Happy Friday! Just another friendly reminder that Small Staff Appreciation Month kicks off tomorrow! If you want your small staff association to be featured on the blog, please email me at shannon@memberclicks.com! Before October officially starts, though, let’s take a look at five of our fave blog posts from the past week.

1. Facebook announced some pretty major changes at its F8 developer conference last week. For more info about what these changes mean for brands and nonprofits, check out a re-post Maddie Grant posted at the SocialFish blog. It’s extremely thorough – but don’t freak out about the changes right away! These are exciting times for brands in social.

2. Where does organization come from? Who spearheads it? It takes a LOT of organization for a large group of people to come together. Who turns your ideas into actions? Joe Rominiecki’s post on the Acronym blog points out that organization is never easy and encourages associations to seek as much organizational support as they can.

3. In a very poignannt post, Cindy Butts shares five lessons for association executives from the late Wayne Syphers. My personal favorite? Today is going to be a good day. Your attitude can truly determine your output, and going into each day with a positive attitude can make a huge difference.

4. You’ve probably heard about the Netflix price changes and the announcement of the upcoming Qwikster DVD service. A very vocal majority of Netflix customers are angry, but Jamie Notter takes a different perspective: Netflix is simply acting human. Definitely read the comments on this one; there’s a great conversation.

5. Do you employ honesty when hiring new staff members? David M. Patt advocates being up-front about salary from the stat rather than initially focusing on qualifications. This tactic will earn you better employees, and no one will feel “tricked” about their salary.

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend!

Customer service is changing.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but the way businesses and organizations alike handle customer service is rapidly changing due to the Internet.

If someone is mailed a wrong shipment of a product, they can vent on Twitter.

If someone experiences horrible in-person service, they can complain on the organization’s Facebook page.

If someone’s conference experience isn’t what they expected, they can blog about it.

And they do.

I’ve seen all of these situations happen firsthand, and I’ve seen how organizations react – they panic.

If your organization is small and localized, this phenomenon may not be as prevalent.

But the world is only getting more social.

If your current “power members” don’t blog or Facebook, know that many of your future “power members” probably will. Once stereotyped as out-of-work writers toiling in mom and dad’s basement, bloggers are now a vital part of the communications industry. People take them seriously. Other consumers value their input, reviews and opinions.

Has your association ever had to deal with a member (or former member, for that matter) bad-mouthing the organization online? How did you deal with it? Do you have measures in place to handle it?

One of the most important things to remember regarding customer service in social media is that a public response is often necessary. Even if you resolve the issue privately, it’s crucial to be open about the fact that you’re seeking a resolution. If there’s a complaint on Facebook, respond publicly and tactfully, then take the matter into a private arena. The same goes for Twitter.

Inaugurated in October 2010, Small Staff Appreciation Month is an annual celebration of the vital organizations that make up the backbone of America and the work they do.

We’ll be celebrating small staffs all October long with special content on this blog and also giving away tons of care packages designed to make the lives of small staff members a bit easier.

The giveaways:

• Every Monday through Thursday in October, we’ll give away a prize package including Small Staffs Rule T-Shirts!
• Every Friday in October, we’ll give away a Small Staff Care Package!
• On Friday the 28th, we will randomly pick a winner of our grand prize – an iPad 2 (32 GB, Wi-Fi)!

If you’d like to go ahead and enter to win one of the daily, weekly or grand prize drawings, click here.

And it’s not just associations who are invited to participate – we’d love for the entire community to join in on the fun! If you’re a member of a small staff or a vendor who serves the small staff market and are interested in learning how you can participate in Small Staff Appreciation Month, click here.

We hope you’re as excited as we are!

Ahh, the board … the thing many small staff association execs dread. It can come with tons of red tape and productivity can be difficult, but there are ways to successfully manage your organization’s board. Perhaps not every one of these will work (all boards are different, of course!), but it’s crucial to always remember that your board members are people too!

- Your board members are people with varying knowledge of the association and industry, all with different personalities and interests. You won’t be able to please everyone all the time, but you should be willing to listen to all viewpoints.

- Keep in mind that every board member has a different reason for serving on the board. They all have different expectations of the association, its staff and the board itself. Respect those expectations.

- Be transparent about your own expectations for the board. Be upfront about sharing information and lead by example. By sharing your expectations, you and the board can develop common goals and work toward those goals together.

- Avoid seeming self-serving. Lead by example and foster teamwork and engagement – among the board and organization’s members.

- When meeting with your board in a formal setting, be sure to have charts and numbers – information that can be easily digested and understood.

- Have realistic goals and strategies when presenting information to your board. Not only should they be realistic, they also should be as specific as possible. Be sure to include the impact on the budget.

- Board members should clearly understand their role in the association. They should be aware of their roles between meetings, and your staff should encourage and foster their leadership.

- Always recognize retiring board members. They’ve put in a lot of work for the organization and they deserve to be recognized upon retirement or the end of their tenure.

How do you successfully work with your organization’s board?

Last Thursday at f8, Facebook’s developer conference, some major changes were announced. For starters, each individual’s Facebook profile will look drastically different. Check out the new timeline:

(This feature will be available to everyone soon, but if you want to find out how to activate your own timeline, click here.)

In addition to Timeline, thanks to Facebook’s Open Graph, a slew of apps – such as Spotify, Foodspotting  and Nike+  – will be integrated into your news feed and timeline.

But what does these and other changes mean for your small staff association and its Facebook page?

For starters, Facebook has eliminated the need for people to “like” your page to interact with it. Now, anyone can like or comment on posts – without liking your page as a whole. This places the emphasis on engagements over likes. Now – hopefully – more people than ever before will be able to interact with your organization’s Facebook page!

Keep in mind, this will challenge your association to produce super interesting content, listen to the conversations happening on your page and not focus on the overall fan growth.

Facebook users will have more control over what appears in their Newsfeeds thanks to an easy-to-find “unsubscribe” button, so it’s time to start thinking about how you can really pump up your content and make it interesting, relevant and engaging to your fanbase.

What do you think of Facebook’s new changes?