By Duncan McCreery, MemberClicks Lead Maximizer

What can associations learn from one abysmal NFL team and its fans?

For those who don’t follow the NFL, the Browns are terrible. In just about every national poll, the Browns are rated in the bottom three teams in the league.  The team is so bad, my own mother teases me for wasting my Sundays watching them play.

Browns quarterback Brady Quinn (10) was sacked four times by the Baltimore Ravens.

There was significant national media coverage in the past few weeks about a few especially disgruntled fans who planned to stage a protest during the start of a Monday Night Football game against the Baltimore Ravens. The protest organizers asked fans in attendance to vacate their seats during the opening kickoff.  If the plan had been executed, ESPN would have televised the start of the game and a seemingly empty stadium.

In recent weeks, many journalists and bloggers have written in support of, or disappointment in, the protest. Instead of focusing on whether the walkout was a good or bad idea, let’s look at the parties involved and their motivations.

The protest organizers have paid hundreds of dollars – yearly – for season tickets for several decades and asked other paying attendees to participate by walking out. Although overall attendance is down this year, tens of thousands of people paid for tickets and will still attend every Browns game for the remainder of the season, despite the abysmal play on the field.

Clearly, there is a powerful force at work that motivates fans to purchase tickets and attend games. Given that the team has only won one game this year, the motivation for fans to purchase tickets does not stem from playoff expectations. Having purchased tickets and attended games within the past year myself, I would suggest that Browns fans are so dedicated because we are emotionally attached to the organization.

What can association leaders do to develop the level of dedication in their members that Browns fans display year in and year out?

I’m not saying that associations should prioritize emotional bonding over delivering meaningful content and successful day to day operations, but, undoubtedly, there is tremendous value in connecting with members on a higher level than more traditional offerings at meetings and conferences.

Unlike the Browns, who can rely on native Clevelanders’ youthful attachment to the organization and undying faith in the yearly draft for this emotional connection, association staffers and board members need to make a concerted effort to show that they, the leaders, value the members’ participation and support of the association

As Robert Hall advises in his book Chaos for Breakfast: Practical Help and Humor for Nonprofit Executives, this can be as simple as dedicating time to answering the phone instead of letting a call go to voicemail, or embracing volunteer enthusiasm and channeling it to help the association reach its strategic goals. It doesn’t take a lot of time or resources to leave a great impression with members at every interaction, and these little efforts will go a long way to ensure the success of the association in the long term.

The question is: what can leaders in the association do to engage members on a higher emotional level?

(Photo by Chuck Crow of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)

By Adam Kearney, MemberClicks Creative Director and Shannon Otto

For many of us, this time of year is a season of celebration and thanks. We take time out of our lives to give gifts and show our appreciation for one another.

Maybe your association takes part in the festive season by throwing holiday parties, holding potluck meals or encouraging gift exchanges between members.

But another way to celebrate the season is to give back to our communities and help people in need. Despite the gloomy economy, your members are probably already in a giving mood, and even giving a little bit can go a long way.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Start a drive amongst your membership. Collect food, clothing, toys or anything local charities might want. Choose a particular organization — the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, local shelters, veterans associations or any other nonprofit organization. You can find potential organizations in your phone book, on the Internet or through a church or religious institution.
2. Encourage members to donate their time. Most community centers, hospitals, retirement centers, humane societies and charitable organizations are always taking volunteer assistance, and the holidays are an especially busy time.
3. Create care packages for soldiers. Contact the USO about sending personalized gifts overseas or start a donation drive for men and women serving over the holidays.
4. Donate to a local food bank. A donation of 20 to 30 canned goods can help a family in need. If you’re holding an office potluck or gift exchange, encourage members to bring along an extra can or two. A little bit can truly go a long way, and canned goods are fairly inexpensive.
5. Donate blood. It’s 100 percent free and there is a constant need for donors. Visit www.givelife.org for more information.

To find a charity, try visiting CharityNavigator.org. We suggest perhaps choosing one of the less popular (but no less important!) charities. eHow also has a great resource for how to get started helping various charities, food drives or toy drives.

Giving back to your community is a ideal way to liven up your members during the holiday season. The holiday season is about more than turkey and presents and ornaments — and as we all gear up for 2010, donating your time or efforts to local charities doesn’t cost much, but can create a world of good in your community.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a rare break from the Friday Top Five to give you a few more ideas of how to give back during the holidays — and we’ll highlight what the MemberClicks team is doing to help its community, too!

(Image Credit: Flickr)

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!

As you might already know, there’s been a conversation going around the association blogosphere lately about whether the membership model of old is already dead, in the process of dying or still evolving.

The Sept. 15 #assnchat on Twitter was centered around the main problem facing associations, and participants (including myself) began debating about members’ engagement levels and why people join associations. We concluded there are two types of members: the “What’s in it for me” ones and the “What can we do together?” ones.

What’s in it for me? These members only join for fringe benefits (insurance, exclusive content), not necessarily to network or engage with others. They’re probably often lurking on the association’s Web site, not actively participating. Also called “drive-by” members, they need more of a push to start interacting.

What can we do together? These members not only have ideas, but actively discuss and implement them. They engage and interact with others. They’re the thought-shift leaders and the ones pushing for change within the association.

Jeff De Cagna pointed out there will always be drive-by members as long as associations continue to “operate with drive-by structures, systems and processes.” I agree, but I don’t think a shift to more engaging operations will happen overnight.

A community (whether it’s online or off) can’t just made be made up of lurkers. Several people — not just one innovator — have to start the drive to change the mindset. There must be people willing to step up, engage and drive the conversation.

Cynthia D’Amour said, “Take charge person [is] just [the] first step. Happy active participants are the gold.” There are a variety of ways associations can engage people, but without participants (who are both active and happy), efforts are futile.

I don’t know if social media is the answer or not, but I do know social media is making it easier for like-minded people to group together, whether through an association or not. And unfortunately, the idea that only young people use social media still exists, but I think (and hope) it’s diminishing. Social media should definitely factor into the equation, but associations also shouldn’t rely solely on (relatively) unstable tools to engage their members.

Do you interact or lurk? How come?

The transcript for the 9/15 #assnchat can be found here.