes Endeca's powerful information access solution, and visually displays their taxonomy and the relationships of topics using ThinkMap.
I hope that you will plan to attend the conference and this session.
Tagged: eKnowledge Soloso AIA American Institute or Architects Mark Carpenter Association Technology Conference Oracle Endeca ThinkMap
I just received a copy of a new Forrester research article entitled "Lessons Learned From 1,001 Web Site Reviews." It's based on learnings from their many expert site reviews over the years and provides some interesting insights. It's discouraging that there are still so many really bad site out there that fail to get a passing grade. According the Bruce Temkin, who wrote the article, we are starting to see some improvement, "Sites provide more value but make it harder to find the value."
Almost every organization reports having lots of quality content. But as the quantity of content (now including user-generated content) explodes, it is becoming more difficult to find specific information that will be of interest. A solid information architecture and quality search capability are critical.
Tagged: Forrester Bruce Temkin web lessons learned
If you missed the webinar that I did with Mike Pergola from Endeca last week, you can hear the podcast and view the slides here. As I have mentioned before, there is a lot of interest in enterprise search among associations these days... both as a much improved site search and as a business intellegence tool.
Endeca's VP of Marketing, Paul Sonderegger, wrote an interesting article in the 2007 Enterprise Search Sourcebook in which he pronounces the death of modern information architecture. With the continued explosion of online content, including user-generated content (a good thing), it is understandably becoming increasingly difficult to find things using standard navigation. This webinar explores one great way to increase findability.
Tagged: Endeca Mike Pergola Paul Sonderegger enterprise search webinar
I have posted a few times now on the major advances being made in the area of search. I would invite you to participate in a Webinar that I'm doing next week on this topic specifically for associations.
We are working with Endeca on this event because we have been doing a lot of work with them lately. We will include a fascinating demo of Endeca's "guided navigation" capabilities but I will talk about a variety of other approaches to finding information such as audience segmentation.
Peter Morville has a new book out called Ambient Findability that focuses on the future world of search where we can "find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime." This search would not be limited to the Web. "As we create an Internet of things populated by location-aware devices," says Morville, "the concepts of retrieval and way-finding are converging in some interesting ways." As the books subtitle suggests, "what we find changes who we become."
I hope that you will join me next Tuesday, March 27th at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Tagged: search Endeca Peter Morville Ambient Findability webinar
Mindtouch as launched a beta version of a new free wiki service called Wik.is. They are promoting its use for "Family & Friends," "Organizations & Associations," "Business & Professional" and "Classes and Student Groups." If you have been wondering how your association might use a wiki and are intimidated by Wikipedia's rules, this would be a good place to try one out.
There was a great group in attendance today at the March meeting of the Virginia Gift Planning Council. Although my presentation on "Improving Your Web Presence" was well received, the second presentation by Betty "BJ" Ostergren was much more interesting.
If that name sounds familiar, perhaps you saw her on CNN, the CBS Evening News or one of several other national spotlights. BJ is also known as "The Virginia Watchdog." She readily admits her site is one of the most basic on the Web today. Nevertheless, she gets lots of traffic due to the viral nature of her campaign and public appearances. In one day alone, she estimates up to 7 million visitors to her site.
It really demonstrates the ability of the Internet to empower individuals with a cause to make a real difference. Way to go BJ!
We have all heard the horror stories of identify theft and most of us assume it will only happen to the other guy. BJ dispelled that myth from the start with examples of just how easy it is to access public documents and other records with only a few pieces of information such as a name, spouse name and your alma mater. Just last night, she was able to take the name of a major donor off an association's annual report, read a short story that included his wife's name and the city they live in, and then, in minutes, find other information on the Web that contained his address, social security number, and signature.
All associations should take great care to protect the privacy of the constituents' information. Most of us try very hard to do that but perhaps not hard enough.
We all need to re-examine how we handle our member and customer information before we find ourselves having to send out that dreaded "we lost your personal information" email.
Tagged: identity theft Betty BJ Ostergren Virginia Watchdog Virginia Gift Planning Council
My wife and I had the privilege of attending a special lecture yesterday at Stratford Hall, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. The speaker was the renowned Civil War expert, author, TV personality, Virginia Tech history professor and Executive Director for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, James I. Robertson, Jr.
Even as a "Northerner," I have always had great respect for Robert E. Lee. As I learned from the lecture, I am not alone. Shortly after the Civil War ended, the New York Herald suggested that Lee was the very best person to become President of the United States and heal a divided nation. (Grant must have been thrilled with this endorsement as he was running for the office.) Ironically, if Robert E. Lee had been the least bit interested in the job, he could not have been elected as he was not consider a US citizen at the time.
What does this fascinating lecture have to do with associations, you ask? Duty. According to Professor Robertson, the driving force in Lee's life was dedication to duty. Whether as a military commander or university president, his choices in life were based on duty. I doubt that most of us today of the same sense of duty as did our grandparents and those of Lee's generation.
Consider for a moment... what sense of duty do you have for your association and the mission it serves? Is it the driving force behind your motivation to advance your association's causes? Or is it really that paycheck that brings you back to work each day. Our association leaders would do well to reflect on the life of Robert E. Lee, 200 years after his birth, and how devotion to duty created a true American hero.
Tagged: duty Robert E. Lee James I Robertson, Jr. Stratford Hall
Several conversations recently with association staff have prompted me to revisit a topic that I talked about very early in this blog's journey. This one principle of user experience is so basic but many associations don't get it right -- your overall web strategy must balance site objectives with user needs!
Site objectives support the business needs of your organization and its key web stakeholders. User needs must include the varying requirements to support each of your major user segments. Sometimes these two dimensions are closely aligned but often they are not and choices must be made to balance these two equallly important elements. I continue to rely on the strong argument for this made by Jesse James Garrett in his original Elements of User Experience book and the diagram on which it was based from the spring of 2000. It's the best advice I can give to get this piece right before specifying requirements or starting the design of a new site or redesign of your current one.
Tagged: user experience web strategy Jesse James Garrett Elements of User Experience
In a recent blog post, Seth Godin points to a one-pager entitled org2.0 produced by NPower NY and Squidoo. If offers nonprofit organizations six free things to better utilize the Internet. The first is to get on YouTube, now the 8th most popular site on the Internet. Check out ASPCA and Farm Bureau for examples of associations that are using it effectively to reach new audiences and save bandwidth on their own sites.
Another free thing not mentioned on this list is to make sure your organization is listed on Wikipedia, now the second or third most popular site on the Internet. If you don't start a listing, eventually someone else will. And while you are there, you may want to contribute to any topics of interest to your organization to further establish your organization as the primary authority for these topics.
I really wish that I had thought of the term org2.0 (a play on the Web2.0 term used to describe the current generation of Internet technologies). Nevertheless, I plan to use it in future presentations. Thanks to Alan Evans (who works with me in Ironworks' Association Practice) for calling this post to my attention. Although I subscribe to Seth's blog feed, I am woefully behind in my reading (not to mention posting.)
Tagged: org2.0 Seth Godin NPower NY Squidoo Wikipedia YouTube
We recorded the third in a series of podcasts on Association trends last Friday. Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovations was the featured guest. It is always interesting to talk with Jeff who is known for challenging the association community.
It will be no surprise to those you know Jeff that we talked a bit about innovation, its importance to the survival of many associations, and how to get started. I did an innovation workshop for the American Institute of Architects earlier this year that led to some very interesting concepts being applied to a new site that AIA will launch next year. I'll be doing another workshop later this month for a large association in Alexandria.
Download the podcast (listed as Episode 5) and give it a listen or, better yet, subscribe to the series.
Tagged: innovation Jeff De Cagna AIA podcast
I recently received an interesting article from one of our association clients, written by someone from another consulting firm, arguing that associations should only make incremental changes to their web sites and never consider a major redesign. The article maintained that the risk of a major redesign is too great. The fear is that your most loyal members (those who use your site most often) will be frustrated if you reorganize content, even if it represents a greatly improved information architecture. I must admit that I have seen several associations launch redesigned sites that could present a major obstacle for members who had learned to find what they needed on the old site.
While the warning has value, I have to disagree that major redesigns are not useful and often essential. Many associations have web sites that have simply evolved over time into "Frankensites" by simply adding lots and lots of great content to an outdated information architecture. "Our members say we have great content but they have lots of trouble finding it.," we often hear from association staff.
Here are a few suggestions that will help to reduce the risk of frustrated and disappointed constituents the next time you launch a major redesign of your Web site:
Many changes can and should be made in a phased approach to help manage user expectations and avoid the shock of a completely new user experience. However, incremental changes outside of a comprehensive strategy and implementation roadmap, can transform your "Frankensite" into an even scarier monster.
Tagged: web redesign user experience web strategy implementation roadmap
Despite the spam filters and inundation of email in our in-boxes, sometimes we forget that email remains one of the most effective means of communicating with our constitutents. However, there are some best practices that will greatly increase the chances that your messages will be seen.
At the Convio Customer Summit earlier this week, Convio co-founder and CTO, Dave Crooke, gave an excellent presentation on Email Deliverability. Here are a few things to avoid according to Dave:
And some tips to improve your open rates:
What additional email practices have worked for your association?
Tagged: email delivery email tips Convio David Crooke
If your association is considering the use of portal software to support your Intranet, you may be interested in an upcoming webcast based on the experience of the American Diabetes Association. I worked on the initial stages of this project before leaving ADA to join Ironworks. Rob Cork and company at ADA have raised the bar in terms of the their support of the internal information and collaboration needs of staff using BEA's Plumtree portal.
Since it is often difficult to view examples of other association Intranets, I suggest you register for this interactive 1-hour webinar on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. ET that will discuss:
Many associations have problems with Web sites generated or maintained by their chapters, affiliates or local offices. Some well-intended volunteers or staff go off on their own and create completely independent sites that look nothing like the national organization's site. Some of these chapter sites are really quite good. Unfortunately, they present serious branding and usability issues for their constituents.
I recently joined the board of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). They use a home-grown content management system and give access to the chapter sites to local staff and volunteers such as me following a short online training course. Although the functionality is limited, it does present a fairly easy-to-use system for adding content within a consistent template. I had to learn a bit of html code to tweak some of the content but that was a good experience (I've been meaning to get my hands a little dirty with code for a while now).
The advantages are many:
There are a number of content management and portal solutions that can enable national organizations to offer hosting and integration of chapter web sites as a benefit. I strongly encourage associations to consider a system that distributes content creation to chapters but retains control over the overall design of the site. No more renegade chapter sites, please!
Tagged: chapter web sites content management portal Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation JDRF
I was fortunate to particpate recently in a Skpecast hosted by TypePad with Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, a new book based on his very influential article in the October 2004 issue of Wired, where he served as Editor-in-Chief. He has since launched a popular blog by the same name.
The essence of his proposition is that the Web can enable marketers (including associations) to now reach niche markets (or very specialized interest groups) with products (and services) that would have heretofore been impractical. The term comes from the standard line chart for product sales that shows the best sellers (the books that stores can fit on their shelves) on the left and a "long tail" of many more titles with very small relative appeal. However, Internet sales of these niche-appeal books from a single, large warehouse or combination of warehouses, allows a significant new market to be served.
When I asked Chris about the applicability of "The Long Tail" to associations, he said that it is increasingly possible for associations to attract and serve new members who may not have fit well in the mainstream of popular services, as in the case of those who are not ever able to meet physically because of cost or geographic distance.
I used the example of a message board for people who have had pancreas transplants. While rare, these people have a need to reach out to others and would unlikely find another person close by to form a support group. However, virtual support groups can be served online with message boards, blogs and other social media. Anderson discribed "social media" as "amplified word-of-mouth" and said that blogs are giving voice to obscure interests that may be very important to small group of people.
Associations should consider whether they are ready to apply the principles of "The Long Tail" to reach new audiences and existing audiences in new ways.
Tagged: The Long Tail Chris Anderson social media Skypecast Wired
Jeff De Cagna has announced that he is launching a new online training opportunity for those interested in innovation. It is billed as i-School, the world's first online school for association innovators.
Two courses will be offered starting this fall. The first is called "Google and Innovation" and the second is entitled "Social Media Strategy." Knowing Jeff and having attended training by him in the past, I am sure that both courses will be valuable offerings. If you can't attend his "Innovation Bootcamp" at the ASAE Annual Meeting, you may want to consider these online courses. Use the code CAERICK to get a 20% discount.
This recommendation is offered freely and without financial incentive. Good luck, Jeff.
Tagged: Jeff De Cagna innovation iSchool social media strategy Google
We all know that you can overuse online surveys and really tick off your constituents (and the same goes for email). Just because it is relatively inexpensive to do, doesn't mean you overdo it. And beware of the built-in bias -- those Internet users who respond to online surveys are very different from those who don't.
However, I find the bigger problem is that many organizations fail to poll their members, donors, vendors, advocates, etc. at all -- ever. They are either so focused on providing services or so afraid of what they might hear that they never ask for feedback. Despite the legitimate concerns I just raised, I strongly encourage my association clients to provide a regular feedback mechanism. Sometimes this can take the form of an online survey or poll when appropriate.
Consider the following tips:
Do you have other tips you would like to share?
I have been using Zoomerang to construct surveys until just recently. I found it easy to use and inexpensive but lacked some of the analysis features that I needed. Also, reports looked great online but were difficult to print or include in PowerPoint presentations.
I am now experimenting with QuestionPro. My first impression using the free trial was not good but I like it better now that I upgraded to the professional version (currently $15/month via online promotion). I'll report further once I have actually used the survey and completed the analysis.
Technorati Tags: online survey Zoomerang QuestionPro survey tips
I finally got a chance to download and install IE 7 today. I've been meaning to do this for a while and was prompted when the RSS reader that I had been using disappeared from my laptop. I have been using Pluck as an IE plug-in and found it worked fairly well. However, I must say that I like the easy of using RSS with IE 7 even more.
The left column in the browser window has options for favorites, feeds or history and can be closed altogether when necessary. One can also simply click on the star icon to get this window to pop-up and not have to remain persistent. It is very easy to subscribe to a new blog using Atom or RSS 2.0 by clicking on the little icon to the right of home. So now I have a nice clean list of feeds and can view them as time permits.
Some other nice features of IE 7 include the ability to keep multiple sites open within a single browser window by using the CTRL-click feature to open multiple tabs and easily navigate between them. And the best feature of all may be the new print controls that size any Web page to fit on a single sheet of paper the first time you print it.
I'll share more as I have time to explore other features of IE 7.
Tagged: IE 7 Internet Explorer RSS feeds
Many associations continue to struggle with the bottleneck that often occurs within their Web operations group when they must rely on these folks for content updates. It may take a few days to get the new content posted when your members expect new information within hours. If the hassle is too great, staff will look for other ways to communicate their messages.
Until recently, the cost of implementing a content management system (CMS) may have been prohibitive for many associations. The major players in the CMS space such as Interwoven and Stellent often have significant price tags for both the software and professional services needed to implement the CMS effectively. For the largest organizations, these projects will be well worth the effort and are capable of handling complex requirements.
So what is the small to mid-sized association to do? Content Management Systems need not be overwhelming in terms of either cost or effort. Ask yourself: what do I need the CMS to do for my association? Any good CMS should be able to do three things:
At Ironworks, we assist both major businesses and associations with the selection and implementation of content management systems, including the big ones I mentioned earlier. We don't sell software so we can be objective in our recommendations. We know CMS inside and out. Having said that, I recommend that associations in the market for a CMS take a look at CMS400.net product from Ektron. I had a chance to see a demo recently and was very impressed with all that they offer within a very reasonable price range (depending on number of sites and servers).
Besides the price tag, here is what I liked most about Version 6.0 of their CMS:
If you have put off making a CMS decision for fear of the cost or effort, give these folks a call (1-866-4-EKTRON) or check out their Web site. This company is based in New Hampshire. Of course, you should evaluate a number of products before making such an important decision, but you need to start somewhere. They are worth a look.
Tagged: content management CMS Ektron
Having been emersed in usability testing for a client these past two days, I am reminded just how wrong we can be when we make assumptions about user perceptions. This is especially true for navigation labels. Labels that make perfect sense to you can be very confusing to your constituents.
I am reminded of one example at the American Diabetes Association where we decided to "improve" the navigation label for our professional members. It read "For Health Care Professionals." We heard from researchers that they did not see themselves as health care professionals and were not sure that area was for them. So we decided to change it to "Health Care Professionals & Researchers." We dropped the word "For" because the label was getting long and we didn't think it was necessary. Wrong. Through usability testing, we found that people with diabetes were going there to find a health care professional. The little word "For" turned out to be very important.
I observed lots more examples of this over the past two days. Some of the labels that I thought made perfect sense were confusing to users and a few that I thought might be confusing turned out to be very intuitive. The take-away: Test your assumptions. Make changes based on what you learn. Test again.
Tagged: usability testing user experience navigation labels Web testing
A few words about personas and their use with Web strategy projects... I was working with a large, nonprofit health association this week who is considering a Web redesign and was pleased to hear them get excited about using personas as a way to get their arms around (literally) their very large and diverse audience. It's hard for most of us to carefully consider the unique needs of every distinct group of users who visit our association Web sites.
Personas are essentially profiles of fictitious individuals who represent the multiple dimensions of many very real people who interact with us in multiple ways. For example, Mary may be a woman who has benefited from a service, participated in a fund raising event, and written a letter to her representative about pending legislation. The persona attempts to describe Mary's demographics, why she visits the .org site and what she hope to do there. Perhaps she is interested in exchanging ideas with other advocates or learning about the latest research about her health condition.
As you conduct user research and develop functional requirements for a new Web site or design, personas can keep you honest if you force yourself to consider the needs of this handful of fictional users who represent your many diverse user segments.
I missed the workshop on personas at DigitalNow, but encourage you to download the PowerPoint presentation for that session. It provides a helpful overview of personas and how to use them.
Tagged: personas DigitalNow
After spending the past two days on usability testing with one of our association clients, I am struck again by just how much can be learned from only a handful of sessions. Back when I was in charge of Web and Call Center operations for the American Diabetes Association, I was reluctant to spend money on usability testing because of the qualitative rather than quantitative nature of the results and the fact that I really understood our users (or so I thought). I was finally talked into it and amazed with what I learned. I truly believe it was the single biggest factor in producing a much improved Web site from their last redesign.
I guess we all get so close to our sites that content and navigation seem obvious to us. But not so for many of our users. Find some good volunteers that represent typical users and set them in front of a computer and watch them complete several scenarios involving your key work flows and navigation points. If you learn half as much as most of our clients do, you will want to engage in a more formal process where you can record the sessions with audio comments and a facial expressions.
I partcipated in my first podcast today. Ironworks is developing a series on technology issues facing organizations today. The first two have been for practice and internal use only but we are close to publishing a regular series. Today's discussion focused on success factors for content management implementations and the pros and cons of various solutions from those in our Content Management Practice. I will provide a link as soon as the series launches.
There does seem to be a lot of association interest in podcasting. It is being used or considered by several of our association clients. When produced within the average commute or exercise time limit of 20 minutes, there is a rapidly increasing audience. It will be interesting to see where this all goes.
I am delinquent in thanking Ben and Samantha for their thoughtful comments. And Ben is my best proof-reader. I can't get away with anything. I only aspire to be half the blogger that he is. Check out his excellent summary of Frans Johansson's recent talk at C3. He even brought his camera and got a great picture with Frans. I'm soooo jealous. However, I did manage to get there a little early and have a private 10-minute conversation with him. He had some good ideas as I prepare to do some Innovation Workshops for a few of our clients. I got several new workshop components from his book, The Medici Effect. I finished it on the train back from DC earlier that day. I highly recommend the book for anyone who wants to learn more about innovation and how it can be fostered.
Back to listservs for a moment. The comments I received are appropriate. Listservs still serve (or is that "serv") a useful purpose. I only subscribe to one... the ASAE Technology Section listserv. I am interested in others but can't handle that volume of email. RSS is much more efficient. I understand that many have yet to adopt this newer technology but it will come as folks understand the value and they become as standard a tool as the Google search. I like Ben's idea of backward compatibility.
We owe it to our constituents to offer choices that make their lives easier, especially when we know that broader adoption is sure to come. I'm not always in favor of implementing the latest technology but the Web is an association's most important channel and the perfect place to push... the envelope and the content.
I see regular posts on the ASAE Technolgoy listserv asking for suggestions on listserv software or hosting services. Yet I find it hard to believe that more associations are not looking at more advanced solutions. Listservs are relatively old technology, as far as social software goes.
I understand that they may still serve a useful purpose. Some associations like to use them because messages appear in their members’ in-boxes and are therefore hard to miss. They do not require going to a Web site to engage in conversations. Their ease of use may be their biggest advantage over other online vehicles for networking. However, some people refuse to use listservs because they don’t like them clogging up their email. I set up special folders and rules to route to those folders so they never appear in my in-box but not everyone knows how to do this.
We are seeing more and more of our association clients adopting more sophisticated solutions for developing online communities of practice. Message boards offer the advantage of more organized threaded discussions and participants can opt to subscribe to email alerts if they still like the listserv approach. Or they can use an RSS reader to subscribe to a board and see new entries that way. I consider them to be more flexible and the history is maintained for those who want to go back and see prior positing on a particular topic. So it’s a great way to add content to your site and start to create a knowledge community. Others are adding features such as blogs, podcasts, and even MoSoSo (mobile social software) connections (which may be the next big wave).
Just in case your association has not discovered the wonderful world of Google WordAds, you should know about the Google Grants program. If you are a charitable association and not primarily involved in religious or political issues, you may well be eligible. It's a great way to drive new traffic to your site.
While at the American Diabetes Association, we used Google's AdSense program early on with great success. Their Web site lists several other examples, including the UNICEF e-commerce site (Shop UNICEF) that experienced a 43% increase in sales from one year to the next using this program. It's free so apply now and give it a try.
I had the pleasure of attending the first fall meeting of Richmond's Knowledge Management Network. This practice group meets monthly and is open to anyone interested in learming more about KM or sharing their experiences. After all, that's what knowledge management is all about. Right?
Ann Noles, president of the group, did a great job of covering the basics in a presentation entitled "Knowledge Management Bootcamp." I thought I knew quite a bit about KM but Ann pulled it all together and made some clear distinction between the management of information (which we do all the time) and knowledge management (which we don't often get right).
There are some good speakers lined up for future monthly meetings, including Rob Cross from UVA, author of The Hidden Power of Social Networks.
As promised, here are a few thoughts on Meetup.com (www.meetup.com). This is still a very active site, even after moving to a fee-based model (they offered the service free until earlier this year). But there is no better way to reach out and find others with mutual interests for in-person meetings. MeetUp allows anyone to start a group on just about any topic.. For example, there are currently 238 groups of Stay-at-Home moms. But there are also groups for cancer survivors, diabetes support, and even witches. Of course, Howard Dean put Meetup on the map when he used it so effectively to organize a Web-based grassroots political campaign for President.
I first met MeetUp organizer Scott Heiferman at an ASAE meeting a few years back (pre-Dean) but then heard him speak again at a social software conference hosting by the American Cancer Society for a group of health organizations last spring. Since then, Scott and I have talked about ways that associations might utilize MeetUp to extend their reach. Many associations already have ad hoc groups of constituents that have formed MeetUp groups on their own with little or no connection to the organization. The potential exists for extending the Web-based communities that are really starting to catch on with the "reach out and touch someone" advantages of in-person meetings.
Has anyone tried this yet?
WOMMA (the Word of Mouth Marketing Association) has a conference in NYC this week. Seth Godin is a keynote speaker and Marc Sirkin from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is on a panel. Marc has posted comments to this blog. Thanks, Marc, and good luck with your presentation. More on the conference can be found at http://www.womma.org/nyc/. I wish I could be there as I find this subject fascinating and would like to learn more.
Meanwhile, I recently downloaded two free e-books by Seth ("Knock, Knock" and "Who's There?") from is blog site at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/09/whos_there_the_.html. They are worth a read as we await The Big Moo.
I read with interest Joe Dysart’s article on Web analytics (“Analyze This” ) in the September issue of Association Management. Many associations have software in place to track traffic on the site, but too few take the time to look carefully at the data and update content and functionality based on the results. However, Web managers need to consider some qualitative feedback also before jumping to conclusions about the popularity of certain pages or interactive features. Web analytics can tell you where your users are coming from and where they are going but it can’t tell you why they are doing so. Periodic usability testing or focused discussions with a small group of users can bridge the gap. Well-crafted Web surveys can also help if cost is an issue. But the results of online surveys can be misleading due to the bias of those who tend to respond.
Usability testing involves recording the voice, facial expressions, and mouse clicks for each recruited individual as they attempt to navigate your site or perform a specific function. Before redesigning diabetes.org, we were amazed to see first-hand where users had problems finding the information they were seeking. For example, we proposed to drop the word “for” in the navigation “For Health Care Professionals” but found that general information seekers would select that option thinking they would be able to access providers rather than content intended only for this professional audience. Usability testing is a great way to find out why users of your Web site do what they do.
I'm in New York and Connecticut this week, meeting with associations and learning more about their Web and technology needs. Although the stories vary, I am seeing a consistent thread among almost all of the larger and mid-sized organizations. Most recognize that data integration is a key to better managing relationships with their constituents and most know just how important this is to their overall success. Some are well on their way to achieving improved system integration and others are just starting. Few have yet been able to grab the brass ring.
The consistent challenge is the integration of data among numerous constituent management systems and the ability to access that data. Although some AMS vendors claim to be able to handle all of an association's CRM needs, few have found a solution that does it all well. Most have very specialized operations (membership, donor management, subscriptions, etc.) that require a level of sophistication not met by generic solutions.
There is hope. Solutions are not easy but there are new and improved ways to integrate data with both manual and automated processes. Ironworks has a number of these projects underway as we speak and I feel certain that we will be doing more of this in the coming months. The key is reducing the number of constituent database applications as much as possible and the mapping a data integration strategy that makes sense for each organization.
In the wake of Katrina, the association community is once again challenged to respond in ways that support the very worthy relief efforts in the Gulf without undermining their own mission-related causes. The MDA Labor Day telethon is a good example. To avoid a timing disaster, they wisely chose to include some fund-raising for the flood victims by featuring a special number that is expected to raise about a million dollars for the Salvation Army's efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi. MDA donated an additional million dollars. Nevertheless, MDA raised almost $55 million over the weekend for their own programs, still short of last year's $59 million. The problem could have been, and I suspect would have been worse had they not addressed the issue head on.
Even groups whose mission it is to provide such relief must take care that fund raising for the Katrina victims does not divert basic funding from other essential programs. The American Red Cross and others are still recovering from the public response to the 9/11 disaster. So much money was raised and restricted for the victims, that other services suffered. While the need was great, other important causes did not receive nearly the same level of public attention and support. We had never before this level of contributions for a single event (especially on line) and many lessons were learned.
ASAE is coordinating the association response in support of Katrina relief efforts. In an email to ASAE members, President and CEO John Graham said "As proven in previous times of tragedy, the association community is uniquely positioned to assist in both immediate relief efforts and the long-term recovery of these severely damaged communities." He called on association who are responding to the tragedy to send them a brief summary of what they are doing. More details on the ASAE response can be found at:
The New York Museum of Modern Art is using some the latest technology to support the visitor experience both online at their museum. In an article in CIO Magazine, we learn how they have even made the wall outlets disappear. Web designers should follow their lead and let technology provide powerful new capabilities while invisible to the end user. Too often we are tempted to flaunt these gee-whiz featues without understanding the impact on non-geek users.
http://www.cio.com/go/index.html?ID=6150&PMID=29053091&s=3&f=1
Their Web site at www.moma.org entertains us with samples from their latest exhibits but the clean layout underneath makes it easy to navigate to the information we need.
When designing a Web site, it is so, so important to understand your audience. Most of us think we know our constituents and customers, but time and time again I have found myself surprised by the demographics for visitors to one of my sites and their stated or unstated needs. This CNN article (forwarded by an associate at Ironworks) talks about research into what appeals to men and women in terms of Web design elements.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/08/11/sites.women.men.ap/index.html
Since many association sites have constituents that are predominantly men or women, this can be an important consideration in designing a Web site. For example, women are the health care decision-makers in most families and the most frequent users of health-related Web sites. Therefore, health associations need to consider some of the points raised in this article when appealing to this audience.
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