Why The Sky Is Not Falling for Associations

Our association recently ended its fiscal year, and we are closing the books on another year of growth — more members, more revenues, more customers, more participants, more attendees,  more of every metric than we had last year. All I can really say about that is that I stand by this post I wrote last year.

This is not to say that it wasn’t a roller-coaster year, or that we didn’t experience any heartburn at all, or that we grew as much as I wanted to grow. Just like everybody else, our bottom fell in mid-September. We were fortunate in timing (our weird fiscal year meant that the bottom fell only forty-five days into it) and especially fortunate in that we have a very diversified operation and clear-eyed leadership that’s not easily swayed by the daily news. By the time 2009 got into full swing we were consistently outperforming last year.

But even though our particular experience is a little unusual compared to the stories I hear from almost all my friends in other associations, and even though the short-term future still carries an extra dose of uncertainty,  I am more convinced than ever that the long-term future for associations is a robust and exciting one — for those ready to take advantage of it. Here are a few reasons why — there are probably more, but I’m just writing this on the fly.

1. Building “community” is no longer a low-margin, high-cost adventure for associations. Instead, today, as I’ve written before, communities are commodities. Some folks have viewed the advent of social media and “self-forming groups” as a threat to the association business model. I think the opposite is true.

Whether your constituents create their own groups, use groups affiliated with or connected to your organization, or some hybrid of the two, doesn’t really matter – associations no longer have to expend their energy and money trying to bring people together. Instead of creating connections, you can create value. Instead of obsessing over whether or not people are talking to each other within your particular walled garden, you can participate in whatever garden they choose to use — and use the intelligence you gather there to expand your organization’s influence and value. If your organization’s goal is to exert a positive influence within your industry/profession, or externally on its behalf, who cares what communities you leverage to do it?

2. People are willing to pay a lot for specialized knowledge — and will be even moreso in the future. Chris Anderson makes a big deal in Free about how bits and bytes cost “too little to meter.” And he’s right. So if all you have to offer are bits and bytes that people can get anywhere else, then you’re in trouble. (I’m amazed at how many associations and publications wall off such basic and uninteresting things as “recent hires, departures and promotions.” I mean, come on.)  But if you’re able to go far beyond the bits and bytes to offer specialized, applicable intelligence that is not available anywhere else — you have tremendous opportunity ahead of you.

Why do I think that this willingness to pay for knowledge is increasing, not decreasing? We’ve already seen that people are willing to pay for content, and it’s a trend on the rise, not on the wane. I also personally believe that the clamor and din of social media is going to eventually drive more people to pay for valuable content. Some people say, “There’s so much free stuff out there that we can’t possibly sell content.” I say, that’s exactly why valuable content creation is going to become so important. The key words here are valuable, useful, and applicable. Hit that trifecta and then charge a lot for it — probably a lot more than you are charging right now.

(To use an example: Acronym is interesting, but I pay for Associations Now. I would not value it as much if I got it for free, and I would probably not belong to ASAE if the magazine wasn’t part of the deal. And note how many association social media types so proudly trumpet it when they have an article or mention in Now. Why? Because it’s valuable in a way that social media is not.)

3. Associations typically serve a minority of their universe — and should embrace that fact. Let’s face it, most associations and societies have memberships that are smaller than the universe in which they operate (unless you have some sort of certification or legal requirement for membership, or are a trade association representing an industry with a relatively small number of players). Most of us over the years have seen this as some kind of detriment. We spend a lot of time, money and energy trying to be more inclusive — trying to get more and more constituents to actually join the association.

I say, maybe it’s time to embrace the self-selecting nature of your association. Maybe you don’t want everyone — or even a majority — to belong. Maybe you want to free yourself and your budget from trying to get everyone to join, and instead focus your efforts on finding the right people to belong. Maybe instead of  focusing the “value” part of your equation on a totally expansive view of your industry or profession, you focus it on the sorts of people you want to serve, figure out what it is they need and want – and then charge a lot more for it.

The good thing is, you already know who those members are. They’re the ones who are just like the ones who already belong to you. This is especially true if, like most associations this year, your membership has taken a dive. Instead of thinking, “How can I get my membership back up when/if this economy turns around?” you should be thinking, “What do I need to know about the members who didn’t drop out?”

4. There’s riches in niches. It has never been easier to segment your association’s members on any number of interests, operational differences, or just about anything else. It has also never been easier to offer targeted value to them based on what you know about them. The more an association treats members like individuals rather than part of a broad universe, the more the association can better serve that universe as a whole.

Broad-based conferences and events may very well be on the wane over the next few years. But this isn’t a threat to associations; I think it’s a huge opportunity. Rather than focusing all your efforts on one big splash, maybe you can reach more people — gain more influence, offer more value,  make more revenues — through many different niche events aimed at segments within your membership. Quit trying to bring everyone together all at once and start  bringing the right people together to learn about things that specifically interest them. Trust me, they will pay for it — and your overall audience will expand. (On this line, note to ASAE: ok, you’ve done a healthcare associations conference; you have your lower-level meetings for membership, tech, etc.; when are you going to do a conference specifically for business/trade association executives? )

5. Changing technology means that associations have many more competitors. And I think that’s a very, very good thing. But I’ve already written about that.

Here’s to 2009/2010. May we all be able to recognize — and respond to — the opportunities we discover.