Guest Post: Building Relationships is a Process, Not an Event

Hari Shetty, Jiffle

Whenever I ask people what their #1 reason for attending an event is, the answer is always “networking”. Millions of people attend business events every year – more than 80 million people attended business events in 2007 in the US alone. Does this mean that every attendee actually realizes the benefits of networking and is successful in building lasting relationships? Do we always get a true return on the time, money and energy we spend on these events? Unfortunately, the answer is usually no.

Why? The simple answer is that networking is a process, not something you do once at an event. We need to re-frame networking as a brick-by-brick building process, needing careful thought, planning and time rather than a one-time sporadic thing at an event. Events play a big role in providing a platform to kick-start the process of building and enhancing business relationships.

Events are neither the start nor the end for building relationships.

The key is to start the relationship-building process way in advance of actually attending the event. And you continue building step-by-step after the event.

Here are some tips to plan for your next event:

• More than anything, remember that networking requires preparation and planning. So set aside time for that work.
• Research and find out who is attending the event.
• Find out why they are attending the event. If you do your job well, you will understand what problems these attendees are trying to solve by attending the event.
• Now determine what solutions you can offer when you meet the attendees in person.
• Start connecting with people who are potential attendees on social networks before the event.
• Set aside some quality time (in advance) to meet with people you want to build relationships with (networking is not just casually saying “Hi,” speaking for a few minutes and exchanging business cards).

Here are few things you can do during the event:

• Be prepared for the meetings that you have arranged.
• Be curious to learn more. Listen to learn.
• Try to understand how you can help the person you are meeting. Networking is more about what you give as opposed to what’s in it for you.
• At the end of the meeting, if you listed some specific action items, be sure to follow up later.

Here are some tips on how you can continue to build relationships after you attend the event:

• More than anything, follow through with your commitments even if it is just returning their phone calls or emails.
• Do more research on the people, their companies and what their objectives and desires are.
• Reach out to them by offering something of value.
• When appropriate, connect with them on social networks like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
• Connect new people with people in your existing network to help both parties increase their reach.

Repeat this often and you are off to a great start in building lifetime relationships.

Hari Shetty is the founder and CEO of Jiffle, a company that provides online member-to-member event networking software called AttendeeConnect. Find out more about AttendeeConnect.

Site of the Week: MobileCrunch

In case you haven’t heard, mobile is the future.

Especially for associations.

So, why not get current on why this is so?

This week’s site of the week is MobileCrunch.

MobileCrunch is the kissing cousin of TechCrunch, the uber-popular technology blog.

MobileCrunch describes itself as: “… a blog covering the hardware, software, and services of the mobile industry. We’ve got an outright obsession with all things mobile.”

Site of the Week: Foursquare

Foursquare is the next big thing in social networking. We know mobile is growing as a platform of choice for many association members, so foursquare is a logical progression.

This week I’m going to do this a little differently. Instead of personally detailing how this application is relevant to your association, I’m going to link you over to the MemberClicks blog to read their post about it. They’ve done it more justice than I ever could have.

Read about foursquare here. It’s definitely worth a click.

7 Secrets To Launching A Successful Social Network

I’ll be part of a webinar put on by Higher Logic Thursday, January 21 at 1pm Central called “7 Secrets to a Successful Social Networking Launch.” Learn when the right time to launch a social network really is. It might not be what you think. Find out who THE most important person to include in your social network is. And much more!

If you’re considering a new social network or have one and want to get it to the next level, this webinar is for you.

Update: View the recorded webinar.

5 Questions Series: Lisa Claydon from CK Marketing – Why Email Marketing Matters More Than Ever For Associations

Welcome to the Vanguard Technology 5 Questions Series where we ask an association professional who is doing unique and innovative things with technology to share with us what it’s like to be them. The purpose of this series is to help association professionals learn  how to better use technology to streamline operations or attract more members.

The format for the 5 Questions Series is that one question is answered in writing right here on our blog and the other four are answered in a recorded interview that you can listen to now or download to listen to later.

Our guest for this edition is Lisa Claydon, email marketing expert and owner and founder of CK Marketing in Arlington, Virginia.

Lisa talks about the opportunities and, more importantly, the misconceptions associations have about email marketing. She talks about how email marketing has changed with the advent of social networking and gives some sound practical advice on how to make any email campaign, large or small, successful.

Below is Lisa’s written answer to one of the five questions. Click the play button below to hear the rest.

Question: Is email marketing still an important communication tool for associations today?

Absolutely! You have to reach your audience where they are. Many members rely on email; they know their association will send them the information they need about specific products or events and will open them when they need that information. The challenge is to get them to open emails even when they are not predisposed to do so. Plus, it’s a generational and institutional culture thing. Some people will always rely on email and we need to be cognizant of that.

Listen!

Hear Lisa’s answers to the other four questions now. If you’re looking for some solid insights on how to get email marketing right, then click the play button below right now. This podcast is approximately 15 minutes long.

Download MP3 (6 MB)

Listen to our podcast with Shana Rieger. She manages InfoComm International’s social media full time.

Listen to our podcast with Greg Hill. He is the assistant executive director from the Kansas Dental Association. Greg manages all video and social media for the KDA.

5 Social Networking Secrets for 2010

Yep, it’s a new year and it’s time to take your social networking to the next level. Here are the things your association should be doing that the novices aren’t even considering yet. 2010 will be an avalanche of success if you blend these tactics and strategies into your planning and thought work. Best of luck and let me know how it goes.

1. Twitter

Stop telling people you don’t get Twitter. It’s not a “teen thing” (teens text, they don’t tweet) and it’s not just a bunch of people telling you what they had for lunch. Here’s a great post from Chris Brogan that provides some sterling examples of how (and why) to get started.

2. YouTube

Yes, YouTube has been around for a while, but that doesn’t make it irrelevant. In fact, as broadband connections move into the mobile space, be prepared for your members to not only expect some sort of video play from your organization, but they may even demand it. It can’t be for the sake of video, though. It has to be valuable and meaningful to your contingent. Check out what Greg Hill and the Kansas Dental Association are doing in this realm. They are the real deal. (Check out Greg Hill’s Vanguard podcast here.)

3. Embrace Ready/Fire/Aim

Put fear aside. Continue to try new things online. No one has figured out social media 100%, but many of those who are “successful” today have fallen flat on their face a few times first. Dell made Mashable’s 10 Smartest Brands on Social Media list, but it wasn’t always that rosy for them.

4. Metrics Matter

Yes, there is a lot of talk (even on this blog) as to how measuring social media is different than traditional marketing. However, that is not an excuse to not measure at all. 2010 is the year for direct impact to the bottom line, according to MarketingProfs.

5. Trust

The word “fear” comes to mind again. Give your members some more headroom. Let them create their own groups, their own discussions. Let them say bad things about you. Better in your house than somewhere else. Yes, you’ll need rules, guidelines and maybe even moderation, but do it under the umbrella of trust and good will and you’ll see participation grow.

2009 Site Of The Week Recap

We launched this blog in January 2009, so happy birthday to you, blog. One of the many theme post ideas we took on was Site of the Week. The vision was that every Friday we would post a new and helpful (or even bizarre) site that associations would find compelling, if not useful.

Like all blog plans, sometimes sustainability can become an issue. Hence, we didn’t post a Site of the Week every Friday last year, but we did get some out there.

So as we head into the twilight of this Friday, January 8th, it’s only appropriate that we do a quick recap of some of the more memorable Sites of the Week from last year.

Feb 6: Squidoo

Feb 20: StumbleUpon

April 17: Beth’s Blog

June 26: SNAMA

August 21: BingTweets

October 9: SideWiki

So, what do you think? Any sites you’d like to add to the list for 2010?

5 Critical Thinking Questions Regarding Your Website

If you’re wondering how to improve your existing website or are trying to determine how your future redesigned website will actually be better and different, here are a few brain starters.

Answer these honestly and clear a path for a few solid folks to drive the project forward and you’ll find more than an incremental boost in your site’s popularity, conversion rates and stickiness.

1. If you were building your website for just one single member to use, who would it be? Why?

2. What one thing do you want your ideal site visitor to do before leaving your site?

3. What is the one word people should use to describe their experience on your website? Why?

4. If there was one word to describe what your website shouldn’t be, what would that word be?

5. Is your website a reflection of your organization’s structure or a guide helping site visitors achieve the primary goal of their visit?

6 Secrets To Launching A Stellar Association Website

There are a whole bunch of things, of course, that are important to do to make your site incredible before you launch it. And those ideas, strategies and tactics are discussed throughout this blog. For today, though, let’s talk about the end of the process. It’s pertinent because we find this to be the part of the website redesign experience that gets the least amount of attention, believe it or not.

It’s not uncommon to feel that once a site is launched, your project is over. Or worse, that once your website has launched all your members will love it. Why wouldn’t they, it’s better, right?

If you’re embarking on a redesign sometime soon, keep these 6 secrets top-of-mind. While they are not a guarantee of success, they will help you avoid some of the launch pitfalls we’ve seen over the years.

1. Launch At The Right Time

I’m going to skip the fluff to make sure this message is clear: Do not launch just before your conference or at the beginning of the year. These deadlines create havoc within your organization and most times end up creating a site that could have been better if your staff wasn’t preoccupied with another major event occurring simultaneously.

2. Market The Change

Telling people you’re redesigning your website even before you’ve chosen a vendor is not too soon. Six months prior to launch is not too soon. Three weeks after launch is too late. Let your members know that their online experience will be changing in the future and, ideally, provide a mechanism for them to tell you how they feel about that.

3. Show The Way

A complement to #2. Use screencast software to show what your new site can do for your members. In a perfect world, you’d have a screencast completed prior to launch so you could prepare people for the new site with a quick guided tour.

4. Embrace Phase 2

Rarely will you get everything done prior to launch. It never happens. Understand this early and move things to phase 2 as soon as possible so you dedicate the right amount of time and resources to the things that really matter in phase 1.

5. Don’t Forget The Past

Don’t forget that your members have links to your old website in their bookmarks, emails and conference collateral. Talk to your design firm to ensure they redirect all old links to the home page of your new site.

6. Keep The Important Stuff

Creating a new website can be a really key step to upping your game online, but don’t assume because something is new it is better. Survey your constituents prior to embarking on your redesign project to get a feel for what they value on your existing site and make sure you don’t leave them high and dry, looking for that old valuable piece of functionality when you launch.

So, do you have any launch experiences you’d like to share. Can you add a #7 to this list?

Image courtesy of NASA.

5 Things Your CMS Does NOT Need To Do

We’re big fans of associations sticking to their core strengths. We feel the same way about software providers. So, it always come as a bit of a surprise to us when associations expect a content management system to do everything from update their website to stir their latte.

Content management systems are more important than ever because they are the platform on which your web presence is built. So, it IS vitally important that it be able to handle the heavy lifting for things like site structure, navigation, edits, workflow and single sign-on.

But Can It Do That?

We feel, though, that it is equally as important to have expectations around what a CMS should do and what it could do. Sure, a CMS COULD have AMS capabilities, but you’re always going to be better off investing in an AMS separately. Looking for both in a product is kind of like expecting your car to get you to work at “car speed” and also across the country at “plane speed.” A car will get you across the country, so it could be sold that way, but the experience cannot be compared to that of an airplane. Not a big fan of extended car travel, so make sure you’re always buying the right experience for your members.

Here are 5 other things your CMS does NOT need to do:

1. E-Commerce – Yes, there are some CMS’  that provide e-commerce. We generally recommend leveraging your AMS for online payments whenever possible.

2. Social Media – Yes,  many CMS providers offer some Web 2.0 functions as part of their tool. The two primary things to consider in that case are 1) are they simply masquerading Web 1.0 tools like discussion forums as Web 2.0 tools? 2) Does the functionality of their tools equal that of  standalone social media software vendors?

3. Mobile-Compatibility – Yes, mobile is the future, so you’ll need pages of your website to render appropriately on smartphones. Get it. But looking for functionality that takes an existing page and makes it mobile-friendly is not respecting the big picture. Mobile is a contextual experience for your users. Your mobile site should not simply be a mirror of your existing website. Page copy needs to be shorter, navigation needs to be more specific and, on a whole, your mobile site should be a fraction of the size of your main site.

4. Translate - Yes, your CMS should have the ability to manage multiple international sites within one interface. And you should be able to manage different templates and unique navigation for each within your CMS to accommodate your international sites. But what you don’t need it to do is translate pages for you. We’ve found most international site managers like to translate pages in their own way. In many cases,  while they may be delivering the same message of your English site, the international site managers may have ideas on how to deliver the message in a way that resonates with their audience better. In other words, people in Germany want their content delivered very differently than Americans do, so an apple-to-apple translation of your pages might not be a great marketing choice.

5. Be A Timer - Create a content delivery plan outside of your CMS. Don’t expect your CMS to email you when content expires. Sure, some content may need changed after a particular date, but in reality very few actually do. To have that functionality as part of your CMS creates a crutch for your site publishers to lean on. They should be focusing on providing universal, timeless content that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.

My main point here is that when it comes to technology, don’t look for the Swiss Army knife solution. Integration and single sign-on technology is at a place now where you can easily create a seamless experience for your users by connecting third-party software together. Be leery of any software that claims to do it all. Your members deserve better.

So what do you think? Is there a #6? Do you disagree with any of these?