There have been a few posts around the community lately about two-dimensional thinking and comparing newspapers to associations. And I’ve gotta say, it’s not such a stretch.

If you’ve been following Splash for a while, you might recall I studied journalism in college and I spent many, many hours in the newsroom at our student paper. Newspapers are near and dear to my heart, and I still love settling into Sunday brunch with the newspaper and a huge cup of coffee.

What does this have to do with associations, you might ask. See, newspapers and associations have a lot in common. Both are struggling with how the Internet affects their business model, among other things.

To be honest, reading the newspaper and clipping coupons leaves me with a feeling of nostalgia. It’s so much easier to find coupons for specific products I want using the Internet, and I’m definitely guilty of eating breakfast and sipping my morning coffee with my trusty MacBook in front of me.

I still love newspapers, though, and here’s a big reason why: Studies have shown that the most original reporting comes from traditional media sources.

It makes sense. How often do you see the same old content repurposed on blogs? Maybe it’s true that anyone can be a reporter, but professional journalists are able to provide news analyses, which are sort of a cross-breed of news stories and editorials. They’re intended to help readers fully understand the implications of a certain story and are written from different, less-explored angles.

Finally! Some association stuff…

Do you want your members to feel nostalgic when they participate in your organization? (I hope not.) Should your meetings feel antiquated and leave your members searching for another way to get the information? (No.)

It’s true that talk alone won’t save associations, just like it couldn’t save newspapers. The newspapers that have a specific focus, such as smaller local papers, are the survivors so far. It’s the larger, less specialized publications that are in danger. Sound familiar?

A step in the right direction could involve changing your communication strategy, experimenting with micro-pricing and other business models or targeting more niche groups.  So what are you going to do to make sure your (old) members don’t talk fondly about “the days when associations used to exist?”

(Image via Flickr.)

This is the 11th in a 12-part series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which highlights social networking sites other than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are tons of other social media outposts on the Web, and they’re great places for associations to curate content. The previous 10 installments can be found here. Stay tuned.

You may have heard about Foursquare in recent weeks or months; it’s been called the “Twitter of 2010” by some. Foursquare combines two important trends in the social web: location and mobile technology. But if you haven’t heard about it, don’t worry! It’s generally more popular in larger cities right now, but it’s expanding quickly.

Essentially, Foursquare is an application that enables “checking in” at various locations. The application uses GPS to identify where you are and will give a list of nearby places from which to choose, but you can always add a place if it’s not available.

According to its Help page, When you tell foursquare where you are, that’s called “checking-in”. You can check-in from parks, bars, museums, restaurants…  really anywhere. Foursquare then will let your friends know where to find you.

The site aims to help you find friends and acquaintances in your city. There are apps available for smartphones such as iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and Android, but if you don’t own one of those phones, you can check in using a basic text message – attach your phone number to your account and text your check-ins to 50500.

Besides checking in and updating your location, there are few other parts of Foursquare.

The Mayor

If you check into a certain location more than anyone else, Foursquare will crown you “The Mayor.” Many bars and cafes in bigger cities (such as New York) sometimes give the current mayor some perks, such as a discount or a free coffee. But if someone comes along behind you who has checked in more often, they can “steal” the title.

Badges

According to Foursquare, Badges are little rewards you earn for doing checking-into interesting places. For example, staying out late on a school night or frequenting too many karaoke bars. Foursquare says many badges are tagged to venues. For example, people could tag a bar “karaoke,” “pool table,” etc…

Points

Foursquare awards points for pretty much every check-in. You’ll get points the first time you check in at a certain location and when you add a new venue. Basically, the more you experience, the more points you’ll get. Foursquare says it is still figuring out what to do with the points earned. In December, though, the company donated $0.04 to charity for every point earned.

Since Foursquare updates are tied to locations, when you click on someone’s update, you’re brought to a page that looks like this:

Granted, Foursquare is more popular in bigger cities such as New York, Washington DC and San Francisco, but let’s think about the implications for associations.

What if your organization could use Foursquare for its annual meeting or conference? I know someone else in the association world has blogged about this before, and I’ve searched through archives and found nothing. So if this was your idea, please let me know!

However, thinking back to ASAE and The Center’s Annual Meeting, I think a Foursquare-type application would have been immensely useful. (The fact that the meeting was in Toronto made using our cell phones a little more difficult, but I digress.) The convention center was so huge and after-hours, people were spread out at tons of different restaurants and bars. Using location-based technology might have allowed us to meet even more people!

Foursquare can be integrated with both Facebook and Twitter, so your status updates there can also be read as check-ins. Additionally, check out this blog post (from yesterday!): Five Simple (and Fun) Ways to Promote Nonprofits on Foursquare.

Edit: This post from Mashable just showed up in my Google Reader: How Nonprofits and Activists Can Leverage Location-Based Services. Great stuff here!

By now, we’ve all either heard about the earthquake in Haiti or we’ve been glued to our televisions watching CNN’s eerie coverage. The earthquake was estimated to be 7.0 in magnitude, and was felt as far away as Cuba, 200 miles from Haiti. Death toll estimates are now at least 50,000 and at most, more than 100,000, while the impoverished nation’s capital is now destroyed.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas and is one of the world’s least developed nations. Many Haitians are still trapped in rubble and the world is rushing to get medical aid, food and water into the country.

Acronym’s Kristen Clarke wrote two excellent posts about what associations are doing to help. She writes, The American Red Cross, World Vision International, Oxfam, numerous faith-based relief services, and myriad other disaster relief charities have already set up emergency funds. But if you don’t work for an association such as the American Red Cross and still want to help out, here’s a few suggestions.

Many organizations have enabled donations through mobile devices. Text HAITI to 90999 and $10 will go to the International Red Cross and be charged to your next cell phone bill. It’s been confirmed that more than $3 million has been raised through these text messages alone. Pretty amazing for mere $10 increments!

If you’d like to consider other opportunities to help, here’s a great list of organizations to consider.

• American Red Cross
• AmeriCares
• Doctors Without Borders
• UNICEF
• The American Jewish World Service
• CARE
• Catholic Relief Services
• Direct Relief International
• Oxfam
• Yele Haiti
• Google Support Disaster Relief
  

If you haven’t stumbled upon the quirky and completely amazing Indexed yet, I beg you to check it out. Jessica is wonderfully creative and posts daily diagrams, usually about seemingly complicated things, and they are hilarious. (The blog is not association-related, but I dare you not to click through some of her archives. A-mazing.)

Last week, Jessica posted the gem above, and it struck a chord with me. Of course social media is about clarity, as others have more eloquently blogged about. But this little Venn diagram is just so succinct. Social media is much more simple than some people think, but without all three elements, your organization probably won’t get great results.

Which ingredient do you think is the most important? Should you even focus on one more than the others? Which one presents the greatest challenge to your association?

Happy Friday! Unfortunately, the weather is pretty dreary in Atlanta — I hope everyone else’s Friday weather is more uplifting!

To begin what I hope will turn into a recurring Friday feature here, I’m going to share a few of my favorite association-related links from the week.

Maddie Grant compiled some comments from people who couldn’t attend ASAE. Budgets seemed to be the biggest concern, which wasn’t too unexpected. Some people also said ASAE didn’t provide education for their core duties, which may or may not have been true. Regardless, I think the number of learning labs at ASAE was great, but there weren’t enough time slots. Offer fewer learning labs at a time, and the problem is (hopefully) solved.

Over at TechSoup, they discussed why small- to medium-sized organizations should care about cloud computing. This is basically what our membership management software provides, and we think technology can really help small organizations become more efficient and organized.

Peggy Hoffman wrote about how chapters can leverage social media, which I loved because this is one of my objectives. Every organization has different needs, but social media is a great tool to keep your members more engaged and recruit new ones, as well.

With what I thought was a great metaphor, Wes Trochlil compared new processes in data collection to the failed “Clash for Clunkers” program. Launching a new initiative can be difficult and time-consuming, and it’s important to do the right amount of testing and research.

In a comment on a previous post here, Robert Swanwick referred to one of his blog posts about a virtual meeting. There are some great tips and thoughts about hosting a virtual meeting on a tight budget that small-staffs can absolutely learn from.

Have a great weekend, and feel free to share more links below!