Online Community Blog

This Week's Top Member Engagement Posts - Mar. 4, 2011

  

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Believe it or not, there was more to this week that mattered to membership professionals than the iPad 2 unveiling. To help leaders at large and mid-sized associations, nonprofits, and software user groups stay on top of best practices and fresh ideas, we've compiled the five most useful articles from the past week.

#1 Planning for Participation - Planning in High Heels

Why would your members participate in your online community? You can choose to take your organization's member engagement strategy down the path of participation or irrelevance. Discover key tools and questions you can use to deliver higher relevance and better participation.

#2 The Future of Community - Chris Brogan

The full spectrum of how members engage with your organization online is becoming increasingly complex. Get Brogan's take on areas to pay attention to in coming months and years.

#3 The High Price of Free - social media explorer

As membership organizations develop ideas for new membership structures and dues models, this article lays out the hidden and intangible costs of offering membership, programs, and content for free.

#4 A Tale of Two Communities Part II – Salesforce.com - SocialFishing

Associations can derive member engagement lessons from this examination of how a major technology company uses community to drive customer loyalty, value, and growth. 

#5 How to Conduct a Virtual Meeting - Harvard Business Review

Though virtual meetings are suboptimal, they are a growing reality in membership organizations (RUGs, task forces, workgroups, committees, boards, etc.). Get 5 tips for increasing the effectiveness of your virtual meetings.

If you came across other great posts this week on member engagement, online community, or conference management, add them to the comments below. Have a great weekend!

(photo credit: apple)