Why charging for online content (mostly) won't work

Judy Shapiro has written a great article about how charging for online content doesn't generally work, but using online content to develop a community can lead to profitable revenue streams ... click here to read more.

The Death of Membership

Scott Briscoe’s started an interesting discussion regarding his perspective that membership is dying as a model on the Acronym website. I've provided my views in the comments section (as have many of the top membership thought leaders in the world) and if you rely on membership in any way the article and comments are well worth a read ... read on.

Getting members engaged with your organisation

The Decision to Join research was quite clear when it said "If a resigned member can be regarded as dead, then an inactive member can be regarded as comatose". It went on to say that ad-hoc volunteering opportunities are the crucial segway between inactive and active members.

This means that if you can get your members more actively engaged with your association then they are more likely to renew. What makes this challenging is that different members will want to engage with you in different ways. Some will want to attend events while others would prefer opportunities that don't involve them leaving the house. You need to provide a variety of options to cater for all preferences.

Broadly speaking, getting members engaged is a three step process of which you are responsible for two steps. These are:

1. The association is responsible for creating opportunities for members to get involved.
2. The association is responsible for effectively communicating these opportunities to their members (in such a way that the members are fully aware of the opportunities available to them).
3. The member is responsible for taking advantage of those opportunities.

Social networks are an opportunity for associations

I found an article today talking about how membership numbers in social networking tools designed for business are exploding (The Best Way To Reach Decision Makers?. Business Social Networks!). The core benefit of many business and professional associations is networking. As a prolific user of LinkedIn myself I have to say that I find it a great networking tool. I've even started a Membership Group on LinkedIn that is growing steadily.

These social networking tools are changing the landscape for associations. But it doesn't mean the end of assocations. On the contrary these tools represent a fabulous tool for vastly expanding the reach of associations. Those associations who thrive will be the ones that can capitalise on this tool and still remain financially sustainable at the same time.

What's the difference between community and social networks?

Peggy Hoffman makes an interesting distinction between community and social networks. There is the interesting observation in the article that "community is the what and social networking is the how". Click here to read the full article.