Earlier I asked the question, "What do blogs replace?", and responded with my knee-jerk answer: "Absolutely nothing." So where do blogs fit in an association’s communications program?

Generally speaking, blogs do not replace websites. (Though in an earlier post I suggested that some organizations with limited website needs could feasibly use a blog as a website.)

Most associations these days rely on their website as a central part of their strategy and have a lot of different web needs. Websites are used to recruit members, provide information to current members, offer content to external audiences, provide specific online member resources and services, and many other things depending on the organization’s mission.

A blog (or blogs) generally works best as a component of an association’s website. It’s one information resource among many. Blogs are a specialized form of communications, and I think they work best if they are well-defined rather than a generic catch-all for all of an association’s online communications.

And in my opinion, blogs don’t replace email newsletters. E-newsletters are an entirely different type of distribution method, and one that, despite the ever-increasing complications posed by spam filters which make it hard even for fully-opt-in newsletters to reach 100% delivery, still has an extremely valuable role to play for associations.

It’s easy to get caught up in the notion that a new technology will "replace" an old practice. It doesn’t seem to often work out that way. Instead, new technologies open new avenues for providing member service and help associations expand their influence over their audience by reaching different target markets in different ways.

I’ll use trade associations specifically as an example because that’s what I’m most familiar with, and be warned — sweeping generalizations lie ahead. When I first stumbled into the association world back in 1992, it was pretty much a given that trade associations of all sizes and types produced a print newsletter (usually monthly, sometimes weekly if it was large), and some type of magazine (monthly, quarterly, or annually, again depending on the size), as well as a membership directory.

That was it!

When I started, I was basically hired to write the monthly newsletter for a state association. Today, at the organization I work for now, our communications program consists of:

• A weekly one-page "print" publication of industry and association news for members (almost two-thirds of our members still prefer to get this by fax instead of email, which means its written and designed to be consumed as print)
• A (usually) weekly e-mail newsletter which, since it is designed and written solely for email distribution, has a completely different look-and-feel. It’s chatty, personalized, sometimes purposely provocative — and completely free to whomever subscribes. Since launching 77 issues ago, it’s produced significant (and measurable) results in product sales, membership growth, and website traffic.
• A quarterly print magazine which acts as a "business journal" for the small business owners who make up our membership.
• A "news-gathering" blog that brings together links on industry information and news from our state and local chapter blogs, along with occasional commentary and event information.
• An annual print membership directory (we’d love to get rid of it, since we maintain daily-updated directories on our website, but our members would revolt — they love it).
• A website that acts as a complete member resource center, including access to not only everything listed above, but downloadable member resources and business tools, technical and standards information, consumer information, directories, and new specialized content sections we are creating for niches within our target market.

I’m starting to miss the good old days.

I’m sure most associations can point to the same communications "explosion" over the same period of time, and I’m just using our organization as an example because it’s the one I’m most familiar with. The point is that blogs are a component, not a replacement, and can be a potentially valuable part of your communications program. They’re simply a new distribution method that can play a complementary role to the rest of your program.

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