Archive for November, 2005
November 22, 2005
Competition Makes Associations Better, Too
Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article
Last week an editor at a trade publication in our industry (who’s a good friend of mine) wrote a column wondering why our industry doesn’t speak with “one voice” — in other words, “Why are there so many associations?” he plaintively asked.
This sort of question comes up all the time, not just in my industry but in lots of industries and professions. The same business owners who praise the benefits of competition in their own sector wonder why their various associations can’t just merge into one.
And then, on the other hand, they complain about organizations that are cumbersome and bureaucratic and slow to respond and “how come they don’t respond to the needs of my special interest group” etc.
Well … maybe if your association had more nimble competitors, they’d be nimbler themselves. In my organization, our competitors (not old-school associations but private for-profit groups) have made us better, stronger, faster, and much, much bigger.
November 21, 2005
People Who Should Blog
Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article
There are some people in the association community whose opinions I’d love to read regularly in a blog (and lots more I’ve never heard of who would be just as insightful, I’m sure.)
In no order, here are the people whose blogs would go right to the top of my feed, if they had one:
Mark Levin — membership consultant, speaker and author Mark Levin has admitted to being a bit of a technophobe in his speeches, which is one of the reasons blogging would be perfect for him: it’s easy. Plus, Mark has lots of engaging opinions and insights that I, for one, would like to read regularly.
Chip Deale — Chip is the head of membership for the CFA Institute, and one of the most active participants in the ASAE membership listserver. With broad-ranging experience of what works and what doesn’t — and being a pithy and interesting writer, based on his emails — Chip could offer some valuable advice and opinion in a blog.
Kevin Whorton — another frequent contributor to ASAE listservers, Kevin’s another seasoned association exec with very interesting thoughts on communications and markets. I think Kevin has crossed over to the consulting world now, but he’d still be a welcome addition to the blogoclump.
John Graham and Susan Sarfati of ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership — Go ahead, let it all hang out.
Those are a few off the top of my head — and I’m sure there are lots of other voices that could make a difference to the association community by sharing their wisdom through a blog. Maybe you?
November 20, 2005
My New Toy
Posted by Kevin | (0) Comments | Print This Article
XM2go. It rocks!
November 18, 2005
Just to Show …
Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article
… that I’m not totally anti-TypePad, in spite of my venting against their recent performance problems, I think their response here is perfectly acceptable, and pretty much dead-on:
“Blogging is a lot like the game of telephone. We can expect that as more people link and offer commentary, the original message or facts can get distorted. I have to constantly defend blogging because of this reason.”
What happened: Jeremy Zawodny gets an email from a PR firm pitching a product — just happens to be the same firm that works with TypePad’s parent — that’s an example of sloppy PR and poor targeting, sure, but it’s no reason to get all worked up.
In this case, it would have been a lot quicker to hit the delete button on the email than to rage about it, and then somehow blame SixApart for the actions of a firm they happen to use.
If your blog gets any kind of notoriety, you’re going to get contacted by vendors and PR firms hoping for a mention, and sometimes they’ll be inappropriately targeted. Believe it or not, I get them occasionally, too — I just delete them.
(Link from the Blog Herald, which is always a fun read but definitely has a vendetta against SixApart.)
November 18, 2005
Four Random Rules o’ Bloggin’
Posted by Kevin | (4) Comments | Print This Article
In comments to an earlier post, Bill Bertles asked me how the forum “Winning in a Web World” went earlier this week. It went well; there were three panels covering a wide variety of ways in which organizations can use the net for advocacy. Each of the panel topics could have easily been a full day (or more) conference.
During my panel, I threw out a few “Random Rules o’ Bloggin’ (And By Rules, I Mean My Opinion)” that I had scribbled down that morning during someone else’s q&a session. In no particular order, here they are:
Don’t pimp for comments. There’s nothing more sad than a post that ends, “What do you think?” and there are no comments. Just write passionately and engagingly (in other words, care about what you’re writing), and you’re far more likely to get a dialogue going than asking for it.
Don’t delete what you’ve written. Occasionally you might regret having posted something. Too late. With RSS and search engines and whatnot, once you hit publish, it’s gone. Deleting or substantially altering a post (without being upfront in the post about what you’re doing) makes you look bad.
Don’t hide your ownership of a blog. Since I was talking to government affairs types, I figured I’d stress this one. In other words, don’t astroturf with blogs. I can see how the idea of creating a network of blogs that look “spontaneous” is very tempting, but don’t do it. You will be found out. You will get slammed. You will lose credibility.
Don’t let the lawyers win. Lawyers don’t like this stuff and they never will. But for every issue they raise there is a way around it — as long as you have the will (and top-level buy-in).
November 17, 2005
Product Placement
Posted by Kevin | (0) Comments | Print This Article
Since my last couple of posts were full of complaints, I figured it was about time I posted something nice about somebody. So allow me a few minutes to go off-topic for an unsolicited plug for a service I adore: Zooba.
If you haven’t heard of it, Zooba’s kind of like a Netflix for books. Create a queue from thousands of hardcover books, and for $10 a month you get one of them in the mail (that includes shipping). (Unlike Netflix, of course, the book is yours to keep.) And if you want, you can always order any book(s) from them for the same $10, shipping included. Beats Amazon hands down, especially for newer books and bestsellers.
That’s it, really. I love it. I signed up going on a couple years ago and each month is like Christmas when I get the now-familiar package in my box (”cool, what book was next on my list?”). Zooba is owned by the Book of the Month Club, though they don’t seem to talk about that too much, and the hardcover books are slightly smaller than the ones you buy in the bookstore, but otherwise exactly the same.
I honestly have no idea how they make money. But if you like to read, give it a try; what’s not to like for 10 bucks a month?