Good morning! Take a look at these awesome presentations about how nonprofits can benefit from multimedia. Does your small staff association use video?

Happy Thursday! It’s almost the weekend – who’s pumped? If you had a short week (thanks to Presidents Day) and are trying to cram five days of work into just four days, I feel you. It’s been go go go all week, but if you have a few minutes, I definitely recommend checking out this video about the convergence of IT and marketing.

Marketing and technology truly go hand in hand; one can make the other more efficient and vice versa. But don’t let your technology become a crutch — it can certainly make your life easier but it shouldn’t be the be-all, end-all solution. There’s tons of research out there to support the fact that the best marketing strategy is word of mouth and member recommendation. Create positive relationships with and meaningful experiences for your members, and they’ll give you all the good PR you could ever want.

Thank you to Maddie Grant for alerting me to the YouTube DooGooder Nonprofit Awards! To enter, organizations must be a member of YouTube’s Nonprofit Program, and the prizes are definitely pretty noteworthy.

You could win $2500, have your video featured on YouTube’s homepage and a free registration to NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference. Other prizes aside, you’d get insane traffic from being featured on YouTube.com alone!

There are awards for small, medium and large nonprofit organization videos, which we think is completely awesome for those small staffs out there whose budgets may not be as large as other nonprofit organizations. Check out the Frequently Asked Questions here, and think about submitting your video if you’re eligible! This is a great opportunity to bring even more awareness to your cause and show off your video-making skills.

Happy Friday! I’m unusually tired this morning so I’m definitely glad the weekend is upon us. Who’s excited for the Super Bowl? Whether you watch for the sport, the commercials or the halftime show — or even if you just like the food that comes along with the game — I hope you enjoy yourselves!

There was a nice variety of topics floating around the association industry this week! Here area  few of my favorites.

Super Bowl food?

1. Does the fact that any of your members can post video from your meetings on the Internet concern you? Mark Alcorn at the Association Law Blog posted a recommended course of action for dealing with members who post videos. Most importantly – is the video supportive of the association? Should any members be allowed to post videos or should they join the association’s team? Good food for thought here.

2. Although this post isn’t necessarily geared toward associations, I think it’s a great read – especially for small staff associations! How Small Businesses Can Get BIG Online With Content Marketing shares some great tips that small organizations can take advantage of. Content marketing is so useful because it can truly establish your association as a leader within its industry. One of my favorite tips? (Not surprisingly), blogs!

3. At the Drake & Company blog, Nancy Soucek points out that if your content is good, it makes sense to repurpose it. Just because you’ve already published something in a newsletter, e-mail or blog doesn’t mean you can’t publish it someplace else or direct toward another audience. You work hard at developing your content, so make sure you put it to good use!

4. Scott Briscoe at the Acronym blog had an interesting post that spurred some good comments. Is it the staff’s job to make the CEO successful, or is it the CEO’s job to make the staff successful? The answer could change depending on your association and its staff size. Additionally, if you want to build value for your members, what are some things you could do in advance to prepare

5. Kerry Stackpole asked a provocative question at the Wired 4 Leadership blog: If your business or organization went out of business today, who would miss you and why? It’s a simple question at first glance, but it’s extremely important and relevant, especially in today’s digital world. Everything is cyclical, and, as Kerry points out, industries can come and go with time.

No matter what your weekend plans are – and no matter which team you’ll be supporting on Sunday – have a great weekend!

Image source

Happy Friday! I can hardly believe Christmas is next week … but somehow it is. Have you finished your holiday shopping yet?

It’s not only the holiday season, but also Technology Conference Season! Several of the posts in today’s Friday Top Five are reflecting on lessons learned at ASAE’s Technology Conference. (We’ll have our own posts here in the next few days.)

1. Jamie Notter discussed four tips for building trust. They may seem a bit obvious (be consistent and transparent), but I really do think they’re easier said than done. It’s easy to “talk to the talk,” to speak, but quite another thing to actually be consistent, all the time.

2. A question I think a lot of association professionals struggle with regarding online community is, if you build it will they come? Scott Briscoe at the Acronym blog had a great post with a few takeaways from the Technology Conference, and it’s crucial to be persistent and know your members’ favored communication channels.

3. I really enjoyed Lynn Morton’s post, Associations on the Go, about mobile. Mobile is something I think many association professionals struggle with – is it necessary? how much will it cost? will my members care? Her post is a great summary of one of the sessions at the Technology Conference.

4. David M. Patt also wrestled with the “if you build it, will they come” question this week at the Association Executive Management blog. He discusses the print vs. digital dilemma and why it’s so important to have a digital strategy if you’re going to explore that area.

5. Another post from the Acronym blog, this time from Joe Rominiecki – he writes about the necessity to create an emotional connection when using videos. I’ve discussed this a bit before, but if you want your videos to resonate with your members (and potential members!) you don’t want them to be bored while watching – you want them to be enthralled.

I’ll be back soon with some photos from our in-office festivities today. We’re hosting our annual gift exchange, and things could get interesting!