It's obvious that all things "social" are the hot ticket right now. News is tweeted before it reaches print. We post messages before picking up the phone. And it’s no secret that blogs and threads are the fastest way to spread the word and get others talking. And, it is here to stay. Just ask the quarter-billion (and growing) individuals looking at Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter on a regular basis.
According to research by Morgan Stanley (Internet Trends April 12, 2010), social networking has already surpassed email as the number one way to communicate electronically. Simply put, social networking now exceeds email as the most common form of electronic communication. Not only are there more social networking users than email users, but people also spend more time on social networks than on email.
Advertising Age reported users tend to spend a lot of time on social networks. The average social networker goes to social sites five days a week and checks in about four times a day for a total of an hour each day, while super-connected networkers stay logged in all day and are constantly "checking out what's new."
What does that mean for your organization? Who wouldn’t want their members to spend an hour of day on their site? But, how do you navigate the seemingly never ending questions about social networking’s implications for your organization and the association industry as a whole?
- How will social networking benefit my members? My staff?
- Which Social Media vehicles and formats are most appropriate for my members?
- How do we measure the ways that social networking is contributing to membership recruitment and retention?
- What should association leaders do to get real business benefits from social networking?
We understand. During the last 16 years, thousands of Avectra customers have taken advantage of our innovative solutions to address their most simple and complex business and membership objectives. As the leading provider of web-based association management software (AMS), Avectra’s most successful customers leverage our forward- thinking membership best practices and social networking strategies to positively impact all aspects of their business.
We provide three options to help associations build a passionate community with successful, engaged and loyal members:
- Avectra Social Community is a premium module within netFORUM Team & Pro that integrates social networking’s wealth of membership data, unfiltered feedback and informal conversations with your membership management initiatives to improve the relationship between your organization and your members and between members and other members.
- Avectra Connect & Share, also available in netFORUM Team and Pro, allows your members to interact in real-time via short, Twitter-like messages to share their thoughts, note their challenges and discuss how they feel about news impacting your industry. Members can join groups and post multimedia content such as videos and photos directly within the stream of conversation—and you, too, can add information based on your association’s expertise. The technology not only brings your association’s peers together—it gives you insight into what they care about now, and helps you deliver what they need.
- 3rd-Party Partners: Avectra is proud to work with industry-leading partners who champion social media and networking technology for member-based organizations. Because of the flexibility of the .NET platform and netFORUM’s Web services, we’re able to seamlessly integrate netFORUM with those of our partners to provide the full, best-of-breed social media functionality that your organization needs. Tell us what you’d like to do, and we’ll match you with the right solution — and provide the technology — to make it happen.
See it for yourself!
Your staff is always looking to enhance membership value, increase event participation and improve the overall success of your organization — with every member interaction. We can help!
Take advantage of the unbeatable combination of netFORUM’s AMS expertise and innovation, plus Avectra’s social networking options. Your members deserve it! Let one of our account executives show you how we can help engage your members and enhance membership value with a free online demonstration.