Blog Consulting, LLC. - nonprofits, and trade associations are experiencing severe revenue decreases, as the last remnant of this current economic meltdown tears its way across the landscape.
Member boards are even now holding critical meetings to stem the flow of red ink in their budgets.
Here is a very important question that must be factored into your decisions : is there a better way to communicate with our members that might raise our perceived value, cut our communication expenses, and and at the same time increase our visibility, thereby gaining new membership?
Increasingly, nonprofit, and trade association boards are turning to social media, and building on-line enterprises using tools such as Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.
The challenge for many CEO's is, "how are we to expect a return on this investment (ROI)?"
Here are 6 concrete expectations you should have before spending a dime:
- You should expect a return on your investment (ROI) in social media. As a long time CEO myself, this question was always forefront in my mind. Why would you bother with a social media property if you didn't expect a return on your investment? How many new memberships will it take to gain a return? My experience has been that this number is surprisingly low.
- Inspect what you expect! How are you going to measure this expected return? Brainstorm, and put in place systems to determine this. Every new member should be asked, "how did you hear about us, and what was the most valuable asset that our organization brought you? If you are doing a good job with your social media properties, you will begin to hear of it.
- Expect that in the future your reliance on mail, and e-mail will be greatly reduced. Expect that over time, you will migrate your primary communication channel to your on-line media property. Snail mail is incredibly expensive, and e-mail is becoming more, and more ineffective. Just getting through spam blockers is nearly a full time job! Besides, e-mail is an annoyance for many people today. There is simply too much noise in America's in-boxes.
- Expect that your members are going to give you wonderful feedback. There is a reason that television, and radio have garnered massive audiences over the last 50 years. Americans, for the most part, are not readers! Yet, what is the number one way that you communicate with your membership? Text....right? With your new on-line media property, you will now be able to easily communicate with video, and/or audio. Your members might be listening to your information on their iPods while working out! You can't do that with text.
- Expect that you will create a new advertising revenue model. Let's say that you have 5,000 members in your association. If you build an on-line social media property that can demonstrate a large share of eyeballs each month, then you will have a valuable opportunity to gain advertising revenues, no different than television, and radio stations.
- Expect that your members will have a far superior way to interact with you. With social media properties, each time you post information, your membership with have the immediate opportunity to respond, and interact with you.
I am a screaming, raving fan of blogs, and social media. However, simply having 6,000 Twitter followers will not likely put a dent in your monthly expenses. This must be done right, and must be done with an absolute resolve to see a return on your investment.
Here's how we can help!
Click here to learn how Blog Consulting, LLC can help your organization build, and manage your own social media site.
