By Melanie Bowzer, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
AMR Management Services
About a year ago, AMR Management Services set out to offer online professional networking and collaboration tools to two of our association partners. Both associations already had heavily used listservs, Facebook and LinkedIn pages, but the need was recognized by staff and members alike for a more dynamic and personalized communication experience targeted specifically to members.
To ensure a successful networking site implementation, there are several steps involved that each deserves time and attention. The first phase is researching the applications available and comparing the services each offers. For our associations, seamless integration (including single sign-on) with our already established AMS databases was a must. Due to this and other factors, we chose Higher Logic, but there are many similar options available to associations.
Here are some lessons learned and advice from our implementation:
Start with Clean, Complete Data: We knew from the implementation of our AMS and other projects that an important first step is to validate association records (especially email addresses) so that all the data being imported into the new networking site is clean and up-to-date.
Experience It In Action: Our software vendor has an active user group that allows site administrators for all of their clients to network and information share. After initial orientation and a demonstration of the site template, their advice to soon-to-be users was simply to log on to the users group forum site and start digging. It was truly the best direction to take.
Tap the Resources Available: It’s one thing to watch someone else navigate and demonstrate a Web site — and entirely different when the mouse is in your own hand. Our staff members joined community groups and forums on the user group site. We asked questions of fellow users and researched materials that other associations had posted on education and marketing this new communication tool.
Test Before You Rollout: A beta site launch is important for a couple reasons. One, it allows staff to learn the best way to explain the how-to of site functionality. Two, it allows a small group of users to get acquainted with the site and provide valuable feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
Create a Buzz: Before we officially launched, we presented abbreviated site demos at our meetings and started word-of-mouth buzz about the upcoming site to generate interest.
The results — both associations are now live with their sites and member feedback has been extremely positive. A trend we have already seen is that the most active participants on the new networking sites are not necessarily the same members who serve on multiple committees and contribute actively to conferences and meetings. Social networking now serves as a new option for communication and will produce its own core group of members who feel most comfortable communicating online. This enables a new niche of members to become more active and take on more visible roles in the association.
The most difficult part of actual implementation has been to intentionally step back from the daily activity on the site. The goal of this new resource is for members to interact with each other, not with staff, so our job now is to encourage them to take part, become comfortable and make it their own.
- Melanie
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