This is the eighth in an ongoing 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 first seven installments can be found here. Stay tuned.

I just realized I haven’t talked about blogs! Depending on your definition, blogs aren’t exactly social networking “sites,” but they definitely allow for social networking. It’s also an easy way to update your membership on what the association is up to.

Some early adopter bloggers claim blogs are “on their way out,” but I still think blogs are a great, tried-and-true way of communicating with others.

There are a few options for blogs: internal and external. If you have a large staff, maybe an internal blog would be useful for keeping everyone in the loop about happenings within the organization. But an external blog can be ideal for keeping members updated and give them another way to communicate with the organization.

A blog post doesn’t have to consist of hundreds of words – it can be as simple as an embedded video or even a “Top 10” list. You don’t even have to post every (week)day, but the more you update (without overdoing it), the better.

Your organization’s annual conference is an ideal time to promote the blog and share awesome content. Blog before, during and after the conference, and share it in your conference e-mail marketing. You can also interview your conference speakers for a more in-depth look. Let your members write guest posts. There are tons of possibilities!

On this blog, I try to mix it up between association management, social media and technology posts. Your association’s blog probably has more of a built-in topic than some blogs – but I think it’s important to mix it up and not necessarily keep it all business, all the time. Show your association’s personality and be creative!

There are many outposts for creating a blog. The most popular are WordPress and Blogger. Both are very user-friendly and intuitive. However, from my experience, WordPress allows for more plug-ins, so if you decide to get fancy later on down the road, it could be a good option.

During the past few months, I’ve shared a few examples of associations doing cool things to get their mission out there. This video, though, remains my favorite. How could your organization use a blog? Of, if you already have one, how do you use it?

If your association doesn’t have a blog yet and you have more questions, feel free to e-mail me at shannon@memberclicks.com. I’d love to hear from you!

(Photo via digitalrob70 on Flickr)

This is the seventh in an ongoing 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 first five installments can be found here. Stay tuned.

You may have heard of Digg before now – it’s a pretty popular link-sharing tool. In its own words, Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Web.

Everyone in the community submits news articles, videos, images or blog posts to share. Once the items are listed in Digg, other users can vote on them – and when an item receives enough votes (called “Diggs”), it’s placed on the front page for all visitors to see. Even if an item never makes to the front page (most don’t!), they can still be discovered easily because each item has be submitted under a “topic.”

Digg is a great way to jump into social networking without devoting your entire marketing or PR strategy to the social Web. It’s also a great example of how crowdsourcing can weed out the spam (users can “bury” items) and the most popular items can rise to the top.

Digg is also aggressive (in a good way) about promoting conversation and allowing users to discuss the topics they’re passionate about. One of the great things about the site is that you can build a network of your friends, who can track what you’re Digging – and you can see what they Digg, too.

If you’re not into Delicious, Digg is a great alternative for sharing news and links that pertain to your membership’s industry or even association management in general. Because Digg has a broad focus, it’s also useful for finding interesting news stories and other cool things that you may not have been exposed to otherwise.

From what I observed through a few searches, the association management community isn’t too terribly active on Digg. But there’s no reason why your office couldn’t use it, even if it’s just for internal purposes. If you have a Facebook account, there’s no need to even create a new account for Digg – it lets you connect with your Facebook information and will automatically find your Facebook friends who use Digg!

This is the sixth in an ongoing 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 first five installments can be found here. Stay tuned.

If your organization (i.e. your membership) isn’t ready to dive headfirst into the social Web, there are tons of smaller social media sites that can supplement your communications goals. SlideShare is one of my favorites.

You may have already — unknowingly — used SlideShare. Usually, whenever anyone embeds a slideshow into their blog or sends you a link to a presentation online, it’s hosted on SlideShare. Not only can you share presentations (generally PowerPoint files), you can also upload documents and PDFs.

You can use SlideShare to assist with virtual meeting experiences – if members can’t attend in person, it’s easy to upload the presentation to one location and send the same link to everyone. You can adjust the privacy settings for each presentation you upload, so the links can be private and only accessed by those who have the link.

SlideShare can provide your organization with the tools to easily get your mission or message out to many people. You can even sync audio to your slides for a complete presentation experience.

You can use SlideShare to:

- Get the word out about your organization
- Give information to those who can’t attend an event in person
- Embed presentations on your blog or Web site
- Connect with other association professionals

Another great feature – the transcripts of your presentations will be indexed by Google, which will help your organization be found more easily in search engines.

The site is also searchable, so you can find other presentations and documents relating to association management or your organization’s particular industry.

Check out this — what else? — presentation from SlideShare. It’s a great explanation of how the site can be used, and shows you what an embedded presentation looks like.

This is the fifth in an ongoing 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 first installments on Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr/Posterous and YouTube can be found here. Stay tuned.

So none of the other social networks available work for your organization? But you still want to find a cool place for your members to hang out at online? No problem! Ning is a service that allows your create your own branded social network. As of November of this year, Ning boosts 37 million users – pretty nifty!

In addition to member profiles, Ning features sections for videos, photos, chat, music, groups, events, forums and blogs. The basic service is free, but there is also a paid premium service, which allows for a custom URL, more customer support, ad space and more storage space.

Ning can be a great outlet for niche organizations. Its purpose is to create community – but unlike Facebook and Twitter, it’s completely customizable.

Some of the great features include:

- RSS feeds in and out: Stream information from your outside blog, a news Web site or another source.

- Chat: Much like Facebook’s chat, members can chat in real-time when they’re logged on.

- A variety of other apps, as well as search engine optimization

If your members aren’t active on another social network, consider how Ning could benefit your organization. It’s more inclusive than Facebook and still allows your members to maintain their privacy while interacting with one another. Ning is all about building a targeted community for your members. As it says on the home page, “Ning lets you create and join new social networks for your interests and passions.”

The International Society for Technology in Education has set up a fantastic Ning network for its 2010 conference. The conference isn’t until June, but the network already has 553 members, 23 groups and a good sampling of photos and videos. ISTE is building hype and anticipation for the main event, and there’s even a great countdown in the right column!

Take a look around, get some inspiration and see if Ning is right for your organization or event.

This is the first in an ongoing series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which will highlight 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. Stay tuned.

Who doesn’t love taking photos, or at least looking through them, to relive memories? I remember when Facebook introduced the Photo feature (way back in 2005!). However, one great social networking site I haven’t discussed much here is Flickr.

Flickr allows you or your association’s staff upload photos to share with others. There are two types of accounts – free accounts can store 100 megabytes of images and two videos per month, while pro accounts (which cost about $25 per year) can upload unlimited photos and videos each month. Your complete collection of photos is referred to as your “photostream,” and Flickr also allows users to organize their photos into smaller “sets.” One photo can belong to multiple sets, or no sets at all. Sets can be grouped into “collections,” and those collections can also be organized into even higher-level collections.

One of the best features of Flickr is its “tagging” ability. When users add different identifying tags to their photos, others users can find them if they search for those specific terms.

Of course, you can choose if you want your photos to be viewable by the public or if they’re private, only able to be seen by you and your selected contacts. But if your association’s goal is to engage its members, create awareness and perhaps recruit new members, I would definitely recommend keeping at least a majority of your photos public.

Flickr allows for some amazing collaboration and sharing. Your association could create a “Group” for its annual meeting or event and allow members to join and upload their own photos. ASAE and The Center did this for the 2009 annual meeting and expo in August, and there are currently 573 items from its 26 members. After all, no two people will have the same experiences at your event, so allowing everyone to upload to a shared space will let others (even non-attendees!) participate.

Flickr can be a powerful storytelling mechanism. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and your organization can tell its story using Flickr. I love this collection, titled “Disaster Relief,” from the American Red Cross’ Flickr stream. Regardless of how big your organization is, photos can help tell its story and show how it accomplishes its mission.

Is your organization already on Flickr? How are you using it? And don’t forget to add MemberClicks to your contacts!