We all have a tendency to think the world revolves around us. It is, after all, all about me. For associations, that means assuming that they are a household name in their particular niche. It means the certainty that the association’s priorities are everyone’s priorities, that what’s important to them is important to us.
But, well, sorry. No. The world revolves pretty much independently of any of us. In fact, sometimes we are simply unaware that an association exists. You think you’re everywhere you need to be, running the flag up the pole as often as possible and in all the right places. But for whatever reason, I haven’t seen it. Other times, I’m aware of something but it’s so irrelevant or so inconsequential that it just isn’t worth paying attention to.
The latter problem is about the value proposition. The former is about awareness, plain, old, garden-variety marketing and PR.
A lot of associations are still on the fence about social media, both in the guise of member engagement and of marketing. Many have the valid opinion that their members—often middle aged, male, non-technie types—don’t use social networks. What they’re ignoring is social media marketing’s ability to build awareness in lots of ways.
As you see, the benefits of SMM are the same as any plain, old, garden-variety marketing-awareness campaign, but turbo-charged by the online medium. Exposure, increased traffic, SEO, qualified leads, closing the sale and, hugely important these days, lower cost.
Who can argue with that?
